Everyday Systems

I want to succeed in this. I am Determined to succeed...as I think all of us are. It would help me to read about what helps you succeed. Let's start with three things that you do...or don't do. Perhaps we can share just the tidbit that will help someone else win this battle with eating...

1. I brush my teeth immediately after dinner. It sounds like a small thing, but for me, it signals the end of eating for the day.

2. I start Saturdays & Sundays with just about the same breakfast I eat every other day. The days I've truly overeaten on the weekends are the days that I wake up & start eating sweets right away because "I can". I'm not talking about a donut or a piece of coffeecake as a treat...I mean I've had a breakfast of ice cream (that's so hard to admit!). Obviously, that started the weekend REALLY badly!

3. I don't start a meal without a large glass of water or non-sweet tea ready to drink with it. So often I think I'm hungry, but I'm just thirsty.

There...those are my three things that help me....I really would love to hear yours.

janie[/list]

1. I treat S days the same as I do N days with one exception. If a snack, sweet, or second comes my way that I really want then I have it rather than resist it. I do not pre-plan treats unless I have a special treat that I brought home and saved from during the week. (Like those goodies at work that everyone brings in.). Some S days actually end up being N days, but not often. I usually have at least one small splurge.

(For example, my splurge today ended up being snacks during a movie at home with family. I had corn chips with cheese dip and a few pieces of licorice.)

2. Exercise is a priority.

3. Pure Vanilla No S With a focus on maintaining each month. Losses happen, but the priority for me is to never go backwards at monthly weigh ins.

4. I do not eat food I do not like. I try to be conscious of healthy choices, but I eat food that I enjoy.

r.jean...

I love your #4...not eating foods you don't like. I've eaten enough plain rice cakes and bland, puffy cardboard-tasting crackers to last a lifetime! I'm with you!!!

janie

1. I also start S Days with my usual breakfast. I don't even do pancakes or french toast unless I'm out to brunch with friends (which I do pretty rarely). I've learned anything more than the sugar in my non-sugared cereal (I mostly eat raisin bran and grape nuts) leads to hunger and binge-ing during the day.
2. I eat (almost always) structured meals on S Days, but also allow sweets and/or snacks. I need to move even further along and go with the only have those snacks or sweets if they happen to come along in the course of the day. Perhaps I'll start that on one of the weekend days and still allow myself to plan a treat for the other?
3. I plan my meals for the week. This is key for me. I have to know what I'll eat and almost envision myself successfully doing it. Things tend to go wrong when the plan falls apart. I do sometimes change the plan during the week, but still in advance of the meals.

Julie

By the way, thanks for starting this thread, Janie. I think this will be very helpful for me too.

It is interesting to read the strategies of others. Meal planning is my downfall. I eat pretty much the same basic breakfast every day, and I sort of plan the lunches that I take to work, but dinners are my downfall. I rarely plan ahead. This would be a good habit to develop.

thtrchic....I think you're definitely on to something with the meal planning. I always plan our family's dinner since we don't live close to a grocery store, but I haven't been planning my lunches. I think I'll try that, especially on the weekends.

Thanks!

janie

(I genuinely like rice cakes.)

Who Me? wrote:(I genuinely like rice cakes.)

Lol...I like the white cheddar ones...but I just can't handle the plain ones.

j

1. Chew gum.
2. Drink Tea (gives me more energy to replace the energy I tried getting from sugar and it's relaxing and takes a loooong time to drink)

I don't plan specific meals but I know what general guidelines I use for meals so when I grocery shop, I just make sure I have the main attractions. I cook up a lot of grains and sometimes chicken breasts or turkey breast, etc., ahead of time I just always have food on hand, esp. vegetables, fresh or frozen. That way I can get a burrito (SoCal is so easy for great Mexican fast food) or a big slice of pizza, if need be, and round it out with half a plate of veggies and fruit, if I so desire.

Can't you eat just about anything for a meal on No S? Do people meal plan because they run out of food and just have a Coke and some American cheese in the fridge? Just curious... Maybe it's the vestiges of my obsession that I always have meal food around. Or maybe because I live in a big city and there is never a shortage of food nearby.

The other thing that helps keep me compliant is more of a thinking habit than anything else. If I get the urge to eat at non-meal times, I remind myself I either just ate not that long ago or that I will be eating in a few hours. My danger time used to be about 2 hours after I ate. I was much more likely to binge then than just before a meal.

Lastly, I've had some recent success with wild S days by remembering that it was the first few days of not eating at night that were the hardest, so I figure if I can have three relatively tame weekends in a row, I will have made a real inroad. I've had two so far and I am feeling so much better about my prospects.

Can't you eat just about anything for a meal on No S? Do people meal plan because they run out of food and just have a Coke and some American cheese in the fridge? Just curious... Maybe it's the vestiges of my obsession that I always have meal food around. Or maybe because I live in a big city and there is never a shortage of food nearby.

I don't meal plan for no s. I just meal plan in general and have for years. It makes it a lot easier to plan your meals ahead for the next week so you don't have to constantly run to the grocery store because you don't have everything you need for a recipe. This was really important when we only had one car and I was very limited as to which days of the week I could go grocery shopping. Now it's important because we live like 20 min from the nearest store and it would be seriously inconvenient if I didn't have something. It also helps you utilize your food more efficiently IMO.

Just because you can eat whatever you want on No S doesn't mean you should. No So gives us the freedom to stop obsessing about nutrition, not to ignore it entirely*. If you want to have even a modicum of balanced meals, then meal planning is a necessity.

Having said that, I do know that real life creeps in and that it's impossible (yes, I said impossible!) to plan every meal for every day of your life. Sometimes, you have to wing it.

For this reason, I do keep veggies on hand to make fast salads. I chop up lettuce and shred carrots (and sometimes red cabbage) into it and store in this lock and lock container. (Yeah, it's a little spendy but I don't waste lettuce since it doesn't wilt or go gelatinous.) I take a handful of that mixture, throw in some grape tomatoes and voila, a salad. If I have a few extra minutes, I add mushrooms, cucumbers, roasted/unsalted sunflower kernels and bit of feta.

*Habits first, nutrition second especially if you have been more concerned about nutrients than food. You can read about nutritionism in this 2007 article by Michael Pollan. The thing I love about No S is that it requires you to be the grown up, not to infantilize yourself and rely on the parent figure of an expert to tell you what you can and cannot eat. You are a fully participating partner.

These are great strategies. I'm just starting today so I don't have any but I like reading about yours.

I have very balanced meals because I buy the parts that go into a balanced meal when I shop, though I don't know what they're going to be exactly beforehand, except that there is protein, starch veggie and fruit. Maybe that's my meal planning. I admit I don't cook a lot of recipes but just the basics and then add sauces either good-quality commercial ones or ones I've learned to whip up at meal time. Then again, it's just for me, though I always have enough that I could have a guest last minute. I do freeze food and use it later.

Blithe Morning wrote:For this reason, I do keep veggies on hand to make fast salads. I chop up lettuce and shred carrots (and sometimes red cabbage) into it and store in this lock and lock container. (Yeah, it's a little spendy but I don't waste lettuce since it doesn't wilt or go gelatinous.)

How long does the lettuce, etc stay good for you in that container? A week?

oolala53 wrote:I have very balanced meals because I buy the parts that go into a balanced meal when I shop, though I don't know what they're going to be exactly beforehand, except that there is protein, starch veggie and fruit. Maybe that's my meal planning.

I would call that a form of meal planning. I think it's the way meal planning is done or used to be done in most cultures. You have your basic ingredients and then make variations on a theme to make different meals.

I have to be a little more structured because I don't shoot from the hip well and will end up eating out more than I should.

thtrchic wrote:How long does the lettuce, etc stay good for you in that container? A week?

Longer. Closer to two. But it's so easy to eat with it chopped up that it usually doesn't last that long.

Impressive. I think I'm going to get one!

Yes, it does look like a great product. One Amazon reviewer said it kept her strawberries for two weeks. If it can do that, I'm all for it.

I store my lettuce in a Tupperware lettuce bowl. Keeps fresh for about 10 days. By that time, it's eaten. I love iceberg lettuce.

I keep my lettuce in a tiptop bag with a clean paper towel to absorb any water and suck out the air. It stays well that way too....I will also reuse the bags.

Glad to see this topic since I have been in a downward spiral lately.

I've been packing my lunch in a bento box. The little compartments are fun and are too small to put cookies in!

I also bought an egg cooker and love it. Hard boiled eggs are done in a snap, and give me a nice protein boost for breakfast.

One more thing..I've been roasting vegetables on Sunday. Broccoli, winter squash, cauliflower, carrots, parsnips, they're all good. I add some garlic cloves and herbs too. During the week I'll have them with some rice or pasta or some feta cheese. It's a quick and easy meal.