OOLALA53's SparkPage - Not dieting; just eating moderately forever

Not dieting; just eating moderately forever

Quick Update as of March 30, 2018. Weight fluctuated this year with a mild relapse in the fall. A recent DEXA scan showed I somehow gained muscle and lost fat. Not from a lot of exercise, so it's a mystery. My weight has dropped a bit, so my loss has climbed to 25% from 2009, being a bit conservative. I've let go of more and more overeating habits as the years go by. Could not have done it all at once, but the result is the same. I'm the thinnest I've been consistently in 45 years, and it's ...

Quick Update as of March 30, 2018. Weight fluctuated this year with a mild relapse in the fall. A recent DEXA scan showed I somehow gained muscle and lost fat. Not from a lot of exercise, so it's a mystery. My weight has dropped a bit, so my loss has climbed to 25% from 2009, being a bit conservative. I've let go of more and more overeating habits as the years go by. Could not have done it all at once, but the result is the same. I'm the thinnest I've been consistently in 45 years, and it's still easier than living with compulsive overeating. June 7, 2017. Still maintaining my 20% loss for five years. It looks like I've been on Spark ten years, though I may be off in the months. I remember decades ago a yoga teacher saying it takes ten years to make significant eating changes. I didn't believe him then. It took me until the very end of 2009 to get serious, and I still have to be conscious at times, but given our food-rich culture, I accept that. I went back to some versions of fasting in January and was having an easier time until I took a 4-day trip at the end of April. It was annoying how much I could spiral out in one month. Now doing a 5-day FMD for health purposes. Hope to get back on even keel after this. I will be more vigilant on a week's vacation coming up. I found I was doing too much shopping and accumulating dry and frozen food so I am now not buying any protein or starch foods (can eat out) until I use up my stores. This has meant a big reduction in dairy, besides what I use in coffee, but I find it's not a problem. I still have a few weeks' worth after nearly three months! My weight fluctuates but it is basically staying in the mid-130s range, though I never expected to get much below my high school weight of 145, which wasn't thin, but was in the healthy range. My changes have not been for weight loss. It has just been the side effect. Update as of Oct. 16, 2016. I have for now stopped any formal changes (no forcing intermittent fasting on myself) to No S. My eating at "allowed" times on non-fasting days was creeping back to the days of frequent bingeing. I will accept the way my body processes food for now, and eat at regular intervals three times a day on most days. Sugar sweets on weekends only and preferably in company. Sugar alcohol desserts midweek once a week or less. Loosely following MIND recommendations. Update as of June, 2016. Six months of implementing new refinements to the brilliant No S lifestyle, including some modified fast days, which I incorporated in an attempt to affect some lack-of-hunger signals. Still adjusting to that with some overeating on nonMF days. Not sure what else to do. Wasn't intending to lose more weight, but many pants are getting too loose, especially around the waist, and I was able to wear a dress as prom chaperone that I hadn't worn for nearly 30 years. Update as of Mar. 11, 2015. Coming up on three years of weight maintenance and five years of living the No S Diet lifestyle. Still trying to get used to reduced appetite of advancing years. Definitely livable. Update as of Jan. 14, 2013. I have completed three years of the No S diet/lifestyle. Still no really consistent exercise, but I lost another ten pounds over the course of the year, approximately, so the total is that I weigh about 82% of what I weighed three years ago and it feels pretty easy to maintain. I'm so grateful for finding a program that is reasonable and fits into my life so well. I'm also incredibly grateful to Spark for providing this site to share with others. My writing about the topic has been a big part of my success, as writing is one of the aptitudes I wanted to develop. I've often quoted a psych therapist I read years ago who said of alcoholics the question is not why they drink but what would they do if they didn't drink. This year I want to devote more time to developing other talents and/or perhaps a real live support group for implementing No S or a version of it. Update Jan. of 2012 http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.ph
p?t=8296 Update June 18, 2011. The scale is moving down again, but what is even better is I am working out more and more of the kinks so that eating smartly is becoming natural. Part of that is just from perseverence. I finally learned -not perfectly- that the big difference is continuing to make the effort and say no to urges when it's hard, not just when it's easy. I am able to separate how many triggers there are for urges and cravings, but see that the "triggers" don't make me eat. I am the one who has to pick up the food with my own hand (or fork!) and put it in my mouth. An urge cannot do that. The lovely smell of cinnamon buns cannot make me eat the bun, and I am kidding myself if I say it does. It's okay to joke about it if I am also willing to be honest. Nobody and nothing makes me eat except me. But I can also accept and forgive myself if I do make the choice to eat under non-ideal circumstances. Update Feb., 2011. I lost 17 lbs. last year. I actually lost a bit more, but didn't stay down. I certainly haven't implemented my whole plan, so I'm hopeful about taking off another 14 lb.s this year--perhaps more. No calorie counting! See my post on the Living Binge Free team, 21-day BF streak, Feb. 19 if you want to see my list of 6 basic steps, which does contain a modified version of calorie counting. Jan. 2010. I was reading or hearing about people who lost 20 or 30 pounds over a year and most had just changed their worst eating habit. Mine is bingeing on chocolate candy, ice cream or cake. Sometimes pizza. Not burgers and French fries. Not eating huge meals, though, if I did, it was MORE likely I would binge. So I've targeted bingeing this year. I realized that I've got to believe I can live sanely with food all the time and that I can be just as happy, if not more, without using it as a drug. I realized that in the past I would just hit periods of time in which it just wasn't that much of a struggle to stick with the "program." I realized I never learned how to overcome the urges to eat when they were strong. That is the moment I have to learn to face the desires and say no! I'm going through an easy phase now. I won't push it away, but I hope I learn something I can use when things get tougher. Why can't the memory of how good this feels stay with us? Oh, yeah: all things must pass. 2007. I'd rather lose five pounds and keep them off than lose 15 and put ten back on. Now, if I can just do that four times! I lost 20 lbs, about 5 years ago, then whittled another 7 off, slowly put the 7 on and stress-ate my way back up 16 pounds this last summer and fall (2009). I have to start where I'm at. This time it's become important to give up the self who uses food inappropriately and become new.

Member Since: 1/13/2007

Fitness Minutes: 23,517

My Goals:
I feel food is not a problem, that I can eat sanely no matter what the situation. maintaining 98% success there !

I accept my body. as of 7/14, pretty close! 2018, I feel more neutral, and that's better! How I feel about my body is a distraction from the big stuff.

I am in my "normal" BMI range. done (24.9) 3/12! (22.5 in 2018)

I wear a size 10. 3/13 (got into size 8 3/14)

I am at 25% or lower bodyfat. not yet, but doctor is pleased

I have a waist measurement under 31" 3/13 done!

My Program:
As of Dec. 26, 2009, use the No S Diet plan to reduce bingeing. Eat 3 plates/bowls of mostly whole, unprocessed foods in a mix of light and luscious food (but no sweets) on weekdays, and free eat on S (weekend) days. Eat plenty of colorful vegetables and fruits and whole grains or high fiber carbs. Have not figured out a consistent exercise program. Use the principles from non-diet/ending emotional eating programs such as Shrink Yourself to help keep me on track, and the thinking strategies from Judith Beck. In summer of 2015, I think, started to try some intermittent fasting. It set off some relapse of compulsive eating but I have eased my way into it. I eat relatively low calorie two days a week. Four times a year, I do a 5-day fast-mimicking diet ala Dr. Valter Longo. As of 2018, and some of 2017, occasionally skip a meal when hunger is very low.

Personal Information:
Live in San Diego. Am a high school English and Social Studies teacher to classes of general and Spec Ed students. Have lived in several US cities and two overseas cities. Looking for a humorous local man who values at least 3 out of the 4 following things: one or more of the arts, not collecting the most "toys," being a realist rather than a Pollyanna, and enjoying intellectual things without being a snob. Hook us up! Love cooked rye berries. Used to teach yoga, but you'd never know it now!

Other Information:
Have taken West African dance classes for 25 years. Makes me feel young to dance almost as vigorously (or more so) than women half my age. Used to live in Iran. Used to sit zazen, but I'm a lousy Buddhist. Old favorite book: Small is Beautiful; Economics as if People Mattered.

Read More About OOLALA53 - Profile Information moved here. (Updated April 7)

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Quick Update as of March 30, 2018. Weight fluctuated this year with a mild relapse in the fall. A recent DEXA scan showed I somehow gained muscle and lost fat. Not from a lot of exercise, so it's a mystery. My weight has dropped a bit, so my loss has climbed to 25% from 2009, being a bit conservative. I've let go of more and more overeating habits as the years go by. Could not have done it all at once, but the result is the same. I'm the thinnest I've been consistently in 45 years, and it's still easier than living with compulsive overeating.

June 7, 2017. Still maintaining my 20% loss for five years. It looks like I've been on Spark ten years, though I may be off in the months. I remember decades ago a yoga teacher saying it takes ten years to make significant eating changes. I didn't believe him then. It took me until the very end of 2009 to get serious, and I still have to be conscious at times, but given our food-rich culture, I accept that. I went back to some versions of fasting in January and was having an easier time until I took a 4-day trip at the end of April. It was annoying how much I could spiral out in one month. Now doing a 5-day FMD for health purposes. Hope to get back on even keel after this. I will be more vigilant on a week's vacation coming up. I found I was doing too much shopping and accumulating dry and frozen food so I am now not buying any protein or starch foods (can eat out) until I use up my stores. This has meant a big reduction in dairy, besides what I use in coffee, but I find it's not a problem. I still have a few weeks' worth after nearly three months! My weight fluctuates but it is basically staying in the mid-130s range, though I never expected to get much below my high school weight of 145, which wasn't thin, but was in the healthy range. My changes have not been for weight loss. It has just been the side effect.   
   
Update as of Oct. 16, 2016. I have for now stopped any formal changes (no forcing intermittent fasting on myself) to No S. My eating at "allowed" times on non-fasting days was creeping back to the days of frequent bingeing. I will accept the way my body processes food for now, and eat at regular intervals three times a day on most days. Sugar sweets on weekends only and preferably in company. Sugar alcohol desserts midweek once a week or less. Loosely following MIND recommendations.   
   
Update as of June, 2016. Six months of implementing new refinements to the brilliant No S lifestyle, including some modified fast days, which I incorporated in an attempt to affect some lack-of-hunger signals. Still adjusting to that with some overeating on nonMF days. Not sure what else to do. Wasn't intending to lose more weight, but many pants are getting too loose, especially around the waist, and I was able to wear a dress as prom chaperone that I hadn't worn for nearly 30 years.   
Update as of Mar. 11, 2015. Coming up on three years of weight maintenance and five years of living the No S Diet lifestyle. Still trying to get used to reduced appetite of advancing years. Definitely livable.   
Update as of Jan. 14, 2013. I have completed three years of the No S diet/lifestyle. Still no really consistent exercise, but I lost another ten pounds over the course of the year, approximately, so the total is that I weigh about 82% of what I weighed three years ago and it feels pretty easy to maintain. I'm so grateful for finding a program that is reasonable and fits into my life so well. I'm also incredibly grateful to Spark for providing this site to share with others. My writing about the topic has been a big part of my success, as writing is one of the aptitudes I wanted to develop. I've often quoted a psych therapist I read years ago who said of alcoholics the question is not why they drink but what would they do if they didn't drink. This year I want to devote more time to developing other talents and/or perhaps a real live support group for implementing No S or a version of it.   
Update Jan. of 2012 http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8296   
Update June 18, 2011. The scale is moving down again, but what is even better is I am working out more and more of the kinks so that eating smartly is becoming natural. Part of that is just from perseverence. I finally learned -not perfectly- that the big difference is continuing to make the effort and say no to urges when it's hard, not just when it's easy. I am able to separate how many triggers there are for urges and cravings, but see that the "triggers" don't make me eat. I am the one who has to pick up the food with my own hand (or fork!) and put it in my mouth. An urge cannot do that. The lovely smell of cinnamon buns cannot make me eat the bun, and I am kidding myself if I say it does. It's okay to joke about it if I am also willing to be honest. Nobody and nothing makes me eat except me. But I can also accept and forgive myself if I do make the choice to eat under non-ideal circumstances.   
Update Feb., 2011. I lost 17 lbs. last year. I actually lost a bit more, but didn't stay down. I certainly haven't implemented my whole plan, so I'm hopeful about taking off another 14 lb.s this year--perhaps more. No calorie counting! See my post on the Living Binge Free team, 21-day BF streak, Feb. 19 if you want to see my list of 6 basic steps, which does contain a modified version of calorie counting.   
   
Jan. 2010. I was reading or hearing about people who lost 20 or 30 pounds over a year and most had just changed their worst eating habit. Mine is bingeing on chocolate candy, ice cream or cake. Sometimes pizza. Not burgers and French fries. Not eating huge meals, though, if I did, it was MORE likely I would binge. So I've targeted bingeing this year. I realized that I've got to believe I can live sanely with food all the time and that I can be just as happy, if not more, without using it as a drug. I realized that in the past I would just hit periods of time in which it just wasn't that much of a struggle to stick with the "program." I realized I never learned how to overcome the urges to eat when they were strong. That is the moment I have to learn to face the desires and say no! I'm going through an easy phase now. I won't push it away, but I hope I learn something I can use when things get tougher. Why can't the memory of how good this feels stay with us? Oh, yeah: all things must pass.   
   
2007. I'd rather lose five pounds and keep them off than lose 15 and put ten back on. Now, if I can just do that four times! I lost 20 lbs, about 5 years ago, then whittled another 7 off, slowly put the 7 on and stress-ate my way back up 16 pounds this last summer and fall (2009). I have to start where I'm at. This time it's become important to give up the self who uses food inappropriately and become new.

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