Nancy, have you ever felt like cheating? I'm just curious, There was that thread about "how often do you cheat" When I replied to it I was very new to LC. Cheating isnt something I plan to ever do, it's also not something I've ever been 'compelled' to do. No cravings or weak moment when sweets looked too good to pass up... my thinking when I read that post was "If I should ever want something like pasta or bread or whatever why does it have to be cheating.... if you make the informed choice to eat something not LC what makes it a cheat?" It's semantics, I know, but 'cheating' to me is giving yourself carte blanche to eat what you know isnt good for you and to not feel responsible for it. I would much rather accept the responsibility and the consequences and then move on. However at this point in time the consequences are not something I feel the need to have to deal with I'm happy with this WOE, heck, I'm on cloud 9. Interested in your take on this.

Nat

We all choose the paths in life that we take. We make our choices. The paths we take will take us to a desination. We choose to either stay on our path or step off our path.

In my little corner of the world things are very simple.

I have chosen a path.
It is not the path I used to take, it is a new path.
What is on this path is not what was on the old path.
To do what I used to do is to step off of this path.
I came to a fork in the road so to speak.
I made a choice.

Cheating? To me it's the old path calling. The whiney child in me, the part of me that doesn't want me to make change.
And what I associate with that part of me are feelings from a time and place before where I had no answers and felt frustrated and lost and alone, and I'll say it - FAT. I was also moody, unhealthy and very unhappy.
- this place, the
old path - contains nothing that I want for my life now, on my new path.

You need to want success more than any calling to the old path. If you take do as you did when on the old path, you will be only demonstrating that you are not 100% committed to your new choice for yourself. That despite all your talk, you have not given yourself completely to the new path.

Now I know this sounds very strange to some people. Religious, even FREAKY - It's not western thinking - it stems from the general philosophies of Buddism (I'm not buddist but I use the principals in my life)...of the 8 folds - Right Intention, Right Thinking and Mindfullness.

We make choices.
No, I am not tempted. When I see food that is not on my new path, my new low carb way of eating, I also am reminded, see and feel once again, all the pain and suffering of walking the old path. It is easy and simple to say "no thank you".

I'm not refusing the food. It's bigger than that. It has to be.
I'm refusing to invite even the feelings of the past to intrude on me and own me again.

It is a very purist view I know. Not Americanized. I am an American however - and understand that this kind of
thinking seems foreign and almost masochistic to some. It isn't. It's what anyone does when they commit themselves 100% to a change in their lives. Go all the way or don't go. I like the challenge! Changing your ways - all the way is something to strive for -

What path are you on?

Yes, it's a behavioural change. It goes deeper than not eating something, its the reason for not eating that thing. For any change in your life to be successful it must happen at the behavioural level. It is almost like flicking a switch in your brain once you've made the transition. I am not tempted. I've actually caught myself looking intently at a tray of sweets during a Council meeting remembering that I used to eat things like that, feeling no deisre to have one, no urge to nibble a corner. It was a very unemotional and detached moment. It's nice to know there are others who feel similarly.

Nat

It is the highly intellectual concept (if I must say so myself) of disassociation. To observe things, objects, events without the
need to experience them.

I see the cookie. It is a cookie, an object, there and it has certain characteristics that are specific to it and that I can observe and discuss.

Not - I see the cookie and feel this or that about it and then struggle with my need/not need for it.


I like to think of it as a skill. It is a very difficult thing to do, but it can be done. In Buddism it is described as "sensing the essence of a thing". To appreciate things/objects/interactions/events as they are, without analyzing or deciding what our own existance has in relation to it.

Glad someone understands, even if just a bit.

That cookie will be there when I leave the room (until someone else comes a long and eats it, that is), it has no relation to me other than we are here in this room. It isnt going to effect or affect me.

Nat

Like if I had to describe and show a cookie to an alien (okay it's just an example). I'd hold it up, tell them what it is, what's in it and what it's uh, for. Then I'd put it down. I would not project myself into the observing of the object.

I know people have GOT to be laughing at us, but hey, it works for us.

Nancy (ketosis always helps too!)

We do seem to have gone way off topic, don't we?

N

We're still in the "nuts" category --- (ha ha), it's just that some people will think WE are the nuts! (joking!)

I eat a lot of nuts, in fact I make myown combo putting in a dish some shelled sunflower seeds, almonds and macadamia nuts. I have heard if U have a problem losing weight to cut way down on your nut use tho

I eat 2 tablespoons homemade peanutbutter a day at most.
Not a large amount. 190 cals, no sugar, no salt, 2 fiber, 6 carbs -4 effective carbs.

OOPs sorry Tamarian, ofcourse I know you are a boy .... when I said about SIS, it just happen to be that I did not spell checked
what I wrote, I and don't do it often uhmm I think its because for me it is easier to associate a person with a picture. and happens to be that at that moment I could only mention some people that came to mind. an honest mistake not offence

None taken, we're just teasing you.

Wa'il

Well, there are two of you in your picture. Which one are you, or are you both?

Karen

Well Karen, I am the girl in the pic. the boy is my (goergeous ) fiance hehehe . I think i did mention that him and I getting marrry next year, is one of the reason for doing this diet. I'm the only one doing the diet, he does not have a weight problem.

I MEANT.... GORGEOUS