The first few weeks of keto, I ate something off plan about once a week, just to avoid a fight with the hubby. That went away as he got used to my new woe and saw how much better I felt. Now, as some others have said “cheating” is eating too much keto friendly foods. I have come to the realization that I can’t do sweeteners at all. I gave up sugar (severe sugar addict) 2 years ago. Sweeteners don’t cause me as many health issues as sugar, but sends me down paths I don’t want to go. I ate it when starting keto in August, gave it up for 3 weeks and got within 5 lbs of my goal weight. Then I gained 8 lbs in 2 weeks by eating “keto friendly” sweetener based recipes and then some sweet potato soufflé at thanksgiving. Back on track as of Sunday, no sweeteners, and down 3 1/2 lbs.
How often do you have a "cheat" meal?
I like to save non-keto foods for special occasions and savor them. For my daughters birthday, I made New Mexico style Sopapillas to serve at the party, and decided to have a couple myself. A small slice of heaven, but it took a full three days before I was back in ketosis and feeling on-game again.
I was supposed to say exactly the same.
Even if l travel and want to try the local dishes l’d literary just have a bite or the smallest portion that would still keep me in ketosis.
Then l just try to fast if l’m “trapped” and l do not have anything keto on me.
Forgot to add:
Often l’m cooking nonketo for others. I do a taste testing for corrections but it is tiny portion, usually a spoon of a sauce etc.
good plan. I will try brisling sardines and pecans tonight. I am waiting on a shipment of macadamias but the postal workers have been striking. I ate SIX cookies last night. Last shift tonight then vacation. Fasting here i come!
i do homecare and sit for 10 hours a night with the cookies calling me. There is no way for me to avoid them. My house is a safe haven keto wise cause I don’t buy non keto food. Funny the cookies have always been there, I never craved them before the chinese foood.
There are a couple of ways that I deal with unavoidable temptation. One way is to eat beforehand so that I’m not hungry. I find it a lot easier to say no when I’m stuffed. Another way is to have heathy alternatives on hand. For occasions when I might feel like snacking, I always have nuts readily available. Raw veggies (like celery, broccoli, cucumber, cauliflower) make excellent low calorie snacks. A dipping sauce can make them absolutely decadent.
I hope you see a pattern. Because I have so little willpower, I anticipate temptation and design a plan to deal with it such that I stay on track.
Lastly, if you’re metabolically heathy and not trying to lose weight, there are a ton of scrumptious LC desert recipes that are better tasting and healthier than traditional cookies. My family loves chocolate fudge fat bombs.
Nonalcoholic beers allow many with drinking problems to still have a taste they like and keep them off the real stuff. As a former beer distributor employee I can tell you people buy a LOT of that stuff! Sugar fakes are no different. Works for some, not for others.
Non alcoholic beers would ruin my week. Why tease myself with that triggering poison. Two near beers deep and I’d be trying to buy reduced speed cocaine.
And now I understand the problem with artificial sweeteners.
I do understand being tempted with a little cheat. Sadly i sometimes just have to have something sweet after a meal.
My way of pushing away the urge is to have say 1 teaspoon of jam
or a small sweet biscuit (cookie). However this is not often but I ensure that I do not have anymore than that.
It works for me even though this happening less often now.
I “cheat” everytime I feel hungry of something out of keto.
I think we need to adapt and it not occur faster then our craving for sugar or carbohydrate and we need accept it.
Make keto sustainable is difficult if it look like harder then it is. 
I bet on long term and do keto because endurance sport performance and the goal is become keto as lifestyle instead of just loose weight.
As one wise old recovering alcoholic of my acquaintance maintains, “Non-alcoholic beers are for non-alcoholics!” The problem is that (a) they are not completely alcohol-free, and (b) even if they were, the taste alone can set up a craving that triggers a drinking binge.
I have not yet had a cheat meal, over 3 months in. It took a lot of work to break my carb/sugar addiction and I don’t want to undo that.
I do have higher-carb days now and then, but it’s more like extra broccoli or a bigger serving of full-fat yogurt with berries, and not like potatoes and candy.
I can relate. 3 weeks ago I decided to “cheat” and have a cookie. HUGE mistake. I should have known better. It triggered an avalanche of binging on carbs. I just got back on keto today (hoping and praying I don’t wind up getting the keto flu like I first did when I started this way of eating back in August).
To be honest with you, I never wound up getting the great energy people talk about when doing keto. And my sleep was greatly affected. I only got 3-4 hours sleep every night. When I started to add carbs, I have been sleeping like a baby at night! 6-7 hours! So I’m going to miss that now 
I don’t purposefully cheat. I don’t plan to cheat. But sometimes it just happens. It’s seldom with just plain sugar and even when I’ve had bits of that, it’s only been little bits, never a binge.
If going out with friends, I’ll sometimes allow 100g or so of carbs and hardly even consider it a “cheat”. It was just a higher carb meal and I’ll go right back to keto afterward. If it doesn’t keep happening over and over, it’s a non-event. Had a date at a Cracker Barrel early this week (100g carb meal) and today, my weight is lower than it’s been in probably a month. I did have a couple of 24 hour fasts this week but that was by no means penance or punishment, it just happened that way and I rolled with it.
Individual events are rarely a problem for a relatively healthy person. It’s the daily habits that dictate the overall health of a person more so than any shapshot in time.
There is no answer I could give that would make any sense as to “how often”. I’ve gone months with little or no cheating. And I’ve had weeks where there were several days of cheating. The return to keto always followed and that’s the general plan.
For many, the holiday season can be tough, especially if you’re the type of person who really will crash and burn with only one cookie. I feel blessed that I can often have a cookie or a sweet potato or a tiny sliver of gramma’s best ever cake and not come off the rails. Special events happen, and in the words of Dr. Berry, when they happen, “eat the damned cheesecake” (if you can). Enjoy it, a small amount of it, savoring every bite, and then get yourself back to keto.
You certainly are blessed, Bri. Have an extra cookie for me, and enjoy every morsel. 
(Jealous? Who, me? Why, what could ever possibly give you that idea? What possible reason could I possibly have for being jealous? Why . . . 
)
I’m sorry, Paul. I kinda thought of you when I was writing that last post knowing that you are one of the ones that can “train wreck” with a little nibble (or sip) of certain things. Hope you are able to get through the holidays with lots of good keto-friendly stuff that won’t cause you difficulties. From what I read, you’re a pretty good cook so I suspect you’ll be just fine.
As for jealousy… and maybe this applies to covetousness and lust, too… I find that every so often my eye wanders and my imagination wonders, over various things and ideas. And I always seem to come back to right where I am being the place I need to be, and who I need to be with. I see people with shiny and glittery stuff and yet when I think about it, I don’t really want it. I see people with huge houses / mansions, but when I think about it, I don’t want one like it, I’m much more contented with what I have. And I sometimes see someone with a wife who seems so pretty, but as I learn more and more, I’m happy with the one I have and don’t want anyone else. … probably TMI… LOL!
You’re absolutely right. As much as I complain about things in my life, I’m actually pretty content.
My sister is also keto, so between us, the holiday will be fine, despite our having to cater for the carbovores in the house. We’ll have plenty of keto goodness to eat—as long as our appetite lasts, anyway! 