Everyday Systems

Hello, I'm Jess and I've been lurking the board for a few weeks while halfheartedly doing No S. Today is another failed N day and I'm getting sick of failure. The No S habits seem so very reasonable and sane compared to years of counting calories or carbs. I really want to cement these habits into my life and make them my own. Hopefully the extra accountability of being on the board and filling out HabitCal will help me achieve the 21 days of compliance.

I am currently staying home with our two sons (ages 5 years and 5 months) which is WAY more stressful than I imagined it would be while I was working. I struggle with emotional eating. Today the baby is teething and I'm stressed out... I gave in and made a chocolate chip mug cookie after lunch. Sorry if this is disjointed. It's taken me two hours to type this out because I keep getting interrupted.

So... I'm marking my red box for the day and will start afresh tomorrow. I look forward to getting to know you all and improving my habits!

Welcome! I look forward to reading your thread

Thank you eschano! It might be a boring thread but my hopes are that it will help me stay on track.

Today was a success! It was really hard though. I was very hungry all afternoon. It seems like I might need to either eat more at each meal, or allow a snack of some fruit or something in the afternoon. I'm nursing my baby every 3 hours (round the clock) and it makes me very hungry.

This morning I weighed 157, which puts my BMI at 25.15 (overweight). I'm not going to weigh again until I get my 21 day streak under my belt.

Here's what I ate today...
B: One homemade breakfast bar thingy and coffee with cream
L: A bowl of chicken tortilla soup and another cup of coffee with cream because I was still hungry
D: Two pieces of pizza

Off to HabitCal I go!

FAIL.

I totally failed today. Last night I was so hungry, I had trouble sleeping. That carried over into today, and I was hungry all morning after breakfast. At lunch time I cracked. I had my lunch, and then a little snack, and then a BIG snack, and then a sugary treat......

I really want to do Vanilla No S but I'm beginning to think it might have to wait until I'm done nursing the baby.

Starting over again tomorrow.

Hi there. I just started this no S program so am reading through people's posts. I know you have to eat a lot when you are nursing so you have something to give baby. I notice myself, when I am trying to lose weight, going far too light on the food and then I'm starving. I encourage you to eat full plates of healthy solid food - things that "stay" with you and keep you satisified longer. I know we don't count calories on the no S program but you might want to ballpark how many calories you are taking in just to make sure you are getting enough. Just my thoughts as I was reading your food intake lists. Congratulations on baby! Stay well.

ckay21 wrote:Hi there. I just started this no S program so am reading through people's posts. I know you have to eat a lot when you are nursing so you have something to give baby. I notice myself, when I am trying to lose weight, going far too light on the food and then I'm starving. I encourage you to eat full plates of healthy solid food - things that "stay" with you and keep you satisified longer. I know we don't count calories on the no S program but you might want to ballpark how many calories you are taking in just to make sure you are getting enough. Just my thoughts as I was reading your food intake lists. Congratulations on baby! Stay well.

Thank you ckay21! I think you're right. Tomorrow I'm going to try eating more at each meal. I'm still using small-ish plates and leaving lots of room, so I will fill up my plates a little more. After all of my snacking today I ate a reasonable dinner and I felt good, unlike that gross feeling after a binge or emotional eating. Thanks for your input!

Success!

Today I started over. I ate more at each meal, and was able to stay compliant the whole day. Feels really good.

B: Two breakfast bars, one cup coffee with cream
L: A can of Spaghetti-Os (it fit into one bowl)
D: Eggs, bacon and hash browns

We really need to go grocery shopping. Spaghetti-Os did not hit the spot, but I needed to eat something quick.

This evening, I walked two miles with the baby in the ergo carrier. He weighs about 16-17 lb. now.

Tomorrow is Saturday. An S day!

Welcome! I just had a chance to read your thread today. I LOVED my Ergo. I used it constantly for both of my boys until each one reached age 3. I am extremely sentimental about it! My boys are 8 and 5 now.

Hmmm, the nursing thing. I have a couple thoughts, but I just don't know if they'll help, because when I was nursing, I was busy snacking ALL day every day and was rewarded with weight gain.

a) it's really about calories, right? so theoretically if you are eating 800 calories a meal (or whatever you need) you should be able to feed your baby.
b) HOWEVER (and this is a HUGE however), if your body is not USED to waiting 5-6 hours between meals, then I believe it could be extremely uncomfortable as your body (especially your liver) gets better at maintainin

There's something wrong with my iPad keyboard sorry..

What I was finishing up saying was........until your liver gets better at maintaining your blood sugar between meals. And I think it's possible the stress of that could affect your milk supply.

But that's just theoretical. On the other hand, you could just plan in an afternoon meal and consider it a regular part of your day! That's perhaps a simpler option right now for you, so you don't have to go through the stress of getting used to three meals a day.

The weekend! S days. It was nice not to have to stress over food the last couple of days. To my surprise, I didn't eat as much as I thought I would. I was a little too full after dinner and treats tonight.

Saturday:
Brunch: quinoa patties w/ mayo, coffee w/cream, and some cookie dough
Snack: A whole bunch of dried banana chips and another cup of coffee
Dinner: About half a cheeseburger (it was a huge one) and some fries
Treat: A chocolate bar

I walked 2 miles as well.

Sunday:
Breakfast: Leftover quinoa patties, coffee with cream
Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwich
Dinner: Pita sandwich with fries
Treats: A few mini Twix bars, some cookie dough and some Twizzlers

All in all, not to bad for me. I tend to binge sometimes and although I ate quite a bit of treats, I didn't feel like it was binge-level quantities.

Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary, so I might have a NWS day, depending on what we decide to do. My hubs isn't very romantic, so we might not do anything (in which case it will just be a normal day).

Thank you automatedeating for the ideas! I am going to try Vanilla again for the next couple of days, but if I feel miserable, like I did last week, I will probably plan a meal for the afternoon.

Looks like I'm on track for two successful N days.

Yesterday
B: a couple of homemade breakfast bars, coffee with cream
L: orange chicken and quinoa
D: loaded baked potato soup

Today:
B: breakfast bars and coffee
L: egg salad sandwich, a few chips, and a nectarine
Dinner is going to be leftover soup

I'm a little hungry right now, but I know I can make it til dinner, especially if I chug some water

Two more successful N days (counting today, which is almost over)! That means one more and I will have completed my first week. I'm super excited. It feels like it's getting easier. The only snag I've run into was yesterday. I was very hungry at lunch time, and something happened to delay lunch about an hour. Boy, was I a grump!

Yesterday
B: Two breakfast bars, coffee w/cream (the usual these days)
L: Egg salad sandwich, a few chips, a nectarine
D: Two pieces of pizza

Today:
B: The usual
L: Turkey and cheese sandwich, a few chips, a spicy pickle, celery w/ranch
Dinner is going to be a bean burrito

I haven't walked much this week. Hope to get back into that this weekend. I miss it when I don't do it.

Well done! And good for you to notice what works and what doesn't work.

Success!

It almost feels like Christmas, knowing that I can have treats tomorrow

B: The usual
L: Quinoa patties
D: French toast and bacon

Happy weekend!

Yay for looking forward to some nice treats tomorrow!

Hi there! You are doing wonderful! I, too, am nursing, but my "baby" is 18 months so I can't use THAT excuse anymore! Ha. I just wanted to say I totally understand the stress of being home with the kids. Working was so.much easier!!! Can you tell me about these breakfast bars you're making? I need something I can make ahead and just grab too!

tobiasmom wrote:Hi there! You are doing wonderful! I, too, am nursing, but my "baby" is 18 months so I can't use THAT excuse anymore! Ha. I just wanted to say I totally understand the stress of being home with the kids. Working was so.much easier!!! Can you tell me about these breakfast bars you're making? I need something I can make ahead and just grab too!

Hi tobiasmom! I think it's so cool that you're still nursing your baby at 18 months. My first son nursed until 2.5! I'm a big proponent of extended breastfeeding

Here is the link to the breakfast bar recipe. I have tweaked it a little but they always turn out tasty! I use less honey than called for and more peanut butter because I LOVE it! Oh, and instead of pressing them into the pan and cutting them, I smoosh them into little balls before refrigerating them. They seem less crumbly that way. If you make them, let me know what you think!

http://powerhungry.com/2008/06/homemade ... s-no-bake/

What a weekend! I was so busy, I hardly had time to eat. My S days were a little disappointing, because I didn't have time to make any treats. I did have donuts for breakfast yesterday though! They were yummy.

So today is another successful N day. I'm calling it early because I'm sure I won't eat anything else today. The hubs has a stomach bug and I'm deathly afraid of getting sick (it is literally one of my worst nightmares). I usually don't eat much when there is a stomach bug going around due to my aversion.

B: Leftover quinoa patties, coffee with cream
L: A big salad and a cup of greek yogurt

I also walked three miles today. That was a little too far. Baby is getting heavy in the ergo and my back has been achy since we got home.

Success!

B: The usual
L: Big salad
D: Mujadarrah (tasty experiment) - just a tiny bowl

Wasn't very hungry today.

Planning to go for a walk in a few minutes.

Oh man... yesterdat was such a spectacular failure. And all because of EMOTIONS! Ugh.

I was upset about something, so I skipped lunch because I couldn't imagine eating anything at that time. But around 4 PM I was starving, and caved and had a snack.

Then another snack after dinner.

Darn.

Today is back to normal. I hate starting over though!

i think you are doing great. you seem to recognize that emotions are a trigger for you, which is really important. one thing that has helped me is to take the focus off of food. treat myself in some other way. maybe a walk, cup of tea, bath. something that doesn't involve food. i get emotional too and after a hard day, my thoughts are usually "oh it would feel great to just get home and eat this... " but then when i get there i make myself put it back and move on. i used to not be able to stop myself but that's gotten better. emotional eating is very hard to beat. and we all have moments where we do it again. it just makes us human. but i think you're doing great so far.

Yesterday was green and it was lovely! I'm moving my S days up to today and tomorrow, since we have company coming for those days. I'm not looking forward to it, but whatev. Sunday will be nice and relaxing. I'll get back to green days then.

MJ7910 wrote:i think you are doing great. you seem to recognize that emotions are a trigger for you, which is really important. one thing that has helped me is to take the focus off of food. treat myself in some other way. maybe a walk, cup of tea, bath. something that doesn't involve food. i get emotional too and after a hard day, my thoughts are usually "oh it would feel great to just get home and eat this... " but then when i get there i make myself put it back and move on. i used to not be able to stop myself but that's gotten better. emotional eating is very hard to beat. and we all have moments where we do it again. it just makes us human. but i think you're doing great so far.

Thanks for the encouragement, MJ7910! It's good to know I"m not the only one who struggles with emotional eating. Hopefully one day I'll get the hang of dealing with things without using food

Hi Jess,
Sorry to hear about your rough day, and how your emotions had a greater effect on your eating than you'd like! I can sure relate!

Just stopping by to say Hi ! and welcome to the forum.

You sound like you are doing great, don't beat yourself up over a little miss now and then. Just stay the course, you can't go wrong when doing right.

And congratlations on the new baby!

I had some spectacular failures too last week - new week = clean slate!

Thank you all so much for the kind words you have posted! I really went off the wagon for a couple of weeks. But I've been so stressed that I haven't been eating much. I wonder, if you don't eat three meals per day or whatever your plan is, does that count as a failure?

At any rate, I will hopefully be doing better soon and get back on track! I really appreciate all the support y'all.

I've really been off this past month. I'm so ready to get back into the swing of things. I -WAS- actually wearing my "skinny jeans" there for a while. Not now.... tomorrow is a new day and a fresh start.

Here's to getting back on NoS habit for both of us! (I started back on Aug 2.)
I think the consensus is that skipped meals are fine. Not the ideal, but not a "fail" or red day. I guess I see the upper limit as 3 plates of non-sweet food on an N day, eaten in discrete meals.

My skinny jeans are a pretty good gauge of how I'm doing on NoS. Last summer they were loose, and now I'm working hard to fit into them again. Good luck with getting back on track!

So today is a FAIL. I'm just really hungry and had a snack this afternoon.

It was so easy for a while, and now it seem so hard! :/

I agree, once you get on a roll, it seems so easy, then you hit a bump and it gets hard again! But, I always look at people who have been doing this for a while - I read through their old entries, and they had the same thing. They just keep getting up and trying, and eventually the food loses its control over them (mostly). That's where I want to get to, so I'm trying to just keep trekking on and not be too hard on myself.

You keep coming back and trying, and that is most important! Have you tried the afternoon mini-meal? You could try that for a bit to see if it helps you stick with the program more easily.