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I am lurker here.. have never posted but read all through my (100% OP) Ideal Pro journey. Lost 25 pounds in 10 weeks and have now started maintenance. Totally believe in the program. That being said, I just want to comment on Purple Sky's post. I thought she was right on in her thoughts that everyone is different and although this is a great program, it isn't always one size fits all(pardon the pun!) It is so easy to get so dogmatic about this program, I know that for me I had to be in order to get the weight off. But for others, an occasional cheat may be what keeps them on plan the other 95% of the time. This is such a supportive forum; I just hate to see too much judgement. I believe that my path was right for me but I also think I have no idea what I will do when I finally have my cheat day now that I am in maintenance. (10 days in and I am still too afraid). The journey continues for all of us! Thanks Purple Sky for such an insightful post!

Purple hit the nail on the head.
I will admit I am one of the few that has cheated and gone right back on plan 100%. I had a planned cheat day and enjoyed it.. it felt like I was going crazy with cravings before that anyways. The next day I went STRAIGHT back on program and felt great about it. It was NOT hard to stay on program after that and I felt like I got it out of my system. I still feel like I have control. Even before my planned cheat day, I stayed on program for many events including my birthday.

Not everyone needs to stay on program for the whole duration of their weight loss to be successful on the program and to continue to keep the weight off after.

If you've stayed on program your entire journey, great. If you've cheated and got back on the program, great. The most important thing is that we are all working on ourselves and successfully losing weight and creating a better life for ourselves.

Yea, I lean toward this way of thinking also. It is a very regimented protocol, one with scientific reason for those rigid guidelines, yet we will all need to figure out our own way to manage. We also get to own any consequences for steering outside the "rules". I had two planned binges during Phase 1. In hindsight, I estimate that cost me around $200 and an additional month to achieve the weight loss.

I've been pondering this one too. Not sure yet, but I think when I get there, I'm going to start off small...sort of dip my toe in the water. I'll have one or two "treat" items just to introduce it to my system. If I do it like this, I won't be completely gobsmacked when I indulge in that big daddy on a fun day. That said, there are some foods that are off the list for good (God willing) because it they're not just a slippery slope but a landslide in the waiting.

New englander, you are very judgemental. I certainly wasnt patting myself on the back. This was a planned cheat day, and to be honest...i loved every minute of it. I dont have a problem with over eating, and i was only 45 lbs over weight to start the program and that was mostly from pregnancy. I've stayed on program mostly, and have lost 30 since Feb 8th. My theory on the cheating is that it jump starts your metabolism...in fact when we did my body fat % and my lean % i saw the biggest jumps after the cheat day. I lost 4% of body fat and gained 1% lean tissue and It only took me 1 1/2 days to get back into ketosis. So, maybe thats how my body works.
I didnt come on here to be judged or to brag or to tell others what to do. I actually started this thread as a motivator for people who may have fallen off the wagon so to speak.
I think one of the key fundamentals of this program is to teach us how to eat again, and in real life, you're going to have days where you have cake. But then you have to know how to recover from that and i think i've figured that out. I know now that i can eat healthy but when i dont, i know that i can quickly recover and my body will be just fine.

I did the same thing and tomorrow I'll be back on plan. I did find that most of what I wanted to eat didn't taste nearly as good as I remembered, though.

The path takes what it takes, I am sure. Everyone has an individual journey. A slip is not the end of a diet or weight loss. Fall down seven times, get up eight. Generally, I don"t think there is a cheat or slip that is not planned in some way.

I am not about IP like it is religion. Some may be and that approach may of great help to them! It's all okay.

As for myself, there is no "cheat" I really look forward to. Most of it would be bad for me and I am done being bad to myself. I am taking such loving care of my pancreas for these months that there is no way I would shake that baby up with a sugar cheat! So, for me, it is not so much about what is written on a protocol sheet as it is what makes sense to me to do now that I know what I Know... thanks to the knowledge eye opener IP has been!

My concern, Sccrkeepr, is with the title you selected for your thread. If you've done much reading in this forum, then you know that there are quite a few on here who struggle mightily to stay OP all of the time. They come here to find encouragement. I hope that reading your comments doesn't encourage any of them to give in to the cravings and end up quitting IP altogether. Personally, I am careful never to post anything that may discourage anyone or lead anyone off track. I save those comments for a PM with someone who I know won't take what I say to heart and end up blowing it because of me. I would feel awful if that happened.

To be sure, IP is not about cheating! No one should think its a good idea to add it to the methodology.

Things can be done to shake things up and stimulate loss without any idea of cheating. I did that and lost 5lbs over a long weekend while I had plateaued. No cheating needed to make it either.

If you look at this as " you vs. IP" or feel good about cheating, that dynamic is something to look more deeply in to itself. It is a dichotomy that actually does not exist unless one sets it up that way in their thinking.

You = HERO!!!! :queen::queen::queen:

Of course, we will eventually be off the diet but being on it is not that much different is it? It is all a decision about how we are going to take care of ourselves and how we are going to eat no matter if on or off? The dialectic of thinking of the diet as restricting and then when it is gone there are not restrictions is something I don't understand?

I "cheated" most of my eating life even though there was not the IP protocol in my hand to pretend to rail against. It all has a price, whether on an identified program or not. "Cheating" got me to where I needed IP. I can not imagine cheating being part of the answer except that it occurs when there are things to be learned. Life is like that and we will repeat patterns until we find the way out of our personal traps and patterns.

:carrot: Thank you, well said! We are all adults here, im just telling people that eating in the real world includes sugar and carbs sometimes and when that happens, you can go right back to eating well. I want people to not punish themselves, that compounds the problem. And i agree, the word cheating makes me feel a little dirty.... lol, i ate off program and i enjoyed my meal and the next day i went right back to eating right.I think in my mind at least, this is what we are supposed to be learning....eating to live instead of living to eat. But, there are always exceptions!

Yes, people have stepped outside the program and lived! Of course it is not the end of the world.

There just is not an IP plan that includes this as a part of the model. I don't know why that is? Some people determine to stick to the plan as written and prescribed for the reasons well spelled out by IP information and others do not.
I am not going off plan for my birthday, a holiday a celebration, a sadness, a vacay....those are not reasons for me to eat a certain food is the way I look at it.

I already been there done that for some 50 odd years and really I can't say I remember those "special day" mouthfuls. But, there is something I do well remember and it is the misery obesity.

great, balanced posts. Thanks:hug: