The No S Diet [title edited by MNHQ]

[Asuitablemum]

I've decided that I finally need to commit to losing my baby weight. I have 2 stone (ideally more to lose). But will just take it half a stone at a time. I am not really into crazy diets. So I've gone for the 's' diet which is basically eat sensibly diet! No snacks, seconds or 'sweets' (includes cakes etc ) except on days beginning with s (weekends and special days). So three meals a day basically. Does anyone want to join me or be my supporter? I lost 1.5 lb the first week, but then gained 0.3. Next weigh in is Monday and today I was 2.5lb lighter so I'm hoping I will have lost something. I am piling up a bit on the meals but figure that I need that to stick to it at the moment. Hopefully as I adjust I can make the meals smaller/healthier too. Looking forward to the weekend for a pudding and some wine!

Regarding the tea, the advice I was given on the NoS forum was to focus on the not snacking. I had a day early on where I cracked and had some dark chocolate and some nuts, thinking this was healthy ish, but was told that it would be better to have a hot chocolate than to actually eat chocolate. Again its more about the habit of not snacking.
I don't claim to be any expert by the way, have just picked up a few tips and hopefully they might be helpful. Not trying to sound like I know it all because I certainly don't!

First weigh in before starting week ine : 12.1.
A bit gutted I tipped over the twelve but feeling optimistic because week one usually produces good results.
How has everyone elses weigh in gone?

Another 1/2lb for me. Would have been more but went a bit mad yesterday evening, not quite sure what happened. Anyway back on it today.

Have a good NoS week everyone.

Very bad weigh-in - 11 stone 5, up from 11 stone 3. Posie, how are you losing weight and what am I doing wrong? I'm going to try cutting my portion sizes down. It does feel like I'm eating less but it's not working, grr! I am struggling with the urge to do the blood sugar diet through the week and binge at weekends just to try and shed some actual poundage.

I'm going to list my meals this week - hope no one minds. Maybe if I write it down it'll help me to improve.

Weekends: I didn't go mad with the chocolate this weekend, but I did drink every day - maybe 3 or 4 glasses of wine. We went out with PIL for lunch on Saturday to an Italian restaurant and I had deep-fried goat's cheese salad for a starter and then seafood linguine, both of which were absolutely incredible, but it was so so much and I just could not stop eating. The starter in itself was pretty filling and then I had this huge bowl of pasta - I ate most of it, despite knowing after eating about a third of the linguine that I had had enough and didn't need to keep eating. It was so good, and I wanted the nice waiter to know that I appreciated it. The kids had ice cream and I finished off DD's after she'd had enough. I felt uncomfortably full all day after that - I ate some crisps and carrot sticks at about 9pm and that was it. I haven't been to that restaurant before and I'll know in future that they serve enormous portions. Then last night DH made Sunday dinner - roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips etc, and apple and berry crumble with custard and ice cream. It's not so much the food, it's the portions. It is not at all surprising that after that weekend I put on 2lbs. I need to say no - FIL served me massive slabs of beef - I should have said then that it was too much. But I didn't - I ate it all and then had another slice!

Cheddar the scales are probably reflecting your weekend but don't give up! Bare in mind I am much heavier than you, still 13st 1lb and I do think heavier people lose weight quicker to start with, just because any change to my bad habits makes a difference.
The only advice I can really give is try and be as close to 100% perfect with No S in the week as possible. Do you do a daily log in? I use the No S website for this and it helps me focus. Reinhard does say to spend around 3 months just focussing in getting the habits sorted. That's the key thing in his opinion.
Also, I don't drink any alcohol at all in the week, and only one or two glasses at the weekend, because I know for me it is just empty calories, and I am more likely to want to snack if I drink.
Don't lose heart, just stick with it and I am sure you will turn it around.

Failed - ate crumble and ice cream for pudding. I didn't feel like explaining to visiting PIL why I wasn't having pudding. I'm tired and grumpy and MNing instead of being sociable.

Cheddar as Reinhard says, mark it and move on.

So when you fail, just get up, brush off the dust, pause to consider what you did wrong and how to avoid it going forward, and move on. The positively strict thing to do is not to beat yourself up, but to acknowledge that you failed, without punishing yourself.
From the NoS book

Hello all

I've had a distinctly imperfect first week. Cutting myself some slack as I've been working night shifts so even sticking to a semblance of a structured routine has been hard but I know I'll feel much better if I get back on it this week.

I might join you, Cheddar, in logging meals this week in the hope that it keeps me on track.

Well done to all those who've lost, and those that haven't: I truely believe that getting into the no s habit is far far more important than losses each week.

Thanks, Posie! I will keep going.

Keep, I felt really bloated to start with too! It went away after a couple of weeks - think my tummy had to get used to regular meals and long gaps.

Dave, you can do it! Night shifts must be a killer, though.

Food today:
B: Greek yoghurt, apple
L: Pret chicken salad
D: Baked potato, roast beef, broccoli, gravy. Lots of butter on the potato. Then apple & berry crumble with chocolate ice cream.
3 cups tea with milk.

Exercise: bits of walking - maybe 30 mins walking and 10 mins in Anthropologie at lunchtime, plus a bit more before and after work.

Cheddar do you think you're eating enough at each meal? Your breakfast and lunch sound quite light in terms of filling you up. I just wondered if you maybe had the crumble at the end of the meal because you still felt hungry?
Might be talking rubbish but I eat way more than that, as long as it fits on my plate I'm having it!

Do you? Please will you list some meals? I'm all in favour of eating more if I can get away with it! That was a particularly light lunch on purpose - I was trying to reduce portion size to see if it kick-started some weight loss. Maybe I overdid it. I'm not sure how many calories that all adds up to - Google says 577 for the chicken salad. Maybe another 250-300 calories in yoghurt?

I think my weight is going down slowly but really concentrating on no snacking and no sweets at the moment. Rarely have seconds anyway. Weekend wasn't great but no worse than it would normally be - probably better really. Had a bar of DairyMilk on Saturday and a smallish bowl of icecream for dessert. Sunday was a bit of a disaster in that I demolished a 200g bag of toffees but I would have done that anyway, diet or no and at least now I'm being good the rest of the week ;)

Breakfast is a big bowl of porridge and an orange - I am lucky in that I can eat relatively late, around 9, so it's not a biggie to go then till lunch. But I was in a bad habit of eating crisps etc all morning so at least that's stopped. Lunch today was Old el paso refried beans on a tortilla with salsa, scallion and cheese - yummy! Plus some yogurt with muesli - probably huge, calorie-wise, but dinner will be chickpea burgers which are fairly low, so it will even out, hopefully, and again, the no-snacking is the important bit for me.

B: Greek yoghurt (at 11am because I was late to work and had to go straight into my first meeting)
L: Beef sandwich (wholemeal bread, butter, horseradish), handful of Kettle chips, apple.
D: (will be) pizza.

Does your breakfast fit on a dinner plate?

Today's meals
Breakfast Two weetabix, slice of toast and marmite
Lunch Smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich, sunbites, yoghurt, apple
Dinner Spag bol

I feel a bit of a porker posting all of that food! But definitely all fits on a normal size dinner plate. And I am feeling much less hungry inbetween meals.

Yep I fit breakfast on a dinner plate. Put the bowl on and check the toast fits round the edge! I have no idea if that is the correct method, I just know it keeps me going until lunch.
Sometimes have a bowl of muesli or porridge instead.

I'm doing the no s combined with intermittent fasting .
It's going well
Interesting about feel bloated after wheat..
Do you know most of the country is intolerant to wheat .
If you read wheatbelly by dr Davis you will understand why.
Me and my dh are gluten free and are much better for it.
He's lost 7lbs since coming back from hols less than 2 weeks ago.

Hi, can I join please?

I started eating this way before I read about this diet. However, I keep slipping into bad habits so need some company to keep me on straight and narrow!

I have a stone of baby weight to lose, and ideally another 10lbs on top of that. I've lost weight successfully with 5:2 before but this time I have PND so giving fasting a break. I'll probably come back to it later though, as I don't think that no S alone will get me where I want to be.

So far having an ok week. Today is raining though, and I'm very sleep deprived... have to battle the urge to get the Malteesers out of the cupboard!

B: Bacon roll
L: Egg roll, baked crisps, apple
D: Not sure, but it will be late because I'm going to my trampoline class at 7.15.

I have found that it is much easier 4 weeks in to resist chocolate in the evenings, and that has to be good! Now I need to come up with a better lunch plan that doesn't always involve crisps.

Keep, where are you eating breakfast? At home or at work? I eat mine when I get to work, which means I have to either pack it (yoghurt) or buy it from the work canteen (bacon roll). At home at weekends I tend to have toast/bagel - the hard part is stopping DS stealing it! He climbs onto my knee shouting "my bagel!" and chomps big bites out of it, which means I wind up feeling unsatisfied and tempted to go back for more. If you tell us what your mornings usually look like we might be able to suggest strategies.

Welcome CarrotPuff I hope you are getting on OK with NoS. Bad weather and lack of sleep is a hard combination to fight! Good luck.
Keep I know I couldn't manage without a decent breakfast in me, I usually make time for 10mins while my boys are eating, to eat mine. How old are your DC, mine are 7 and 12 so I am beyond the stage of shovelling it into them, luckily I can leave them to get on with it! Mind you 6-8am is still a busy time in our house!
I am getting on OK, this is the second week of DH being away, its easier in some ways because I can suit myself and eat when I want. I find eating tea early around 5.30 with the boys means I am full up and not wanting to snack so much.