Hi all! It’s been ages since I posted. I’ve been very busy, trying to get ahead with work before Christmas descends, with all its visiting and travelling. I wonder how many people get a genuine Christmas holiday. I’m determined to enjoy it as much as possible, though. In fact a quick google of the topic “dreading Christmas†reminded me that many people have a much harder time than me. I have never truly relished Christmas since my dad died 20 years ago, but my feelings are nothing compared to what many people go through. I still manage to have some moments of child-like cosiness.
Diet-wise, things are much the same. S days are still fairly mad, and I seem to be having about one fail day a week, which isn’t good. I haven’t weighed myself for a while, and I am feeling heavy. Exercise has been sporadic, health up and down, with this sinus thing hanging around. Even now I can feel a nip in my throat that’s making me wonder if I’m due for my THIRD cold of the season!! Hopefully it’s a false alarm! Colds....my nemesis.
Perhaps now is the time to return to my Phases of No S! Here, by popular demand!
(Have got a new iPad, so hopefully it won’t go dead on me and erase my great prose before I can publish it!!!!)
1. Pre-history. Tried No S a couple of times, but thought it was just a crazy way of moving calories around. I thought it required tons of willpower for no results.
2. Return to No S, with a new breakthrough attitude: realised that I had to do it whether I lost weight or not. My old bargain was not working - ie. I would agree to eating more healthily only as long as I got weight loss in return for my efforts. No weight loss meant no deal: I would eat how I liked. Sticking to No S meant that I was bound to eat more healthily, so I decided to do it.
3. In the early weeks I found it very hard to go without snacks. But I discovered lots of nice drinks to help me through. This felt positive - I was trying things I’d never tried before such as kefir. Also smoothies, juice, milkshakes and hot chocolate. It was all very enjoyable, and to my amazement I did start to lose a little weight after a while.
4. I became less reliant on drinks, and started to be quite adept at tolerating hunger. Lost more weight. Exercise still very sporadic, but at least I felt it was more worth it - I wasn’t cancelling out my runs and walks by overeating. I found I could easily go for a long walk and not even crave a snack afterwards - just a cup of tea or coffee as a Treat! During this time, I felt pleasantly compelled to put a green square in my habitcal.
5. Some time in the summer, 6 or 7 months or so in, I started feeling peculiar about how I was sticking to the diet. I was becoming too determined to avoid snacks. I rarely took NWS days. I felt I was becoming an automaton, and it all felt a bit insane. I decided to stop Habitcal, which had given me a compulsion to succeed, but a compulsion nonetheless. It just didn’t feel right.
6. I made my first modification - Fibre Supplement! Decided to have an apple and a banana every day as snacks. Felt that my digestion had slowed down - though mad S days were also doing some mischief in that area! The mod worked well - I was less hungry and more likely to reach my 5 a day. Eating the fruit with meals would have been more in line with the No S philosophy, but after some experimentation I decided that forcing myself to eat more at meals was not ideal. And I didn’t want to replace protein etc. With fruit.
7. Continued with this phase of imperfection...and my weight loss, not surprisingly, stalled. But I maintained. I had lost between 8 and 10 pounds.
8. Stopped weighing myself, feeling that I may be gaining again, having a fail day every week. Feeling ready for a fresh start, but doubt that I can ever go back to my orthodox vanilla phase. When I’m a bit less busy I’ll figure out how to proceed.
The end.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)