Up until now, the only time I "cheated" was on a hot day, when I was severely dehydrated and felt I was about to pass out. I had been doing a lot of exercise and was away from home. So, fearing the consequences of not "cheating", I had a few licks of a lollipop and an apple to get me back up. I don't really count this experience as cheating since I didn't give into any temptations (I did not desire the food I ate), and only did it out of a perceived medical necessity.

But, yesterday was my first real cheat. The fam decided to buy chinese, my #1 MAJOR weakness. I ordered bbq spare rib tips, and told the guy taking my order i was diabetic, so don't put any sauce, sugar, or cornstarch of any kind on them. (i figure if they think its for a health reason they actually will listen )
Well, the ribs get here and I noticed they have a reddish coating; they didn't have a goopy sauce, but clearly were marinated in something. I took a small taste, and tasted sugar. ()
I asked others to taste and see if they detected sugar, and got varying answers, some said yes and others said no (the answer I WANTED to hear).

So, I let my weakness get the best of me, going against my gut instinct, I decided to have a few of the ribs . I was on my fourth or fifth one when i started to get that carby feeling... it is almost like breathing too much oxygen. It was then when I realized what I was doing, and pushed them away. I was major pissed at myself, I knew from the beginning that there was probably sugar on them but I purposely chose not to listen. I gave in to temptation . Later I felt pretty sleepy, as expected, but luckily I did not go out of ketosis so damage was very minimal . Actually, the next day my clothes felt a little bigger so it wasn't a total disaster.

Up until now I always thought I was above giving in to food temptations... how naive. Now I know I really have to watch my tendency to justify and facilitate cheating, as I did in this case.

I don't think you should be so hard on yourself.. it's not like you didn't try to minimize the carbs by NOT asking them to leave off the obvious source of carbs.

I think it's funny how peoples ideas of what "cheating" is vary SO much! You're worried over a matter of (I'm guessing) 20-30 g of carbs, probably MUCH less, and some people consider cheating eating a whole pie....

You learned from it, so chalk it up to experience, and don't let it bother you. You're doing GREAT, and you're smart to figure out what led you to a poor choice, so you're ready to move forward!

I cheated yesterday.
Was having lunch with some friends, my flatmate provided the most amazing hot chocolate sauce, and some great summer fruit sauce too.
I had a small waffle with LOADS of double cream and some of the fruit, and then a spoonful of icecream with a bit of the choccie sauce.
MAN it was good.
It was even better when I got on the scale this morning. Down 0.8kg....


Steven

It's funny how you described that carby feeling like 'taking in too much oxygen'. That's exactly what it feels like for me too. You've hit the nail on the head!

ItsTheWoo, I find it's often helpful to put a positive spin on these occurances. Learning from mistakes can mean the difference between making it on this WOL and not. You had the sugary/carby meal and you did not enjoy the experience - next time this is presented to you, you'll know what to expect, right?

Don't beat yourself up about it in retrospect, it serves no purpose. Just keep the experience in mind and keep your water intake up and you'll be right back on track.

Cheers,
-Nat

dont sweat it...i did much worse last night...went to my first wedding...was doing ok untill i saw the dessert table (atleast 100 diff kinds! i love huge greek families that feel the need to homebake everything!!)...soi told my mom how tempted i was and she said "it wont kill u to just cheat tonight, its a wedding and uve done awesome on this diet so far, dont make urself crazy over this"...ok so i went overboard and had cheesecake, wedding cake, wine, cookies, fruit...man it was GOOD, tho i had a major tummy ache after. When i got home that night i felt super guilty. I still do now. But, im back to my old atkins self and im determined that this was a one time thing....hell, i need to live a lil sometimes, im a 20 year old college student! I went for a run this morning, doing my crunchies and other ab workouts and im not gonna kill myself over this.

Just think of it this way, you found out how yucking sugar can make you feel, that will help you make it through some other temptations in the future. No harm done.
cheers Kathy