taking a day off, ok?

[Hoping]

Ditto. One meal leads to a day, a day to a few days and it's very difficult to get back on the bandwagon. You'll come on for a few days and then you may fall off. That's what happened to me. Sooo not worth it.

[Shaemess]

I would have to echo the others in saying, don't do it. That being said, you're an adult and you're going to do what you want to do. Just expect to be kicking yourself afterwords for having that piece of sugar laced cake because you'll be dealing with guilt, a stall, induction flu, and being angry with yourself for doing it. You have to ask yourself if it's truly worth the trouble.

Believe me, I'm not perfect. I do have a cheat now and again. However, I don't cheat for the entire day. I think lately the biggest cheat I've had was a sugar free frozen yogurt loaded with strawberries and raspberries. Then I get right back up on that horse.

If you do decide to cheat please get right back on track. Look at it as a learning experience and don't look back.

[grovemonkey]

If it is a choice between taking an occasional rest day or rest meal or going back to your old eating habits, I think an occasional and planned day off is the better option.

Even though strickly following the plan laid out by Dr. Atkin's is the ideal, it may also not be the most realistic for many people.

[D14965]

Can you afford to spend the next day( or more) with a major headache??? The thought of that certainly puts me of cheating!

[RIMedusa]

Okay, I totally get what everyone's saying about the danger of taking that "one day off" during induction, but if what folks are saying is that they'll never be able to have a piece of cake again, or a slice of pizza, even when they've lost all the weight they want to lose, there's something scary about that.



How does this WOE differ from Overeaters Anonymous, then, where they have the same "don't take that one bite" motto? That also seems extreme to me.



Can't this WOE show us how to eat in a way that's healthy for us and that produces sure and steady weight loss, without the extremes of "I'll never have cake again"? The "nevers" are bound to cause addictive behaviors -- anything that we’re forced to swear off of for good is only going to set us up in a lifelong quest to have it.



I thought that the whole point was to find a carb level at which we could lose weight and then maintain it -- doesn't that include having a dessert now and then, the way so-called "normal" people do?



I see that I fluctuate in a 10 to 20 pound range most of the time, eating off-plan, so if I were planning to lose 100 pounds, should I just lose 120, so I can go back to eating in a way that I consider "normal" for me, and still stay down where I want to be?



I am not trying to take a combative stance here against Atkins. I am actually doing Atkins. I just have real questions.



Medusa

[Sera]

when you are in maintenance and can control yourself well enough to not go back to your old ways because of this, I'm absolutely for an OCCASIONAL cheat, believe me.
however, thinking about this kinda thing while someone is on extended induction? come on, whats the use of doing this diet at all then?
this woe is meant to teach ppl to control their portions, overcome carb addictions....this obviously can't work if you plan to cheat once a week or so.
i cant imagine anyone being on this wol for years and not having cheated every now and then, its human and imo its totally ok.
I will definitely have a whopper once in a while when im in maintenance lol but my problem has never been that i overeat fast food, it was more things like maltesers (boohoo) and normal bread.
i found a replacement for the bread and when i can have a little bit of potato and whole grain pasta again i'll live my life pretty much like i did before.

[Hoping]

Ditto on what Sera said.
When you're in induction you still haven't gotten the hang of this woe. For many it food IS an addiction.
We're just saying that it's very hard to get back on the band wagon once you fall off, for many of us anyway. Pizza, cake, and other food items off plan aren't going anywhere. They'll be there when we're done losing our unwanted weight, so why stop when you have good momentum?

[sallyseachange]

I've been maintaining now for a good long time and I find that actually, there are very few things that one can't have. Sugar and refined flour are the biggies, but there are substitutes for those:
We have sweetners... and nut flours for cakes, when we want them.

The "never having this and that again" scared me too, at first... but when you actually get where you're going, it suddenly isn't such a big deal. Maybe it's something to do with the satisfaction of having reached goal. I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised, Medusa.

[Chicklady]

My husbands boss is at least 400 pounds. His entire family is overweight. His BIL went on Atkins, I'd guess aboout a decade ago now, and lost a substantial amount of weight. My husbands boss said he then went back to his regular way of eating and used Atkins again when he go too much weight back on. Well, that worked for a couple of years, and then OOPS! he didn't make it "back on" Atkins soon enough. He has regained all his weight and then some. Odlly enough, my husbands boss didn't lean from his BIL mistakes. he too did Atkins, lost a lot of weight and then started on the rollercoaster.
So you think I'd be smart enough to learn from those two?*slaps self in head* I first went on Atkins when I weighed 250 pounds. Lost 103 pounds. Kept it off for almost 3 years....then went "off" Atkins.....just a "little bit" here, and a taste there....you can see below where I'm starting now. It's a slippery slope all around. Some of you on maintainance will probably be able to do the "occassional" thing.....I don't think I'm one of them.

[chicamarun]

I agree with a lot. Yes - you can "cheat" on occassion. But don't think about it until you are sure of yourself and your body. I come up with substitutions for just about everything! My in-laws laughed when I was on atkins at the 1st time - but you know, my father-in-law was finally able to eat a dessert because I made an atkin's friendly cheesecake and it tasted awesome! I can't wait to make desserts that are better for people this holiday season.

My treat today was a diet rootbeer with some heavy cream for a "float". It was perfect and yummy for my sweet tooth.

Pizza? A family favorite! I will work on a new crust I can make myself with carb-quick or something like it and make a mini pizza for me.

Don't dread the things you might not be able to have again! You never know.