Let's say that something triggers a mouth watering, gung hoe, all out, knock down urge to eat off plan. Maybe the fragrance of someone cooking, maybe a TV commercial, maybe a pleasant memory of times past. You can see the food, taste the food, even smell the food in your mind. Ohhhhhhhhhhh..you've just got to have some.

What will you say or do to break the chain before you fall?

If you fall, what will you say or do to halt the damage and get back on track?

Any good suggestions would help all of us.

Hi there. Well my mother would always tell me "was eating (fill in your favorite sugar filled food) really worth it? You spent 15 seconds chewing, and now its gone. You dont have it anymore to enjoy, and you couldve saved yourself the trouble of cheating if you just stopped and thought about it."

It really makes sense. We really only have food for the extent we eat it, and then its gone. What was really the point if you didnt need it. It really works for me! I hope this helps

This might seem a little juvenile, but what I do when the mood for, say, ice cream strikes is that I'll just go outside take only my keys but leaving my money, credit cards etc....to prevent me from buying anything. Usually, a short walk and the urge goes away.

I'll admit it...I almost always give in!! Then I will feel like sh*t for the rest of the day. But then I dust off my arse.....put my spurs back on (and yes I do have spurs that jingle jangle jengle!!!) and I climb back on that horse...until the next time he bucks me off on my arse!!!

Eddie, when you have a craving..have something similar low carb Like a fancy a$$ LC meal..or a dream LC Cheesecake with hot blueberry sauce..heck you can have such good food with LC there is no need to eat high glycemic foods. Maybe I am blessed that I never had a craving for "the old food" ..I am just so happy I can eat good stuff now...I don't starve anymore...and I am healthy and on my way to a thinner life

ps. I do have one habit..it is sort of LC...if you have a glass of it..I like to drink it by the bucket hehehe vino

For mild urgings for no-no food, I just do something else to distract me (work, cleaning, exercise, etc). For ultra strength cravings like that, I suggest finding something LC which will fill the void. Instead of getting a whole big slice of cake, purchase something LC that reminds you of it.

If LC just won't do, then what you need to do is quite simply have some of what you're craving. GASP, cheat!?!? Well, it's better than binging, right?
I think the most important thing is not to lose control, because you can only control weight if you have control of yourself. If all else fails and you just need to have it, it's better to vow to have a little bit in a controlled manner rather than just falling off plan and pigging out, I think.

Besides, I find just a taste of something is all I need. It's not so fun after a few spoonfuls you know.

try thinking about HOW FAR YOU'VE GOTTEN in your weight loss and think... "gee... is it REALLY worth it? i mean REALLY REALLY worth it." works for me. i've GOT to believe that logic will help me control my once out of control eating habits.

Sometimes I say to myself (out loud in a very sarcastic tone of voice) "What, don't you have any WILLPOWER?" I have always felt I was a person with strong willpower and I do not admire people who do not have willpower. (As an example, I have a friend who weighs about 300 lbs and he is always saying (as he's stuffing food in his face) "Oh, I just can't stop. I don't have any willpower.") I just think of how much I don't want to be like him.

This has been my thinking so far: I'm giving up almost everything I used to love. Honestly, eating isn't nearly as enjoyable as it once was for me. This WOE is a lot of work and bit of sacrifice. So it makes zero sense to me to stay on plan for 23 hours and 50 minutes just to ruin it for 10 minutes.

I tell myself that if I'm going to "suffer" for a whole day for this goal, then I'm just being stupid if I cheat for a few minutes. Why would I even bother at that point, ya know? I might as well just get up tomorrow and have a can of Chef Boyardee if I know I'm gonna be eating cherry pie by 8pm.

If I stayed on plan all day, then I've just wasted an entire day of my life on low carb by picking up the high carb treat.

Am I the only one who actually gives in and admits it????????? Well then I must be the only one who isn't perfect. I guess I better start lookin for a tamer horse!

We all have our weaknesses and if that is the case...you are missing out on a great friend who would probably stand behind you and cheer you on. Just because they have no willpower doesn't mean you still can't admire them.

Yes I have no willpower but I am one damn strong woman!

Bellybuton

You must have enough willpower because you have lost quite a bit of weight...we all just need to do whatever works for us and apparently you are!

I think that relying solely on the strength of your willpower to get you through something you regard as a struggle and a sacrifice is, in most cases, a way to set yourself up for failure. You're human, and sooner or later you're going to have a bad day, where something else is sapping up all your energy and willpower, and if you haven't rearranged your thinking vis-a-vis food and eating, you're very likely to rationalize your way off the wagon. Everyone's different in how they handle that situation -- some people can get right back on, some people beat themselves up about it, some people get thrown for a total loop -- but it's better if you can avoid it entirely by getting yourself out of the sufferance mindset.

This is doubly true because of all the possible ways to lose weight on this planet, LC involves about the least amount of denial. Unlike with very-low-calorie diets, you're getting enough food to satiate normal hunger levels, and the food you're eating is much tastier and more satisfying than fat-free. Yes, there are a few things you can't have, but I personally find it much easier to find ways around pasta and potatoes than, say, beef or real cheese. I've been at this for nearly two years now, and there are only a bare handful of things I really absolutely can't find my way around which involve chemical properties exclusive to sugar or flour (creme brulee, caramel, sponge cake). Sometimes just a matter of applying a little kitchen creativity to a vegetable-based substitute -- not just mashed cauliflower, but zucchini or eggplant "noodles", cauliflower "rice", radish hashbrowns, or turnip "potato" chips. As for pasta and breads, you can fit the LC substitutes into just about any level of carb intake, maybe not daily but at least occasionally, and the same is true for fruits, yogurts, and LC candies and homemade desserts. No, you can't eat everything you want all the time, but you don't have to resign yourself to never eating anything yummy at all, ever again.

Aside from a few natural ascetics, most of us can't eat nothing but protein, fat, and green veggies day-in-day-out, and keep our carbs and calories and nutrient percentages at the magic numbers every meal of every day, and avoid all artificial sweeteners and caffeine, and so-on-and-so-forth. If you're feeling denied and deprived, maybe you're trying too hard to be 100% perfect, and that's a sure recipe for burnout. It's also not a good way to make this a lifestyle, or to prepare yourself for your eventual transition to maintenance. You've got to decide what your own needs and tolerances are, and what it will take to make you feel non-denied, but it's important to plan in some kind of wiggle room somewhere.

I was the one who used the words "sacrifice" so it feels like the last post was aimed at me, but there's a lot of stuff there that isn't in response to anything I said. I'm really not sure, so I'll respond anyway.

I don't think I'm setting myself up for failure by understanding that I'm making a commitment to a lifestyle change. I'm a very black and white person, but that doesn't mean I'll never eat something with carbs. It simply means that the best way for ME to remind myself not to stray from my plan is to keep in mind that nothing is worth doing unless it's done RIGHT. I will not sabotage myself by saying, "oh.. it's no biggie if I cheat..." I have committed to being AWARE that everything I do will make an impact on my success.

Also, I don't feel "denied". I don't feel dejected and upset that I can no longer have an easy frozen dinner, but it still IS a sacrifice in many ways. It's a sacrifice of money (due to higher grocery bills), convenience (in preparing meals or eating on the run), and a sacrifice of many foods that were the staples in my life.

Sacrifice isn't always a BAD thing, but it is a consideration in deciding how valuable something is to me. I sacrificed dairy for 8 months for the health of my son. I was glad to do it, but it was still a sacrifice. I didn't have even the smallest amount of ANY type of dairy for 8 months (no, nothing, ever.. not at all). It would have made NO sense for me to sacrifice all the wonderful food I had to give up only to cheat and still end up causing my son an allergic reaction.

In the same way, it really doesn't make sense for me to commit to doing Atkin's with the thought planted firmly in my head that it's OK to cheat whenever I really want to cheat. I'm going to continue telling myself to do this RIGHT instead of telling myself that it's OK to fail. That way, if I "fail", my own negative thoughts won't be to blame.

Just as everyone has different triggers for cheating (for some it's a bad day, for others it's a good commercial) I don't think any one way would work for everyone, but some tips have come in handy for me (got over my emotional eating problems and STILL had weight problems, etc.)

Per Dana Carpender: Don't call it cheating. Cheating implies you might get away with it. But of course you don't. Does going downstairs at three in the morning and eating the ice cream standing up in the dark kitchen mean your body doesn't know it just got flooded with carbs? I think not.

You might tell yourself you are tempted because it is a source of enjoyment, and gosh darn, you hate not letting yourself enjoy something. It feels like deprivation! Can't have that.

THis is, however, a completely bogus way of thinking. What you are doing is CHOOSING a source of enjoyment. There are two, mutually exclusive, sources of enjoyment here: the minutes of eating goodies, and the rest of your life, which involves clothes, airline seats, and moving around. You ask yourself which source of enjoyment means the most to you.

And finally, are you wanting a goody because it seems like the only source of enjoyment readily available? This is another lie you have to get to the bottom of. There are so many other sources of enjoyment in life, putting cake up at the top seems ridiculous to me. And if something like that is at the top of the list...time to make a new list. A better one.