Glad you're feeling better.

Next time (and there WILL be a next time, but not for a while probably) a great way to get back into ketosis is to exercise and eat a lot of fat.

You can recover from a brief cheat and feel better within HOURS if you do this. Bodybuilders do this on purpose on some plans (NHE, TKD, CKD), and it really does work.

Okay?

;)

- Built

Atkins Icecream
 

Atkins Butter Pecan icecream is my favorite cheat. A week ago I indulged in an entire pint around TOM. I felt really bad but I could not stop. I used to down pints of mint chocolate chip icecream for sport before I began this woe. I felt extra guilty b/c I knew I was sliding back into an old habit. Anyway, this thread should be huge support in my moments of weakness.

I also have a thing for sunflower seeds...lots and lots of them... :yum:

Is it okay to have a "treat" once a week? Me and my fiance have been "cheating" once a week by getting like...a piece of chocolate cake and sharing it every friday. But then the rest of the week we stay under 20 net carbs. But then on Friday we "treat" ourselves to some kind of treat. Is that okay?

Hi Everyone...I haven't been on this site for quite a few months now....and I need someone to talk too....

When I first started LC'ing in 2002, I was doing great and went from 277 lbs to 240 lbs....and then I don't know what the heck happened!? I think I just slipped back into my old habits, it seemed so easy...and I weighed myself a month ago and I was back up to 270 lbs. So I buckled down, re-read the Protein Power book cover to cover again and started to lose the weight again...back down to 260 Lbs now...

Last night I did a nightshift (Police Dispatcher) and I thought I could make it all the way home without stopping for a coffee (decaf, no sugar) like I usually do. I drove for 30 minutes, only half way there, and caught myself falling asleep behind the wheel.

I stopped by a 7-11 and bought a coffee and while I was in there I saw a chocolate display with the 'crispy crunch latte' bars on it...it was weird....even though I know how bad they are...I felt like I was completely disassociated. I picked up two, bought them and went back to the car. I even sat in the car and looked at them for a minute telling myself that I shouldn't eat them...that I was doing so well...that I didn't want to go back to not being able to fit in my pants, sweating going up the stairs...not being able play with my 5 year old...

And then I ate both.

God. I feel terrible..I don't know why I did it. I thought I had more willpower than that. I don't know why...I just don't....

Help.

John

Chocoholic?
 

John,

Roger that! I know exactly where you're coming from, in the past I've walked past chocolate or other snack displays in a shop and thought "Naah, no thanks." and yet by the time I got to the counter, I was holding a little treat (or two, or five) for myself. An hour later I'd be kicking myself, totally disgusted with myself and feeling guilty and depressed. Why can't I "just say no"? Well?:

I honestly do believe that I am a sugar (carb) addict, if something is stronger than your conscious willpower - then that has to be an addiction. Not a pleasant thought, admitting to addiction, but my logic is that if I can't stop eating junk, I must be a junky.

I had to make the same admission to myself recently about smoking, sucessfully quitting after a 20 a day 25 year addiction. I'm now applying exactly the same techniques and mindset I learned to break my nicotine addiction, to my lc regime. And boy does it work.

Take last night, like yourself, driving home I was tired and hungry, so I pulled over to a petrol (gas) station. I told myself there is only one rule "You can have as much of *anything* you want, as long as it is low or zero carb."

Well, a diet soda and two packs of pork scratchings (combined carb 0g) certainly hit the spot. And I didn't glance twice at the millions of other sweet or carby temptations that I would once have drooled over. Didnt even cross my mind.

I won't say "dont feel bad", but keep hold of that feeling and try to remember it next time. I take every negative emotion about myself I experienced after "just one cigarette can't hurt" all those times I was *trying* to quit and load them into the moment I'm now tempted to take a puff - it helps me discipline myself to say no.

Another thought, I know from my own chocolate consumption (and I can binge well over 2kg of the stuff in one sitting) that the following rule now applies to me:

One mouthful is too many, a thousand isn't enough.

Do I want the thousands that go with that first "just one"? No. So don't take that first one. Simple, but very difficult... :(

Peter.

Addicted to chocolate
 

I'm also addicted to chocolate. I've been low carbing for 3 months now. I weighed 255lbs and now I weigh 222lbs. Sometimes when I NEED chocolate, and a atkins bar just won't do, I chew a brownie, or a snickers bar - all the way to the end - and spit the whole thing out. Chew each bite really good, being careful not to swallow, and then spit it out. Sometimes when I get weak, I throw it up after - and because of that I NEVER cheat because I don't want to have to throw it up after. :yum:

Okay, lowcarbbab, you're slipping into bulimic behaviour. This is NOT a normal thing to do to "recover" from a "binge", however small. Please get yourself some help here, before it gets worse and develops into a habit.

Okay?

Vacation did it for me. I hadn't cheated in 5 months, at all, and really wasn't feeling tempted. Or not enough anyways to actually cheat. And I did well: 25 lbs!

And then from one day to another, I got fed up and frustrated with not eating what I really wanted (which is always what you can't have, right?). It was like I didn't care anymore.

My DB is now at goal (he also lost 25 lbs) so he has more freedom of choice in the matter than I do. So we both went on a binge. A controlled one, for the most part, but we ate in 10 days 5 meals that included sugar and the evil fried potatoe as well as just one donut, then another two the next day and we ended up buying a dozen a couple days later (it was cheaper that way...:rolleyes: ). We got some bread, a no-fat/no-sugar kind, low-sugar yogurt and still managed a somewhat lc meal: chicken breasts covered in a spaghetti sauce that contained lots of veggies with mozz to grate in the oven (superb, BTW :yum: ) but we also had garlic toast with that (really good) bread.

So not all was lost. There was actually some gain... 5 lbs. Constipation (still, and this was a week ago). And I'm PMS'ing.

I really don't want to give up yogurt again. Bread, I can live without. I really like this breakfast: 1/2 cup (no-sugar) yogurt, 1 tbs peanut butter, 1/2 cup (no-sugar) cereal and 1/2 cup of berries. I've been eating this forever to "insure" a good day, except for the past 5 months. I really miss it. How bad can it be?

I was beginning to gain confidence and this event shook it. I have noticed an negative internal discourse (telling myself I'm bad, I'll never make it, why bother, no wonder I'm so fat, etc), and have been fighting to keep it down.

I was getting away with losing weight without actually working out. Before this "binging". Those days seem to be over.

I need a plan.

Thanks for letting me think this through here. Thanks for sharing your stories.

Still struggling,

Charlie

eww...
 

ok, so i was on vacation for the past week. I ate like a pig. It was out of control. I feel like i totally ruined my diet and put on 10 pounds in one week.
" is that possible"? i feel awful and gross now.
I think i did it because i was so stressed out being around my X.
I know there is no excuse..... I just wanted to vent

I cheated on Halloween. I just couldn't help myself! I've been on the Atkins for 4 months with no slip ups, but Halloween is my favorite holiday - I ate so much candy I threw up from carb overload! I went back on the next day - November 4, and I'm kind of happy that I slipped - because it re-motivated me to start induction. I lost alot of weight in induction and I was in a weight slump prior to Halloween.

hi this is day eight for me on atkins thanks 4 all the good advice it really helps i often think about cheating ,but im seeing such great results but it is really hard because im a junk food junky,any good ideas out there im flying out to n.y and want to be on my p and qs

I cheated today and had a bagel w. a few pieces of cheese and chocolate. Talk about feeling bloated and fat, I'm back to eating heatlhy tomorrow. I'm going to exercercise shortly. I calculated how many calories I injested today and it's around 2100 give or take 300 calories. Wow! I feel mega huge. Water retention from pms does little to help.

I cheated for four months!!!!!
 

I was doing so well. Over two years on Atkins. I fended off snoopy relatives who worried every time I took my sandwich out of the bun and made a big deal about it at the table. I ended a long bout with heartburn and plantar fascitis. I had lost about 40 pounds. Then, as I was trying to find my ACE balance, I regained 5 pounds. Then, we had two family members critically ill. I remember the exact moment in the buffet line after my aunt's funeral, one week before Christmas. I was so tired of denying myself during the holidays, and during so stressful a time. I was also drinking too much wine. So, I regained 20 of the hard-lost pounds in the four months. I am so bummed.

I am back on induction. I feel fine. I don't miss the wine at all, and after one more surgery for my little nephew, and a trip to University Hospitals at five in the morning, I stayed on it. I have to learn not to indulge myself during stress. I do miss candy, and chocolate. The maltitol and sorbitol candies kill my stomach, and make me have unpleasant noises. However, I will just avoid these kinds of things. Wish me luck!

Write down everything. The odds are, if you've been "clean" for a long time, a cheat will make you feel very ill. When we're tempted to give into the foods we're addicted to, we forget the "bad" and focus on the "good." By writing things down, we connect different parts of the brain together. It helps us to remember exactly what really happened, in terms of nausea, headache, sneezing and excessive mucous, and of course good old-fashioned emotional guilt.