Two Weeks Down

It's a lovely Monday morning. I had a perfect NoS breakfast and reflected on the first 2 weeks of the '100 Day Challenge'. Here are the stats: 10 N's; 2S's; 2 total DISASTERS. I've chosen to look at this sanely and consider twelve out of fourteen days being successful pretty good; no really good. Well done, Linda! Note the ' virtual pat' on my own back.

I just thought I'd check in. I have fresh brewed coffee waiting for me so I'll close my iPad and promise to come back later where you'll have the joy (???) of meeting Linda the Legalistic

N day. S day. N day. S day.

Last week had more than it's share of hurdles. It started out like a normal week. Tuesday I felt ill, and though I tried to make it an N - it ended up turning into an S. Sick is an S, so I didn't feel too bad about it.

Wednesday was another 'normal' N day. Thursday we got unexpected company. You know, the kind you see maybe once a year if you're lucky? The kind you cook special foods for, or that want to take you out to nice places to eat in appreciation? That kind of company. Maybe some other people can cruise through a visit like this with nary a splotch of red on their habitcal - but I'm not one of those. I didn't have plans to go nuts or anything, I just wanted to enjoy my company without stressing all the time about whether I'd be able to stick to the rules. The funny thing is, I ended up sticking to the rules anyway, without even trying. Cool :)

Welcome Monday and NoS structure and sanity.

Friday Foodspiration!

It's Friday, and besides being the start of the weekend, Friday means it's time for our weekly 'Foodspiration' post.

Foodspiration began as a way to generate new ideas, exchange recipes and share plate photos with readers and other members of the NoS community.

 

So ask questions or share your meals in the comments, or submit plate photos or recipes. 

We're looking forward to hearing from you.

Stressful Seven

It's a beautiful September Monday in my part of the world, and to make it even better, I have the day off. Work, anyway. I always have plenty to do at home. I thought I'd start it though with a quick review of my first 7 of 100 Days of Success. 

As I mentioned the other day, it was a particularly busy and stress-filled week. There are pros and cons to being busy. When we're busy  time flies and sometimes that makes it easier to keep to eating goals - unless we are so busy we don't have time, or simply 'forget', to eat properly. For many people, being unusually busy is more likely to interfere with exercise goals. 

This is exactly what happened to my goals. I was so busy I didn't think about eating most of the time, but I missed one of my three days of exercise. I did get in a family walk on two days, though, so it sortof evens out.

At times in my life I've been under stress that caused me to eat more - and other stress that left me nearly unable to eat. The particular stress in my life right now is of the first type. I have found myself more than once this past week thinking of eating. Each time, however, I managed not to. 

Perhaps it's the fact that I've committed in public to these 100 days of success and I don't want to mess it up at all, let alone the first week, that helped me stick to my goals. Or maybe  I'm just stubborn. Whenever I started thinking of eating this past week, I reminded myself that the person who's causing all the problems for me is totally not worth all this stress and I was not going to allow the situation to cause me to eat when I don't want or need to. I don't know if this will always work for me, but for now it seems to be. I just hope the situation improves soon and I don't have to keep testing my resolve.  

I had a nice weekend, though. We got out of town on Saturday, and had a lovely walk outdoors, finishing up just as a huge downpour hit. Sunday we caught up on some shopping, went out to lunch and watched a movie together in the evening. Everyone else is out today, so I'm enjoying a peaceful day on my own, catching up things around the house and getting ready for the week ahead. Here's hoping it's a more peaceful week. 

If you'd care to share, how do you keep to your exercise goals when life gets busy? What are some ways you deal with stress in your life? 

Friday Foodspiration!

Every Friday at LWNoS, we will have a post dedicated to 'Foodspiration'. It's a chance for readers to share menus, meals, recipes and even post plate photos to be included in our slideshow at the top of the page.

There are many ways to participate:

• share any or all of your meals for the week in the comments 
• if you plan meals in advance, share your menu ideas for the coming week
• submit a recipe or a plate photo with information explaining which meal it is and what is on the plate, to nosladies dot gmail dot com.  Photos will be added to the slideshow and recipes will be available in google docs. 
• if  you have a No S blog, share a link to your blog, or 
• just check in on Fridays and have a look around. To get details on any of the slideshow photos, just click on the image. If you see a meal that inspires you, feel free to ask for details and recipes in the comments 

So try a new recipe. Snap a plate photo or two. But most of all, share and enjoy! 

4 of 100

I meant to write this yesterday, but a) I wasn't feeling well, and b) someone was borrowing my computer for homework.

Monday, the first of '100 Days of Success', couldn't have been a worse day to start if I'd planned it that way. I had a difficult day at work, and three appointments afterward. I didn't even get a real lunch - I just grabbed a Tanka Bar when I was out grocery shopping between appointments at around 3 pm, and called it lunch. It'd never had one before, but I might buy a few to keep around for other busy days.

I got home around 7 and fixed chili for dinner. it's a popular choice in our house for a busy monday. So, somehow I made it from my yogurt at 7 am, to my dinner at 7.30 pm with only a Tanka bar in between. I think it's just one more indication that my body is adjusting well to both No S and my new schedule.

Tuesday was pretty average, then Wednesday I woke up feeling ill, but not enough to declare it a 'S'ick day so it was a normal N day as well. Today (Thursday) has been a tough day, and there are still a few hours to go. I don't plan to mess things up now, so I won't be 'consoling' myself with food. A hot bath and a good book will do the job just as well. Maybe even better. I'm reading 'The Help' and I'm finding it as 'unputdownable' as everyone else I've talked to. It's probably one more reason I'm not thinking about food. I'm too busy reading.

How have the first  4 out of 100 days gone for you?

The Next 100 Days

Did you know there are 105 days til Christmas? No? Neither did I until I counted them, although the reason I counted them had nothing to do with Christmas at all. It had to do with this post on the No S forum.

I saw it a few days ago and since then the words '100 days of success' have been rattling around in my head. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.

I started by defining success:

• Confine eating occasions to meals 
• Confine desserts to weekends
• 'Exercise' three days a week
• Go out and play with my family at least once a week, hopefully more: tennis, bicycle, after dinner walk, etc- although by the end of the 100 days, this might mean building a snowman!
• Get to bed before 11 pm. 

I didn't mention seconds, because that has never been an issue for me.  'Dessert' means cakes, pies, cookies, etc. Fruit desserts and 70% dark chocolate are exceptions unless I decide otherwise. 

I'm posting this a day early in case anyone wants to join with me. But you don't have to start the same day or have many goals. Any day, any goal(s), just jump in where you are. Write us a comment or use  #100daysofsuccess on twitter. 

Friday Foodspiration!

Every Friday at LWNoS, we will have a post dedicated to 'Foodspiration'. It's a chance for readers to share menus, meals, recipes and even post plate photos to be included in our slideshow at the top of the page.

There are many ways to participate:

• share any or all of your meals for the week in the comments 
• if you plan meals in advance, share your menu ideas for the coming week
• submit a recipe or a plate photo with information explaining which meal it is and what is on the plate, to nosladies dot gmail dot com.  Photos will be added to the slideshow and recipes will be available in google docs. 
• if  you have a No S blog, share a link to your blog, or 
• just check in on Fridays and have a look around. To get details on any of the slideshow photos, just click on the image. If you see a meal that inspires you, feel free to ask for details and recipes in the comments 

So try a new recipe. Snap a plate photo or two. But most of all, share and enjoy! 

Go Figure

As I mentioned in a previous post  my first week back at work with my new schedule was something less than a rousing success.  I had tried to stick with No S, but I just wasn't successful at all. I was hungry hours before meals but didn't feel like eating when it came time to eat. I was unusually tired during the day and it didn't help that I started waking at 3 am which I haven't done in quite a while. The second week I decided to just bag the whole thing and allow my new circumstances to settle.

So for the next week I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and slept as much as I could. I didn't try to exercise, other than an after dinner walk one evening. I went to the pool once, but you can hardly call floating around on a lounger 'swimming', so I'm not counting that.

This week I'm back to No S - easily going up to 7 hours between meals without a problem. I've also stopped waking at night - and feeling like falling asleep during the day. Perhaps the weirdest thing though is that after about 10 days of this, I was sure I'd have gained weight. Instead I found I'd lost 2.5 pounds.

Sometimes the most unexpected things work. Have you ever had to 'shake things up' a bit in order to get back into your routine?

Meal Planning

One of my tasks this past weekend was to plan meals and shop for the month. I know it probably sounds crazy, since that's what I first thought, too. I tried it, though, and found that  it actually injected a bit of sanity in my life. I'm not very organized, so planning means less stress, and more success.

I began with the basics from this website, altering it for our activities and schedule, what leftovers will need to be used and even the season. To streamline the process, breakfasts change day to day, but repeat each week, as do lunches during the school year. Dinner is more thoroughly planned - down to side dishes and dessert ideas, if it's an S day.

If this sounds rigid, it's not. The last thing I need in my life is a list of 'must dos' to feel guilty about if I 'didn't do', and somedays nothing else will do but to ditch the whole plan and go out. But I like to cook, to eat and to feed my family well - and did I mention I'm a bit 'organizationally challenged'? Meal planning helps me avoid standing in the kitchen at 5 pm with no idea what to fix for dinner, and if I do have an idea, finding out I don't have the ingredients. It also doesn't hurt that since I started doing this, I spend much less time shopping, and our grocery bill is only one half to two thirds what it used to be.

What method of meal planning, if any, works for you?

Friday Foodspiration!

Every Friday at LWNoS, we will have a post dedicated to 'Foodspiration'. It's a chance for readers to share menus, meals, recipes and even post plate photos to be included in our slideshow at the top of the page.

There are many ways to participate:

• share any or all of your meals for the week in the comments 
• if you plan meals in advance, share your menu ideas for the coming week
• submit a recipe or a plate photo with information explaining which meal it is and what is on the plate, to nosladies dot gmail dot com.  Photos will be added to the slideshow and recipes will be available in google docs. 
• if  you have a No S blog, share a link to your blog, or 
• just check in on Fridays and have a look around. To get details on any of the slideshow photos, just click on the image. If you see a meal that inspires you, feel free to ask for details and recipes in the comments 

So try a new recipe. Snap a plate photo or two. But most of all, share and enjoy!