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.

I think I might do the same, at least to start with. On the days when I go to work I have lunch somewhere around 1, but then don't usually eat tea until around 8pm, after I have got home and got the DC to bed. DD (14m) is still breastfeeding at bedtime so I think I would pass out without some sort of sustenance in there.

An apple or a banana - or oatcakes and hummus if I am organised - has got to be better than stuffing myself with biscuits or haribo, even if it is cheating slightly.

Careful of fruit, because it contains sugar, which is better than a biscuit but still not ideal on its own. Plus bananas are very "fast" sugars so you should avoid them really. So an apple with a few nuts would be much better than a banana, for example.

I read another book (by nutritionist Patrick Holford) which is about keeping blood sugar stable, so I'm incorporating some of those tips too!

Is this why ds can eat 7 bananas in one night (we now hide them!). He has just been diagnosed with anaemia and he wants to stay veggie so he has to buck up!!

7 in one night?! Yikes!
Anaemia is an iron shortage isn't it.. So what will you be cooking lots of now?! Spinach?? (That's the only thing I can think of!)

Beela - I have the 4pm dip too. My solution is to eat lunch as late as I can cope with. It really makes a difference to me!

AnotherEmma well done on your amazing weight loss! I didn't lose any , i blame the booze at the festival. Unlike that other lucky poster, no more festivals for me this summer. I am getting used to the 3 meals a day and they are not such huge meals as when I started! I love the simplicity of this regime. It has worked for me eating at brunch time, afternoon teatime and dinnertime - even if what I eat isn't the traditional fare of those mealtimes! It's a way round the 4pm slump, but it doesn't fit that well with traditional working hours.

Hope you're feeling better TheOriginalWrinkly!

Thank you cheapskatemum!
I'm sorry you didn't lose any last week, but I'm sure you will next time

I am feeling much better thank you, alas DD has produced a very suspicious nappy this morning

So today is an N day and because I could only face squash, ice lollies and eventually some crisps yesterday, I think Sunday will have to be an N day. Tomorrow is my birthday (and I'm at work. Joy).

Started the day with a good sized plate of beans on toast. 7.30 was virtually brunch as DD was up at 5.30. Today could be a challenge!

Glad you're feeling better winkly.

Blimey, the last few days have been tough! Not been having the 4pm slump exactly, just getting starving hungry well before I'm due a meal.

What foods do you guys find fill you up for longest? Atkins protein bars do it for me (but they are full of artificial sweeteners so should probably count as an S). Eggs and nuts also help a bit.. Any other suggestions?

I have a big breakfast now, either toast with egg (poached or scrambled), porridge or muesli - with fruit afterwards. That usually keeps me going until about 12.30.

Lunch is either leftovers from last night's dinner (it's just me and DH and we often cook for 4 so we have leftovers) or a big plate of sandwiches and salad.

I started taking chromium yesterday, it's a mineral which helps the body maintain blood sugar levels, and I didn't feel starving as I normally would. It might have been a one-off so I'll have to see how it goes - I'll let you know!

PS That was in answer to your question helen... Like you I've been feeling starving an hour or so before each meal!

Thanks AnotherEmma.

Oh, and my my meals from yesterday (feel free to critique!)

B - Bircher muesli with apple & nuts
L - cheese salad wrap and an apple
D - noodle, crayfish & mango salad, popcorn (this was no way near enough and I woke up in the night feeling hungry!)

My DD was also up at 5.30am, TheOriginalWrinkly, and by 7.30am I had breastfed DD (in an unsuccessful attempt to get her back to sleep), and done a 30-day shred session, so I felt I deserved my muesli for breakfast!

I'm at work again today and am bored, so finding it very hard to not snack - I split my lunch into two and had some at 11.00 and the rest at 12.00. That probably counts as snacking, but I was planning to eat all of it anyway so maybe it's ok I think I am going to have to have a 4pm dip oatcake+hummous though, there is no way I am going to get through the next 8 hours to tea with nothing to eat.

But even though I have fallen off the snack wagon a couple of times, I am really pleased that I haven't been doing the absent minded grazing that I had been doing.

Winkly not Wrinkly! Sorry!!

Beela you had a very productive morning.

So far I've had beans on toast for breakfast, and half a pizza with lots of undressed salad for lunch. I find that if I have a high protein breakfast I eat far less over the course of the day, something like toast, scrambled eggs and mushrooms does me well.

DD is officially ill. Bollocks.

Oh no hope she feels better soon.

Evening all! Can I just say... THANK GOD IT'S SATURDAY TOMORROW! Can't wait to get some chocolate in me

Omg yes!

Just went out for a pub meal and turned down sharing dp's pudding (rubarb and apple crumble). I'm going to try to stear clear of snacks & seconds at the weekend but sweets are definitely on!

It's not meant to be snacking and sweets on all S days though, only sometimes

As in Special days. It wasn't meant to be an excuse to go mad on weekends.

Milllii my interpretation of the "sometimes" rule is that you can have what you want on S days (weekends and Special days) as long as you don't go mad. I think it makes sense because you wouldn't want to gorge on unhealthy food all weekend, having made an effort all week (and certainly wouldn't lose weight that way!) but it would be very hard to abstain all week without the promise of treats at the weekend. My interpretation is that I'm allowing myself a few treats at the weekend eg dessert and a drink I fancy eg diet coke or a cocktail. I don't think "sometimes" means only some weekends, or I'd never be able to keep it up!

Fair enough but if you look on the website its only ' sometimes ' on days with S. This was because initially people went mad on the S days so it was rewritten to avoid confusion.

Happy birthday TheOriginalWinkly!

Hope you DD gets better soon.

Great to see a No S Diet thread.
I found No S about 4 years ago, and it's brilliant. It was the only thing, after trying EVERYTHING, that stopped my chaotic eating that was becoming close to binge eating disorder.

Weight loss on this plan can be slow, especially for those like me who choose to do "Vanilla No S", ie that's following No S by the rules laid out in the book, and in the OP of this thread.

But the sanity I found around food, after 30 years of disordered eating, was worth the slow weight loss.

As for long term, I now know that I can maintain for the rest of my life without calorie or carb counting, or restricting in the traditional sense. It is a bit restrictive but in a delayed gratfication type way. If I want some cake, I can have it, but I just have to wait for my next S Day. So simple. So easy to live with. Sane and sensible.

For the discussion about S Days, I suggest reading this old thread from the official No S board.
The site admin is Reinhard, the author.
everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=759

Happy Birthday Winkly! And wish your DD a speedy recovery. HelentheHeron your meals are very similar to mine! Also nuts have become my number 1 "go to" food, now sugar's off the menu. I've always liked them anyway. Where I live we get wonderful free range, freshly laid eggs for sale at the roadside and they are delicious. If I don't have eggs for breakfast, I'll often have a frittata for lunch: half an onion chopped & fried in olive oil, 2 eggs, beaten, any cooked left over veggies that need eating up, plus grated cheese grilled on top (my favourite's Manchego). Serve with new potatoes, if you haven't sliced them into the frittata, and tomato ketchup.

Today I found a packet of those tiny Thornton's millionaire's shortbreads in the cupboard. Because I haven't been snacking and was away last weekend, there were still some left and, honestly, it felt like Christmas! So I've had a couple and I think that should do me until tonight's curry.
B was bircher muesli with banana
L was smoked mackerel salad with new potatoes.

Welcome MyDog well done for overcoming chaotic eating and thanks for the link.