Everyday Systems

So, what is a nigella bar, anyway?

http://blog.calgarypubliclibrary.com/bl ... phere.aspx

gk wrote:
What a perfect S Day....a normal N Day with a dash of S here and there. Someday I hope to accomplish this!

It didn't feel perfect!! The evening was ok (one plate followed by dessert) but there were a LOT of chocolates in that easter egg!! I guess it just doesn't feel as 'normal' to be eating chocolates between meals as it once did.... also breakfast, snack and lunch were all pretty close together (more so than on a 'normal' N day) which is probably why it felt like more eating than usual.

Sunday: S day
Brunch: 2 poached eggs, 2 sausages
Snack: apple turnovers (2!!)
Dinner: half enchilada, half plate of chili tortillas, 3 onion rings
Dessert: chocolate bar

I love apple turnovers so I'm really glad I had one - but they came in packs of 2, and I ate both of them! Not small ones either... ah well Need to be more organised next weekend and source out individual treats to have rather than waiting til the last minute and 'impulse buying'.

WhoMe: yep the nigella bars are as in the article you linked. They aren't particularly low sugar but in my quest to experiment with different breakfast options seemed like a better choice than shop bought 'cereal bars'. I just use what I have in the cupboards so the base is:

oats
condensed milk
shredded coconut

this time i added chopped prunes and walnuts to the mix, and no seeds as I didn't have any unflavoured. last time i think i had mixed dried fruit, peanuts and sunflower seeds.

Monday 16th May: Success

Breakfast: none
Lunch: corned beef, onion and pickle roll, crisps, apple
Dinner: spicy sweet potato and half enchilada (leftover from yesterday)

Enchilada and sweet potato by milliem1, on Flickr

Looks like a bit of an orange mess but tasted good Didn't have an afternoon meal today, ate fairly early as I was busy this evening.

Drinks: sugar-free cream soda, tea
Shovelglove: Yes

Tuesday 17th May: Success

Breakfast: small spiced apple yoghurt
Lunch: hummus and vegetable wrap, apple, snack-a-jacks
Afternoon: two leftover sausages, ketchup
Dinner: Ham and cheese tortellini

Eh, I ate about half an hour ago and I already feel hungry! Need to make sure my dinner platefuls are large and satisfying....more vegetables, more protein...

Wednesday 18th May: Success

Breakfast: none
Lunch: bacon and egg sandwich, pineapple
Afternoon: chicken and cheese wrap
Dinner: lamb, sweet potato chips, leeks

Thursday 19th May:

Breakfast: porridge
Lunch: 1/2 panini with hummus, banana, apple
Afternoon: asparagus, sweet potato w/blue cheese

Asparagus and sweet pot by milliem1, on Flickr

Bit of an odd day today, but i'll count it as a success if I stay to plan... I have book club tonight which always involves a spread of food and a LOT of sweets, but it doesn't start til 8. So, trying having a small meal in the afternoon, and then virtual-plating a small plateful at book club. I'm going to allow myself ONE sweet thing, if I decide that there is something worth having!

Sometimes I wonder whether my version of 'small' is accurate when I'm looking at what I'm eating though!

Yesterday was a success, woo!

I had a few crisps, carrot sticks and nuts at book club, but didn't permasnack, and allowed myself two small squares of some yummy roasted hazelnut chocolate (while resisting caramel squares, coconut bites and cute little cakes!)

It's been a while since I had a 4-day success streak, I'm hoping I can make it 5! Tonight may be an 'S' event though, as OH is taking an important exam and if he passes he said he wants to celebrate by going out somewhere. Wonder if I can actually eat out and keep vanilla?! Would be the first time

You are doing so great! Way to go!!

Friday 20th May : Failure

Breakfast: none
Lunch: tortellini with blue cheese dressing
Dinner: 3 slices pizza, small garlic bread slice and few potato wedges
Dessert: 2 dominos cookies (yum!)

Drinks: lots

I did really well until dinner - didn't even have my afternoon mini meal as I wasn't hungry when I had the opportunity to have it, and thought I might be 'eating big' later. A few pints at the pub later though and my intention to stay vanilla went out the window I could have taken the evening as an S event, but as I hadn't decided for sure in advance I'm counting it as a failure.

Saturday 21st May: S day
Breakfast: tomato and onion pastry
Snack: Fab ice cream
Lunch: lamb with blue cheese and leeks
Afternoon: Starbucks vanilla creme frapuccino
Dinner: reggae reggae chicken drumsticks, small pea and brie pie
Dessert: caramel slice

well done for admitting the failure, this is what I feel is so useful about this board. Acknowledging our failures makes us less likely to repeat them, especially when you have the support of everyone on here willing you on to more successes.

Sunday 22nd May: S day

Breakfast: toast with peanut butter/marmalade
Lunch: salmon with green beans and new potatos, cherry pie for dessert

Salmon by milliem1, on Flickr
Dinner: wild boar sausages, leeks and a small glamorgan pie (leek and cheese)

A pretty tame S day today - so it is possible! Who knew Had a bit of chocolate as a snack but after a few bites realised a) I wasn't that hungry and b) I wasn't enjoying it immensely so managed to put it down.... it's strange to be hungry on an S day! Not stomach-gnawing hunger, but feeling like I'm not overstuffed. More days like this would be great.

Monday 23rd May: Success

Breakfast: none
Lunch: chorizo, pork and chickpea stew, pineapple
Dinner: cheese toasties and poached eggs

No afternoon meal for me today, I'm busy this evening so wouldn't have been able to eat particularly late and I figured afternoon mini-meal at 5pm and then dinner at 6pm would be bending the principles of NoS a bit too much!

Tuesday 24th May: Success

Lunch: vegetable and hummus wrap, yoghurt, wotsits
Afternoon: apple and peanut butter
Dinner (planned): cheese toasties and eggs again

Was having a bit of a paddy yesterday and wanted to munch on chocolate but I resisted. Today's been a bit of an odd day.... a friend came round and unexpectedly brought home made cupcakes for us to have with our cup of tea! I just couldn't turn them away after she went to that effort (plus her cupcakes are DIVINE and wouldn't have kept til the weekend). But, I stopped at one and didn't turn the rest of the day into an S day, or use it as an excuse to indulge in other S's. So, I'm counting today as a success!

Breakfast: alpen bar
Lunch: ham sandwich, monster munch
Afternoon: peanut butter on toast, handful of raspberries (and cupcake!)

Not had any dinner yet since I came back from the cinema, and to be honest not sure I will have any. I'm kinda hungry but it's late, and one missed meal isn't going to kill me.... Also I noticed a significant lack of fruit or veg today need to rectify this tomorrow.

There are times you just have to take it on the chin and say, that's the best I could have done in that situation.

Being presented with home-made goodies is a tough one, I love to bake and it does feel like a rejection if someone won't eat what you made for them, I know it's not rational but it's such a gesture of affection that to turn it down can feel like a snub.

So if only having one, and not having any other S's was the best you could expect from the situation, then it is a success.
Well done

milliem wrote:But, I stopped at one and didn't turn the rest of the day into an S day, or use it as an excuse to indulge in other S's. So, I'm counting today as a success!

Yes, today is definately a success day! I think it's almost more difficult to stop at one than to not have any at all. Job well done!

Thanks both! Having a super-tasty cupcake on a Wednesday isn't exactly vanilla NoS! I'm sure I've seen mods around where sweets 'with other people' are ok but sweets alone are not. Sounds sensible to me. If it wasn't for my lovely boyfriend awkwardly working a shift pattern where sometimes he isn't home all weekend, I'd try and implement it for weekends even!

Thursday 26th May: success

Lunch: char-sui pork wrap, raspberries, yoghurt
Afternoon: apple w/peanut butter
Dinner: lamb, asparagus and sweet potato

Drinking: sugar free ginger beer

Friday 27th May

Breakfast: 1 slice toast w/peanut butter, handful strawberries
Lunch: Lamb with broccoli and asparagus, yoghurt
Dinner: planning on carvery

Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th May: S days

Not even going to try and track what I ate, the whole weekend has been quite random eating-wise as was helping the OH move house so have had meals all over the place, lots of snacks and LOTS of sweets Very active weekend though!

OK I'm going to try an experiment. I've been NoS-ing for a couple of months now with some success although still having pretty regular fails! Given the patterns I'm seeing, I'm going to try out allowing myself 's events' when I am in a social context. but not when I am by myself. This will apply to sweets largely, no snacks and no seconds still applies (no seconds is generally not an issue for me now). I'm not sure yet how I'm going to keep track of any S 'events' (other than tracking through my check in anyway).

Also, moderation applies so I am NOT going to buy a chocolate bar and then go and seek out my nearest pal as an excuse for an S event!! I am also limiting this to outside of work - there are always sweets and snacks in work that I have had no trouble resisting so far, don't see why that should change.

Monday 30th May: Success

Breakfast: yoghurt, chicken wrap
Lunch: beef and ale pie with carrots, green beans/peas, potatoes
Dessert: sticky toffee pudding
Dinner: nothing yet, maybe some toast....

Oof busy couple of days. Ended up having an apple with peanut butter on Monday night.

Tuesday 31st May: Success

Breakfast: none
Lunch: half a ham and egg baguette, apple, sugar snap peas
Dinner: sausage casserole, mash and leeks

Wednesday 1st June: Success

Breakfast: yoghurt
Lunch: rest of ham and egg baguette, sugar snap peas, crisps
Afternoon: small portion of tortellini
Dinner: asparagus w/hollandaise sauce, smoked mackerel

No 'S' events for the past couple of days

Thursday 2nd June: success

Breakfast: apple
Lunch: bagel w/hummus, pineapple
Afternoon: slice of toast w/marmite
Dinner: pepper and bacon quesadilla

Friday 3rd June: fail

Breakfast: yoghurt
Lunch: bagel w/hummus, pineapple
Afternoon: chocolate muffin!
Dinner: BBQ food, cupcake

Another Friday another fail... oops! I had planned an S event for the evening at a party with friends, but had a chocolate muffin that my OH offered me mid-afternoon which definitely did not count as the party!

Saturday 4th June: S day

Brunch: corned beef pasty and belgian bun
Afternoon snack: boots shapers strawberry chocolate bar, twister ice cream
Dinner: plate of curry (lamb pasanda, naan bread, onion bahji)
Dessert: ice cream

Sunday 5th June: S day

Lunch: leftover curry
Dinner: roast chicken, potatos, broccoli, leeks
Dessert: ice cream, chocolate bar

Haven't eaten that much today although my dinner plate was rather large

I think I'm going to try condensing my posts into weekly posts to better keep track of weekly S 'events'.

The past week, including S days, I had 7 S 'events'. 1 was a planned weekday event, 2 were Friday fails and 4 were S day treats.

Good luck with your new mod!

Monday 6th June: Success

breakfast: poached egg on toast
lunch: feta and bacon salad
dinner: sweet potato w/spring onion and stilton, slice of toast w/marmite

Tuesday 7th June: Success

breakfast: none
lunch: sweet potato, feta and chick pea stew, yoghurt, apple
afternoon: 1 slice of toast w/peanut butter
dinner: swedish meatballs, mash and veg - a very large plateful but one plateful all the same!

Wednesday 8th June: Success

lunch: leftover swedish meatballs and mash, yoghurt
afternoon: apple and small bowl of muesli w/o milk
dinner: red pepper tortellini with asparagus, mushrooms and a roasted veg sauce

Thursday 9th June: success

breakfast: pear, vanilla yoghurt
lunch: BLT sarnie, crisps, apple
dinner: (planned) as yesterday

not having an afternoon meal today as I had breakfast, had a low calorie hot chocolate to fill me up until dinnertime!

Friday 10th June: success

lunch: salmon and pea sarnie, apple, orange juice
afternoon: low calorie hot chocolate
dinner: sushi (5 plates, mostly veggie maki rolls)

I think stilton is cheese, right, but what is marmite?

Hee hee

Yes stilton is cheese, a really stinky blue cheese, and marmite is a yeast extract, which is a by-product of brewing beer. It's a savoury spread, and 'you either love it or you hate it' which is their advertising slogan and it's very true, it always evokes a strong reaction. Me, I hate it!

No Marmite haters in my check-in thread please!!

Stilton is indeed stinky and blue, but has a lovely creamy texture and salty flavour that goes brilliantly with baked sweet potato (and broccoli, and leeks, and crackers, and many other things besides!).

Thanks for dropping by my check-in! It always makes me feel better when someone else understands my logic (me waiting for my binge on the weekends)

Look at all the green successes in YOUR check-in! You're doing great! Way to go!

Thanks gk, I am having a good week! Tomorrow will be the test, i ALWAYS fail on Fridays! Going to find myself something really yummy and filling to eat for tea tomorrow in the hope that it keeps me satisfied....

Woop, finally had an all green week! No S events this week - I did have one solitary chocolate covered edamame bean yesterday which a friend offered at the cinema. I really wanted to try them (but resisted buying my own bag) and it was delicious! Definitely something I'll consider for an S day treat.

milliem wrote:Woop, finally had an all green week! No S events this week - I did have one solitary chocolate covered edamame bean yesterday which a friend offered at the cinema. I really wanted to try them (but resisted buying my own bag) and it was delicious! Definitely something I'll consider for an S day treat.

Wow, great week. Congrats. And great restraint with the chocolate bean, never even heard of it but I am sure it would be a healthy snack alternative for the cinema for an S day treat.

Well done! My first green week for ages, too. I'm going for 3 in a row now. Enjoy your S days

Thanks both I am pleased with last week!

Saturday 11th June: S day

Brunch: pork and pickle sausage roll
Afternoon: yoghurt, fruit smoothie, kitkat
Dinner: steak and chips,
Dessert: 'cookie explosion' - was extremely yummy!!

Sunday 12th June: S day

Breakfast: apple and yoghurt
Lunch: bacon, chicken and cheese tiger rolls, salad
Afternoon: Whoopie pie
Dinner: curry (possibly followed by a chocolate eclair... )

Relatively sane weekend, no permasnacking but a couple of sweet treats.

One planned 'S event' this week on Thursday for book club. I tend to allow myself 1 eye-balled plateful of savoury foods for dinner, and 1 sweet treat from whatever selection of delicious food is there

Monday 13th June: Success

Breakfast: mixed berry smoothie and apple
Lunch: roasted veg panini, chips, salad
Dinner: sweet potato w/mushrooms, bacon and cheese, pear halves in juice

Tuesday 14th June: success

Breakfast: low fat rhubarb yoghurt
Lunch: salmon, pea and mint sarnie, grapes, apple
Dinner: spag bol with garlic bread (I put the garlic bread on first and plated around it rather than balancing on top of a massive plateful!)

Drinking: sugar free cloudy lemonade

Wednesday 15th June: success

Lunch: innocent veg pot (mexican chick pea stew), crisps
Afternoon: apple and handful of raw radishes
Dinner: sausage, mash, asparagus and leeks

Drinking: as yesterday.
Possibly a bit early to mark a success but I have no plans for snacking (and am in fact very full from dinner still!)

Thursday 16th June: success

Lunch: chicken and cheese tortilla, apple, handful radishes, yoghurt
Afternoon: pear halves in juice, low fat rice pudding
Dinner: S event - book club buffet

Feeling a bit weird today and for some reason horribly hungry all day, but soldiering on.

Friday 17th June: success

Lunch: vegetable lasagne, apple
Afternoon: bagel
Dinner: pizza

not the most healthy of days, but NoS at least

That's 2 weeks of no fails, woop!

Is it a good book? (Just being nosey - I love to know what other people are reading!)

idon'tknow wrote:Is it a good book? (Just being nosey - I love to know what other people are reading!)

Me, too! My other addiction (besides sweets) is reading! Thank goodness that doesn't add on the weight like my chocolate!!

We're reading 'When God Was a Rabbit' by Sarah Winman. It's.... alright! Not the most amazing book ever but it's an interesting read.

ETA: it just got better! I am enjoying it, but I'm not gripped like I have been with other books. Fingers crossed I can finish it by Thursday!

milliem wrote:Breakfast: mixed berry smoothie and apple
Lunch: roasted veg panini, chips, salad
Dinner: sweet potato w/mushrooms, bacon and cheese, pear halves in juice

Tuesday 14th June: success

Breakfast: low fat rhubarb yoghurt
Lunch: salmon, pea and mint sarnie, grapes, apple
Dinner: spag bol with garlic bread (I put the garlic bread on first and plated around it rather than balancing on top of a massive plateful!)

Drinking: sugar free cloudy lemonade

Your meals always sound so good! They make me think that maybe I should venture out of my "Raisin Bran and turkey salad routine" and be courageous........like maybe have eggs for breakfast or something (gasp!!)

Heh thanks! I do eat quite a range of stuff, not always particularly low calorie or 'healthy' food but I try and have good meals to balance out the bad ones....

I love reading your menus. I have found inspiration from them and gotten out of my dinner rut.
BTW my DH is from the UK and I love marmite!!!!

snapdragon wrote:I love reading your menus. I have found inspiration from them and gotten out of my dinner rut.
BTW my DH is from the UK and I love marmite!!!!

Hooray, another marmite lover!

I never thought my food choices were particularly interesting, but I do get bored easily so tend to eat quite varied meals. And I do love food. I think that's part of my problem - although there's probably an element of emotional eating as well, I just love food and love cooking. Reading about lovely recipes and watching food programmes doesn't help the hunger sometimes! The positive side is that as I enjoy cooking, I do quite enjoy finding meals that are both tasty and relatively healthy That said, I'm about to go shove a frozen pizza in the oven as I'm blimming starving and knackered!

Saturday: S day

Breakfast: fruit smoothie
Lunch: fish pie and asparagus
Dinner: Fathers day/birthday meal out:

This WAS a cockles, pancetta and lemon starter...I may have been too excited about eating it to remember to take a photo....

Starter by milliem1, on Flickr


Lamb, spring onion and black pudding mash, beetroot relish

IMAG0102 by milliem1, on Flickr

Dessert for two

IMAG0103 by milliem1, on Flickr

Drinks: many glasses of wine

Sunday: S day

Breakfast: croissant w/jam
Lunch: BBQ - a burger, venison sausage, lamb kebab + salad
Dessert: small slice banoffee pie, small slice cheesecake
Snack: chocolate crispy cake
Dinner: 2 slices toast, crisps

We have a running joke in our house about fish pie.My DH's Mum used to make it allthetime and force him to eat it. Sometimes we threaten the kids wit the thought.
Sounds like you are doing really well. happy for you!!!!

This week is an s week as I am on holiday, hooray! Trying to keep the s`s to a minimum though....

Monday
Breakfast: toast with marmalade
Snacks: (on car journey) beef jerky, refresher sweets
Lunch: prawn sandwich
Dinner: chinese-one plate

Tuesday
Breakfast: one slice toast w/butter
Lunch:2 slices pepperoni pizza
Dinner: bbq- one plate, mostly meat!
Dessert: one lemon cheesecake slice, one rocky road slice

Just going to call the rest of this week S days - I started to track but really can't remember what I ate for the past couple of days! Largely 2-3 squares plus a few snacks and/or desserts although nothing majorly overboard.

We did go to an American style diner yesterday for amazing milkshakes and had food there - my word the portions were MASSIVE!! Really tasty, but too big for me, made me wonder if it was typical of real american dining or beefed up for the 'experience'.

Although it was a week of pretty heavy drinking by my normal standards! At least the trip only comes once per year... Not looking forward to getting on the scales again... ah well, back to Vanilla NoS on Monday!

Ok, 9 S days in a row has me feeling quite.... full! Lol.... they started out relatively sane and got progressively worse - no wonder NoS suggests only 2 in a row per week! It is really hard to eat 'NoS style' on holiday but I think next time I need a better plan!

Looking forward to starting tomorrow afresh with a good old N day

Sounds like you had fun on your trip!

Hope you have a great week!

Good luck!

Monday 27th June: Success

Lunch: bbq chicken roll, 2 plums, half punnet of blueberries
Afternoon: slice of toast w/marmalade
Dinner: baked potato, chicken and salad

My tummy is full but my mouth is craving more food - I'm determined not to give in! Only 2 hours before bedtime

Tuesday 28th June: Success

Breakfast: vanilla yoghurt and blueberries
Lunch: squash, feta and beetroot sandwich, edamame beans
Afternoon: slice of toast w/marmalade
Dinner: Indonesian spiced rice with seafood, sweet potato cakes

Overate slightly at dinner (the plate was pretty piled!) but it was 'one plate' and I was celebrating passing a submission for my professional psychology qualification, woop! Managed to stay away from the cake for celebrating though - it's funny how 'celebration' means 'food' most of the time to me.

Wednesday 29th June: success

Breakfast: 2 slices toast w/marmalade (can you tell I'm going through a marmalade phase...)
Lunch: leftover indonesian rice
Snack: crisps
Dinner: gnocchi with tomato sauce and cheese

Went to the cinema straight from work and then to a friend's for a cuppa, so I had some crisps to tide me over til dinnertime - and help me avoid the expensive and largely sweet cinema food!

Thursday 30th June: success

Lunch: bacon and egg sandwich, yoghurt
Dinner: gammon, egg, mixed vegetables and fried potatoes

Huge meal out after work for a baby shower - although all fit on one plate Didn't finish the gammon steak, it was the size of my head! Need to make sure I up my fruit and veg intake i think....

Friday 1st July

Lunch: gnocchi, yoghurt
Afternoon:
Dinner:

You're doing great - keep it up!

Thanks again for dropping by my daily check-in. It's always nice to see your notes - appreciate your support!

I just realised that if I have a success today I'll have reached 21 days of no fails! Technically I reached it last Friday, but as I had a week of 'S days' for my holiday I don't feel comfortable counting those as plain old successes!

I do actually have an S event planned for today - a meal out with some friends - but as long as I keep my S's to that one meal I'll be happy. I actually had a meal out last night too, but didn't feel the need for dessert. It's nice to be able to say no and be satisfied with doing so

milliem wrote:I just realised that if I have a success today I'll have reached 21 days of no fails!

I actually had a meal out last night too, but didn't feel the need for dessert. It's nice to be able to say no and be satisfied with doing so

Wow! How awesome! Congrats!

Thanks gk

Saturday 2nd July: S day

Breakfast: toast w/marmalade
Snack: chocolate
Lunch: scottish mackerel and roasted veg, banoffee muffin
Dinner: steak fajitas, a couple of chocolates

Sunday 3rd July: S day

Breakfast: banoffee muffin
Lunch: leftover fajita
Snack: chocolate, cherries
Dinner: feta, olives, bread, crisps
Snack: more chocolate....

I feel like my S days are getting wilder not better! I have a feeling its the run off from my holiday. Pondering on whether to try and moderate my S days (e.g. set some guidelines or rules for them) or whether to just keep going with the free-for-all and hope it settles down eventually!

Monday 4th July: Success

Lunch: sushi, crisps, apple, Orange juice
Dinner: a slightly odd 'lets see what I have in my cupboards' stew of tuna, tomatoes and beans. Not sure I liked it....

I have a rule about not eating after dinner, so even though I didn't have my usual afternoon mini-meal instead of breakfast, I'm not planning to eat again. Not feeling particularly satisfied though, so planning on a low calorie hot chocolate drink later in the evening to stave off hunger pangs/cravings.

I didn't end up having the planned hot choc - got busy so although I was hungry, I didn't mind it. The worst is sitting around bored and having nothing to do - that's when I give in!

Tuesday 5th July: Success

Lunch: hummus and veg wrap, apple, OJ
Afternoon: cornflakes w/semi skimmed milk
Dinner: tagliatelli carbonara

I felt so hungry I was almost faint after lunch, definitely need to make sure that if I have a crappy/early dinner one evening I have breakfast the next day!

Wednesday 6th July: success

Lunch: flatbread w/mince and yoghurt, cherries, 1/2 packet of crisps
Afternoon: cherries, rest of crisps
Dinner: sausage, pepper and onion wrap, broccoli

Thursday 7th July: fail

Lunch: banana and 3 rich tea biscuits
Afternoon: sausage wrap (leftovers from yesterday), portion cherries
Dinner: ham and pineapple pizza

Slightly odd day today - I accidentally left my lunch in one office when I travelled to another mid-morning, and didn't have a chance to retrieve it til 3.30pm!! I was pretty hungry by midday, so found the least unhealthy stuff in the office to tide me over. I think the rich tea biccies were ok actually, they were the 'lighter' versions and not too much sugar. Not going to beat myself up about it, necessity meant I had to eat something, or I would never have been able to concentrate in the afternoon!

Ended up having some ice cream and a few chocolates after dinner... oops. First fail in a while! I guess it was just one of those days.

Friday 8th July: S day(ish)

Breakfast: yoghurt, cherries
Lunch: sausage roll
Afternoon: plate of poffertjes with strawberries and icing sugar, bites of... stuff
Dinner: plate of cured meats, cheese, oak smoked tomatoes, bread and balsamic vinegar
Dessert: 1/2 brownie

Today was a food festival, hooray! Picked up a bunch of delicious savoury and sweet foods, and treated myself to a plate of poffertjes (I love these little round pancakes, can only get them a couple of times a year when festivals come to town) and some tasting nibbles to help me decide what I wanted. Have been fairly sensible though and not permasnacked since getting back from the festival

I was pleased with how yesterday went, I didn't let myself binge or go overboard after deciding that I would take an S event to taste the goodies at the food festival. I didn't eat at all after dinner (well after the brownie dessert!)

Saturday: S day

Breakfast: cereal
Lunch: plate of meat/cheese/bread/tomatoes from food festival
Dessert: rest of brownie and 3 individual chocolates
Afternoon: salt and pepper pita chips with salsa
Dinner: out for a birthday meal

Quite sensible day today actually. To make sure i didn't go crazy snacking in the afternoon I portioned out some pita chips on a small plate with the bowl of salsa, and just ate what I portioned out. Not eating dinner til later tonight, it'll be one plate of something-or-other although probably with a few cocktails alongside!!

Sunday 10th June: S day

Oof feeling slightly delicate this morning! Going to try not to turn the entire day into a hangover-eating-frenzy and in fact I don't feel THAT bad, so I think I can control myself

Breakfast: bacon and egg roll, orange juice
Lunch: baked sweet potato with roast asparagus, parmesan and prosciutto (yum!)

Lunch! by milliem1, on Flickr
Dinner:

milliem wrote:
Breakfast: bacon and egg roll, orange juice

Looks like you have set yourself up for a successful hangover with that breakfast at least! Hope you manage to avoid the hungover eating frenzy, it's my downfall too!

Hope the day went by in a frenziless way.

Thanks both! So far so good, I think having the breakfast helped I'm pretty glad I came home when I did and stuck to a (relatively) sensible amount of drinking, I think i would have been suffering horribly otherwise.

Well I managed to keep it sensible for half of yesterday, and then munched on ice cream, pita chips, salsa, chocolate, cherries and more ice cream.... not constant eating but still, a lot of food that I didn't really need to eat. Oh well half a sensible S day is an improvement!

Monday 11th July: Success

Lunch: vegetarian sushi, cherries, yoghurt
Dinner: omelette (with shallots, salami, parmesan and roasted tomatoes), bread roll

Only 2 meals today, I didn't have time for breakfast or an afternoon meal. I'm a little hungry but hoping to get through the evening

That omelet sounds delicious! I would never have thought of putting salami in one...will have to try.

I think I am finally too old for the hangover days but I remember them well enough to be very sympathetic. Sugar helps restore you after a hangover, maybe that is why the sweets cravings.

Linguisticsgirl: The omelette was lovely! I just used whatever I had in the fridge which is what tends to happen with my omelettes

Panglesue: thank you I tend to avoid drinking enough to give me hangovers these days but have the occasional 'session' lol! I do tend to use lucozade as a hangover cure when I'm feeling really rough, all that glucose really helps.

Tuesday 12th July: Fail

lunch: roast chicken salad nicoise, edamame, a couple of veggie sushi rolls, cherries, yoghurt
afternoon: toasted roll with marmalade
dinner: fish pie and potato waffles
after dinner: ice cream (one 'mini' feast ice cream bar)

I had a real craving for sweet things last night - reminded me of the nicotine cravings when i was giving up smoking!! Managed to resist temptation but it was tough....

I'm not feeling very motivated to keep to NoS at the moment. Got a lot going on at work and with some professional qualifications that I'm doing so I'm pretty flat out all day every day. I think I'm just in that mindset of 'I need a treat' and tasty (usually sweet) foods are treats to me.... I'm not in a place of 'giving up' or trying something else, just anticipating a fair few failures Then again at least I didn't go all out last night - I had one small ice cream and was satisfied with that.

Luckily for me I'm ok with failure, and I know that even a bad week will be nowhere near what I often ate before starting NoS.

Wednesday 13th July: Success

Breakfast: fromage frais with fruit
Lunch: chicken pesto pannini, fruit salad, greek yoghurt
Dinner: spaghetti with shallots, tomatoes and blue cheese

Keep looking at the improvements you've made. Two steps forward and one step back still leaves you ahead.

Joyofsix wrote:Keep looking at the improvements you've made. Two steps forward and one step back still leaves you ahead.

That's an excellent point to keep in mind, thanks!!

I managed to resist any temptation last night and actually wasn't hungry after dinner - I think big portions at lunch and dinner helped. Actually I ate lunch at 1pm and wasn't even hungry for dinner until 7pm - usually I'd start feeling really hungry at about 4! I think I'm still working on what portions work for me when I only eat two meals or a very small breakfast.

I have found that for me a really good way to beat evening food cravings is to make a big pot of peppermint tea to share with my flatmate. It's slightly ritualised, involves drinking something and is refreshingly minty which discourages eating, meaning that it fills several gaps which might otherwise have been taken up by food or wine. It's also really good for you. Obviously it may not be everyone's cup of tea (bad pun intended ) but something similar which suits your tastes at any time of the day might fill the gap when you feel you deserve something - and stopping even for 2 minutes might give you the head space you are probably also craving judging from the sound of your workload!

Thanks for the encouragement on my check-in! I love that you're making this journey do-able for yourself. Reality. We're not perfect in anything in life. There will be successes and failures...and we just roll with it! Good job!

Thursday 14th July: fail

Lunch: chicken, mozzarella and pesto panini, yoghurt
Dinner: sausage, beans, tomatoes and potato waffles

Thanks for your support guys I'm having to fight a bit of laziness at the moment when it comes to cooking and meal planning - I think my brain is quite overloaded with work so when it comes to food it takes effort to get inspiration! I've been so tempted to order takeaways this week - allowed on NoS, I know, but still if it became a regular thing that's a lot more calories than I'd usually take in. Managed to stick with what's in my cupboards the last couple of days though, tonight was proper comfort food!

Evening choc-fest - a chocolate cat head (don't ask) and a small mint chocolate ice cream.

Really enjoying your posts and food diaries, milliem! Will have to try some of those meals sometime - YUMMY!!

Have a wonderful Friday and all the best for the No S weekend!! Can't wait myself - yippeee!!

Fabulous job sticking to the cupboards. Cooking does seem to take extra energy when your mind is busy with work. Hang in there. You're doing great!

Well, I WAS doing great, until 10pm hit last night and I started stuffing my face with chocolate... man I don't really know what happened. Ok I do know, I saw chocolate, thought 'fuck it' ('scuse the French) and ate it! Lol. I felt awful afterwards though - physically not emotionally. It wasn't even that enjoyable... weird the things we do to ourselves.

Note to self: don't declare a success until you go to bed!!

Friday 15th July: success

Breakfast: fruit yoghurt
Lunch: big salad (beets, cucumber, red onion, apple and feta cheese), cherries
Dinner: sweet chilli chicken burger and chips

Another boozy Friday - out for a hen do - but managed to resist the takeaways and late night shops on the way home and didn't eat anything after dinner. Did drink a couple of glasses of wine, a white russian and a very strange but delicious melon and bourbon cocktail which probably helped stave off the hunger!!

Saturday 17th July: S day

Breakfast: bacon and egg tiger roll, cherries
Lunch: slice of cheese pizza, 2 small pieces fudge
Dinner: bbq ribs and mash, salad
Dessert: milkshake, a couple of chewy sweets

Hi there, thanks for stopping by my daily check in and for the encouragement. Seems you are doing quite well, great job on posting..I think it makes a huge difference with keepin on..

Have a great S day.

My S days have been wild, but yesterday was great..I think because I let myself eat what I wanted to eat all week...

Hi Debra! Definitely having that free time where you can just let go and enjoy food you really love to eat is awesome! And you know that in a day or two's time, you'll be back on to N days - no guilt about having something sweet.

Sunday 17th July: S day

Breakfast: 1/2 chocolate muffin, cherries
Lunch: sushi (5 plates vegetarian sushi at a sushi bar)
Snack: chocolate covered edamame beans
Dinner: reggae reggae chicken w/ sweet potato and asparagus
Dessert: chocolate covered peanuts (loving chocolate covered stuff today it seems!)

Monday 18th July: success

Lunch: chicken and mozzarella panini, pineapple/papaya, fromage frais
Afternoon: toast w/marmalade
Dinner: tortellini with tomato, bacon and leek sauce, parmesan

Tuesday 19th July: success

lunch: prawn sandwich, apple, cherries
dinner: cheese omelette, beetroot and cucumber salad, bit of leftover piri piri chicken

Wednesday 20th July: success

Lunch: chicken pannini, cherries, pineapple, papaya
Afternoon: slice of toast w/marmalade
Dinner: baked eggs, potato waffles

Thursday 21st July: success

Breakfast: 2 slices toast w/marmalade
Lunch: small calzone, small handful chips, apple juice
Dinner: home-made pepperoni, red pepper and anchovy pizza

It didn't occur to me until I was eating the calzone that I would be eating two pizzas in one day!! It was a small one though

Friday 22nd July: success

Lunch: hummus, cucumber, chicken and pepper wrap, beetroot salad
Afternoon: yoghurt
Dinner: chicken katsu and rice, vegetable tempura

It occurs to me that I haven't been eating terribly healthily this week. No failures (yet...) though, I have a feeling this evening may be difficult - a long, stressful week feels like it ought to end with something sweet and delicious! Don't really know why, but we'll see how it goes.

I managed to resist snacking or eating sweets after my (rather large) plateful of dinner. I'd even bought chocolate thinking I might eat it, but twice when my OH offered it to me I said 'no thanks'!

Well a full green week is an improvement, maybe next week I'll try for a few more fruit and veg in the mix!

Saturday 23rd July: S day

Breakfast: 2 slices toast with blueberry and blackcurrant fruit spread (sugarless jam, yum!)
Mid-morning: yoghurt, chocolate bar, cherries
Lunch: chicken, pepper and hummus sandwich, 2 pieces fudge
Dinner: beefburger, sweet potato fries, cucumber

Felt a bit sick after dinner I don't think it was overeating (I left 1/3 of the burger on my plate) but maybe too much fat in the burger? Going to keep an eye on it as I've noticed feeling queasy right after some meals lately.

Sunday 24th July: S day

Breakfast: 2 slices toast w/fruit spread
Lunch: tiger bread w/balsamic dressing to dip, feta, chicken, grapes and melon
Dessert: fresh cream banana split (could only eat half it was so filling, but delicious, totally worth it!)
Afternoon: finished the banana split
Dinner: beef and onion pie, leeks, mashed potato

I'm having relatively sane S days this weekend - certainly not permasnacking although still enjoying my sweet treats

Oh, boy. Your food looks amazing! What's tiger bread, by the way?

I do love having a plate of little bits and pieces to pick at - the only thing missing was olives and a glass of wine

Tiger bread is a type of loaf made with sesame oil, it has this amazing cracked looking crust, very tasty! The bread is so soft and delicious.... yum!

Monday 25th was a Fail

Breakfast and lunch were ok, but a long stressful day for me and OH resulted in ordering pizza in and splurging on also having the pizza hut warm cookies.... oh god that was so good, I don't actually regret it, but it was a fail

Tuesday 26th: success

breakfast: grapes and yoghurt
lunch: prawn noodle salad, banana, cherries
afternoon: bowl of oatmeal
dinner: leftover pizza (2 slices) and more grapes

all my meals were on the small side so I feel ok about having 4 meals.

Wednesday 27th: success

lunch: prawn sandwich, grapes, carrot sticks, small handful pretzels, small handful twiglets
dinner: lamb and mint kebabs, salad, potato waffles

Lunchtime was interesting, there was a huge load of treats in work as a colleague is going off on maternity leave. I avoided all sweet treats and just had a few small portions of the savoury treats alongside my sandwich so I at least felt like I'd had something I wasn't expecting it, but actually looked at the treats and thought they weren't worth taking an S event for (well most of them, when I spotted my favourite caramel slices I had already made the decision so stuck to it!)

Well done on the success, especially with the caramel slice. I'm going to think about that tomorrow night as inspiration. I'm going to a milonga (sort of a party with tango dancing) where everyone takes a sweet and a savoury dish for a buffet. I will have to be very aware and careful to only have one plateful of the savoury and none of the sweet, I won't take it as a NWS as am going on holiday next week and will be relaxing no S rules then. I will take strength from the thought that it can be done!

I think it's great that you can have a 'treat' or celebration meal e.g. a buffet, or nice meal out without breaking any of the NoS rules, if you are careful (and motivated....)

Thursday 28th July: success

Lunch: couscous and chicken salad, kiwi fruit/apple, crisps
Afternoon: slice toast w/fruit spread
Dinner: venison steak, sweet potato and asparagus

Friday 29th August: Success

Today is a yellow success, as there was an S event

Breakfast: 2 slices toast w/fruit spread
Lunch: chicken, mash, salad, 2 onion rings, 1/2 slice of garlic bread
Dinner: pizza, slice of cinnamon and apple giant muffin

We went out for lunch - not until 3pm as my OH had come off a night shift so was sleeping until then. I was STARVING by that time, so I ate the side salad before the main meal (it was a 'help yourself' place) but it would all have fit on the one plate. They say that a regular plate of salad is 350 calories!! Mind you I avoided the pasta and potato salads and the heavy dressings and stuck to the fresh veggies

The cake was for my parents 30th wedding anniversary - it was amazingly good!

I have eaten a lot of pizza this week

Saturday 30th July: S day

Breakfast: 2 slices toast w/marmite

Lunch: sweet chilli chicken and salad sandwich, sicilian lemon muffin

Dinner: 3 course indian meal (celebration meal with family) - mini spiced lamb sliders to start, prawn curry, peshwari naan and rice for main, blueberry samosas for dessert.

I was so full by the end of it but the food was absolutely delicious - I have real trouble resisting gorgeous gourmet food even if I am full!! I think I was quite full of the 4 pints of various ciders and beers I had before and during the meal too....

Sunday 31st July: S day

Breakfast: bacon and egg english muffin
Snack: chocolate bar
Lunch: a toasted english muffin with marmite, a pear, handful of cherries, handful of nuts, crisps
Afternoon: slice of cake, piece of fudge

Breakfast and lunch were both quite late, and I snacked on a few nuts in the evening but didn't have dinner - just wasn't hungry. I contemplated eating something 'because it's dinner time' but ended up not bothering.

Monday 1st August: Success

Breakfast: yoghurt
Lunch: chicken and red pepper wrap, pear, cherries
Afternoon: 2 slices toast w/marmite
Dinner: sausages, mash, broccoli and onion gravy

Tuesday 2nd August: success

Breakfast: yoghurt
Lunch: chicken and pepper wrap, pear, cherries, handful nuts
Afternoon: crisps (not exactly my best choice of afternoon mini-meal!!)
Dinner: chorizo and red onion omelette, salad

Busy few days!

Wednesday 3rd August: Fail
the fail was ice cream and chocolate at the cinema in the evening

Thursday 4th August: success

Friday 5th August: success
breakfast: plain yoghurt, granola, fruit
lunch: lamb kofta flatbread wrap, fruit
dinner: plate of chinese food

Saturday 6th August: S day
breakfast: pain au chocolat
snacks through morning: strawberries and sugar snap peas
lunch: small cheese and chicken quesedilla, fudge
dinner: meal out with the OH to celebrate our 1 year anniversary cockles and laverbread to start, then mussels in white whine sauce, and 1/2 a baileys cheesecake for dessert.

Sunday 7th August: S day

Everything is crazy busy at the moment but I'm (generally) not turning to food to get me through which is good! I'm finding that the general principles of NoS are really ingrained now and I am making better choices on N days without having to really think about it. I do still have regular fails though, not sure what I'm going to do about those.... Wednesday was just a day where I felt HUNGRY all day, even when I'd just eaten! I wasn't eating small portions or crappy food either.... I guess just one of those days The Wednesday fail was a measured decision to treat myself at the cinema - not a great decision but at least not a mindless fail or a total binge.

Millie replied on Deb's daily check in:

You may never stop eating cake on S days. Frankly, I'm pretty sure I never will - I love cake! But be sure that by sticking to NoS you will be able to slowly change the eating habits that you aren't happy with, even the S day ones.

Thanks, I really appreciate knowing that it someday will stop or at least slow down and yup, I truly look forward to my S days .

Sounds like you are doing wonderful!

Oof I've had a terrible week... Monday was a success, Tuesday and Wednesday failures It's been ages since I had 2 fails in a row! Things are tough for me at the moment, I'm struggling with stress due to a horribly heavy workload meaning I'm pretty much focused on work 24/7 for the time being. It's only for another 3 weeks and will be worth it in the end, but I just feel so tired all the time. There's only so much my poor brain can take!

So, I'm not giving up on NoS. Still taking the small successes where I can find them e.g. not eating the tasty looking flapjacks and cookies in work today, stopping at 3 slices of pizza (one plateful) last night... Fortunately I think the idea of the habits is ingrained, even if the habits aren't! Even though I don't really have the energy to really put effort into the habits, I'm hoping that if I take one day at a time and at least try every day, I'll still have some good days

milliem wrote:Oof I've had a terrible week... Monday was a success, Tuesday and Wednesday failures It's been ages since I had 2 fails in a row! Things are tough for me at the moment, I'm struggling with stress due to a horribly heavy workload meaning

I totally understand how stress can overwhelm us. You had a great Monday and I'll bet a great Thursday as far as habits go.

We do have to keep in mind that a couple off days does not mean we are failures. I know for me the diet mentality would be screaming stuff at me...but we all know this is not a diet but a state of sanity.

I hope things calm down for you..chin up.

Thursday 11th: Success

Friday 12th: Failure

Still struggling on, food is still an enjoyment for me, a comfort. I'm not binging or 'crashing the car' but choosing sweet treats to keep me going. I'm still doing well during the day and in work, it's the evenings that are causing me problems! Oh well, two (hopefully sane) S days to look forward to

Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th August: S days

Saturday was a wild one, Sunday much less so (actual gaps between eating foods, wow!)

Monday 15th August: success

Lunch: bbq chicken roll, cherries, yoghurt
Afternoon: 2 slices wholewheat toast w/fruit spread
Dinner: toad in the hole, leeks

Tuesday 16th August: failure

Lunch: chicken pesto panini, fruit salad, crisps
Afternoon: slice of toast with fruit spread, apple
Dinner: pesto spaghetti, garlic bread
Dessert: tiramisu (individual portion)

My failures are thought out decisions lately, that's one positive I can take away from it... decided I wanted a treat so picked out a portion of something yummy that I could share with the OH. Was contemplating modding myself 'one sweet treat per day' but I'd rather aim for NoS and roll with the failures.

Wednesday 17th August: success

Lunch: toasted pita bread with cream cheese, mango, blackberries, yoghurt
Afternoon: half chicken tikka baguette
Dinner: burrito