Your Hunger, My Hunger, Our Hunger ... Not Reliable!

So I am re-reading the No S Diet Book. I had a professor in college who told me that if I wanted to retain the knowledge that I read, it would be helpful to read the subject matter three times.

There is some truth to this in that it reminds you of things that you registered the first readings, but the amazing thing, is the things that you didn't register...

DID I READ THIS?

We have a lot of concern about hunger these days.

We are told to eat four, five, six, seven times a day. Mini-meals. Healthy snacks.
PRIMING OUR METABOLISM.

But Reinhard Engels points out in his slim tome that this is unnatural, even UNCIVILIZED, making the following point:

"Human beings in traditional societies didn't eat because they were hungry; food was too scarce and precious and hard to prepare for that. Our ancestors went hungry a lot."

I think that is kind of deep.

When you really stop and think about it.

It is really deep.
It kinds of puts food and eating in perspective.

And it is possible, that as Reinhard points at, that as hunger is a biological drive to assure that we do not starve to death,

in the world of 24/7 grocery stores, fast food joints and pizza delivery,

it is entirely possible that your hunger, my hunger, our hunger ....

is not an entirely trustworthy advisor as to when ...

and how much ....

to consume.

Just a thought!

Photo: Homemade rajma curry with cilantro and side salad of mixed greens, carrot, tomato, black olive and EVOO

She Likes to Eat Green Beans

So green beans are in season! YAY!

I am not quite sure what it is about green beans but I JUST LOVE THEM!
They are one of my favorite foods.
So I was super excited when I went to the Farmer's Market and they had ...

you guessed it ... Green Beans!

I love them mostly with Olive Oil, salt and pepper.

All I have to say to that is YUM YUM!

And today as Tuesday, much simpler than Monday.
I am back into work,
back into my N day groove ...

it's all good.

Photo: tofu sausage, steamed GREEN BEANS with EVOO salt and pepper, salad with mixed greens, carrot, tomato, black olives and EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

WAhhhhhhH!

The photo today is frozen homemade toll house cookies. Today is Monday, an N day and they are in the freezer where the belong, TODAY.

This morning I was running errands and I drove by Starbucks. My inner toddler through an inner hissy fit as we drove by.
HOW could a chai tea latte POSSIBLY hurt me this morning?
It was so good yesterday!

SHE hasn't quite gotten yet that it was so good YESTERDAY, precisely BECAUSE we do not drink them EVERY SINGLE DAY only on S days.

WAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhH!

was about all she had to say to that. My inner toddler, this tiny chick with a humoungous appetite is not one for logic, common sense or anything even closely approximating reason.

It makes me wonder, you know when I was a REAL KID did they really just stuff a cookie in my mouth to shut me up? Get me off their back? Too much trouble, effort, energy to redirect my energies to something more ... productive?

I don't know how this AWFUL HABIT of mine developed. All I know is that it is possible that playing sensible mommy to an inner two year old might be just as difficult as being a real mommy to a living breathing one.

I'll never know for sure. I can only be certain that she is VERY STRONG WILLED.
Thank goodness I have NO S to help optimize my OWN will power in dealing with her.

Needless to say, mommy won today and she is SULKING but looking forward to the chai tea latte and chocolate chip cookies we will have NEXT SATURDAY!

photo: homemade chocolate chip cookies in the freezer, where they belong, TODAY

S Days

Let's face it, I love S days. Why?

There are so many reasons. First of all they are recommended. I really love that. On the No S Diet you are not only encouraged to participate in S days, you are also encouraged to ENJOY them.

What a concept.

Oh. And there is not just one S day or one S meal ... there are two S days ... every single week.

Imagine that. Saturday and Sunday, every single week.

There are no rules on S days. Finally, that freedom lover within us all get's their day ... I mean ... their DAYS!

I love S days because they give food and eating on the No S diet ... it's appropriate weekend like place. I mean we have weekends for a reason.

But what I really love MOST about S days ... is you can't screw up. There is just NO WAY. I mean THE ONLY WAY you can screw up your S days ... is well, to not insert those five little N days in between them.

I really love that.

Photo: Berkeley Soy Cheese Veggie Pizza and Arugula Salad from Z Pizza

Look Ma' No Hands!

Part of the huge amount of stress of dieting is social occasions.

Now why is that?

Is it because almost every single social occassion involves eating, food, drinking, ingesting, something of some sort?

I don't know for sure, but I'd say .... hmmmmmmmm

Probably.

So if you are on a DIET that implies that you are following a proscribed set of rules about eating, food, drinking and/or ingesting. They might be rules as to WHEN you can eat, they most certainly might have something to do with HOW MUCH you will eat, they might ... if they have a more esoteric bent even have a concern with WHY you are going to eat ... THAT. Most often they will have some say in WHAT you can eat.

Which let me say right now ... is often quite limited in some regard.

SO when you are faced with the myriad and ironically somewhat equally limited options at certain social occasions, well you know ... the opposition ... between WHAT you are SUPPOSED to be eating and WHAT is actually AVAILABLE can often be ... well, HUGE!

So there in is the cause of stress.

But with No S. Guess what? Many of our social occasions fall on the weekend. Now I know not all of them do, but that's all about NWS days ...

ANYWAY ... what I am saying is this.

The large majority of our social engagments occur on Saturday and Sunday ... S days.

When we are allowed to behave like grown-ups with food, take the training wheels off with food and you know take those big hills and drive down those spiral driveways and maybe even dirt bike it and go off road.

This is fun. This is much less stressful than constant inhibition. And just in case we fall over, scrape our hands and knees, forgot to wear our helmets ... what have you ....

there is always Monday when we can pick ourselves up, wash our cuts and scrapes, put on a few bandaids, dust ourselves off, have a nice one plate breakfast and get on with the business of living.

Photo: a rather large piece of Von's German Chocolate Cake

Can't Work ... Too Busy Eating

This week went by amazingly fast. Except for the difficulties of yesterday morning ... which were something like ...

I just wanted to EAT. Pretty much anything would have been allright.

I just wanted FOOD.

When it comes at you like this.

Hard. Strong. Fast.

An instantaneous onslaught of HUNGER

I have learned this is not

Physical Appetite.

No that is EMOTIONAL HUNGER.

Curiously, it was not immediately apparent, the cause. I had to think on it.

For a few minutes.

And then I realized that PROJECT.

That has been on the back burner, the one that has waited

Until all other things got done.

Well, yesterday was the day, to face it.

Apparently I would have much preferred to eat.

Just about anything.

But then I thought of my Habitcal. Hahahaha.

No. Then I realized I was not going to eat.

Pretty much no matter what.

Once I made THAT decision, the only thing left was to

overcome inertia and get on with it.

Which I did.

And by 4:00 in the afternoon I was no longer STARVING.

EMOTIONALLY HUNGRY.

That EMOTIONAL HUNGER it's just so convincing.

I think adhering QUITE RIGIDLY to the precepts of No S is the only way for someone like me to ... you know ... get through it.

And on the other side it feels really nice, clean, even honorable.
Why? Because I DID get to mark my square green on Habitcal and I DID have a tremendous breakthrough on my project ...

which I definitely would not COULD NOT have had if I had slacked off into one of those ...

Can't work ... too busy eating!

photo: homemade pea, cauliflour, tofu curry with cilantro and brown rice

Thank You!

Well first of all I want to say thank you Thank You THANK YOU!

There are two "people" involved in the blogosphere, that would be the, yes, writer of said blog .... which is of course completely a sad, lonely, little blog unless and until that very other important person shows up and that, my dear friend would be YOU!

So I must say THANK YOU for coming by to check out my thirty day results yesterday and then staying to hang out awhile.

YOU ARE MUCH APPRECIATED!

VERY MUCH!

This weightloss stuff is an interesting phenomenon.

We want to, I think, all of us, get on with our lives,

put it behind us for once and for all.

And part of that,

putting it behind us for once and for all,

part of that resolution,

is well,

looking and feeling the best that we can.

So I am writing this blog because I fervently believe that the No S Diet can do this,

not just for Reinhard, but for me and for several and/or many of you,

and so I am inspired,

for myself

and for us,

to make a record

of it all.

For those who want to see

if this is the way that will work for them too.

For all of us walking down that road called life to just see what ... and whether ... all that

you know,

will happen.

photo: organic plain yogurt, fresh strawberries and walnuts