So, I have been off the "official" atkins plan for about 2 weeks now. I am focusing on still eating lower carb, smaller portions and only eating when I'm hungry. But mainly I'm just trying to eat/live a little more normally.

I initially gained back about 4 lbs -- almost over night. But since then I have maintained just fine.

My challenge is that 2 weeks ago when I looked in the mirror I felt GOOD. Now, I just feel fat again. My close are not fitting tighter or anything.

My plan is to keep working on maintaining for about another 2 weeks and then to get back on the band-wagon to lose the additional 30 - 40 lbs I am shooting for.

Do others go through this ---- only feeling good if you are actively dieting? Any strategies for working through this?

Just curious, why did you go off Atkins?

I cheated last night and had a few breaded chicken wings, it was the only thing in the house to eat, and I was starving. I feel fatter this AM. So, to answer your question, yes...I only feel good when I'm on plan. But this time I'm on Atkins for life, so I don't even plan on not being actively "dieting", although I really don't consider it a diet anymore, it's a way of life.

i only feel good when i am on plan. if i have a planned cheat, they r always small bc the guilt comes to my mind even before i go off the wagon. i feel the best knowing i am on track and on my way.

I don't but usually there is a reason for the extra carbs that cause gain and I know they will come off again. I use carbs as a performance enhancer for running so sometimes I just have to live with maintaining and not losing during race season.

To answer the question about "going off plan", I really have actually taken on a new approach to eating --- however, I am eating some of the "forbidden foods".

Basically, right now I am trying to only eat one "big" or "high carb" meal a day. And then the remainder of the time I'm trying to still eat lower in carb. This has steered me clear of the fattening lattes, mochas, and danishes I used to eat for breakfast and I'm not eating sandwiches, french fries or Noodles 'n Company for lunch. Also, I've mostly steered clear of snacky foods like chips.

And like last night -- for my birthday -- I knew I was going to have a piece of cake so I had a snack instead of a big dinner and then indulged on cake. And I skipped all the treats brought in for my birthday at work.

So, this WOE has changed to a more "FOR LIFE" plan, but I am just not being strick. In about 2 weeks I'm going to go back under 20-30 carbs.

I guess, I want to be able to eat Acorn Squash (off plan) and/or a hamburger bun without feeling guilty and right now -- even not gaining I feel that way.

I guess I just have to try and get my head around it.

Sometimes I have to take a break but I usually try to keep it to maybe 1 meal where I'll have something that's not particularly un-healthy but also not considered low-carb. And, I don't do it everyday. For instance, tonight I think I'm going to have meatloaf (made with a slice or 2 of lc bread), roasted potatoes, gravy, and veggies and I will put a spoonful of those roasted potatoes on my plate. Tomorrow I may be up a lb. or 2 but I'll be back on track again so I don't worry too much about it.

Like you said, we have to settle into a way of eating we can do for life.

Ah, the pains of comfort food.

The best thing you can do, truly, is stop thinking of it as a "plan" or a "diet" and to think of it more as a lifestyle. Try and get it into your head that the way you are going to eat is the way you will be eating for the rest of your life. An occasional indulgence may not be so bad (for example, I have dinner at my grandmother's house and that's rarely as LC as I'd like) and personally I think you're on the right track with working your day around things you "know" you're going to do.

Just find the right head-space, surround yourself with nothing but LC food. Don't think of yourself as eating "normally" if normally constitutes as devouring a bun. As far as I'm concerned, us LCers *are* the ones eating normally and the rest of the world are the poor, misguided majority. That means don't eat a certain way because you think its living/eating in a normal way. That's just conforming to the lies we've been following for the last few years and succumbing to foods of convenience--perhaps even foods of addiction.

When you stop thinking of it as just a weight issue and factor in other things like cancer, alzheimer's, atherosclerosis and as carbs as more of a drug than a food... Well, things start to shift a little more into perspective as to why we have chosen to live the way we do (LC).

Just my two cents. You'll find your way.

I agree, I don't think of this as a plan or a diet...it is my lifestyle, and like any lifestyle, eventually I am sure that I will treat myself occassionally - and that is ok - once I am at goal and once i have control over myself adn my eating. The feeling of deprivation is a mindset, once past that, it is smooth sailing.

Thank you all.

I am just not at a place yet where I can think of it as a perminent woe, but as I said before I am much more mindful now and am having an easier time keeping it under control.

I am going on a short vacation tomorrow and so plan on getting back on track next Tuesday. In the end I'm sure I'll be up 5-7lbs, but hopefully that will come off fairly quickly.

My new goal is to break in the 220's --- I haven't seen those numbers in about 3 years.