The day that I began to relax on the plan was the day that I was more successful at the plan.
Case in point: I was obsessed with LC during my first time around at it; truly obsessed. I thought about the diet 24x7. I read and re-read DANDR and Protein Power. I did Fitday. I created and assiduously maintained spreadsheets and graphs that charted just about everything related to my weight loss.
I think we all get this way, at first. And I think that we need to be, at least at first and during induction, so that we can train ourselves to our new way of eating.
A cautionary tale: the downside to this for me is that I continued to expect induction-level losses, so therefore I continued to eat near-induction level foods for too long—about four months. And once I had one "cheat", I spiraled out of control. My one "cheat" turned into a six-month long hiatus from LC.
Now I'm on my second time around and I am both older and wiser. I did induction for just one week to "prime" my body, and went straight to OWL/pre-maintenance. And I know that this might make some purists shudder, but I actually have planned "cheats". (Once per month I will have one meal where I will have whatever I want. Note that this isn't a cheat day. It's just one meal—maybe a cheat
hour at best.)
And to make some purists shudder even more, I do have the occasional piece of fruit that's in season. Plus I even have beans here and again, or bite (just a bite or two, nothing more) of rice or potato.
But I still eschew flour and sugar.
This is what works for me. Is my weight loss a little slower? Yes. But it's slow and steady. Yet more importantly, this for me is a way of life that I can live with.
-G.
p.s. YMMV