I read in another lowcarb forum website this morning a question from a poster saying it was her birthday and she wanted to know if it was okay to have a pina colada and cheesecake at Red Lobster. Well, you can imagine the responses she got! Anyway, as I was reading, I was thinking, “Why would she want to eat THAT!? YUCK!” And then I realized, what am I saying? Yuck to pina coladas and sugar -laden cheesecake? What is WRONG with me? And then I realized…..NOTHING! I am fine. I realized that after six months on Atkins, I’ve internalized this way of eating so well, that the thought of ‘cheating’ is repulsive to me. Now you have to understand that I’ve been dieting for 40++ years, with varying degrees of short- and long-term success. I even lost 97 lb on OptiFast 20 years ago. But in all those years, through all those diets, I never actually lost my cravings for forbidden foods. Whether I was eating them or not, I ALWAYS wanted them. I was always fighting cravings. When I was on OptiFast, I actually used to prowl the aisles of grocery stores, planning what I would eat when I came off the program.

But now, I can’t even conceive of coming ‘off the program’. There is no program. This is just the way I eat, and I really, really don’t want to eat any other way! Do you know how AMAZING it is to suddenly have 40 years of food cravings disappear? Yuck to Red Lobster Cheesecake? Just Amazing!!!! I am so very grateful to Atkins and all the great people on these sites who are helping me along this path.