I am finding that WHAT the “cheat” is matters. Some things will cause way more of a reaction/response than others.
As a for instance, we have a few potatoes that we grew in our garden. We’ve been keeping them around mostly for when we get company and want some really good ones to serve them. But on occasion, we have a small helping of them with a meal. (I’m talking a handful of times a year.) We had some the other night, a small serving each. Total non-issue.
Last night, we ended up having dinner at an elderly couple’s house, dear friends of ours that we couldn’t say “no” to. Most of it was tolerable but at the very last, there was a piece of over iced Walmart cake got dumped on our plates. And we were polite and ate it. Tasted like sweet chemical soup and I spent a few hours last night feeling like crap. Interestingly, my wife didn’t react as badly as we anticipated.
I hate being put into that position and we normally try to do the best we can. Might be that last night will also reinforce the idea of saying “no” a little more firmly, at least when it comes to a dessert we both don’t want and know will make us sick.
For us, a little potato or sweet potato or a few beans or a little extra fruit is usually a non-issue. The sweets like commercial baked stuff, low fat “healthy” stuff, processed garbage that gets used as ingredients, those things can be real mine fields for us, especially when they’re not easily recognized. At least the whole food carbs are usually easy to recognize.