Cheating on IP
 

Ok, it's been 18 days and I want to cheat! I want to cheat so bad that I'm now posting this thread to see what might be the better cheat. Is it better to cheat with a hamburger and buns or with thai food with steamed rice???

what if you don't cheat and just make your own thai food!?!? i make my own with tofu, mushrooms, bean sprouts, wf peanut spread, hot sauce, stevia and lime juice. i cook the bean sprouts down so they are like noodles. or, you could also use miracle noodles.

it's very easy not to cheat. i've been on plan for 17 weeks, and i've not cheated at all. you just have to get a bit creative. i hear that once you cheat, it's really hard to get back to/stay on plan.

Don't cheat at all....it really is a no cheat diet. YOu will be so thankful you don't...the cheat will set you out of ketosis and getting back in is difficult and requires a ton of willpower. even after 8 months if I get knocked out...I need a ton of willpower to get back in.

I am not trying to be hypocritical....I did not taste, lick, bite anything off strict protocal for the first 60 pounds....the last 12 or so...different story...but still losing.

Neither! It's better to make Big Mac in a Bowl, or peanut chicken with bean sprouts (using WF peanut butter). :) Make an IP pancake, or Crispy Cereal pancakes if you really want something bread-like. Or eat a restricted IP packet.

Your cravings are from your tastebuds only. Your body doesn't need the carbs from the rice or the buns.

Think of the money you've spent on your food. 3 to 5 days of that food, if you cheat, will not help you lose weight because you'll throw your body out of ketosis, and that's how long it'll take to get back into it. The best thing to do is to stay strong and committed to your lifestyle change.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone, that is what I needed to hear! A reminder that cheating will be such a waste of the time I've already put in!

I'm sure we've all needed it at some point or another! Glad it helped!

I'm not pro cheating or anything. But you will still lose weight if you're not in ketosis. It's might not be 100% fat that you lost but you will still loose as long as calories out are more than calories in.


When I have the urge to cheat. I take a bite or two of my fav restricted :o
I'm not perfect either haha.

That's what I do too (I head for the restricteds first... then you don't have to cheat).

Hang in there and stay strong!

I do the same thing, often I have a few opened packets in my purse (its a huge purse) some bbq soy puffs/ chocolate soy puffs. Then when I'm feeling reallllly snackish I'll have a few off those. It kills the craving without actually doing anything to throw the diet off. ;)

When I get the urge to cheat, I ask myself if it's worth it--usually the answer is no. Sometimes I just need to go to the mall and walk--count fat people and decide I don't want to be one of them anymore--that urge goes away. And it's easier to count normal weight people is what I've found.

I love this!
 

Count the fat people! That's great! LOL! When I quit smoking and had the urge for one, I made myself wait 5-10 minutes and the urge was gone! I think I like the counting fat people even better though! Plus it gets you out of the house and doing something!

So Not Worth it!!!
 

I have cheated and have lost only .4 of a pound one week and .6 the next, so it took 2 weeks to lose just one pound! So not worth it! I was having health issues and my hormones went crazy on me but I wish I would have done something else. It set me back and now it's been over 6 weeks and I've only lost 18 pounds, which isn't bad but I could have probably lost at least 6 more if I hadn't cheated and would be much closer to my goal weight. Also, once you cheat it is very hard to get back on track. I would say NO!!!! Don't do it. IMO!!

So very true. I'm really not the perfect protocol person, cheated a few times in 6 weeks. Still lost weight, fat and inches but that's not normal. I think it depends on your metabolism as to how soon you return to a state of ketosis. It's not as rewarding to see a loss that isn't all fat loss for sure. And it's difficult to stop the snowball effect cheating just once may have. It's totally up to you what you decide to do. Whatever that may be, don't beat yourself up too bad for any decision you make.

I think with your last answer that you have not cheated.

I just want to tell you that I really understand you. My first 3 weeks I was thinking about cheating a lot...In my fourth week it changes and It was really easier for me to follow the protocol without cheating thoughts, maybe it will be the same for you...;)

Stay on track...:)

I have been on IP for seven days. I was doing so well, and then my hunger got so bad today, I had some pistachios. There are several stressful things going on in my family, but this is no excuse. I think I am not eating enough salads/lettuce & maybe not enough vegetables that are higher in fiber. I will try that this next week. All of your postings are so encouraging. It really helps to be on here. :)

Today was a really challenging day :/ So glad 2morrow is a new day with new beginnings! WILLPOWER is the key to SUCCESS!

Thanks everyone. My roommate, who is also on IP with me, was having a tough weekend. She said she wanted her life back. I understand her frustration but thanks to all of your support and advice, we both have made it through a weak moment :-)

Thanks to everyone!

Don't do it! You'll be so glad you stayed OP. :)

And this phase is not forever. You and your roommate will get to phase 2, 3 and even 4, and not have to give up so many things then. This is only temporary, but SO worth it!

This is day 8 for me and I haven't had a huge urge to cheat. I did have a sweet tooth the other day but I had ordered some Chocolate Crunchies from DietDirect and they did the trick. I'm not perfect either - like today for lunch - EAS SHake and some ground turkey chili verde and lettuce. Tonight will be chicken for dinner. I can't always get just veggies in and I have food I prepared that I have to eat due to my budget. Once they are gone, then veggies alone.

I was down 6.4 pounds this morning and that is week 1 and it was my TOM. I am hoping for a 4 pound loss this week.

I always think about cheating, but then i think about how great I feel after even losing 20lbs. and then I think about just burning the $80 I spent on IP food! I can;t afford to waste the money so it keeps me on track! hang in there

Bump.

I often see the "Bump" in threads. What does this mean? Thanks :)

it is just a way of moving a thread that hasn't had much activity back to the first page for easy location and use.

That's hilarious!! I do sometimes look around and see that I am the ONLY fat person around, and it makes me more motivated to start IP and really, truly say goodbye to this body forever. Thanks for sharing!

Well, I could tell you "do not cheat" but I can't since I have done it ... I think cheating is a waste of time and money, but still I have done it - For personal experience, it's very hard to come back to the program 100%, it takes a lot of will power... good luck to you, and always remember this group is a great support system regardless your desicion :)

I love the counting fat people idea, that is so true. I look around and am amazed at the number of fatties out there. Arent you glad that you have chosen to do something about it? Also the price of food each week definately keeps me from cheating. I am not paying 100.00 a week just to cheat and throw my money away. Good luck and keep your chin up, the sacrifice will all be worth it in the end.

I am a high school teacher and I am stunned at the number of teenage girls who are overweight....definately the majority...even the "thin" ones have extra pounds. It is sad because I fear they will become obssessed and have eating issues. This is a society issue and something major has to change. My poor daughter has so much weight to lose...at 21 she was almost 300 pounds. She is currently around 235 after 3.5 months on IP....hopefully she keeps going, but she just enrolled at pastry school and starts in a week....I fear she may backslide....I wish I had done more when she was little. She literally was born chubby and stayed chubby growing up (size 14/16 in high school). She left home and moved in with her boyfriend a few weeks before graduating from high school and gained 100 pounds in a few months (he was also overweight).

I have been trying to come up with a way to make a difference for young girls without causing them to obssess....any ideas?

Boy do I wish I had an answer for that. My daughter also has always been chubby. She is 11, 5'2", and currently weighs about 190, and wears size 14 in women.

One of the reasons that I decided to do IP, was that I wanted her to see me doing something about my weight, instead of me complaining about it and just getting heavier. When I started IP, she decided to diet too. Not IP of course, but a more balanced low sugar diet. She has lost 20 lbs.

It was a difficult thing to talk about her weight. It brought up my own insecurities from my mother always telling me how fat I was. I was scared of making her obsess over her weight, like my sister and I always have. I don't know if she will obsess over her weight or not. But I try to be very gentle with her, and just steer her to make the right decisions, and compliment her when she does.

What I hope for my daughter, is that we (she) can get her weight down, and learn all the benefits of healthy eating while she is still young. And I hope that this will give her the tools to maintain.

But you're right, it is a societal issue. The only thing I know to do is to be a better example for my kids, and hopefully they will carry it on to their kids, etc.

I too am a high school teacher, and I too am surprised at how many overweight young people there are - including boys! I walked into a classroom one day and there was only 1 boy who was not overweight. I couldn't believe it. I wasn't very big in high school (size 7/9 at 5'5") but I was also never super lean. Just average. I can't believe that 5 years later there are so many girls way worse off than I have ever been.

One thing that might help is having Health teachers who teach nutrition actually KNOW something about nutrition. My daughter is 15 and they are currently studying Nutrition. She came home yesterday steaming from the 'nutrition' that she was taught yesterday in class. My daughter knows more about nutrition in her pinky than the teacher did.

The teacher said people who do Low Carb and High Protein have it all backwards because the high fat in protein causes them to take 2 steps back in loosing weight. Huh?? No explanation of good vs bad fat. No dicussion of lean protein vs high-fat protein. No discussion of good vs bad carbs. No explanation of whole grains vs processed/bleached flour and what whole grain actually means.

So - if we want schools to help and teach nutrition - then those teaching need to know a little bit about it.

I'm of the opinion that good nutrition is taught at home. But it's difficult when most of us don't have a good concept of what Good Nutrition actually is. Where were we going to learn it??

People talk about what we eat on IP - but in reality - 2 cups of veggies with salads and lean protein IS good nutrition. Making it a habit to eat your carbs from veggies ensures you get the RDA of veggies. If you stick to 5 veggie a day - you can't help but eat most of your carbs from veggies...you are probably too full to fill up on sugar crap.

I'm lucky that my daughter has always been cautious of what she eats. She was reading labels at age 10 and decided on her own to tell me to stop buying Chef in a can stuff b/c she saw the fat content. She does not have a weight problem but is a muscian rather than an athlete. She's decided on her own that - while she's comfortable with her weight and jean size she wants to firm up for the bathing suit season so she has started running.

I'm also proud to say she told the class - it's not about what you CAN and can NOT eat. It's about how much you eat. Which is true for normal folks and what we'll learn in Phase 4 once we heal our pancrease and level our insulin so our bodies function like 'normal' folks.

Until society stops looking for the fast and quick meal and starts to really understand nutrition and the importance of whole foods - I'm afraid nothing will change and each generation will be sicker than the next. How else will they learn than what they are taught and the examples they see.

I commend you guys for taking control and learning about nutrition so you can be great examples for your daughters. I really believe it starts at home. We are all on our way to be better examples for all of those around us. It has to start some where.

I'm getting over being made fun of for eating my kale chips at work - when everyone else is eating M&Ms.

EDIT: After reading this - I just want to make it clear I'm not bashing ALL teachers. Just this specific case - that if it's the lesson she was teaching that day she should have researched it a little more or had a guest speaker to speak about it. She gave mis-information and half-information. I don't want to come across as Teacher Bashing and sometimes it's hard to get your pont across over the internet.

I couldn't be a teacher AT ALL!!! :-)

My biggest point was - no wonder kids are over weight. With information comes power. We must have correct information and desire inorder to change.

ok - what I really wanted to post in this thread was my hamburger bun recipe...I got side tracked.

So no need to cheat with a hamburger and bun.

I take the Cereal packet; crush it up; add 1 egg yolk; pinch of baking powder; garlic powder and enough water to make it thin (just like the pancakes,etc)

I have 2 small round casserole dishes - divide the batter between the 2 dishes (adding enuff water to make enuff batter) and microwave them. They come out a little floppy - so I then stick them under the broiler for a few minutes.

perfect thin hamburger buns - that stay together. I can now do the fixings (mushrooms, onions, pickles, lettuce, sometimes WF BBQ sauce or WF Ranch dressing) and have a NORMAL hamburger. Eat it with WF coleslaw (or better yet put the coleslaw on the burger) and kale chips.

One of my weekend favs!!

Wow! What an inspiring thread. I came by for a 'visit' and ended up inspired. Thanks, guys. One of the main reasons I'm doing IP is because I don't want my young daughters to learn the word 'diet' from me. They will get it plenty of places in their lives, but I want to walk the walk for them. So I decided to use this program to get everything back in check so they can watch what I am doing and learn.

We aren't a perfect family. We don't have the girls eat the same foods that we eat. That's a problem we need to fix really soon. The good news is they eat more veggies than many adults and I don't know a fruit they won't eat. So we're on the right track, I just need to work on their protein sources.

They still like sugar. Lolipops are a hit in our house, but on the 'no sweets' days we have in our house they love their peanuts or cashews or cheese just as much. I'm hoping those habits will stick and that they will start to understand moderation. It reamains to be seen as they are only 3.5 and 5.5, but we had to start somewhere.

I also love when they try to imitate me doing exercise videos. There is nothing like a 3.5 year old trying to punch it out like Jillian. Hee hee hee.

One other side note-- google Girls on the Run. It is a really cool program that is pretty prevalent here in the pacific NW. It is a program to help teach middle school-aged girls healthy eating, the importance of an active lifestyle and positive self esteem. The culmination of the program is a 5k 'run' with a running buddy (an 'older' woman). I've participated in the program for the last few years even though my daughters obviously don't qualify yet. There is nothing like helping to empower young women to take care of themselves and provide them with tools to help counteract some of what society throws at them.

Don't we all...:D

These habits of moderation WILL stick because you've started early.

My daughter started early understanding she could have a lolipop - just not 3 - and not every day. I didn't give her sugary drinks every day and watched it when she was little - but as she got older I didn't police it as much. She then learned to 'police' herself and prefer water over soda. Now that she's almost 16 - she can recognize when she's 'gone overboard' and she starts cutting back. (i.e. a few days in a row she has sodas - so she makes the decision to cut back and start drinking water again.) She's developed the skills to know when enough is enough and it's time to get back to it. Sort of like on IP Phase 4 - when we're supposed to got to Phase 1 the day after the cheat day. We 'get back to it' and don't make a habit of the overboard day.

I think teaching the kids that the normal diet is the 'no sweet day' and the 'special day' is the day we have something sweet - or a soda, etc is the key. Teaching them what 'moderation' really means so they can recognize later when they've exceeded it. Sure wish I had learned that earlier - although most of my weight gain was from illness rather than poor nutrition - it's still hard to do the right thing.

If you can't tell - I'm a proud parent. She's an inspiration to me.

I can't wait to enjoy cheese again

bump

Amen!!!