Hexagram 61: Limitation

Through the years I have dabbled in studying different religions and philosophies. One of my favorite "soothing" books is the I Ching. I am very fond of the "taoist" strain in its teachings, not so much the "confucianist."

Since I have been on the NO S Diet, I have often thought of Hexagram 61: Limitation and how enlightening it was the first time I read it. In a culture where "more" is never enough and "too much" hardly seems like a respectable amount, the wisdom of "limitation" is like good medicine.

Let's look at some excerpts from the Wilhelm translation below:

The Judgement

Limitation. Success.
Galling limitation must not be persevered in.

The Image

A lake is something limited. Water is inexhaustible. A lake can only contain a definite amount of the infinite quantity of water; this is its peculiarity. In human life too the individual achieves signficance through the discrimination and setting of limits ... Unlimited possibilites are not suited to man; if they existed his life would only dissolve in the boundless. To become strong, a man's life needs the limitations ordained by duty and voluntarily accepted. The individual attains significance as a free spirit only by surrounding himself with these limitations and by determining for himself what his duty is.

To me traditional diets are a "galling limitation", i.e. limits that lead to the "misfortune" of failure if "persevered" in. The"diet backlash" or binge that follows every diet is a good example of such "misfortune". The No S Diet, on the other hand, gives us just enough limits to be appropriately discriminating in our daily eating lives.

The No S Diet is definitely NOT a "galling limitation." It is just the right amount of limits to help us acheive "success" and get on with the business of living our otherwise fascinating lives.

Anxiety

One of the many reasons I used to overeat and binge was to handle anxiety. I am not necessarily talking about huge or crippling anxiety, I am talking more about the "garden variety" kind of anxiety of living a "normal" life in the "modern world." The somewhat ongoing background tensions caused by interruptions, miscommunications, minor daily frustrations and obstructions.

This morning I accompanied a loved one to the hospital for an outpatient procedure. Hospitals, Parking Lots, Doctors, Consent Forms and basically the realm of the "unknown" loomed before me and my loved one. In the past, I might have been completely "unaware" of my anxiety, moving like shifting sands just below the surface of my consciousness, and used the experience to be "really hungry" all of a sudden.

But let's see, yesterday and today were N days. Hmmmmmmmm ... not a lot of room their for "food" subterfuge.

I began to realize last night that I was bit worried, just because anytime someone goes under anesthesia there is always THAT RISK. Small, but present. Curiously, I focused on how would I handle breakfast which was actually concrete and helpful. After much back and forth I decided the best bet would be to pack it and take it with me.

That is what I did this morning. Packed my healthy one bowl breakfast and threw it in my purse with a spoon. SO there I was in the waiting room ... tick tock tick tock ... the time was past when they were supposed to call me. Other patients "drivers" had already been called. I got to feel all my anxiety. Not mind bending. Not extremely high level. Just enough that prior to No S I might have ended up with some unwanted pastry from the coffee cart or some unsatisfying fare from the hospital cafe ... both reasons to indulge MORE when it was all over and I was free to leave the hospital, discharge my loved one, and then be free to ... well ... eat.

But that's just not how it went to day. I ate my one bowl. Satisfying as it always is. Lived through the anxiety. Tended to my loved one. Had a nice one plate lunch and got to work when it was all said and done. A "normal" day.

HALLELUJAH!

Who would have thought that I would have ever chosen anxiety over a donut?

Best Weekend Ever!

First of all, a housekeeping item.

After an emotionally tumultuous process I have decided to continue blogging about my No S Diet journey, however because of the time consuming nature of taking and preparing pictures I am going to start today, doing my week day posts without photos and save the pics for "weekend features". For right now this seems like a better balance than either continuing as I have been or totally stopping the blog. Okay. We shall see how it goes!

As far as being the "Best Weekend Ever!" this one was definitely it.

Why?

Simple reason.

I actually woke up grrrrrrrr .... HUNGRY this morning. "So what," you say. OH NO. This is the first Monday since I have been on the No S Diet that I actually woke up MONDAY MORNING - well, hungry.

What is the significance of that?

Well it means that I did not overeat this weekend. At all. AMAZING. I had my delicious caramel macchiatos, a dark chocolate/coffee bar from Starbucks, a lovely Italian meal and even ... GASP a peice of Von's birthday cake. What can I say, I was in the mood.

Anyway I also ate salmon, artichoke, healthy beans and lentils, an organic free range turkey burger, plain organic yogurt .... blah blah blah. BUT the thing is it is becoming more effortless and I am becoming more skillful at keeping to the right size portions for my body by "eyeballing" things and sensing how my body is "feeling."

Yes, I am somewhat delirious with this progress. I suppose you can tell!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween all of you NOSers!

Bwahahhahahhahahhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

This can definitely be a HAPPY Halloween for all of us. Myself, I am taking Halloween as an official NWS day. A couple of weeks ago I stacked up on my stash for the trick or treaters who will come by tonight, but because of my "time" on NO S they have been "safely" stashed in the closet untouched.

TRICK OR TREAT?

It is your choice.

Call it an NWS day and have a Treat or pass and go for the Trick.

It is your choice!

Me ... my treats today will be fresh donuts from our local donut shop, vegan nachos and a wickedly delicious Caramel Machiatto! Teeheeeheeee!

Photo: Halloween TREATS!

"Glass Ceilings"

"Glass Ceiling" is a concept Reinhard uses for "containing" alcohol consumption. I have been using it for the past two months to contain caffiene/coffee consumption and it has been working really well. I quit drinking coffee over four years ago because I could not stick with reasonable amounts. After nosing for six month I decided to experiment with using the "glass ceiling" concept for caffiene/coffee.

Works like a charm. Now I can enjoy my coffees twice a day, once after breakfast and another, usually after lunch. Then that's it I am done. I have only "broken" the "glass ceiling" once ... and that was an S day.

Reinhard has come up with so many useful ideas for managing our habits and disciplining our appetites. I am so glad I stumbled upon his book The No S Diet in Barnes and Noble this past March. It has changed my life and had an impact that the gazillion diet books that I bought before cannot even touch!

I love being "normal" and I love my "drinky" things. I am so glad that I get to MAXIMIZE my ENJOYment of them by using No S Diet concepts like "S days" and "glass ceilings"

Photos: Two Starbucks Coffees

I Love Veggies

I suppose I am fortunate because I love veggies. No broccoli haters here. ANY vegetable steamed or sauteed with a generous dollop of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), salt and/or pepper is yummy to me.

I know! I know! We all talk about eating protien and making protien the central part of meals, but for me, my only "rule of thumb" is this:

I try to make sure that not a day goes by without a nice serving of GREEN!

The No S Diet is great for getting in your veggies because they are a GREAT way to fill up your plate. Without the higher natural sugars of fruit and loaded with even MORE MINERALS, veggies are the road to exuberant good health.

Like I said, I suppose I am fortunate, I have loved veggies since I was a kid. The simpler the better. Great tasting, fresh vegetables don't need to be drowned in heavy sauces, cheesy toppings, or fried and breaded. BLEYCH! is what I say to drowning all that natural goodness!

For today, try filling up your plate with nice, fresh veggies.

Photo: Mesquite Grilled Halibut, Steamed Green Beans and Carrots with EVOO and Celtic Sea Salt

Just Looking

I use to LOVE LOVE LOVE Von's Cake. It was my "big deal" for such a long time. Years. Sweet. Secret. Forbidden.




Now sometimes on S days, I think - Von's cake! Wouldn'cha love it? I go to the store and I stand at the case and I look at my favorites ... white birthday cake, carrot cake and ...



chocolate birthday cake. Then after a few minutes I realize that I really don't WANT any Von's cake and that JUST LOOKING is enough!

WOW!

That is CERTAINLY an UNEXPECTED result of the NO S Diet!

Photos: Von's White Birthday Cake, Von's Carrot Cake, Von's Chocolate Birthday Cake

Bad Ass

If you have been following my blog for any length of time, then you might remember that I took some of the $aving$ from following the No S Diet and hired a personal trainer at my gym in May.

Let's see that was four-and-a-half months ago.

IN the beginning the training manager gave me five complimentary sessions and trained me himself. VERY GOOD. And very nice. Then I was assigned another trainer. Pretty tuff on me, but that is what I asked for.

Yesterday I went in for my session and that trainer was no longer with the gym. Sigh. So they assigned me to another trainer. Young. Nordic. Uh huh.

I decided to take it in stride. We discussed my goals for the day and settled on some circuit training. He wanted to assess my fitness level.

So he had me start with 25 pushups, 25 deadlifts and 25 pull-ups. Now let me remind you that I used to not be able to do even one full body push-up. KNEES PLEASE!

Well, I dropped down and pumped out 25 perfect form full-body pushups and he was ... wide-eyed (probably not more so than myself) and said I was "bad ass". We continued through the circuit and he was apparently sufficiently impressed.

He took me to the other side of the gym and had be do another circuit of squat press things (not sure what they were exactly) and then these squat jumps and chin pull up things, in circuits of 21, 18, 15, 12 and 9.

He basically told me that most of the other people coming in for training weren't up to doing this ... COOL! When I was dying at the end, he said with a smile on his face, "That is what you get for being a bad ass."

As a forty-six year old female, who has in the past year-and-a-half been on a passionate journey to claim her inner IRON WOMAN - big smile - I felt like being able to pump out those 25 full body pushups and have this twenty-something jock call me a "bad ass" was pretty much a testament to not only the body reshaping that I have accomplished, but the development of FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH as well.

VERY COOL! I LOVE THIS STUFF! AND I LOVE BEING A "BAD ASS"!

Photo: One Bowl of Watermelon, definitely think this fits into the "maximize your real estate" category