I have been back on LC for a week. There's been a lot of temptations and good excuses to go off plan but I just want to be healthier so badly that its kept me strong.

But Christmas, at first a given that's its a free day. Then I thought about how gerd symptoms are gone, and I feel better - so stay off gluten.

But the truth is I made myself sick eating that stuff, so the only reason I'm thinking of cheating is because its Tradition?

What say you?

Good Morning Nawchem,

I am giving myself a "free day" for Christmas. But to be honest breakfast will be a breakfast casserole that I make myself and is on plan and dinner most things will be on plan. I know there will be at least two things I eat that are NOT on plan but other than that there will be nothing drastic. I have even been thinking of a way to make a part of the breakfast casserole dairy free (no cheese).


I have an issue similar to you, I don't have reflux but I am lactose intolerant. However I LOVE cheese so sometimes I eat it and I pay the price. Its not always worth it!

If the only reason you are thinking of having a free day is tradition Id personally say don't do it. Especially if it will make you sick with reflux. There are plenty of on plan things out there that are still delicious. I have a free day on special days to keep myself sane For me I find that a free day once a month or so helps me to stay on track, because I don't feel like I am missing out on anything. For others it may set them back because some find it hard to get back on track after a free day.

I hope my rambling helped a little

Gem

Morning Gem - it did help!

I've been realizing a lot of xmas is LC. So on plan, and a chocolate LC treat is the plan.

Its the corn and the potatoes and apple pie are what made me fat and not so healthy.

I also suffered from acid reflux issues and am happy to say they are gone and also because I stopped eating late at night.

I understand your stance on wanting to keep healthy and stay strong because you feel good. However, if you treat Christmas Day as a free day, will you be able to get back on plan a day later?

I relapsed last Christmas Eve after I had lost 50 lbs and going through a difficult time emotionally. I remember after 18 months of not having sugar, I just gave up and was in a store and the first thing I spotted was a box of Junior mints. I had given up and the taste of sugar is like a drug to me. One day isn’t enough and I couldn’t get back on until 11 months. Mind you I have suffered from depression but everyone is different.

I did a loosely based low carb holiday two years ago where I just didn’t have desserts but had a regular meal including carrots that had sugar in them. I just wasn’t having desserts and made my low carb version. It worked out quite well.

I guess the question is can a person have a free day and go back to their plan the very next day? I wouldn’t be able to do it personally because sugar is like a drug to me and once I get the taste of it, I’m done. Other things don’t bother me like potatoes etc.

I feel so good right now that one to me isn’t worth it going back to the sugar. If asked to have wings, yes I would but desserts with sugar is out of the question for me. It’s poisonous to my body and I feel like hell and so sluggish when I have it. I am so alert right now that I don’t want to give up that feeling.

I can get away every now and then with eating 80- 100 carbs a day and maintain my weight even after eating a hamburger bun but sugar is a place I can’t go back to where I used to binge eat. It’s a really dark place for me.

I cann,t seem to handle a free day but a free meal doesn,t seem to bother me. I preplan the day before by being low cal and low carb. and the next day or two is always low carb high fat.

Remember tradition is what we often call something that needs to be fixed... and has not been.

If that is your only reason, it is no reason at all!

I know what you mean about sugar and emotions. Most times I've been able to go back on. But my last cheat took me a year to work back to dieting at all. I went on steroids last year and its become harder for me to deal with bs fluctuations.

madeyna that's really smart the way you have it figured out. Maybe I could try higher carb vegies with my turkey.

I'm glad you said that.

I am forming new traditions on the holidays. I used to consider holidays, birthdays, vacations, and business trips automatic cheat days (or reward days, or a diet 'break'). It was just too hard to stay on plan on those days and after all... it was tradition. How could I not have pumpkin pie or stuffing at Thanksgiving? A cheat didn't always derail my diet, but every diet that I did between 1987 and 2014 did eventually crash and burn. It always started with a cheat. I had lots of remaining weight to lose. I was not at goal. Yet, I'd cheat anyway. I believed the dietary advice that the occasional cheat/reward would actually make the diet more sustainable. But a cheat day would often turn into two days off plan, three days off plan, and more. Taking a week off for a vacation destroyed my diet every time. I found it so hard to get back on track upon my return. Eventually I would get discouraged, give up, and regain all of the weight and more. Then I'd do it all over again on the next "diet." I'm a slow learner.

Now I realize that I simply must eat low carb. Holidays, birthdays, vacations, etc. are not good enough reasons to stray off plan. The "tradition" thing is just another excuse. I was addicted to junky carbs and I was always looking for a "good" reason to gobble down something that I missed so much. In 2014 I decided that I wasn't going to do that anymore. I stayed out of the junk through the birthdays, vacation, and all of the holidays. This was the first time I ever managed that. What I found was that the cravings stopped. I stopped missing the foods I was avoiding. I can make a reasonable LC substitute for a lot of "traditional" things (like pumpkin pie). We can have a low carb cheesecake spurge as our birthday cake. I've been doing this through 3 holiday seasons now. The new traditions work much better for me.

I realize that some people can actually get away with working occasional cheat days into their plan. I thought I could. I wanted it to be true. But for me it was not a good practice. On a dozen good diet attempts over the past 25 year I'd never lost weight all the way down to goal. When I stopped believing that a cheat was OK, I lost 250 pounds in 30 months. I'd never lost more than 70 pounds in any previous diet attempt.

So it doesn't matter what others can do. What matters is what works for you. If cheating or diet "days off" make sticking to the diet plan harder, as it always did for me, then not cheating is the best option - even on Christmas or Thanksgiving.

I was very hungry the other day, in a hurry and need to eat something so I decided to go through McDonalds. For a split second I thought about how an order of fries would taste with the bunless burger.
It's not worth it, I told myself and ordered the double meat with the three breads. I flip over one meat, remove the center bread, tear off all of the two outer breads then use what's left to hold the meats and the lettuce filling, tearing and throwing away pieces of bread until I've eaten both patties and the lettuce with NO Bread and no fries either. I drank a cup of cold water.
And you know what?
Once you're full, you're full!
Your stomach doesn't know if you ate low carb or not but it does know that it's full.
I wouldn't give myself permission to cheat and that's the bottom line. It's a slippery slope.

khrussva - you make a remarkable and overlooked obvious point. Every diet derail starts with a cheat. I never thought of it that way but its 100% true.

I eat close to the same thing everyday. Today it went through my mind how much I would enjoy the little things whip cream in my coffee, a mock danish.

There are a lot of things that make a day special besides food!

That is so true, once your blood sugar is stable, the driving force to eat becomes true hunger.

I must admit.. today was hard for me. I was asked to make some baked goods for a good friend of mine for their annual Christmas party. They have hired me to do this for the past 2 years and I enjoy doing it. However for a brief moment , the overwhelming urge to have sugar cane over me. After that I made sure I ate some protein and the feeling passed. It’s jist not worth it for one day. I’m now down 16 lbs and want to keep going. I will have a regular meal as that doesn’t bother me or affect my blood sugar levels or cravings that much but I will be avoiding sugar and as much as I love Christmas, part of me will be glad that the day will come and go so I won’t be tempted.

Great job Nic! Its strong woman that can bake sweets and not taste! You're on the way to your goal!