"Cheat Days"

Do you guys allow yourselves one cheat day per a certain period of time?
Weekends are my "eat whatever days" (although still not going over
maintenance calorie level). To me, it helps psychologically more than
anything. I guess some of you can't afford cheat days...?

Reality
141/124/115
http://photos.yahoo.com/realitycheck0523

Cheating just sounds so tawdry.

--
JC

Eat less, exercise more.

--
"Reality Check" wrote in message
...
Do you guys allow yourselves one cheat day per a certain period of time?
Weekends are my "eat whatever days" (although still not going over
maintenance calorie level). To me, it helps psychologically more than
anything. I guess some of you can't afford cheat days...?

Reality
141/124/115
http://photos.yahoo.com/realitycheck0523

From what I have read some folks do use planned or controlled cheats...a
special occasion such as an anniversary, a birthday celebration for example.
Some WOE such as Carb Addicts have one reward meal per day..but there are
guidelines to follow-it's not a free for all binge meal!
My take on this is that we have to learn how to navigate in a *carb filled*
world, so it's better to go off your chosen plan in a calculated way than to
throw all caution to the winds.
Teresa

"Reality Check" wrote in message
...
Do you guys allow yourselves one cheat day per a certain period of time?
Weekends are my "eat whatever days" (although still not going over
maintenance calorie level). To me, it helps psychologically more than
anything. I guess some of you can't afford cheat days...?

Reality
141/124/115
http://photos.yahoo.com/realitycheck0523



Nope. why cheat?
It is a slippery slope back to the bad ways of eating.

I'm realizing I can't do cheat days. If I am over 100 carbs in a day, I
feel sick and lethargic. I think it is the result of my body working to
shift to a carb based metabolism. It can take several days before Ketosis
returns (according to Ketostix).


"Reality Check" wrote in message
...
Do you guys allow yourselves one cheat day per a certain period of time?
Weekends are my "eat whatever days" (although still not going over
maintenance calorie level). To me, it helps psychologically more than
anything. I guess some of you can't afford cheat days...?

Reality
141/124/115
http://photos.yahoo.com/realitycheck0523

ditto "Cubit". I traveled for business last week and decided to 'let my
hair down' on the carb thing. Felt lousy. Very tired. Ate my old
favorites. Drank what I wanted. Will never do it again. Ever. I always
have learned the hard way, and this turned out to be just that. Took three
days just to detox afterward. I guess I'm with Steve ...... there's plenty
of good food out there .... why cheat?

But, if you can do it .... go ahead, it is certainly no insult to my WOE!


--
John Vertigan
Atkins since 1/2/04
262/238/6 lbs to go in Feb/160

I believe that the best way to make any carb diet a long term success is to
give it enough flexibility that you don't build up "forbidden fruits" which
end up derailing you. I wrote about this on my web page,
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/diab-diet.htm in the context of
staying low carb for diabetes control, but the principle is the same for
anyone.

Learning how to go on and off the diet and handle the physiological changes
with aplomb rather than panicking when you put on 3 or 4 pounds of water
weight in a day is important too.

I cycle between a 40 gram and an 80 gram daily diet. I don't feel good over
80 grams, but occasionally I do eat at a higher level for a day. The
resulting crappy feeling is good reinforcement for the way I usually eat.

-- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.2.
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/...0Diagnosed.htm



"Reality Check" wrote in message
...
Do you guys allow yourselves one cheat day per a certain period of time?
Weekends are my "eat whatever days" (although still not going over
maintenance calorie level). To me, it helps psychologically more than
anything. I guess some of you can't afford cheat days...?

Reality
141/124/115
http://photos.yahoo.com/realitycheck0523

Jenny wrote:

I believe that the best way to make any carb diet a long term success is to
give it enough flexibility that you don't build up "forbidden fruits" which
end up derailing you. I wrote about this on my web page,
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/diab-diet.htm in the context of
staying low carb for diabetes control, but the principle is the same for
anyone.

Learning how to go on and off the diet and handle the physiological changes
with aplomb rather than panicking when you put on 3 or 4 pounds of water
weight in a day is important too.

I cycle between a 40 gram and an 80 gram daily diet. I don't feel good over
80 grams, but occasionally I do eat at a higher level for a day. The
resulting crappy feeling is good reinforcement for the way I usually eat.


I think too, as often mentioned, one has to learn about what foods
trigger binges. I have started to learn something about that this
week, while my daughter is on vacation and clamoring to eat out.
It is not necessarily the choice of a moderately carby meal itself
that can bring on long-term effects, but what that choice leads
to. I deliberately ate a semi-carby meal because I wanted my
daughter to try something, and she wouldn't order it herself.
That would have been okay (I think; for one thing I drained off
most of the sauce), but thereafter I wanted to throw anything bad
I could find in the house down my gullet. And I did eat some of
those things. It was oddly uncontrollable. (Yes, I could have
controlled it, but that is how it felt.) So either I should not
eat such meals, or my access to foods thereafter has to be very
restricted. I wonder how long that effect lasts, anyway?
Luckily, it wears off by the next day. I also noticed that
yesterday, I had a moderately carby lunch, but I was not at home
thereafter, and by the time I was, I had no interest in eating any
other carby foods. So, this is all still a work in progress for
me.

--
Jean B.

On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 11:53:39 +1100, "Reality Check"
wrote:

Do you guys allow yourselves one cheat day per a certain period of time?
Weekends are my "eat whatever days" (although still not going over
maintenance calorie level). To me, it helps psychologically more than
anything. I guess some of you can't afford cheat days...?

Reality
141/124/115
http://photos.yahoo.com/realitycheck0523

Friday night carb ups are my favorite maintenance strategy. I only
cycle carbs because I exercise a lot and need the extra glycogen for
long weekend workouts. 800 to 1500 calories of pure decadence is
quite enjoyacle and helps with metabolic issues!

As other posters have noted the transition from ketosis back to
burning glycogen has side effects. feeling sleepy is the most common,
so I usually carb up in the evenings before bed. Getting back into
ketosis seems to take a couple days regardless of how much exercise I
get. Expect a couple pounds of extra water retention during that
time.

Even though the extra carbs are all ingested on friday night my
appetite is increased the following day. you have to add about 500
extra calories of low carb food Saturday to be comfortably satiated.

By Sunday night ketosis returns. Monday through Thursday is a rather
boring high bulk, low carb, low calorie meal plan. The 200-500
calorie deficit per day is not really noticeable because of the loss
of appetite brought on by ketosis.

I make sure my weight is back down below target on Friday. A couple
of times the scale said I was still out of range so I had to put off
the cycle another week. I really hate missing my carb up night!

Cubit wrote:
:: I'm realizing I can't do cheat days. If I am over 100 carbs in a
:: day, I feel sick and lethargic. I think it is the result of my body
:: working to shift to a carb based metabolism. It can take several
:: days before Ketosis returns (according to Ketostix).

of course you can't -- you don't exercise.

::
::
:: "Reality Check" wrote in message
:: ...
::: Do you guys allow yourselves one cheat day per a certain period of
::: time? Weekends are my "eat whatever days" (although still not going
::: over maintenance calorie level). To me, it helps psychologically
::: more than anything. I guess some of you can't afford cheat days...?
:::
::: Reality
::: 141/124/115
::: http://photos.yahoo.com/realitycheck0523