Personal Diet Experimentation

The No S Diet by Reinhard Engels is a diet book that I recommend, and there are several articles discussing that diet in the DietHobby Archives.  I recently received and answered a question in a forum that I frequent, and due to its relevancy, decided to also post it here. 
 

A Forum member wrote: 

I realize I've never understood how you use No S.
Do you stick to 3 meals, but also track calories?
And continue to experiment with food types or limiting calories?

Although I have personally dealt with severe obesity, for all of my life, I have no ultimate answers or ultimate solutions for people who are severely obese. I've come up with personal observations and possible solutions, and here in my personal blog, DietHobby, I talk about these issues a great deal. I've made no secret of the fact that my own personal weight-loss and maintenance requires constant vigilance, and ongoing experimentation.

 In my opinion,  "Diet Head" is a negative term useful only for those who are exhausted with their dieting failures, and who wish to avoid taking further personal responsibility for their own ongoing food choices. I reject that concept, and I have learned that ... for me...any short term "peace" that comes from giving up personal vigilance over my food and weight issues has always resulted in a very rude (and unmerciful) awakening.

My own choice is to consistently approach my food intake mindfully, to be constantly aware of how my food and my weight relate to each other, and to purposely choose to view "dieting" issues as an enjoyable "hobby".

  I understand why people would feel they don't have a clear understanding of my personal dieting practices. My own personal diet / food-plan / way-of-eating has a great deal of flexibility.            

The only thing that I am concisely "rigid" about is my choice to track and log ALL of my food EVERY DAY into a computer software food journal. I have done this every day since September 20, 2004... It is now an enjoyable HABIT, and my computer history tells me that "0 out of 3503 days have missing data".

 My computer food journal automatically gives me access to extensive nutritional information about my food, including calories. I see that information every day, so it is something of which I am constantly aware.  Since I have ongoing information of how my own weight relates to my own calorie ingestion, I pay attention to that calorie number and I consistently work toward keeping my ongoing calorie averages low enough to avoid weight gain. Sometimes I feel frustrated, but shame or guilt is not part of my personal mind-set.

  The No S concept that has been the most valuable to me is the Habit concept. I've found No S to be flexible enough to be valuable for my own long-term use. Over the years, I've used No S principles in many different ways, and I really like the support I've received from Reinhard for that process.

There are times when I practiced "vanilla" No S, exactly as recommended; I learned very quickly that, for me, following a basic "S" day plan without modification would take me rapidly back into morbid obesity, and I've experimented with many different "S" day, modifications.

There are times when I've experimented with the specific number of meals in my "N" days, trying out modifications involving having more and having less daily meals. There are times when I've experimented with various other modifications, sometimes independent personal modifications, sometimes these modifications which involve combining No S principles with other diets.

Except for my consistent daily food tracking Habit, I am quite flexible about involving myself with food-intake experiments. Sometimes I've combined No S with experiments of different food types. Sometimes I've combined No S with experiments of higher and low calories. Sometimes I've modified No S to fit in with other food intake experiments.

 My ongoing pattern is to engage myself in a variety of dieting experiments.  I continue to do this because I have not yet found ONE single way-of-eating that will allow me to maintain my large weight-loss in a sustainable and enjoyable manner.

  At present, what is sustainable and enjoyable for me is the habit of searching and experimenting.  Anyone interested in the details can access the hundreds of posts and videos through my DietHobby Archives, or by following my ongoing DietHobby posts.