Starting the no 'S' eating regime today to lose weight, anyone want to join in?

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Hi, have got decidedly porky over the past few years.
I feel tired and lethargic, and none of my clothes look good anymore.
I also need to lose weight for health reasons and increase my (currently woeful) level of exercise.

I want to follow a simple and 'do-able' eating plan that is fairly simple and that I will be able to sustain ie hoping to lose 0.5 kg each week.

I'm planning to follow the no 'S' "diet":

book here

A summary of the basic rules is:

no snacks
no sweets (it's an American book so that covers puddings as well as biscuits and confectionary)
no seconds

except on days that start with 's' ie the weekend, and 'special' days ie birthdays and big holidays such as Christmas.

I've got the book so can answer further questions but that is basically it!

I'm going to be using MFP to log calories and I have also found the free NHS weight loss plan (includes exercise) helpful too

see here

I am planning to post my weight here every Sunday too (but that is not obligatory of course).

The other reason for posting on here is that I don't want to bore my family and friends to death about it in rl!! But it would be nice to have some companions along the way .

Anyone want to join in?

Well, probably the only thing I do differently is really focus on the no sweets (read as no sugar) part. I think I am actually sugar addicted and the only way is to cut it out completely, and that includes starchy carbs.

I already don't drink fruit juice or eat sweet yoghurts.

When no-S-ing I also don't eat:

breakfast cereal
bread (apart from where unavoidable, like business lunches)
crisps (love them too much)
potatoes
pasta

I sometimes have a little bit of cous-cous or rice, if needed to eat with something in a sauce.

I actually don't eat puddings on S days, because it kicks off the urge to eat biscuits.

And I skip breakfast about half the time; I'm not a person who wakes up absolutely starving.

I have never managed to ditch the afternoon snack at work.

Today's menu:
skipped breakfast
L: two stuffed mushrooms with chilli filling (left over from last nights dinner) and big handful of salad leaves with dressing
snack: salted nuts, apple, satsuma
dinner: ratatouille with some left over roast chicken and grated cheese on the top

Portion sizes reasonable, definitely not small, but can fit on a plate.

I probably have about 4 or 5 cups of tea throughout the day and sometimes a glass of water.

Might have a glass or two of wine later, when I've collected DD from drama.

So it's reasonably low carb, but far from the rigors of low-carb bootcamp! And I seem to eat a lot of leftovers (partly because DH caters for about 8 when there are 5 of us).

Does that help?

Ellen, I still think your menus are delicious and healthy and very tasty!

That's really interesting and helpful eltsihT, thank you!

I'm kind of shattered right now and not in the right frame of mind to analyse my diet but will mull it over in the next few days..

And ditto grumpy

Please also remember that even after the weight loss shown on the graph, I am still a stone heavier than quite a few of you. My BMI is 24.2

Ellen have a rest and think about it another time :)

Hey everyone,
I disappeared for a bit as I was so discouraged by my weight going all over the place, (i.e. overall up - clearly I wouldn't be discouraged if I randomly lost a few pounds!)

As of this morning, I'm at 10st 1.6lbs and I'm going to start again with Friday weigh ins. I've just booked a holiday for me and the kids in 4 weeks time so my goal is to lost 1lb per week til then. Holiday goals haven't traditionally worked for me but I don't think drifting along has been doing me much good either...

Thanks to those posting graphs and menus. I also need to do a bit of diet/life analysis to see why I'm struggling so much, and it's so helpful to see what other people do. And to remember to look back at where I've come from.

Hope you all have lovely weekends

63.5 last week 62.9kg today. Still going downwards! Now off out to go sledging!

Sledging! My children haven't seen snow for 3 years. We still have a brand new sledge in the garage bought 3 Christmases ago.

Back to the diet. Another 1lb off this week. Started 2 weeks ago at 10st 10lb, now 10st 8lb.

I'm off to swim 40 lengths in an hour. However, I heard someone off the TV say muscles are built in the kitchen not in the gym. This is the same for weight loss.

So I am now focusing on weight loss being mainly about food intake not how much exercise I do. The exercise helps of course, but most weight loss will happen in the kitchen.

Has anyone tried doing the plank? I managed 12 seconds last week. I am now up to 30 seconds. It is a killer!!

Hi everyone,
I am 10st 13 today, a pound less than last Sunday (but still more than I was on Christmas Eve)

Breward, the plank would kill me I think! I literally have no functional stomach muscles, just a jelly belly :( 30 seconds is seriously impressive.

We had the briefest flurry of snow here, but really hardly any and it's not cold enough for it to settle.

Sledging was great, Mummy's race, daddy's races, massive snowball fight etc, we don't get many days with snow but do get one or two a year.

I did have to go home early as ds2 who is toilet training had an accident. But I made lovely chocolate fairy cakes to make it up to him

Well done everyone on your losses. I am hoping to do better next week as I did some serious snacking on Thursday and Friday nights.

Glad to hear of everyone doing well! And sledging sounds like lots of fun. Now that I'm on the coast I have almost no chance of snow, which is a shame, I like snow.
I'm doing terribly. If I don't snap out of it, I'm going to have no clothes left to wear.

Well done Breward Grumpy and eltsihT (and sledging sounds fab btw)!

Rivier Ellen Julie and others (include myself in this) who are temporarily finding it hard (with an emphasis on the 'temporary!!* - don't get disheartened! This is the hardest time of the year to diet - and those of you who are doing it while working shifts are positively heroic tbh!

I think the monks knew a thing or two when they started fasting at the beginning of Lent when the days are lighter and spring is well on its way... we are programmed to store fat at this time of the year aren't we ...well that is what I am telling myself anyway

Which is all just a roundabout way of saying that I am doing terribly too! Although I am watching a lot of dieting progs on the telly atm

Did anyone see the latest episode of 'Trust me I'm a doctor' on the Beeb? Frightening research about sweeteners!

Hi all,

I am also doing the NO S diet (again!) am currently 20 weeks pregnant and trying to limit my weight gain this time to a sensible amount. I did No S while I was breastfeeding and it worked pretty well. Didn't lose all the 25kg I put on with baby 1 before I got pregnant again though, so am really hoping I don't put on that much again. In my defence, nearly 5kg of that was my son and I had pre-eclampsia too. Figured it was acceptable to do no s during pregnancy but I do have a snack around 4pm with my toddler to make sure I am Ok. I figured the sweet stuff is my main problem really.

All going well so far:
B: scrambled eggs, peppers and tomatoes
L: pumpkin soup and garlic bread

Will make courgette lasagne for dinner.

I live abroad slimmingcrackers, but I miss those bbc shows! My DH is probably glad we can't get them here Though... Plus the before part always makes me hungry and makes me feel better about my eating habits in comparison to the extreme cases they put on TV. I am sure that's not the desired effect!

Good luck today everyone!

A very warm welcome to the thread Salzundessig (and bump)! Congratulations on your pregnancy! Your menu looks v healthy indeed.

I imagine dieting is quite a challenge when pregnant or breastfeeding so I take my hat off to you! Very good to cut out the sweet stuff when gestating though I imagine so best of luck with it.

Your post reminded me that I put on 10kg in the first three months of my pregnancy. I was so famished that I would wake up feeling faint with hunger in the middle of the night and my heroic dh would make me stacks of ham and cheese sandwiches at 4am!

And over here (Belgium) they are much stricter about pregnancy weight than in the UK and my ob/gynae was a bit alarmed and said I wasn't to gain more than 15kg or so during the entire pregnancy! Fortunately, my hunger pangs subsided after that and I didn't gain too much morebut I have piled on loads and loads of weight since then unfortunately--!

welcome Salzundessig, waves at, grumpy, Ellen, sc, Julie, river, breward.

I have had a dreadful cold this week. So have been eating even more badly than normal. Also had to finish of the chocolate fairy cakes that we made on Sunday.

This also means I have been a bit slipshod in doing the washing so had no clean jeans to wear this morning. So I thought I would try the ones in my I am too fat to wear drawer. And they all fitted, 2 of the were still to tight to wear comfortably, but one is perfect! So I am feeling good about myself if still a bit under the weatherz

Slimmingcrackers, I had my first child in Germany and the doctor was horrified at my weight gain! Now I am in Austria and have already been warned to keep it under 15kg :)

Elstih, dieting while ill is the worst. But yay for the jeans fitting.

I have been starving all day but have resisted sweet stuff so far. I did have a snack at work though and again after picking my son up. I haven't noticed how hungry I am until I try to only eat 3 meals... On the plus side, I have just done 90min if yoga and am getting pregnancy friendly sushi on the way home. Dh has done the bedtime routine for me today so I could go to yoga. So sushi, relax and bedtime for me!

Yeah I had a friend over for a play date today. Which helped entertain the kids. So have had 2 cookies, about 8 cups of tea a Jaffa cake and half a pack of nachos. Dinner tonight is beef and Guinness stew but I am not that hungry, probarly all the junk.

Sushi sounds amazing.

63.6kg last week 63.2 kg this week

Morning all!
I have declined to get on the scales this morning :(
My week was OK until Friday when I went into London to meet up with some Uni friends. They made me drink a cocktail....all downhill from then on. There followed wine, bruchetta, wine, a posh chicken burger with delicious chunky chips, more wine, a share of various cakes. Then to the pub for another glass of wine.

(you get the drift)
I may even have eaten a bar of chocolate on the train on the way home
And it's possible that I was slightly hungover yesterday, with the munchies.

It was a fabulous night out btw, a lot of fun, just very bad for the diet!

My mum and dad are coming for lunch today. After that, I am back on it....

Waves to everyone. How are you?

Only half a pound off here, but have not been particularly good. Now 10st 7.5.

Work now has a weight loss chart up in the staff room... no pressure! One lady lost 5lb. She does have a lot to lose though, but really pleased for her- it's a great start.

Off for my Sunday 40 length swim in a mo.

breward
My work does that as well - every new year for 10 weeks. It's very competitive. We have a weigh in on Tuesday mornings 9.30am and it gets put on a graph! I am lagging well behind the pack, partly because some of them do 5:2 and partly because I was continuing, rather than starting, a diet (that's my excuse anyway)

Two of the ladies doing it this year really shouldn't be losing weight IMO. One of them is just over 9 stone (~5 foot 6), the other is slightly shorter but only about 8 1/2 stone. She looks actually skinny already.

God, I can't imagine anything more awfull than a weight loss chart hung up at work!

It does not have the person's weight recorded only the weight loss. People have signed up to lose 10lb or 14lb, and each week it says -1lb, 13lb to go!

Two people have given up already!!

Oh, wel that's a bit better. I've had a bad week, but had a really serene, non-binge S day yesterday and pretty good today as well.

We record everyone's actual weight, but the graph is shown as percentage of initial weight. So everyone starts on 100% on day one, some people manage to drop to about 90% by the end of the diet. It means that bigger people who weigh more have to lose a bit more than smaller people who weigh less.
Spot the bunch of scientists!
One year we considered measuring everyone's BMI instead of actual weight, but couldn't quite agree on it!

1lb off here. Now 10st 7lb

How has everyone else's week been?

DD (15) has turned vegetarian on a whim! So this week she has been cooking me all sorts of treats. It's a good job I'm not on the Atkins diet!