I never said that. But you already know that and for some reason are choosing to be obnoxious.

It's very interesting that some are now feeling threatened by this thread. It was meant to cause us to examine ourselves and it has. A few have even claimed that I am attacking them. The self defence mechanism is strongest in the guilty. That's self guilt, not accused. If you feel that my opinion about the majority somehow singles you out it must be that you are feeling guilty. My opinions have been broad and about US, not any one.

That said I admire the ones with the will power to never have a slip, stumble or backslide. You are our role models. I am far from perfect, I know this and will not run from it. Meeting it headon and learning to deal with it seems to be a far better choice than sweeping it under bon bons and denying it ever happened. We're here because we have a problem, we are all imperfect.

I'm going to share a bit with you about how my maintenance works for me. I work within a +3 lb range. I have a tendency to overeat so I have to keep a tight control on what and how much I allow the scale to go up before I cut back and make it come back down again.
I see some people allow up to +10 lbs and IMO, thats much harder to manage. I like my +3 lb limit.
I think that you'd be very surprised to see just how much food you can eat when controlling carbs and still maintain. Even off plan treats don't effect the scale too much when you are always hyper aware of how it effects your body.

Losing weight is actually much harder than keeping it off....in my experience. I do not gain all my weight back with one indulgence because I have strategies in place to not allow that to happen.

Definately yes.

Being thin as a young person, I assumed I would always remain that way. I never thought I would be one of those people with a weight problem. Over the years, I just assumed I would lose it eventually with no real effort. Well, that was 20 years ago. In 2008, I started what I thought would be my final journey, I finally lost the weight and was committed. Last year I was in the best shape of my life at age 45, and then I slipped thinking that eating a little high carb food here and there wouldn't bother me. But I gained almost half the weight that it took me over 2 years to lose.
I finally had to make a true, lifelong commitment to myself, that just as a vegan commits to their WOE for life, I also had to commit to the LC WOE for life. I know its the only thing that works for me, and besides the weight issue, I have to cut out sugar as I am at high risk for diabetes.

I put a post on here about a month ago that many of the respondents seemed to get very defensive over and I had a hard time understanding why because I wasn't attacking anything, I was simply asking a question. I don't know why it seemed to hit a nerve with people but I don't take it personal...and neither should you.

I think your initial post is very thought provoking and it's one of those questions that everyone has to answer for themself. Everyone has different circumstances, lifestyles, personal tastes and emotional issues that influence their food choices and eating habits and even people with the best intentions find themself slipping back into bad eating behaviors...myself included.

But to answer the initial question, yes, I do plan to follow LC the rest of my life and the biggest reason for that is medical. I have T2 diabetes and my two biggest goals are to lose the weight and get off the meds. If I accomplish that through LC, then I can't imagine giving myself permission to go back to eating carbs with any regularity for fear of undoing all the good I've done for myself. Again, that's just my belief and personal choice and at the end of the day, doesn't matter if anyone agrees with me or not.

I know plenty of people that have done LC for a couple months, lost the weight and went back to carbs and put it all back on (again, myself included) and each time they said they just couldn't imagine eating LC as a lifelong way of eating. If a person can't visualize it and embrace LC as a permanent lifestyle change then maybe it really isn't the WOE for them....and that is their choice to make.

Maybe the issue is that we get very married to our own opinions and when we believe something we tend to want to defend that belief...we forget that people married to their beliefs that are in direct conflict with our own, feel the need to defend theirs too.

I think that the way people interpret this post really depends on where they are at in their journey. If they're joining for the first time after reading tons of books and articles (and are totally convinced that this is a healthy woe), then I can see them feeling offended. Same thing with people who have tried a few times already and maybe this is the attempt that will finally stick. I can see that.

For myself, I am realistic. Like I said before, this isn't just about learning what foods to eat. It's an ongoing process where we have to "continue our education" on low-carb. Not just for ourselves, but to help spread the knowledge and learn from one another.

Yes, I will always eat this way.

It's easier to maintain than to lose, I feel. And being middle-aged, I have some changes coming up that might impede the loss if I don't go for it now.

Plus, I feel better, look better and my husband says I act better, lol, when I'm not riding the blood sugar coaster.

Will I make the best choice always? Nope. But I will get back and eat cleanly until that choice has cleared my system.

It's all about responsibility to yourself. You owe yourself all good things; this includes what is put into your mouth.

Very true! And if you've hung out on the board for a while, you see A LOT of bargaining.

• Are English muffins allowed on Induction?
• What about dinner out? I can't go Italian this way!
• I'll just have dessert. A little one.
• You can't expect me not to eat birthday cake on my own birthday! And my kid's! And my mother-in-law's!
• Haw haw! I went out last night and ate Ding Dongs flambe with my pasta special and I'm not showing any change in the scale this morning so I can do this every week if I want!

There's a million of them. But they all tend to end the same way:



That's why a lot of us have a big nerve that these kinds of questions twang like a guitar. Because we all have backsliding stories of our own. And we hate to see people repeating our own mistakes.

The time to experiment with this kind of thing is NOT in the midst of weight loss. It's always going to be someone's birthday, there's always going to be that party with no good choices, every single free breakfast in the world is based on cheap flour and sugar, and the boss will keep bringing donuts.

If you have done it right and you're looking at pre-maintenance; THEN you have some expectation of seeing how you do with temptations, and the leeway to not derail the train entirely if you run into trouble.

I can see that, the intention was to provoke and challenge. I guess I can see how that might sound aggressive.

Maybe a clearer question would have been, "Can we be trusted, do we have that self discipline, how will this be different from a diet?"

I know when I was doing low fat diets I was straving and all could you was think about what I was gonna eat next. No thank you I'll never go back there, lc is like heaven compared to that.

I completely agree! Bargaining during weight loss is a recipe for disaster. I myself have done that before while trying to lose weight, not this much but the amount isn't really important. I'll admit right now I'm having an "argument" with myself over whether or not to include Carbquick early on in OWL as part of the five extra carbs.

But I didn't get that the point of this thread was what off plan high carb treats you will allow yourself during weight loss. I think everyone agrees that is counter productive and self sabotaging. To me, the question posed was more long term when in maintenance and living LC as a way of life. I answered that as honestly as I was able at this point in my journey.

This thread is priceless though because there is so much information and advice from those who've not only lost weight but kept it off. Also more than a few reminders about how easy it is to go down that slippery slope we've all been on. I'm glad Jelly started it!

This is especially true in my own case, particularly the bold part. If there is one thing I've learned over the last year it is that I have to pay my dues and get to where I want to be FIRST so that then the rare backslide will have very little impact on me. I am just not as eloquent as you are.

Know Thyself.

I know that I CAN have "just one roll"... not that I particularly want something, but I may be trapped in a situation with my brother where he wants to go to his favorite sandwich shop for lunch. I will do this OCCASIONALLY... perhaps one time a month. Mostly, I simply choose NOT to indulge, or do not have the taste for it.

I have always been able to have ONE drink and stop. This is not so with some of my friends and family. It just isn't.

The one thing I absolutely CANNOT EVER have is "one cigarette". Three times, "one cigarette" has led to a pack a day habit. I had my LAST "one cigarette" Memorial Day 2000. Never again.

I won't eat candy, because I find most of it to be foul these days. The only thing that tempts me is 85% or higher cocoa content, and I can eat just one square.

But then, I know myself. Or at least I'm open to knowing me...

I'm back again for a second round of this question...I finished my induction this weekend and yesterday added back in tomato's - in the form of sauce do to the time of year. I knew last night is was a mistake...no cravings or hunger, I felt VILE, this morning i weighed in with a 2.4 pound increase and even with drinking copious amounts of water and only protein and fat so far today I only stopped feeling nauseous about an hour ago.

I think what I'm learning is that I have never, ever truly followed OWL correctly, I did it "my way" I'm not judging, I know that that works for many people but it didn't for me. This time I really am going to just add in one food at a time and see what happens and hopefully by the end of it, know a whole lot more about me and how my body processes various foods. I promise, I will not soon forget how badly I felt - both about the weight and just physically. I'm not saying I won't stumble with hc foods but it's going to be a long time coming before that food has tomato sauce in it!

Yeah, but it would be have been too long of a thread title :-).

You made yourself clear in your replies that this is supposed to be a thought-provoking question and not a personal attack on anyone here.

But this is a serious question and we're all grown-ups here. If we get get angry by the question, then maybe some self-examination is necessary. Maybe there is self-doubt buried deep within, and the question hit that nerve. In that case, it's time to strategize and throw ideas out there on how to stick with it. Not just that, but really question how serious we are.

To put things into perspective, an Olympian who's going for a gold medal doesn't train for 4 years plus and then decide "one little drink" won't kill him the night before his event. He wouldn't give that idea a second thought. Well, it's the same thing with us. Except we're not in it for just four years.