 | First, let me say that the word "cheating" has too much baggage associated with it, so I prefer to say that when someone deviates from the plan, they are making inappropriate food choices. Since we must eat to live, every day we are faced with choices about which foods we will eat. When following any particular way of eating, whether it be low carb or low fat, there are appropriate choices and inappropriate choices. If you make an inappropriate choice, either purposely or by accident, learn from it, understand why you made that choice, how you can avoid doing so in future, and move on by making appropriate choices. It's pointless to beat yourself up over it, and may even be counter-productive, making you feel like a failure, making you feel like you don't deserve to win your personal battle against unwanted fat. Each day is a new opportunity to do what is best for you, what will bring you closer to your personal goals. In fact, every choice you are presented with is an opportunity to do something that will improve your life. Celebrate both the opportunities afforded you and all the many good choices you make. Think about the good choices, try to increase the number you make, and always congratulate yourself for doing so. Life is too short for regret, and too full of recrimination from others. Be your own best friend, and extend to yourself the kindness and tolerance you give others.
GETTING BACK ON TRACK The best things to do when you've gotten off track are simple, and the same for everyone: - Get back to low carbing immediately. Do not pass GO, dip into that cookie jar or pint of Ben & Jerry's again! ;-) The more bad carbs you eat, the worse you'll feel, the more you'll set off cravings, the harder it will be to get back into ketosis. Do not use a slip-up as an excuse to binge; you'll only regret it later. - Drink lots of water to flush out the carb toxins from your system and get rid of the bloat that results from carbing up. Drink even more water than you usually do, and keep doing so for a few days, at least until you get back into ketosis. - Go back to induction levels so you can get into ketosis again. The number of days that will take is inestimable and will vary from person to person, depends in large measure on how many and the type of carbs you ingested and your metabolism's sensitivity to them. Don't ask others how long it will take. We don't know. It might take one person 12hrs, another two weeks. It varies greatly. The basic answer is: it will take as long as it takes. If it takes four days rather than two, you simply have to stay at induction level for four days rather than two. Hey, you did induction for two weeks, so you can do four (or however many) days, right? ;-) You may even find you do not drop out of ketosis if you haven't seriously exceeded your CCLL. It will depend on how many carbs you ate, how high the glycemic index of those carbs is, what your CCLL tolerance factor (how far from your level you can stray without ill effect) is.
UNDERSTAND WHY Deviating from the plan is not a total failure if you can learn from the experience or if it causes you to re-committ more seriously to the plan. Understand why it happened. Were you tired of eating the same things? Were you feeling deprived? Was it laziness; too tired or hungry to make something "legal"? Did you have a craving for something in particular that isn't allowed? Did you have the "mad feedies" and almost anything would do, and carbs were most convenient or simply closest to your hand when it grabbed for something to eat? Did you neglect to read the nutrition label? WHY you did it will determine how you can avoid doing it again. Above all, learn to understand and deal effectively with the difference between hunger and appetite. Hunger is when your body needs food. Appetite is when your body / mind wants food. They are very different and require very different strategies. Some suggestions: - Some people can eat the same things day after day, happily. Others cannot; it turns them off to those foods after a while. If you fall into the latter group, then make sure you keep your menu varied. Check out the many low carb recipes available. Look for recipes that include foods you like. Also, make up a weekly menu. If you do, you'll be able to see when the sameness starts to creep in. You'll also be able to look at it on Tuesday and see something later in the week that you can look forward to. If you make pork roast, add a sauce later in the week so it seems different to your palate. Make an effort to keep yourself happy with your food choices. - If you feel deprived, then add some luxuriousness: hollandaise sauce on your asparagus, creamy seafood soup, homemade low carb ice cream. The low carb lifestyle offers luxuries that a low fat regimen cannot. Learn to use the range of choice. Learn to savor the luxuries afforded on a low carb plan. - Make sure you have plenty of 'legal' food on hand. Have snacks available so you always have something you can grab and eat quickly to satisfy your hunger. That will give you time to prepare a salad or entree that might take longer than your stomach wants to wait. Have such snacks available wherever you might be: in your desk at work, in the glove compartment of your car, at home, in your gym locker, in your best friends house if you spend a lot of time there. Prepare your food in advance. Make up a large batch of a recipe, freeze it or vacuum seal it in meal sized portions so you can quickly defrost / heat it. Many people set one day a week aside to do the cooking for the week. They roast a chicken, pork roast, make their own bagged salad greens, hard-boil a dozen eggs, make a large batch of tuna salad, etc. That way, you don't have to think about food every day, shop frequently, be as conscious of food all the time; it's simply there when you need it. - If you have a craving for something in particular, try to find a low carb alternative. If you can't come up with one on your own, ask other low carbers for suggestions. There's usually a way to satisfy your food cravings, especially with all the creative cooks and the abundance of low carb products now available. - If your craving is non-specific, and for sweets, then you should seriously consider L-Glutamine. It will depress your appetite / cravings for sweets. Some people take it as part of their daily supplement array to forestall cravings. Others have it on hand so they can take it if/when a craving strikes; it takes effect 20 minutes after ingestion. - De-carb your place if at all possible. If others in your household do not or cannot follow the low carb woe, then at least segregate their carby food to the extent possible so you don't have to confront it all the time. If necessary, and if they are old enough, have those who eat the carbs prepare the carbs. Some of us do not have a normal relationship with food. For us, food is more than food. It is comfort, a reward, a friend when we feel lonely or bored or angry. For many of us, carbohydrates are physiologically addictive; when we eat some, we want more --- and, usually, we eat more. They narcotize us, make us lose control. If you have eating 'issues', if you have suffered from a food disorder, whether clinically diagnosed & treated or not, then your assessment of why you deviated from the plan and your strategies for not doing so again are far more challenging, far more difficult. All of us with an abnormal relationship with food must spend time thinking about and understanding why we have food issues and what we can do to deal with them effectively. Reaching our goals depends on it. And for many of us, that means our happiness and even health depend on it.
MOTIVATION All of us with weight loss as a goal can best reach our objective intelligently, analytically. Whether we reach that goal, however, depends primarily on how motivated we are. Motivation comes from within. Motivating factors vary from person to person, and you need to find your own. Others cannot eat for you. Others cannot provide you with motivation. Make a list of all the reasons you want to lose weight. Include everything you can think of, even small things. Type it up. Post it everywhere! Keep a copy in your purse, your desk at work, your glove compartment (with those legal snacks, LOL), next to every mirror in your house. Adopt a mantra, a way of calming yourself when things get tough, either emotionally or when you're craving something 'illegal'. The most popular one is: "NOTHING TASTES AS GOOD AS THIN FEELS!" But you may have your own favorite saying that will help you re-focus on your goal and help you stay on track. Some people post pictures of the way they looked at their goal weight as a motivator. Some people use a picture of themselves at their highest weight as a motivator! Some post pics of their kids or SO to motivate them. Find your personal motivators and make them prominent in your thoughts and daily activities so they can help you stay the course and reach your goal.
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