Also, I think there's a big difference between a cheat and a binge. If you eat a cookie, that's a cheat. If you eat five cookies and a sandwich and a coke and a piece of cake, that's a binge. Eating small quantities of carb-containing foods at a special holiday meal is a cheat; eating whomping portions of everything and munching on the leftovers for days is a binge. It's about how much you ate, and whether you planned and controlled it, and how long it lasted, and why you did it to start with.

Most of the "cheats" I see around here are really more like binges, and not everyone does that, by a long shot. I "cheat" occasionally, but within some pretty strict parameters -- it's planned out beforehand, involves a special occasion or food, and is limited to a single serving or less of carbage. But I'm basically in maintenance mode, am not a carboholic, and have been LCing nearly a year. I've never pigged out on a bunch of junk because I'm unhappy, or eaten one bad thing and then kept going because I've blown it for the day. And when I do cheat, I recognize that it's not a good thing, but something outside the parameters of my normal, good, clean eating. I don't want anyone to tell me it's OK afterwards, because it's not; it's not the end of the world either, but it is something to be regarded as hazardous and avoided if possible.

Supportive is good and all, but I don't think it's ultimately helpful to downplay the fact that cheating is bad. When you write it off with "everyone does it", that's exactly what you're doing -- making it seem like it's just no big deal. I don't agree with that viewpoint, because I think going off-plan is a big deal. If you think it through and decide it's still worth doing, well, it's your responsibility to make your own choices. If you just screw up, I think you need to at least do a little contemplating of your goals, your motivations, and your weaknesses, and blowing off the cheat doesn't encourage that.