The No S Diet (it's not exactly a diet)

[holmessweetholmes]

I just found this and I think it's awesome. The most sensible thing I've read in aaages about how not to be overweight.

The No S Diet rules:

No Snacking
No Sweets (puddings, sugary stuff)
No Seconds

... except when the day starts with an S (Saturday, Sunday, Special days).

That's it.

I am sooo fed up with thinking about carbs / no carbs / fat / low fat / fasting / superfoods / G.I. blah blah blah. I think I might actually be able to stick to this.

[UnderATennerAtTiffanys]

Ooooh... I heard about this a while ago... Sounds interesting

[holmessweetholmes]

Yay - someone is interested! I have been over-enthusiastic at the beginning of diets before, but this seems different. So common sense that you think 'Duh - why couldn't I have worked this out for myself? !'

Now I'm only on day 2, but I have just managed to help ds make a chocolate cake covered in sweets for the school bake - off and I haven't even tasted the teeniest bit of icing or nicked a single sweet. That has to be some kind of record for me...

I think it's the simplicity and absolutist nature of the rules, combined with the fact that I know I'm allowed to stuff myself silly with cake at the weekend if I want to.

[UnderATennerAtTiffanys]

Interested but wary and a bit scared. Every time I try and do something about the extra pounds I'm carrying my psyche seems to rebel and I end up eating mad bad things. Recent disasters: actual cake for meals. As in, I didn't bother with anything nutritious at all. And I had a penguin (orange, quite nice) for my tea today. Followed up with wine. I need super nanny but for bad mothers....

[UnderATennerAtTiffanys]

My sins obviously listed because I need some sort of intervention. It's not fair to expect a body to run on irregular intake of shite food is it? Tel me what you're eating and how you're managing? I think I'd struggle with the three meals thing. I forget breakfast and then eat cake at 11am... Please don't call the food police....

[holmessweetholmes]

I totally get the rebel thing! Whatever I denied myself on previous diets became the thing I just HAD to have!

My meals are usually pretty healthy actually though - it is snacking which is my problem. I eat a lovely healthy breakfast and lunch... and then ruin it all by inhaling a million biscuits at my 4 pm slump. I can't just have one. Once I give in to a sugary snack, I become a ravening sugar beast!

You might find the 3 meals a day thing quite hard if you currently eat irregularly. But you'd probably benefit from it even more than most people if you managed it!

The key for me is relearning that actually it's ok to get really hungry. I don't have to snack. Being ravenous by mealtimes is a good thing - you actually enjoy your food more.

The research quoted in the book is interesting about snacking. In spite of some diet gurus, food companies etc saying that snacking/' grazing' is a good thing, basically people who snack eat more and eat unhealthier stuff. End of story.

[UnderATennerAtTiffanys]

Does wine count as snacking.....?

I did quite well today - no snacks and I had tea with the kids but now I'm having a glass of wine and wondering if that cocks up the day?? I'm thinking about crisps/snacky stuff and having to remind myself that I'm not hungry. I do eat a lot of stuff for reasons other than hunger. Boredom, loneliness and habit being three reasons that explain my spare tyre!

How's your day gone Holmes?

[holmessweetholmes]

Wine is allowed! I've just had a couple of gin and tonics . Successful day here - three meals, no snacks and no sweet stuff. Looking forward to my first 'S Day' tomorrow, but hoping I won't go too crazy!

[Dowser]

I'm nearly 10 weeks of no sugar.

I honestly think its the way to go and I can't believe that I, one of the bigger sugar snackers of all time has said this.

We keep the early part of the day meals simple.
B...omelette.2 organic eggs with fried onion filling fried in coconut oil.
This is delicious and for mums who don't have time.. Fry it the night before put in fridge and cut it into slices in a plastic box. Great food to have on the run. Use three eggs if you don't know what time lunch will be. Put in some peas, sweet corn , a little ham, mustard seed is surprisingly nice

Lunch...we always have green soup at home. Oh makes a huge painful of anything green. Then liquidises it. He puts it into aldi pease pudding pots. At lunchtime he or me takes a pot of the freezer adds a pot of water and a pot of aldi pease pudding which is lentils and is your protein. To add variety he will put in some ham. We have a Bamix. When it's hot. Pops the meat in and bamixes it so the ham shreds really finely. You could add a bit of sweet corn...anything you like really. Once you have your base.

Dinner...we always have protein, veg and carb. We might have lamb chops, steamed veg or oven roasted asparagus and sweet potato . Or a turkey curry with veg and a little sprinkling of dried fruit and whole grain rice.
We use quinoa, bulgur wheat ( not actually wheat but a protein ) is lovely.
When we have shepherds pie, another big favourite of ours we use sweet potato for the topping.
We do a nice stir fry with liver that I think tastes a bit like steak. A quick meal is grilled salmon, rice and peas.

As you can tell. I don't eat wheat, dairy or sugar. As well as losing pounds, I want a healthy body. I avoid chicken unless there is no other choice. I would only dine on grass fed beef but that appears to be impossible in our area. We just do our best with what we have.

I think we don't give our bodies enough time to adapt. I think I would be quite I'll if I ate a lot of sugar. It would blow all my fuses as my friend says.
My friend noticed I'd lost a little weight. I'd had my usual breakfast, lunch and shepherds pie and she'd had a sandwich and some soup. This was by 9 pm. No breakfast. She does lose weight but she does a full time job on so little energy. You wouldn't expect your car to perform well on a cup full of petrol.

I think by having treats you never break the cycle. I think of the weight I've lost over the years and then put back. It was the treats that did it. Once I stepped onto the roller coaster , one square of chocolate became two and so on. Good food got pushed to the back of the queue if I'd had a cake and a coffee at 3 pm.
I suppose ultimately its what you want from your body. I'm of an age now where I want performance and health. Looks aren't as important as what they were. If I feed it good stuff it will continue to make enzymes, amino acids, good blood and so on. If I feed it rubbish my health will go downhill very quickly.

It's all about choices now. In my 60 s I still have a bit of time left to try to undo some of the bad choices I've made in the past. I'm lucky that I never got too big , or smoke or drank, or over indulged too much so that I am diabetic or need new joints. Although I do creak a bit. For the first time in my life I feel like I'm actually working with my body having spent a good 40 years working against it.

My taste buds have woken up to what good, simple food tastes like. Onions are really sweet, so are carrots. I really enjoy a daily apple. I savour the flavour .

I hope this helps some of you who are struggling. Maybe, maybe not. We are all at different stages on our path . I just know I want to be around to see my granddaughter have her children and I'm trying to give myself the best chance of doing that. She's five by the way.

Have a lovely day everyone and make the best choices.

[MauraFedora]

I'm in - will do my shovelglove " thing" with a 5 kg dumbbell. I am also going to try and limit alcohol to S days

[holmessweetholmes]

Yay - good for you Maura! I have had a couple of unsuccessful days but not giving up!

[Milllii]

Ive just read about the S days and they are only sometimes days not every S day. Is that right?

[loraflora]

I've been doing No S since May. I have lost 8lb so far. I've lost faster before on 'counting' diets but I find doing that grim long-term and I was a fairly healthy cook but a big snacker so it suits me.

[cheapskatemum]

I'd like to do this! Millii I've read the link and I thought the "sometimes" meant that you can sometimes snack on S-Days, because it would be silly to stuff yourself with snacks all weekend. Hope that makes sense. I think I'll have to do 4 smaller meals a day, even though I don't have a doctor's note. Otherwise it's just too long between lunch - anywhere between 12 & 2pm - and evening meal - usually around 7pm. Plus I'm just always starving at 4pm and to start cooking for the family shortly after this, without having eaten anything, is a recipe for disaster.

This strikes me as a good way of breaking my habit of eating chocolate after dinner.

[MauraFedora]

So since Saturday I have stuck to 3 meals a day. I had 2 glasses of cider on Saturday - without diving into the fridge afterwards. This is my downfall -I have a couple of drinks and then start snacking. Tried the butter churning exercise with the dumbbell brilliant for banishing the bingo wings if I keep it up!

[holmessweetholmes]

That's right about the S days. The idea is that you are allowed to snack, eat sugar etc, but as you get used to the diet you might not find you want to eat those things on every S day.

I must say, I've had a bit of a crap start and am beginning afresh tomorrow !

[Milllii]

Holmes I don't think your supposed to snack or eat sugar on every S day, only sometimes on S days. That's how I read it.

[holmessweetholmes]

Yes, Milllii, that's what I meant! He assumes that when you first start on the diet you'll probably go a bit crazy on S days, especially if you've spent years dieting.

He added the 'sometimes' to the S Days rule later, as an afterthought, to remind people that they don't HAVE to stuff themselves with sugar and snacks on the S days.

However, he also says that it's a bad idea to start being too restrictive on your S days, because you are much less likely to stick to the diet without that 'release valve' at the weekends.

[holmessweetholmes]

This is what he says about it on the website:

What do you mean by "sometimes"?

I stuck the word "sometimes" in the exception to remind you not to be an idiot on S-days. It's been my experience that the good habits you build on the non-S-days will see you through the S-days without too much excess.'

So he's not really saying you shouldn't have a snack or a bit of sugar on S days, just that you shouldn't do it to excess.

[cheapskatemum]

Good, I think we're all agreed on what the "sometimes" means. I haven't got to an S day yet, am looking forward to them! I'm managing to stick to the no snacks rule, which is good for me - all of 2 days in! I'm sure some of the things I've eaten must have sugar in them, though, as they taste quite sweet. It's difficult to know when you eat out. I didn't think of that before.

[NameChange30]

How's everyone getting on with the No S Diet?
I'm thinking about starting - I am seriously addicted to chocolate and need to sort it out, but can't bring myself to give it up completely. This seems like a good solution: controlled moderation!
Thing is, I'm scared of the sugar withdrawal symptoms Any tips?

[holmessweetholmes]

I've re-started after a failed start! Am doing well this time. Had a few little treats at the weekend but nothing excessive. And a successful No S day today.

I think the key is to just keep at it until it becomes habit. I have totally made up my mind that this is the only way forward for me. Even if I only lose a pound a month, I'm still doing it. Because lurching from one diet to another, counting calories, excluding food groups etc - I am soooo done with all that! It's boring and restrictive and ultimately it doesn't work!

AnotherEmma, I'm with you on the chocolate addiction. I just can't have it in the house or I'll eat it.I don't find that I get sugar withdrawal symptoms as such. I just find it hard to resist sugary things. But knowing I can have some at the weekend, guilt-free, keeps me going.

I think the 'guilt-free' bit is really important. Because it's the forbiddenness of the sweet stuff that makes me go crazy with it when I do have some. Whereas because I know it's only postponed, not forbidden, I am a bit less frantic about it!

[NameChange30]

I hear you holmes! This is why I like the sound of the No S Diet - it does seem achievable and sustainable. I don't want to lose weight quickly if I'll be miserable and won't be able to keep it off. So a pound a month would be fine!
I managed it today, I did have a terrible migraine but it seems too soon to be sugar withdrawal - it was probably just tiredness. The difficulty will be doing without a "pick me up" (chocolate/diet coke/snack) so I might feel tired at first but I'm hoping my energy levels will become more stable.
Had to weigh myself in front of a nurse and DH this morning (when we got a travel vaccine) which shamed me into starting the diet today!

[holmessweetholmes]

Yy to the 'pick me up'. It's always around 4pm that I tend to unthinkingly reach for a biscuit (or 4).

I find it really helps to push breakfast and lunch a bit later than usual. In fact, lunch as late as I can cope with. Then I find it easier to make it to dinner without being too tempted.

[NameChange30]

Good tip, thanks!

[cheapskatemum]

There's another thread which I think is about the same diet - I think it's called the 3 meals a day diet thread, or something similar.