The No S Diet

It's the No S Diet, the epitome of simple and seems incredibly like common sense. It has three basic tenets and one exception. No snacks, no sweets, no seconds. Except (sometimes) on S days. So you eat three meals a day. You don't measure. You don't obsess over every little morsel that you eat. You stop the non-stop 24/7 snacking. You eat enough real food on your plate to fill yourself and hold you until the next meal. And sometimes even feel a little hungry before the next meal. You eat like this all week long, except on the S days. So Sat & Sun, Sick days, and special days.

I have been overweight most of my adult life. With every diet, I have yo yo-ed myself slowly into obesity. In the serendipitous way that the internet works, I found an amazing "new" diet plan from a message on llnoe.com, a debt reduction board that I belong to. The poster had read about this diet plan in the current Women's World magazine (April 14) and posted a link to the home page about it. And so I checked it out. I mean what the heck? Reinhard Engels is the author the No S Diet, and website, and has since published a book which is an inexpensive read that you can find at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. He's a software engineer, not your typical diet guru at all. It's not the Biggest Loser. It's a slow and steady approach to weight management.

I have done this plan for this past week. I don't know if I'll lose much weight, or if this will be another classic failure for me. Here's the thing that sticks in my head, though. This is how we ate in the sixties. Mom fed us a full plate of food at our three meals a day. She didn't allow us to snack between meals. Occasionally, on the weekends, she would make a sweet treat. Or maybe give us a couple quarters for the ice cream man. If we were sick, she would make us whatever we felt like eating just so we would eat something. This just makes a lot more sense than that crazy "Stop the Insanity" lady. So for now at least, I'm back to basics. Three square meals a day. No eating junk or anything else between meals. Except sometimes, a treat on the S days. Maybe Grandma's strawberry shortcake, or Mother's Spice Cake, or something else really, really Special on the S days. Visit the web page and check it out. I think you'll like it.