Review of the No-S Diet and the 14-minute Workout
I knew I had to do something with the pounds that clung to me after my messed up mass gaining experiment, I had tried a 28 day fat loss war and sucked at that so I was searching for something new, I had tried the No-S diet before and like most of the diets I have tried I managed to mess it up and got fed up and ditched it.
So far I have experimented with eating everything in sight for my mass gaining experiment, I have also tried the Zone diet, ABS Diet, LeanGains and a bodybuilding approach of 6 small meals, I sucked ass at all of them, god knows why I thought a re-run of the No-S diet would be successful but it has been proven to be correct, I have just finished a full calendar month of the diet and paid attention and I feel that it is a way of eating that is sustainable for me, time will tell.
Rather than write screeds I thought I would put my thoughts done regarding the diet and the 14 minute workouts I completed, these are as they occurred in my head so I apologise for any ramblings. I have included the workouts I completed during the month, feel free to skip that part if it seems like mega boring stuff to you.
- While there is a No-S diet book out there most of the information can be found on the No-S diet website here (saying that don’t be a tight ass buy the book), so no need to moan and bitch about waiting for the book to get started, if you any questions the good folks over at the message board are extremely helpful forum
- I used a calendar for the No-S diet and I believe this kept me compliant, Mr Engels recommended green for N days (non weekend days) amber for S days (Sat/Sun Special days) and red for any failures, I quite like filling in my calendar and seeing those blocks add up, a nice visual reminder of your progress, this is called the Habit Traffic Light, if there’s one reason I think I made the No-S diet work this time is due to this simple act.
- I did a 14 minute work pretty much every N day, think I missed three days in a month, one due to sickness and two to just having no time, it’s amazing what you can fit into 14 minutes.
- 14 minute workouts seem to lend themselves very well to conditioning but I feel it’s too short a time for pure strength workouts, I would like more time to warm up and for longer rest periods, I’m not advocating three hour workout marathons here, maybe twenty to thirty minutes for strength work.
- Dan John’s One Lift A Day programme would be ideal for those twenty to thirty minute workouts.
- Three plates that’s all you get, it will take you a while to figure out how much food you need to sustain yourself between meals, give it time.
- The No-S diet will probably save you pounds, all those snacks you buy probably add up, take that money and get yourself something nice
- The No-S diet will probably lose you pounds…….of fat, just don’t expect abs overnight, you didn’t get fat overnight.
- Weigh yourself at the start of the calendar month and then hide your scales, weight yourself at the end, if you keep weighing yourself you will end up messing around with the diet, use some other metric if you so wish, for me my work trousers where always a bit tight, not any more
- I’m not sure how the diet would work with regards to gaining muscle, as long as your three meals where protein rich I wouldn’t think there wouldn’t be an issue, maybe a glass of whole milk with ever meal would satisfy the hardcore trainers need for more protein.
- S days are a beautiful thing.
- I discovered hill sprints during this experiment, and I think everyone should do them, name them it makes them fun, I have Little Bitch, Big Bitch, Lampost Hill and Red Post Hill.
- If your doing the 14 minute workouts, change what you do every week, bodyweight, kettlebells, odd objects mix it up people.
- I think Dan John said, “Make yourself a slave to good habits”, this diet is all about habit.
- Prepare to feel hungry while your body adjusts, you won’t die.
- Coffee is your friend
- Supplement wise I used a good multi vitamin and milk thistle, I have tubs full of whey and other crap, I didn’t feel the need to use them Multivitamin Milk Thistle
- To quote Paul Chek “The best solution for pollution is dilution” or something like that! Get that water down your neck, I try and manage five pints of water a day.
- Don’t forget walking as exercise, I take our border collie pup Meg out most days for her morning walk and it’s good for the head as well as the body, some ideas here, if you have a dog throw their ball only with your weak hand, as the weeks and months pass it’s going to help to strengthen that weak hand, I also walk by a local swing park with monkey bars so I like to crank out five parallel grip chins, not sure how much difference this makes in the short time but in the long term who knows? I also make sure I walk up and down a few hills with big strides to loosen up the hips
- I was pretty overtrained at the end of the month, as much as I like the 14 minute workouts I don’t like training every day, the 14 minute workout is a good tool to have as you know you can get a decent workout in that time.
- I like a push, pull, squat routine; it makes sure you hit all the bases.
There you have it, the diet has resulted in me going from 15stone 2 pounds to 14stone 13 pounds and from a 40 inch waist to a 38 inch, I do have before/after pictures but to be honest that 3 pounds and 2 inch lost doesn’t really show through on pictures, I might hang off another month and see what more I can accomplish. I feel good, I don’t over analyse my food, I don’t count shit I just eat three sensible meals a day and get naughty at the weekends.
What’s next?
Well like I mentioned I’m moving to a Push/Pull/Squat routine, I don’t typically do much barbell squatting anymore so I rely on hill sprints to work the legs, another month of No-S diet with a bit more attention paid to what I’m eating not just when I’m eating, I plan to add a glass of whole milk with my breakfast which is post workout for me and three days of training a week with two days dedicated to mobility work.
Watch this space.
The workouts
14 minute workout
All of these workouts where completed within 14 minutes or as close to as possible.
2/5/11 Mon
Mahler’s HOC skipping
16kg KB
6 rounds
20 deep pushups
Not consecutive
3/5/11 Tues
Dumbell Press 18kg ish
R8 L8
R8 L8
A1 Deep Pushups x5
A2 Single arm row 18kg ish x5
X4
A1 Band chest press x10
A2 Band row x10
X4
4/5/11 Wed
Hill sprints x 8
24kg swing
5-10-15-15-10-5
5/5/11 Thurs
Deadlift overhand grip
20kgx5
40kgx2,2,2
10 minutes of singles
60 kg
24 singles
6/5/11 Fri
10 min 30/30 Swing
Alternating between
16kg&24kg KB
9/5/11 Mon
2 min skipping
Pushups 1,2,3,4,5 x2
Dips 5,4,1,3
Deep Pushups 1,2,3,4,5 x2
Texas 1,2,3,4 x1
Clapping 2x2
10/5/11 Tues
2 min warmup
10 minutes
10x1 chin up palms facing
12x1 band assisted chins palms away
3x5 ab wheel from knees
11/5/11 Wed
2 min skipping
2 min dynamic stretching
10 minutes AMRAP
1 hill sprint
1 hill sprint with zercher rock carry 20kg
11 rounds + 1 hill sprint
13/5/11 Fri
4 min warmup (Mobility and swing rows)
Parallel grip chins
2,2,1,1
2.5kg 6x1
5kg 5x1
1 minute of swing rows
23 reps
16/5/11 Mon
1 minute skipping
1 minute of
5 KB swings 16kg
5 Y squats
3 rounds
3x8 16kg KB single
Snatch and Front Squat (Snatch, lower to shoulder then front squat)
R,L,R,L etc
10-15 seconds rest between sets
Pullups palms facing 8x1
17/5/11 Tues
4 min warmup
Big Bitch
10 minutes of hill sprints
14 hill sprints
18/5/11 Wed
1 min skipping
1 min dead swing 24kg KB 10 reps
Dead Snatch (Just off the floor and lowered to shoulder)
24kg 3x8
3x10 deep pushups
20/5/11 Fri
2 min dumbbell warm up
16 kg
Dead clean and press rx1
Dead clean and press lx1
1 pullup palms facing
Dead clean and press rx2
Dead clean and press lx2
1 pullup palms facing
Dead clean and press rx3
Dead clean and press lx3
1 pullup palms facing
x3 of above
24kg kb
Dead clean and press
R5 L5
4 singles pull-ups palms facing
24/5/11 Tues
2 min Indian club warmup
10kg Bulgarian bag
4 rounds
10 powersnatch
5 single arm press each side
3 rounds
10 good mornings
10 bicep curls
25/5/11 Wed
5 diamond pushup
5 wide pushups
4 rounds
5 pushups on stands
5 pushups
4 rounds
2x5 band pushups
26/5/11 Thurs
2 min skipping
“Evil Six”
20kg Pet Rock
6 pushups on rock
6 bent over rows
6 press
6 zercher squat
4 rounds
27/5/11 Fri
5kg ball
4 rounds of
10 med ball slam
1 hill sprint
1 min rest
1 oh carry up and back
1 hill sprint
4 rounds
30/5/11
2 minutes skipping
16kg KB
Left Hand
Waiters Walk – There and back
Suitcase Walk – There and back
Suitcase deadlifts 10reps
Press 5 reps
Side Bends 10reps
4 Rounds
31/5/11
Same as 30/5/11 but with right hand
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