Why/What/When We Eat

I stumbled on this interesting article recently about the history of meals - what we eat and when we eat it. It's a survey of meal practices from Ancient Greece to modern times, soul food to superbowl parties.

Exercise, schmexercise*

I know I'm going to sound like a heretic, but I don't do a lot of what most people think of as 'exercise' and I don't feel guilty about it. I do get a workout of a sort, but I prefer to call it 'doing stuff I like'.

The latest thing I like is my tennis lessons. Considering how lousy I am at it I shouldn't be enjoying it this much, but I really do. It took me quite some time to work up the nerve to start. Everyone else was so good at it. They show up in their cute little skirts and can actually make the ball go where they want. And it makes that solid thwacking sound that you only hear when someone hits the ball just right. Someday I hope to hit the ball like that. Someday I hope to consistently hit the ball.

I was also concerned that I wouldn't be able to keep up. Tennis is a lot of work. I discovered, though, that the same way that sitting around all day leaves me feeling tired and wanting to sit around some more, chasing the ball around the court for an hour left me feeling like I wanted to do anything but sit around. That energized feeling stays with me throughout the day, too, and I end up having a more productive day all around.  Who knew?

I've also discovered my new pastime motivates me in other ways. I want to improve, so not only have I been practicing actual tennis skills, but I've been researching conditioning specifically for tennis. Even this doesn't feel like work, though, since it's all about something I truly enjoy.

Most of all, it is the enjoyment. It's been a while since I've done anything that makes me literally jump in the air with joy. It feels good to be out in the sunshine, meeting new people, facing a new challenge and once in a while, feeling that amazing sense of achievement that comes with an occasional solid 'thwack'.

Why anyone would want to exchange that for a hour on a treadmill in front of a TV or even just to think of activity as nothing but a necessary evil - a way to 'burn calories', is beyond me.

Can't wait for the next lesson. In the meantime, I think I'll go out and buy my own cute little tennis skirt.

*What? It's a perfectly cromulent word.

Just Hang Up The Phone

I have been thinking about my habit of self-sabotage and trying to figure out how to handle that little voice that tells me I should eat when ,in reality, there is no reason for me to be hungry. I carry the question of what to do with me when I'm doing chores, going for a walk, having a quiet moment. Sometimes it is in the front of my thoughts and sometimes it is just something floating around in my head. It seemed that whenever I let the question surface, the phrase came to me, "just hang up the phone." This as an important phrase for me. Many years ago, going through a sticky divorce, I complained to my mental health professional that my soon-to-be ex-husband called me at all hours and accused me of being the entire cause of our problems, the worst mother in the world, the worst woman in the world. I would listen and accept his criticism and be very distraught. My doctor simply said, "just hang up the phone." I honestly had never thought of doing that! I was so beaten down and had no self-esteem. How freeing that statement was for me.."Just hang up the phone." I only had to do that a few times and the ex quit calling. He could no longer just dump his anger on me. I refused to accept it and he had to learn to deal with it on his own. I gained so much strength from that one little action! It was the beginning of my climb back to valuing myself. So, here is that phrase..coming back to me again. What does it mean? I am going to "just hang up the phone" on those thoughts that are counter-productive to my No-S plan. I will refuse to validate the thoughts and they will eventually go away. Do I know why I am sef-sabotaging my plans? Not really..but I'm working on that. Until I figure that out, I can at least "hang up the phone" and not respond to the thoughts that want to send me astray. I'm strong enough to do that much!

Seeing progress

Today, of course, was my designated weigh-in day. Since I once again chickened out relented and did not put my scale out with the trash last week, I weighed myself today. I am actually down this week. Only .5 pound, but it's quite reasonable for me.

In spite of the fact that the scale is down, that is not the kind of progress I mean. The progress I refer to is the establishing of new habits and living comfortably within those habits without having to think about it at all. 

I don't want to have to think about it. That's one of the big reasons I detest diets. Always having to think and plan and figure and count. I don't want to count anything. Not calories, not points, not grams, not servings. I don't want to weigh, measure or even 'eyeball'. I am not the slightest bit interested in what anyone else considers a 'portion' or how many of those portions they think I should have (or not have). I don't want to read calorie counts on packages or if I'm going out to eat, decide where we're going ahead of time so I can check out what's on offer so I can figure out what is I am 'allowed' to order when I get there, and how much of it I will be 'allowed' to eat. 

Of course, with NoS there is none of that, and only three rules.  Even so the first few weeks I frequently had to remind myself of those rules. I'd catch myself reaching for a few walnuts when I passed through the kitchen, or taking a mindless nibble while fixing a meal or cleaning up afterward. Actually, before I could even remind myself of the rule, I first had to notice I was doing it.  It often seemed like the noticing was, in some ways, actually more difficult than saying 'no'. 

There was also the physical component to deal with. Naturally when  body is used to getting fuel all day long, whether it needs it or not, switching to three meals is a bit of an adjustment. As I mentioned before, the first time I started NoS I had some problem with this - actually getting sick and dizzy a couple of times the first week. Those tiny portions I was used to before NoS were fine if the next eating occasion was two hours away, but  not if the next meal was five or six hours away. It took a while to get used to eating more at meals, but then not only did I get used to it, larger meals became one of the many things I like about NoS. 

Fortunately, even the first time around I knew not to expect too much immediately. There would be adjustments to be made, old habits to break and new habits to make. There would be a learning curve in the beginning, but once I got past that, the new ways would carry me through as the old ones did, just in a more positive direction. 

I feel now like I've gotten to the top of the curve and I'm ready to cruise along. It doesn't mean I'll never stumble. I know I will. Often. But cruising along - or stumbling along - it's progress.

What holds you back?

I saw this on another blog recently:

Friday already?

For the first time this week, there is nothing on my calendar. No appointments, no lessons, nothing scheduled. There are things I could do and things I should do, but nothing I must do. After a busy week, it feels great.

I've not been idle this morning, though. After a week of quick breakfasts of granola and yogurt, today I fixed a big breakfast. I have bread baking in the oven and a load of laundry ready to hang on the line. Other than cleaning my car, my only other plan is to find a nice spot at the pool and spend the afternoon there. 

But first, it's time to review my NoS week which unfortunately, began with a fail. The only explanation I have for it is that I weighed myself that morning. This can be a dumb thing for many people to do after an extravagant S day the previous day but really asking for trouble if one is the type whose whole day can be affected depending on what the scale says. I've always known the scale was trouble for me. Whether it's up or down, the result is the same. I should really just give up on the idea that the scale and I can coexist (at least for now) and just get rid of the thing. 

The rest of the week went better. I didn't have any trouble Tuesday after tennis. I didn't even need lunch until after 1. The only grey area was a couple of bites of an ice cream cone (with a bit of flake included) after dinner Wednesday. I decided it was allowed. We'd been out all afternoon in the hot sun. I didn't feel like having an ice cream cone to myself - too hot to eat - the taste I had was really enough. 

Though the week was a success in NoS terms, I rate it pretty low in other areas. We were out so much this week, we ate out much more than I'd like. Even in 'good' places, the food isn't as good as what we eat at home, and the good places are quite a drain on the finances. I'd like to balance that out better in the future.  

Guess I'd better go pack a lunch for the pool. 

Off To A Bad Start

Everything is easier if there is a pattern in daily life, isn't it? that is one of the reasons No S is so great..it sets up a simple pattern so there is little thinking: eat three times a day and don't snack. In fact that often seems to easy so we (I) start tweaking... and that means trouble! This Monday morning, I waa elated because I had reached my personal goal of keeping to the No S plan for 21 day (my "tweak" is that I "float" S days but still only have two a week) and I walked-for-the-sake of walking 5 days a week...and I lost 4 pounds over those 21 days! Good for me, right? Wrong! I completely fizzled! I did walk on Monday but then I also ate ice cream..with caramel sauce..and whipped cream..and nuts..and don't forget a cherry on top! And..I ate this at night. Here's the thing: I need to take meds if I use milk products and night eating is something I really worked on making a thing of the past. Tuesday was an Ok day but, since I ate all that ice ream at night, I really wasn't hungry for breakfast and so ended up moving all my meals to later times which meant I was once again eating later than 7pm (I like that to be my cut-off time) and, once again, not hungry for breakfast on Wednesfay morning! My solution (bad) was to eat anyway... never good and to eat mindlessly..also not good...and that included another round of ice cream in the evening. I got on the scale this morning (Thursday) and I had gained 3 pounds since my low on monday morning. I know I haven't been drinking the amount ofwater I usually drink..I know I have been eating more salty foods than usual but this is still not what I wanted to see! I have only myself to blame but I know if I linger on those thoughts, I will end up turning to food again!
I am a master at sabotaging myself! Today, I pulled myself up by my sneaker laces and took myself out for a long walk and talk. I am going to move on in a good way. I will have used up my two S days for the week on my 2 ice cream extravaganzas. It will do me good to be aware that I must stay with plain "3 plates and that is it" for the rest of the week. No one is perfect at this and I must take a look at why I will not let myself succeed at this for longer than 21 days. I'm hoping I can begin to figure that out in the course of the next three weeks.

Good Tuesday Morning

and happy summer. Although it's a bit bittersweet since starting today the days get shorter.

I weighed in this morning. No loss, but that's not surprising. In my experience, it takes a couple of weeks before I start losing. I had a friend who tried NoS and lost four pounds the first week. Not me.

Tennis this morning again. Fat is what usually keeps me going longer, so I had an egg fried in butter and coconut oil and toast with quite a lot of butter and some strawberries from our backyard.

No S and me

What a strange plan this seems to be..or so I thought when I first heard about noS. I had a friend that I had met on a Weight Watchers site where everyone seemed to be "sweet young things" but us! We began writing to each other.. sharing information.. buying books and DVDs... and actually became good friends. She decided to try this No S diet..I laughed and continued doing my slip shod job of counting whatever it was I was counting at the time.. points.. calories..ounces... whatever. She had lost 45 pounds and I had gained 20! I sent for the book the next day. Was I as successful as my friend? No.. not yet anyhow. I think I joined in 2008. I got smug and quit in a few months..returned.. thought I had it figured out..didn't (by a long shot) and returned again.. and again..and again. It has taken me until the last time I joined several months ago to realize that eating for me is a mind game. It has little to do with food and being hungry. I needed a plan that put me in charge of success or failure on terms of my choosing and this is it! This is a plan that you must invest yourself into. You can't go about it as a spectator: it must become a part of you. I hope that is what is happening to me!

First Friday

Today is the final 'N' day of my first week since restarting NoS so I'm taking the opportunity to look back at my first five days - and look ahead to the weekend.

I can't help but compare my first week this time around with my first, first week and noticing how much easier it was this time around. The things I learned from that first week have come back to me, and other than a couple of minor hiccups, things have gone very smoothly.

One hiccup, of course, was the tennis day. That day got off to such a bad start, I never did get it totally back on track. I had a big lunch and made it through the afternoon, but then we had an early dinner which left me needing something to eat before bed. Knowing how hunger keeps me awake at night, I decided sleep was more important than keeping my calendar green, so I had some fruit and nuts before bed.

One thing that has changed since my original NoS experience is the evolution of Friday in our family routine. One particularly nice day last fall  I picked my son up from school and we went for a walk then stopped at the bakery (a really good family bakery that makes quality pastries - nothing ordinary like doughnuts and cookies) where we bought chocolate croissants for tea. Gradually we began doing this more often, until, like our Friday dinners out,  it became a regular thing. I've thought about this, and I've decided I'm keeping it.

This weekend, of course, is Father's Day. Saturday we have plans to be out and about. I'll probably pack a picnic lunch. Sunday I hope we do very little. We've gotten behind on our gardening so maybe a little of that. Hopefully laze around the pool. We've had even less pool time than gardening time. Scones and clotted cream for tea - grill steaks for dinner - chocolate chip pie for dessert.

Tweaking

I can see one area that's going to take some tweaking. I just started tennis lessons last week. Halfway through I was already hungry. We ended up going out to lunch afterward since that was faster than going home and cooking and I needed food *now*. I'm either going to need a much bigger breakfast or a snack of some kind. Or both. Time will tell.

It Is What It Is

I originally discovered No S in the fall. My weight was already stable, though I did have some weight to lose due to medication I'd taken a few years earlier. It's never been too much of a problem and as long as I didn't diet, my weight didn't increase. I was beginning to believe I would just have to learn to live with it when I ran across No S.

The attraction of No S for me had nothing to do with reducing portions, cutting calories or making wiser choices. I was already beginning to believe three meals a day was better than the current advice of many 'mini-meals' and we'd cut much of the sugar and pretty much all junk food, other than occasional meals out, out of our lives years earlier. For me it was simply  the application of a structure to what we were already doing. With routines, structure or habit in place, good intentions are easier to follow through with and I hoped the consistency alone might make a difference without my needing to make any drastic changes.

I was working at the time, so my weekdays had somewhat of a routine to them. The weekends were quite different, but that was okay - they were S days. Even though I was actually eating more than before NoS, my weight dropped slowly and steadily throughout the winter. June came along, and I decided 'Summer' was one long S. Apparently some of the habits had stayed with me, because when I weighed myself in the fall, I'd only gained one pound. I had intended to 'restart' in the fall, but September and October were rough months for me personally and I just never got back to it.

It's summer again and those three months of S days have turned into a year. I'm not going to think about what I could have achieved if I had stuck with it during the past winter. It is what it is. And what it is, is Tuesday. It's an 'N' day :)

Continuings

I started to title this post 'Beginnings' but that's not really accurate. I'm not new to NoS - just new to blogging about it.

I learned about NoS nearly two years ago and followed it for several months. I really liked it when I was following it. I stuck to it easily, lost weight and was generally quite content with how things were going.  After a while, life got busy and I drifted away.

Well, I'm back now

testing the waters!

a new adventure!