Cheating once in a while?

[not2late]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

Thanks for the advice guys. It's not always as simple as baking a low carb cake because everybody is not on my lifestyle. It's hard not to be able to go out with my wife
once In a while to celebrate events in our life and try to find a resturant fitting to my diet. I think to be realistic one has realize you can't eat thus way 100% of the time. I've decided to come off for the special occasion and then right back on my wol

As long as you have read and understood the section, "Outside your home", in Chapter 19: Eating in the Real World and that you understand what Dr. Atkins writes in the final paragraph of that section:

Let me warn you again that going off the diet for just one meal could set you back for nearly a week in regard to weight loss.

Then good luck to you. You might be one of those lucky people who can go off the diet for a meal (or two) once (or more) every month (or week) and still can resume their Atkins and carry on.

But as I wrote in my initial post, during OWL and Pre-Maintenance you are not "cheating" if that food is on your Rung or on the Rungs you have gone through. That's one of the perks about OWL and Pre-Maintenance----you have a wider variety of food that you can eat.

[ziggy]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

its really hard for me to cheat on this diet the rungs allow so many foods but also when ever i big time cheat i really feel sick really crappy and sick

just remembering the last time i cheated is horrible.. i ate these refined white corn / whole wheat tortilla chips.. it was awful i gained 5 pounds of water weight and felt terrible i hate feeling like that why would anyone want to cheat and feel like ****

and to cheat by eating some cake? name one person who has not gotten diarrea after eating cake

[dublin13]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

plan 1 cheat maybe once a week on say a sunday. cake, sweets, mcdonalds etc. make it one portion or meal and leave it at that for the week. next day cut back a bit on carbs and maybe extra 20-30mins exercise. if you restrict your self too much and are too strict you,ll just end up driving yourself back to the carbs alot more and wasted your time on atkins. you can plan a cheat meal/snack to reduce the carbs. for example say a mcdonalds, have the burger meat and chips without the bun,

[Georgiana]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

plan 1 cheat maybe once a week on say a sunday. cake, sweets, mcdonalds etc. make it one portion or meal and leave it at that for the week. next day cut back a bit on carbs and maybe extra 20-30mins exercise. if you restrict your self too much and are too strict you,ll just end up driving yourself back to the carbs alot more and wasted your time on atkins. you can plan a cheat meal/snack to reduce the carbs. for example say a mcdonalds, have the burger meat and chips without the bun,

That is great advice...

... if you want someone not to be successful on Atkins.

The diet you suggest is certainly NOT Atkins!

[not2late]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

Hey Ziggy....if you can find whole grain tortilla chips or make your own from masa harina, it's acceptable to eat during OWL.

Even those chips/french fries from McDonalds is acceptable to eat during OWL---as I wrote, during OWL and Pre-Maintenance if that food is acceptable for the Rungs you are on, then it's an okay food to eat, not a cheat.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

Thanks for the advice guys. It's not always as simple as baking a low carb cake because everybody is not on my lifestyle. It's hard not to be able to go out with my wife
once In a while to celebrate events in our life and try to find a resturant fitting to my diet. I think to be realistic one has realize you can't eat thus way 100% of the time. I've decided to come off for the special occasion and then right back on my wol

life is full of events to celebrate. Celebrate the love and friendships you share with your family friends and coworkers and skip the high carb foods being served.

you and your wife can go out and clebrate the changes you are both making in your lives becoming smaller and healtheir so you can grow old together and continue to celebrate life's events together. Let the healthy foods you chose be fuel for your body and that longevity and not the celebrated event.

[mission to lose]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

life is full of events to celebrate. Celebrate the love and friendships you share with your family friends and coworkers and skip the high carb foods being served.

you and your wife can go out and clebrate the changes you are both making in your lives becoming smaller and healtheir so you can grow old together and continue to celebrate life's events together. Let the healthy foods you chose be fuel for your body and that longevity and not the celebrated event.

Hi 2BIG,

Just want to say your post is simple but so true...and I hope all of us can someday truly accept and follow those thoughts. Thank you.

[BigBilly]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

Well I cheated on Saturday night. We went out and ate sushi with friends and I had a low carb beer. Sunday and today I am back on my atkins plan with no slipups.

There was not much I could eat at that restuarant because evrything contained rice or some kind of sauce on it.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

Did they have sashimi?

[not2late]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

During the Grains Rung of OWL or Pre-Maintenance, sushi is an acceptable food...not a "cheat".

[not2late]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

After reading my curt reply, it looks like I'm being a smart-aleck. But let me explain......

When we do Atkins, we have a tendency to think that the Induction Phase is the ENTIRE Atkins Diet; that we are forever condemned to eating only what's on the Induction Acceptable Foods List; that we will never, ever, ever be able to eat foods like rice or corn chips; that if we eat any food that isn't on the Induction Acceptable Foods list we are "Cheating" on our diet.

These ideas are absolutely false! When we move to OWL and Pre-Maintenance, those foods are fair game. With the exception of pure sugar products (honey, maple syrup, etc.) most foods are totally acceptable for these Atkins Phases and eating a potato chip isn't a "cheat"----it's an acceptable food for that OWL Rung.

I've seen too many Atkineers who think "Oh no.....I can't eat pineapple because it's not a part of the Atkins Diet. But I really want to eat the pineapple, so I'll treat myself this once and I promise to restart Induction tomorrow morning." So tomorrow comes and they restart induction. And the following week, when they are confronted with a potato chip, they think "Oh no....I can't eat potatoes because they aren't a part of the Atkins Diet. But I have no choice but to eat that potato chip. So I'll eat the chip and restart Induction tomorrow." So again, they restart Induction. An every single time they are confronted with a food challenge, they 'cheat' and restart Induction, never progressing past OWL Rung 1 (or 2 if they are lucky).

That's not the way to look at the ATkins Diet. Restarting and restarting and restarting Induction because they cheat with OWL legal foods gets them no where.

What they should be thinking is "WooHoo! When I move to the Other Fruit Rung, I'll be able to have pineapple! So I think I'll move up the ladder." Looking at Atkins as so restrictive that you have to "cheat" in order to eat a strawberry or drink a martini reinforces the idea that Atkins is a "diet", not a way of eating.

Don't get caught into this "ATkins is a diet that I have to do so I can lose weight but it's so hard to follow I can never eat in a restaurant because I have limited food choices so this forces me to cheat because Atkins is too restrictive and I cannot eat certain foods because Atkins is too restrictive" circular reasoning. Atkins will ONLY be restrictive if YOU choose to make it restrictive.

Don't be afraid to move up the ladder. If you are not afraid that a "cheat meal" will set your weight loss back, then you should not be afraid that a controlled amount of carbs will set your loss back.

[Elizellen]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

What a great post, Megs

[JaxMama]

Re: Cheating once in a while?

Hey Big Billy, I am one of those that started a debate like this in late jan/early feb. I didn't know it would be an issue until I got my replies.

My advice is to make sure you know yourself well enough to be able to do that one cheat and get back on. If that one cheat will send you out of control don't do it. I don't know how long you have actually been doing the plan but I noticed with me the longer I am, the harder it is to break.

But Saturday I was at a wedding, and planned on not eating the cake but unfortunetly I did because their meal did not fill me up (and I did not eat enough before the wedding). So my initial plan back fired. I am paying for it now, 3 days later. I never got out of ketosis (checked like 5 times in 3 days and registered on the sticks) luckily but the scale is up a tiny bit.

I knew when I ate it, it would be a week's struggle to lose weight. You just have to prepare yourself for that.

Best wishes.