I got through two weeks of cheat-free induction... then my parents had me and my bro and sis-in-law over for Chinese... and they didn't give me time to look up what was 'safe' to order. So I had beef w black bean sauce and some of those entrees with the naughty coverings... like dim sims and spring rolls etc... and satay chicken... but I did stay away from the rice at least.

Anyway, because I'd cheated once... I was at an engagement party - and I was serving plates of entrees/finger foods around and the bbq was taking TOO long and I was starving... I ate one tiny little spinach and ricotta triangle (w pastry covering)... then I had quite a few pieces of fish which had some kind of thin batter on it... and a few crumbs of the chocolate cake.

That was last night... today I had a real fall-off-the-wagon... premeditated and planned... of a small chocolate bar, a small packet of the lowest carb potato chips I could find and a small diet coke (I gave that up too)... and I decided to really eat it slowly and enjoy it... and try not to feel guilty.

I'm now looking up recipes and trying to get myself a bit more organised because my food has kind of been a bit boring and I haven't been eating enough at all... gone back to my habit of not eating anything at all till late afternoon. So far I have still been losing weight... but god knows if I'm still going to be in ketosis after today's little episode.

Anyway, I just had to admit it to you all... and I'll try to do better.

Minty

Good luck today. It can be hard to climb back on that wagon.

When you become really familiar with your eating plan, you generally will know (without looking stuff up) what is likely to do the least amount of damage--and sometimes that is all you can do. I am curious as to why after some not so great eating, you decided to "plan" the chocolate and potato chip stuff?

Early on, it was helpful to get straight in my own mind the difference between an excuse and a reason. We're all different of course, but this helped me a whole lot. I think it forced me into an honesty I might not have gotten to otherwise.

You bring up a good point - about the plan... I did it because it was a way of minimising the damage. Either I was going to completely chuck in the whole lot - and start eating fries and bread and all that as well... or I'd have a controlled cheat and then get back on the wagon. I got my fix. It was good but it wasn't fantastic... and I think I can get back into the low carbing without feeling too deprived now.

I don't know if that makes sense. I think the important thing was I didn't succumb to negativity and depression and have a binge and despise myself for it... I thought about it for a while and decided to do this cheerfully once and reasonably sensibly and then pick myself up again.

This WOE is working for me... even though I know the weight loss will stall and slow down compared to these first two weeks. I tend to head down the road of self sabotage and in this instance I think I ended up instead just taking a slight detour and now I'm back on the right path.

Good for you getting right back on the path...I'm really new to LC, so I'm not sure how it would work in this WOE, but I used "controlled" cheats back when I lost weight lowfat and exercizing like a maniac. I'm pretty sure controlled cheating on a regular basis will never work with LC, but I totally understand what you were thinking

Now that you've done it; tell every Carb you see to "get lost" and climb back on induction. Mercy

It took me quite a while to learn not to let one slip turn into a major lapse. I'd tell myself "I've blown it already, I might as well have this..this..and some...."

Another tough lesson? Putting myself first. When seated with a group to order food, I've had to learn to TAKE the time to have a good look at the choices availabe to find my best option, and to speak up if people try to push me into something I know is unhealthy. It's hard, but it can be done.