If you plan something its a goal…cheating is when you violate your rule…which if you planned it isn’t cheating…is it?
Maybe self sabotaging and expressing incongruence and conflict…but “cheating”?
Not if you are honest with yourself about what you are doing.
You are already planning it by writing about it aren’t you?
I think of cheating as what the not very bright kids did at school to pass exams.
I wouldn’t read too much into the term “cheating.” It’s a common part of the way people look at dieting for “weight” (actually fat) loss. The attitude appears to be one of “I know what I have to do, but what can I get away with?” whereas the most helpful way to approach the ketogenic way of eating is to think of it along the lines of “how can I change my food choices to promote the greatest health possible?” The fact that a healthy diet will encourage the body to shed excess stored fat gets lost in the social pressure to lose “weight.”
The additional fact that sugar and carbohydrate have an addictive effect on many people also leads to the desire to find ways of retaining carbohydrate in the diet, much as newly-sober alcoholics look for ways to retain some amount of alcohol in their lives. A bit of wisdom from A.A. that is relevant here is that total abstinence is actually psychologically and physiologically easier to manage than trying to indulge in moderation. But not what some people want to hear, to be sure!
I get this. Be very happy and I know you are 
that you didn’t fall into the dieting insanity many of us had to deal with and hated.
I was polar opposite. I was like you with no med troubles, did great thru life but started putting on some lbs around age 43 after my kid was born and then ‘I looked into diets’ and what a rollercoaster ride after that
I understand the cheating part cause ya wake up and say I will stick to my eating plan and then ya go off and justify eating XYZ crap and then ya feel like a failure cause you didn’t hold your own word to yourself. You can’t do that how can you hold anything you say as a truth and it does put ya in failure feeling land.
I fought carbs like the devil was on my tail.
Your 3.5 yrs later and you are doing well and good and didn’t have that battle. I am now at year 3.5 of zero carb and I can say I won’t ‘cheat’ or eat off plan. I have no desire. Carbs give me nothing. My plan has done what I need it to do for me and that is all any of us can get from our plans. That sense of calm and comfort and knowing we can go long term without a darn daily battle of craving/dieting BS
In general to the OP, I am on a lifestyle plan long term. I took that crap word ‘diet’ out of my life. Yes a diet is a menu but to me that stupid word meant failure so many times.
Everyone has to know them personally and if you know you, act on what works for you.
I would never eat off plan now cause I would be a train wreck and of course being zc I have other convictions for my plan that I follow but in the end each of us must know ourselves, travel our path and make a long term eating plan that truly works for us and never against us…that will be way different for each of us of course!
We only cheat ourselves each time we make a statement and fail to act on it. So if you plan in high carb junky meals then own it. If you want whatever food then choose it. But if you are one who can’t do this then ya best own that part of it too, who we are to make our plans work for us…good luck finding your path thru it all.
I think this is right on. What works for one person may not work for another. But for almost all of us, things have to be considered for a long time here. It’s not like a week or a month is going to “cure” us and we’ll be young and immortal with no worries again. If we’re making a change for the better, then it has to be something we can live with, something that’s sustainable for a long time.
Maybe there’s a real biological “hard thing” at work, and maybe not. Some people just eat low-carb, lower their insulin, and lose a lot of weight and are happy. Others reverse diabetes and are likewise happy. And then some have a real struggle on their hands.
The struggle or not can also be psychological. It definitely is for me.
The problem with that advice is the risk of addiction.
I know quite a few people who can be quite happy drinking a glass of whiskey and then stopping. I also know others who, if they had a glass of whiskey, would be unable to stop until the bottle—or the case—was gone. I have even seen recovering alcoholics drink a glass of non-alcoholic beer and then be off to the races.
I am the type of person whose idea of “having just one” where sugar is concerned is one sheet cake, or one dozen glazed doughnuts (though in my case it was usually three dozen before I could stop). Now, usually only about 20% of the population is vulnerable to any particular addiction, so the chances that your advice might work are actually pretty good, but you risk causing devastation to someone in that particular 20%.
yes it has to come down to how you want to live long term and gain some results but we also know ‘thru science’ literally that holding your plan and giving up alot of ‘sugar/chemical foods’ will take your there ya know.
but we have to know us and make it work. There is NO one diet fits all in my mind ever, but there is true science that shows how foods work against us, so we have to find ‘that balance’ truly that suits us, our sweet spot, without going into ‘obsession crazy diet land’ and just change ourselves in real calm fashion…and I tell ya from my past experience with it all, it is darn hard LOL but with time and experimenting and more IF WE focus on real truths that effect us personally we can make that plan that gives us all we require. Time tho is super important and your focus can’t be on losing like 3-4 lbs per week and then the ‘what is wrong with me’ post…long term. Takes time. We didn’t put it all on overnight and we ain’t taking it off that fast but underlying is habit change, real life change, real food choices that suit us and how can we live our lives as we require all ‘in line’ with what we require to gain health?
hard road to travel, darn right it is 
focus on what you need, learn real truths about what it takes for you and how you can do this ALL about you and in the long time end, we find truly our best plan ever!
There really is hard phsycial body thing at work for many…but in the end we ALL got mind games on top of physical…some are just not as damaged of a body and can correct faster and some need more healing thru their food choices.
Again where you are at, just KNOW you and accept it and always act on what works for you 
I read that entire thing and based on the things you said my take away was that sugar addiction is up there. One sugar addicted thing and you went on a 3 month binge. Same thing happens to drug addicts. I’m not trying to prove you wrong just my observation from some of the things you said. I’m a sugar addict. And I’m trying to break the cycle for myself. I think if you look at diets, sugar addiction is one of the biggest addictions worldwide. Probably the biggest to be honest.
I just wish they’d come down in price. The one I used to wear (Free Style Libre) is up to $140/month. Yikes!
In terms of blood glucose, the damage isn’t much. Here’s my CGM from Thanksgiving, 2017. The 9.7 was the meal (don’t eat bfast), the second bump is dessert. The 8.2 at night is another helping of the meal. Between each two lines is one hour. So, my blood sugar goes up and back down to normal in about 1 hour.
Yep, me too.
But the way I think about sugar addiction is that I am not the sugar addict. My passengers are.
That is to say that the microbiome that communicates to my conscious self somewhere in the complexity of the brain via the gut-brain axis and vagus nerve, are the ones who are asking for the sugar or sweet carbohydrates. If I can manipulate the microbiome, which apparently can change with each meal, and encourage a majority (sounds like the US election) of the population to be fat fuelled and protein loving, then the signal from the sweet carbohydrate lobby is quashed.
So I feed the bugs that I want to work for me as I carry them around inside and on me.
Possibly, and perhaps I was a bit arrogant in my claim. It is just how I view things though. And I don’t like giving myself any excuses. My claim is more about my mindset then anything else.
That said, I have had sugar this time round too. And I am still on track very nicely. Still feel great. This time I planned it. With the psychological acceptance that a ‘cheat’ is allowed, I happily hop on Keto/Omad the next day.
Now again, that last point made. I had sugar Sunday evening. Had a lousy nights sleep, and felt pretty awful yesterday. To the point in which now I feel like I don’t want to do that again. I felt like I was hungover. And I feel so much better on whole foods. So right at this moment I am in consideration of removing the sugar allowance all together. Though it did allow me to ‘relapse’ a tiny amount and stay on course. I am not sure a drug addict or alcoholic could have a taste and walk away
I’m largely in maintenance mode now, but I’ve really tried to put myself, diet and fitness wise, into what I call a Party Ready State or PRS for short. I can’t say that I never “plan” a cheat day, but I also don’t think planning is the right term. I may have an idea that, when I get with my family at the lake this weekend, I may have a few beers and/or eat something that doesn’t fit my regular way of eating, but I also know that I’m not going to go off the rails as I may have when I was a 100+ lbs bigger and I know I’ll bounce back rather quickly.
I don’t angst over cheating, but I also don’t impulse eat anymore and if I do have days when I go off program, I don’t just say eff it, I’ma eat what I want. I’m still deliberate about my food intake, etc.
Core message for me, if you are going to go off plan, make sure you are in a mindset and physically prepared to get back on program and not be derailed by any minor bumps these cheats cause for you.
