I have not cheated one MOUTHFUL since I started IP 5 weeks ago and have been rewarded with an almost 15 lb loss. So tonight I had an old friend for dinner and I ended up having: one generous glass of cabernet, a few spoonsful of hummus, another few of tabouli, plus allowed veggies and a couple of curried eggs. Not that bad but I could just see how it could snowball.

How do I reclaim my OCD? I made myself a cup of black chai tea after dinner and skipped my evening protein snack. So far so good. But this makes me worry about stage 4. One little slip, one taste of forbidden food, and the cravings start rumbling underneath like an earthquake.

Jeesh.

Get back on track with your next meal. That means no skipping the food you are required. It will be fine. Tomorrow go back to a phase 1 day one. Read it from your journal and duplicate it if you can or want to. Take a walk tonight to burn off any extra carbs if that is an option.

Drink plenty of water, have an extra packet tomorrow if you are hungrier than yesterday.

It isn't the easiest thing sometimes to get back on track but, you haven't had the worst choices and it should be ok.

Hi Meggie. Simply put: all you gotta do is pick yourself up and keep going -
which it sounds like you're doing. "Cheats" happen - it's what you do about it afterwards that shows your long term chance of successfully keeping the weight off. I've had 3 cheats in the past 6 months and what I've realized is that the severity in the cheat (what I ate) decreased and changed completly (for the better). One of the great things about this plan is it gives you time to progress successfully through each phase. By the time you reach phase 4 you'll be in a different place than where you currently are (psychologically in regards to food/eating).

You gotta admit, for your first cheat, you ate foods which were healthy choices. You didn't go crazy over junk food - so you did good. Don't be hard on yourself or stress over how you'll manage phase four. You're a strong, capable women who's already proving she's in control. Plus, keep in mind that for the past 5 weeks your diet has been extremely restricted. When you reach the maintenance phase, you'll be eating so much more food with plenty of choices. You probably won't "snowball" out of controll because you'll know if you can't (or don't) eat something one day, you'll be able to have it on a different day. You won't be as tempted to let yourself go over board because you can have variety in what you're chosing to eat. Unlike phase one. Hope this makes sense.

You've made terrific progress Meggie! Keep it up. You're going to do just fine (on ALL of the phases).

Hey, how's your hubby doing on the plan? Gad, I hope it was you who posted about putting their hubby on the plan... If not, opps.

I can't give you any better advice than you've already gotten in the previous two posts... I can only concur. Your choices were not that far out of line, and
you're ready to get back on your little horsie and tear across that golf course!!

Phase 4 will be different from Phase 1, and different from your eating habits pre-IP. The cravings don't overwhelm, and you'll be able to incorporate the things you really want to eat/drink. Don't stress out. .. you're doing fine.

Whew. Thanks, guys. Great advice. Makeitmatter, thanks for asking about my hubby. He's lost 6 pounds his first week and doing okay, not so starving anymore. I now have half a bottle of a lovely Cabernet capped in my frig as an opportunity to resist temptation for the next two months. Leftover wine??? This has NEVER happened in my house!