Thanksgiving (US) is coming... Looking forward to cheating.
 

I've been so, so, so good for three months now and have lost 29 pounds! Yay me! I have absolutely dedicated myself to this WOE by staying on plan and studying every bit of information I can on the subject of the lowcarb way of life. This IS a way of life, and one that I plan to stick with forever.

So, that being said... I absolutely, 100% plan to cheat next Thursday. And maybe the Wednesday before while I'm cooking. And probably that Friday as well. I'm eating pecan pie, REAL mashed potatoes and as much of my mother's stuffing as I can handle. And Friday, when we take a break from shopping black friday, I fully intend to have french fries with whatever it is I have for lunch.

I'm nervous, though I plan NOT to change my mind about cheating, especially because I fell off the diet three years ago right at Thanksgiving and haven't been back to that weight since. The difference between then and now, though, is that I DO realize this is a way of life and I DO plan to stick with low carb, aside from holidays and special occassions, for the rest of my life.

How do you all handle the holidays? Who else is planning to cheat?

I don't plan on cheating. I've liked the downward trend on the scale too much lately to sacrifice it. Luckily, I don't like a ton of the Thanksgiving trimmings. I do, however, like pie, but I don't think we'll even have one this year lol.

Good luck and ENJOY!

I'm making a lower-carb pie. I've found from experience that trying to cheat during the holidays is not worth it. I get re-addicted to the carbs and eat way more of them than I had intended to.

I've also had no luck with cheating during the holidays - the holiday seems to magically extend for months. I just stick with the plan, maybe eat more of certain items than I normally would but everything is "legal for low-carb".

For me, the "enjoyment" of the off-plan foods just isn't worth the loss of control and weight gain that have inevitably followed. And this time I've worked too dam hard to get where I am to risk it now.

It will be interesting to see how you feel on Saturday!!!! :agree:

Thanksgiving is the one meal where I don't cheat. I usually concoct a low carb dessert and eat turkey. I'm also participating in a 5 mile turkey trot race that morning. I never stuff myself, it makes me feel gross.

Sooooo.....if you're already nervous, you already know you're vulnerable, you've already done this once and took a header, WHY would you even think about "trying" it again.

There will always be a birthday, there will always be a holiday...there will always be "something"...for those of us who have done this before and have found some measure of success, we changed the paradigm of our thinking...there is no "aside from special occassions or holidays"...this IS how we eat for the rest of our lives if we're planning on staying successful. I'm just sayn....

I guess I just don't understand why you have to have such a blow-out for days on end---choose certain items and limit them to a meal that would be moving toward really making this a WOE....JMO and you know what opinions are like;)

Progres not perfection.

Lisa

PS--you may want to read this thread:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=434367

I'm cheating and proud of it! LOL :lol: ... but Thanksgiving day only. I'm going to have some stuffing (my fav), mac and cheese, and a pc of pumpkin pecan cheesecake. I've been looking forward to this for a while!

Well I don't especially plan to "cheat" but I'll probably eat more than I normally do, as I have for most Thanksgivings. But it's not an all-out carb fest. I've never much cared for mashed potatoes. They always taste like mashed wallpaper paste to me, so no issues skipping them. I have no problems at all with skipping bread. Bread has no siren call for me. I won't have the rice with the shrimp creole being served the pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday dinner.

On Thanksgiving day itself I *will* have the turkey, and some creamed spinach, and some of the brussels sprouts dish. But I'll probably have a slice of pumpkin pie, and a glass of wine.

Thanksgiving is at our house, so the meal is basically all low-carb with the exception of some mashed potatoes made by friends and vegetarian shepard's pie that my cousin is making. Everything else is LC. Besides the turkey, we are having mashed cauliflower, green bean casserole (homemade cream of mushroom sauce, no french fried onions), roasted butternut squash, LC sausage stuffing, a pumpkin bake, shepard's pie, sugar-free cranberry sauce, homemade applesauce, and a LC pumpkin cheesecake. No need to cheat when everything we're having is tasty. I'll probably have wine and more dairy and more food than I do on a normal day, but we won't be having high-carb stuffing or pie or anything like that.

I think it is wise if you miss some of the high-carb holiday foods to think carefully about which ones you miss the most, have a small amount of those at Thanksgiving dinner...and then no more the rest of the weekend. In your case with your history of TG prompting you to fall off the wagon, you may be playing with fire. Some of us have the ability to go off-plan for a meal and then get right back on but not everyone can. If you are one of the people who can't, then you shouldn't cheat. If you still have insulin resistance, you shouldn't cheat since it could send you right back to where you started.

--Melissa

After being low-carb for awhile you may find the having is not as desirable as the anticipation of getting.

I've been at this for over 4 years, maintaining for 3 and I also totally do cheat for the holidays!! However, I do it for the day of Thanksgiving only. The next day, I may have some turkey, sweet potatoes and green beans, but I limit the cheating to the one day only. I do the same for Christmas usually.

I almost talk to myself about it beforehand, I know I cannot do that everyday, but I do allow myself to feast well on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I splurge every few months on a dessert or treat of some sort. I usually do have it planned so I know what to expect ahead of time. If you feel you are strong enough to know when to say when, go for it!

I wanted to add too, that on T-day, my "cheat" food is usually a spoonful of stuffing that i make using cornbread, shrimp, and sausage, and a slice of pie. The other foods on our menu really aren't bad at all. We usually will eat again later that night while the football game is on.

I also plan on eating things I normally would not. I don't think of it as cheating though or as treating myself. Having one day a month of eating non lol carb is part of my plan. I plan on two days off for Christmas. This works for me because otherwise I really set my self up for disaster. I am always on plan 100% the rest of the time. I don't even eat low carb "treats" I have added one packet of splenda in my coffers (just to be super honest) and that is my "splurge" if you will. Everyone is different. Make a plan and try to stick too it. Find what works for you. If you go off your plan get back on as soon as possible. I like having a free day to look forward to, its feels right to me. Hopefully you have a nice thanksgiving feel good about your self and find out if "cheating" is something you can do happily.

I think it's fairly easy to have a nice thanksgiving meal without going to either extreme (fully cheating or staying extremely low carb). I do believe there is a middle ground!

Ideal TG fare for me would be prime rib, green beans drenched in butter, hors dourves like smoked salmon and shrimp, and maybe some SF pumpkin pie minus the crust or homemade cheesecake with splenda in it. I'd also have a glass or two of wine.

Part of learning how to stick with this woe is getting to the point where you don't freak out when a special occasion comes up and there's tons of carby food around.

TBH, most desserts really gross me out now. I like flan and creme brulee on occasion, but a lot of it is hard to stomach. I've become way too sensitive to the high amounts of sugar.

My plan for any holiday meal is simple. :)
I eat what I want, 1 serving spoon size portion goes onto my plate of each dish I want to have along with turkey. Once I've eaten all the food on my plate, I wait 20 minutes and if I really still want seconds, I have a little more turkey.
3 bites of a dessert and I'm done! :agree:

I could see indulging on the meal itself; but you are planning THREE DAYS.

• So you are really going to not indulge on the weekend, too? Really?
• Most have learned that one meal, especially in moderation, is festive, but several in a row leads to bloating, stomachache, headache, and gas issues with cramps. Not my idea of a good time.
• I've found there is a low carb substitute for ANYTHING. And it makes me feel good after.
• You've already had a holiday screwup. What are you doing differently this time to keep from messing up?

Myself, I'm making turkey breast, Waldorf salad, some low carb dessert, and wine, with sweet potato. And I'm going to enjoy every minute.

We all have to learn how to handle holidays. In a way that works.

I don't cheat on holidays, but that's easy for me: my wife and I don't have local family to contend with, and I'm no longer tempted by the carbage my wife eats. Besides, I've been down that road before, and I've crashed too often.

My goal for this holiday season is to stay ON PLAN 100% because I have been to goal weight twice already over the past 8 years and EVERY time I went off plan it was because I decided it would be okay to indulge in high carb foods over the holidays. Does. Not. Work. For. Me!

I have found acceptable lc substitutes for just about anything I would want/usually have, so it won't be hard for me to stay the course. I may have a few more lc desserts and I may eat a few more carbs than normal and I may gain a couple lbs from that....but I refuse to end up with those nasty cravings that always turn into me never really getting back to my woe and then gaining weight back.

For me this really HAS to be a way of life - one that I really do stick with forever. Even on the holidays.

There really is. I actually think low-carb stuff tastes better.

My favorite trick is to eat enough meat and veggies first until I'm somewhat stuffed. And then I decide whether I want the other stuff. It's so much easier to deny eating dessert when your stomach is nice and full.

Like I said before, I now look at this WOE as a WOL and plan to stick with it forever... Trust me, considering I've been back and forth with this diet for over 10 years now, I know how my body reacts when I'm completely on plan, and I know how it acts when I'm off and it finally clicked with me that this is the way I want to live. It's just not realistic for me to say, however, that I am never ever ever going to have any of the higher carb foods that come with thanksgiving ever again. The last time I went off plan I thought of it as such a chore to go back on, and suddenly time was ticking away and I just couldn't force myself to go back to it. This time I don't think of it as a chore, but just as the way that I eat.

When I mentioned that I was going to have pie and mashed potatoes and stuffing, I didn't mean that I was going to jump into a vat full of a combination of the three of them and then try to eat my way out of it, but I do plan to have some of all of them and I DO plan to enjoy a higher carb meal on Friday before I go back on plan.

What's realistic for ME is knowing that, every once in a while, I am going to eat these foods. But major holidays, birthdays and anniversaries come only a few times a year and are the perfect time to plan cheats, in my opinion. I AM nervous about seeing the weight gain I will have after a couple of days, but that doesn't make it any less worth it to me.


So to all of us cheaters out there - On Thursday, viva la stuffing! On Friday, or maybe Saturday, viva la bacon! :)

Hell yes I plan on cheating! This is Thanksgiving, for crying out loud. I will eat whatever I want on Thursday and Friday, and I will enjoy it and go right back to my WOE on Saturday.

Hubby and I have a planned Cheat Day every 40 days. I usually follow my Cheat Day with an 18 hour fast and return to ketosis in about 36 hours. I haven't had any problems with cravings or whatever. I don't expect anything different with Thanksgiving.

The one thing hubby and I have decided to do on Thanksgiving (we discussed this last night) is to take 2 spoonfuls (not SERVING spoons LOL) of each food we put on our dinner plate, and 2 spoonfuls each of dessert later (there are usually half a dozen different desserts served on holidays - big foodie family!). Our stomachs have shrunk so much that we get full FAST. I have NOT missed that miserable, over-stuffed food coma that was a daily occurrence in our previous WOE and I don't want to end Thanksgiving that way.

Eat, drink, and be merry! I'll see ya back here on Saturday. :D And then we'll carry on with the rest of our lives low carbin'! If you are nervous about falling off the wagon long-term like last time, we can agree to meet back here on Saturday morning and reaffirm all the reasons we want to keep losing and getting healthier and healthier. :) Your progress has been fantastic!

I guess a lot of people such as myself have a problem with not having structure. In this case, there are some major holidays where most people would pig out on carbs: Christmas, new years eve, thanksgiving, valentines day, halloween, easter, independence day, birthdays, weddings, family get-togethers. This is my problem. It is very difficult for me to say "This is ____ occasion and it's okay for me to eat these foods." I've done that many many times and it turned into a vicious cycle because there are so many of those occasions. And then I start to make little excuses in between holidays. Maybe this is some form of carb creep?

To the rest of you who can do it, enjoy your meals. It will be a great Thanksgiving :-)

Thanksgiving is at my house every year (as is every other holiday it seems, lol) and I began cooking on Wednesday. I must admit that I LOVE it though. All the yummy smells that come from the kitchen and family over. While I do cheat on my "diet", I actually love the atmosphere more than anything.

For all of you that love your cocktails at the holidays like I do, my little secret is Baja Bob's drink mixes. You can google his website. They are ALL awesome and most are 0 carb, 0 calorie, 0 sugar with the exception of pina colada and I think mudslide. Those are still very low carb, like 4 per serving. You just add the liquor which is either clear rum, vodka, or tequila depending on what it calls for, and club sodas for mojitos. You have yourself a delicious cocktail that is not a cheat, and it's sweetened with splenda. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Thanks! Yea, let's definitely meet here on Saturday - it's a date! Have a wonderful holiday and ENJOY.



Also, who makes the decisions about moving posts? I posted it in the lowcarb community because that was the audience I wanted opinions from. I'm seriously annoyed...

Rather than planning to cheat, I put the planning into my dinner itself. I make a lot of dishes that I can eat without cheating. The recipe forums here have tons of ideas and recipes. I'm intending to make low carb brownies for my dessert. Yes, Pecan pie is great, but I can live without.

The one issue with cheating, especially planning to cheat for days on end, is that they may not end... it might just go on and on.

My first Thanksgiving eating low carb..... and no, I don't plan on "cheating"
feel no need.... I'm happy doing what I am doing
I have so many options of really great food

why???? for some mashed potatoes??
no thanks

Yeah, sometimes I disagree with which threads they choose to move. You're not confessing to cheating. You're making a calculated decision, which is a different thing.

Plus, aside from this not being a "confession" per se, we're having a discussion about how each of us approaches the holidays food-wise. I think this thread should go back to the General Low-carb section since everyone has their own take on the topic. It's completely relevant due to the massive amounts of holidays coming up plus all of the times that friends, coworkers, loved ones are going to try to push pastries and cookies on us and we'll have to know how to handle it.

Anyway GeeWee, I completely support you on what you said.

Yeah that's how I feel. Plus, I would prefer to eat high-fat foods over high carb ones. It would be nice though to have a sugar-free cheesecake or pumpkin pie sans crust.

The moderators may move any thread to a more appropriate section of the lowcarb forum, as they see fit. Please review the forum rules for more information.

Many readers in the daily support forums are struggling to stay on track, and find talk about cheating to be a trigger. That's what this subforum is for.


Doreen