Hi Everyone,

I haven't wanted to cheat since I started a journal here. I don't want to make a entry in my journal that says "I cheated today." I hope I can keep it that way until I reach my goal.

DesertRose

Today...2 cookies and chicken fajitas with 6 shells and some rice.

Back on track tomorrow.


Elihnig

PatHawk, that's what keeps me going on with LC, the relief of intestinal symptoms I got. Neveer been diagnosed-- guess it just falls under some kind of IBS thing. HAVE had a smidge of stuff now and then, but am careful not to make it more than a TASTE. Had too much ONCE. Yuck - a sliver of apple pie. Felt horrible! Blood sugar out of this world, too. Not diabetic, just very insulin reactive.

Anyway, you just know how much is going to be too much after awhile, don't you?

yb

YogaBuff
It is amazing that it can take us so long to understand what our bodies are telling us (and that the medical community has not really clued in) I am pretty sure that I am sensitive to gluten in wheat, and that this is my main trigger in terms of digestive problems. So for me to remain symptom free, I just stay away from anything that has wheat flour - basically all breads and baked goods - makes it pretty easy to stick to LC. I make up for it with increased fruits, and I do have oatmeal in the morning somedays, with no adverse side effects. One of the reasons that I am pretty strict is that the symptoms are so miserable that I would rather just forgo those foods.
Hope that you continue to control your symptoms with your diet. What a positive difference it has made in my life!
Cheers

This is why I'm on Atkins the second time around, It all started with a planned cheat, the next day all the cravings, headaches and those guilty feeling came back and I couldn’t get back on track. I feel that I must stay on program 100% to keep me in control. I hate the word cheat anyways, it brings back a lot of boyfriend memories from way back.

Yesterday I graphed my weekly weight for the last three months it looks like a zigzag going sideways... Not up or down. I gain 4-5 lbs two weeks before my TOM and lose it in the next 2 weeks. I wonder if I break my diet for one day and go back on it, if it would jump start my weight loss. I'm fustrated. I've gone back to induction.. actually I average 20 carbs which is what Induction is really.
I haven't cheated yet but I wonder if that is what I should do. Though Chrissy you are making me think more about it.

Stalls are to be expected and can sometimes last for weeks. I know...that's probably the last thing you wanted to hear, but it's true. As long as the weight loss zig zag is heading downward instead of up, you're doing okay. I've read and heard a lot of arguments on both sides of the "I'll go off for a day or two and then go right back on to jump start my weight loss" debate. Some people swear it works, others swear it brought them only disastrous results. I think a lot really depends on you and how much willpower you have. If you can go off the plan for a day or two and then have enough willpower to go right back on again, go for it; it might work. However, if you know that "cheating" (I HATE that word) will only make you go on a binge, then don't do it. Atkins' book and his website have some tips on plateau busters; you might be better off starting there instead. Personally, I prefer to not use the word "cheat" when I stray from my normal eating; after all, this is not a game and I am not married to my way of eating. I will say, though, that every time I don't eat low-carb, I'm realizing more and more that the price I pay is just not worth it...feel lousy for the next couple of days...and those indescretions are becoming fewer and fewer the longer I follow this WOE.

Lately I've had at least one day a week that I go over my set goal of 20 grams of carbs (I have stayed with induction due to the amount of weight I need to loose) My goal is to only have one per month, but I have had several major celebrations since I started doing Atkins.

Christina

I have long since decided that if I call every carb I eat cheating, I'm going to be beating myself up for the rest of my life.
If you follow Atkins you will always eat a few carbs, later when you are in Maintenance then you are meant to work out what is our is our Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance of our desired weight.
(Possibly the other low-carb plans have some similiar concept.)
So by then I may be able to eat 40 to 60 grams of carbs a day, depending on my metabolism. There is no way I can eat any where near that amount of carbs if I want to loose weight now.

So getting back to cheating...I don't want any more guilt in my life.
Instead I want to think about choices and being responsible for the food I choose to put in my mouth. I agree with Chrissy and lisa n- carbs are not spouses or boyfriends- we can't cheat on them. But we can choose how many of them we let into our body.
Hope this is helpful.
See ya,
kezza

I'm only on Day 6, ask me a month from now, lol.

In reality, I am a confessed sugar freak. Right now I have about 4 pounds of chocolate candy (for my g-son's class treat, we made individual stockings to fill) sitting on the coffee table in my living room. In the past I would have dove right in and eaten until I was dizzy, literally.

On the induction plan, I am so satisfied, I do not feel the need to cheat. In fact, unbelievable as it is, I find I am forgetting to eat!! I am sloshing down pure water (averaging about 96 ozs per day) and eating breakfast and lunch, but I find in the evening, I don't even think about eating. One night, I saw the pork chops I had laid out sitting in the fridge and laughed thinking, "Oh well, it will be a tasty breakfast."

Just be careful about not eating. You don't want your body to think there's a famin and stop losing. I was very afraid to up my calorie intake because I've been used to only losing at 1200 to 1000 calories or less. I'm actually losing better since I've managed to up my calories to 1800-2000 and my carbs between 20 and 30g/day.

Marlaine

I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist. No just at this WOE, but at life in general. Because of that, I haven't eaten anything that wasn't approved by Atkins since I began LCing.

I used to like sugar, chocolate and sweet treats, but I've found that I've lost my taste for them. They simply don't interest me. What I miss most is fruit. I LOVE fruit and used to eat at least 6 servings a day. Kiwis, whole grapefruits, mandarin oranges 3-4 at a time cuz they're little. Grapes, cherries...the list goes on and on. Pomegranates had been tempting me until I looked up their carb counts.

Maybe it's easier for me to stay on track because there were so many foods that I wouldn't eat anyway. Processed foods of any and all kinds for example.

The stores lately have been filled with all kinds of Christmas treats and when I'm standing in line they are often right there waiting to be impulsively grabbed. I look at them and think to myself. Nope, not me. I've worked too hard at this WOE to succumb to a marketing ploy.

I'm a tin collector and this time of year is always bountiful for new tins. I bought a lovely one yesterday that looks like an old fashioned carousel. I fretted a bit about the toffees in the tin, but then I remembered that I have several tins full of candy that I've never broken the seal on. This is just one more!

Anyway...I think I've rattled on long enough here.
Marlaine

I cheat once a week
I eat what I want on Saturday and on sunday I'm back to introduction. I seem to lose weight faster this way. I was stalled till I started doing it this way. I have been doing exercise 6 days a week also.

I am afraid to cheat. I can't trust myself with one bite, one chip, one taste or one crumb. I would be devastated if I unleashed some demon in myself.
Regards,
Nancy

cheating is something that ironically gives in to ur desire but yet it is undesirable.

for me, I dont keep a schedule for cheating....i just give in a little when it comes to dining with friends...but i still understand that i have a new way of eating and i will always try to keep the carb intake as low as possible....

i decided to leave some fats around my body coz i dont want to look like a stick insect and due to my natural body shape...so in fact I upped my ideal weight and decided to lose slower yet in a more adaptable way....eating between 30g to 55g carbs a day..following PP and Atkins.

if kept under control i still can afford to lose half to 1kg per wk. sometimes, when i try to record my carb intake, i dont even know how much is the carb content for some foods...thats when the scales will tell me that I gain some weight.. but i know that the scales are usually incorrect in interpreting our health state. the scales just weighs everything with the help of gravity. so shall we go to the moon for good?

esp these days when the weather gets colder....though it doesnt snow here.. but people tend to eat more food...thats bit worrying coz sometimes it will get out of control in terms of food intake choices.

but true in a sense that it may jumpstart plateaus/stalls...at least cheating once in a while tells your body that it doesnt have to work harder to store fats (it will think that there isnt any famine).

the word is, 'self control' ....even you cheat for a week, but u should know u should get back on track asap...unless u want to go back to your undesired past figure..