Thu, Dec-21-17, 14:47
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Say NO to Diabetes!
Posts: 8,671
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Plan: My own - < 30 net carbs
Stats: 440/228/210
BF:Energy Unleashed
Progress: 92%
Location: Central Virginia - USA
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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.
Last edited by khrussva : Thu, Dec-21-17 at 15:44.
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