taking a day off, ok?

[Poizon Ivy]

I'm going to my 4th week in induction on friday

and i'm wondering can i take a day off

just one day?

how bad will it affect me?

[*Emma*]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

why would you want to do that?

you'll no doubt completely overload yourself on sugars and bad carbs, feel really sick for a coupla days, it will take you about 5 days to get back in to ketosis and what a huge waste of a week that is!!

What are you wanting to have as your "cheat" maybe we can come up with an atkins way around it for you?

PS... you wouldnt feel like you were missing something if you moved up the rungs of OWL!

[cgdat136]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

i started on oct 29th....just a few weeks ago. on saturday nov 3rd i had a wedding!!

so initially i lost like 8lbs.....then after the wedding, suprisingly, i only gained 2 back.....and i just started induction all over again.

i really want a pretty clean two weeks of induction.

and now i find some of the things i have been doing are not permissible. like, ricotta cheese, whipped cream in my coffee....i have lost weight but probably, had i followed more closely, would be down even a few more pounds.

unless you have a wedding or some kinda of family event.....i would try to avoid any kinda scheduled cheat day. we have thanksgiving and xmas coming up...i mean, isnt that enough of a danger that lies ahead of us LOL

good luck,
chris

[Lady_Hawke]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

you're going to do what you want to do...but my advice is....DON'T.
Don't take that first bite - Dr A talks about it. I should have listened and didn't - I hope you do and stay on course. Listen to Emma - she be smart

[ShiningStarr]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

I say don't do it! Planning a cheat day is no good! It is just giving yourself an excuse to fail and you don't want to do that! Cheats may seem like a great idea right now but when the day is over you will only feel sick and yucky and take the chance of not being able to get back on track. Then all you are left with is a headache and disappointment. So Don't do it. I agree with Emma. Try your best to find an Atkins version of what you are craving. The people on this board are great and I am quiet sure they will have an idea for you. Then you will feel satisfied and proud of yourself for not cheating!

[kate58]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

Weddings, parties, special nights out, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, birthdays. So very many excuses to 'just take a day off', and they come along ALL the time. Why do we associate them so much with an unadulterated carb fest? Habit is why. All of those occasions have a close association to stuffing your face with bad-for-you food.

The answer isn't taking a day off. The answer is to make new associations. If you look at the kind of days and events that provoke the desire to slacken off the main and most important reason we look forward to them is that they are times when we get to spend time with family and friends, which is way, way more important than what is eaten while doing so.

I am working hard on breaking the connection between events like that and bad eating. They don't have to be connected. You can still enjoy the company of people that are important and enjoy and share good food without blowing all your good work out of the water.

So far I've been out in good restaurants several times, attended a food fair, been to a wedding and to an evening funtion/dinner dance type thing - all great fun, all included good food and for none of them was it essential to my enjoyment that I eat anything wrong. Not one. In fact I enjoyed them more because I was able to get up the next day feeling good mentally and physically and completely without guilt. Christmas is the next challange, but it too is perfectly doable.

Using a day off as some sort of reward for being good is even more dangerous - it means a mindset which still looks as food as a reward or a comfort, not as nourishment. That's a very dangerous mindset from the point of view of long-term weight management.

It's also thinking of the low carb way of eating as a diet, something you can do on and off from time to time before returning to eating 'normally'. But this is lifetime thing, it IS eating normally, the old 'normal' was anything but normal and was what did the harm.

[Sera]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

I've been asking a similar question in the very beginning but I wouldn't even consider it until I'm in maintenance.
That's when you have reached your goal and it won't throw you off (the weightloss) track when you have that cheat.
Also you need to be really strong to be able to go right back to atkins after you had that cheat and if you read through these forums you'll see that most people are not and this one cheat or one day makes them go off plan for days, weeks or months.

If you are not satisfied with your induction food, I don't understand why you haven't moved to OWL already.
Not only do you have a lot more food choices, you also NEED to start adding foods back into your diet as you are (as far as I'm aware) not supposed to live on induction for the rest of your life (note: I don't mean induction carb level but foods ).

[chicamarun]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

There are so many ways to go about eating stuff without cheating. Here I sit eating a yummy "ice cream" snack which is cocoa, heavy cream, splenda, ice & zero carb protein powder. Yep - simple and I feel like I'm cheating - but I know I'm not. Heck - I don't even want all of it.

My carb count is still really low (within induction phase limits) but I have found right now my body can't take anymore carbs than what I am giving it without a stall. HOWEVER, I have added stuff - more veggies etc which help me tremendously. A few nuts here and there help me with "salt cravings".

So add some stuff - look at where you are and see what you can do to change it.

Scheduling a cheat day really shouldn't exisit because there are so many ways around things.

My kids asked me about me having pizza again and I smiled and said when I get to the weight I want to be at maybe I'll have a slice. They asked what weight was that... and I said I haven't decided yet but it will be awhile Believe me - I am tempted every day with kids and an italian family who loves pasta but I find a way to make it work for everyone, even if that means "tricking" them into low carb without losing the taste of stuff they want.

[Chicklady]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

Also you need to be really strong to be able to go right back to atkins after you had that cheat and if you read through these forums you'll see that most people are not and this one cheat or one day makes them go off plan for days, weeks or months.

Years. Don't do it. That "just one bite" will bite you in the butt. Been there, done that.

[sallyseachange]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

Just want to join the chorus of "Don'ts". It really isn't worth it... and it's very risky. That slope down is way too slippery...

[Hoping]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

Ditto. One meal leads to a day, a day to a few days and it's very difficult to get back on the bandwagon. You'll come on for a few days and then you may fall off. That's what happened to me. Sooo not worth it.

[Shaemess]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

I would have to echo the others in saying, don't do it. That being said, you're an adult and you're going to do what you want to do. Just expect to be kicking yourself afterwords for having that piece of sugar laced cake because you'll be dealing with guilt, a stall, induction flu, and being angry with yourself for doing it. You have to ask yourself if it's truly worth the trouble.

Believe me, I'm not perfect. I do have a cheat now and again. However, I don't cheat for the entire day. I think lately the biggest cheat I've had was a sugar free frozen yogurt loaded with strawberries and raspberries. Then I get right back up on that horse.

If you do decide to cheat please get right back on track. Look at it as a learning experience and don't look back.

[grovemonkey]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

If it is a choice between taking an occasional rest day or rest meal or going back to your old eating habits, I think an occasional and planned day off is the better option.

Even though strickly following the plan laid out by Dr. Atkin's is the ideal, it may also not be the most realistic for many people.

[D14965]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

Can you afford to spend the next day( or more) with a major headache??? The thought of that certainly puts me of cheating!

[RIMedusa]

Re: taking a day off, ok?

Okay, I totally get what everyone's saying about the danger of taking that "one day off" during induction, but if what folks are saying is that they'll never be able to have a piece of cake again, or a slice of pizza, even when they've lost all the weight they want to lose, there's something scary about that.



How does this WOE differ from Overeaters Anonymous, then, where they have the same "don't take that one bite" motto? That also seems extreme to me.



Can't this WOE show us how to eat in a way that's healthy for us and that produces sure and steady weight loss, without the extremes of "I'll never have cake again"? The "nevers" are bound to cause addictive behaviors -- anything that we’re forced to swear off of for good is only going to set us up in a lifelong quest to have it.



I thought that the whole point was to find a carb level at which we could lose weight and then maintain it -- doesn't that include having a dessert now and then, the way so-called "normal" people do?



I see that I fluctuate in a 10 to 20 pound range most of the time, eating off-plan, so if I were planning to lose 100 pounds, should I just lose 120, so I can go back to eating in a way that I consider "normal" for me, and still stay down where I want to be?



I am not trying to take a combative stance here against Atkins. I am actually doing Atkins. I just have real questions.



Medusa