I cheated and i feel so good..
 

I cheated on my birthday, i wont get into the details, but it re energized me. I also lost 6 lbs this week, which is my biggest loss yet. Not patting myself on the back here and not suggesting others do it, but now i feel like i can go another 10 weeks.

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

I did it a couple of days ago. I went to see The Avengers and ate an ice cream, some lollies and a small bag of Twisties. It was rocking fun while it lasted but the next morning I was violently ill, which I didn't expect. These days, every time I cheat it's either a migraine or vomiting and diarrhea.

That said, I'm down a couple of pounds. The cheat day does work!

Geez...I wouldn't be patting myself on the back either or suggesting others to do it. You just started March 2012...time shall tell...For your sake don't cheat again...

I've had that experience -- after a plateau of 2 or three days, a tiny cheat -- a pinch of dried cranberries or some glazed pecans on a salad, or a few Cheez-its, or a few spoonfuls of cooked carrots -- and I get a noticeable and steady drop over the next two or three days. I used to think it was coincidence and I would have dropped any way, maybe more, but I tried experimenting and it seems like I can interrupt a plateau whenever I want this way. Has anybody else had this? I was thinking maybe it is a way to jolt my metabolism out of "starvation mode" but I can't say feel starving at all. One thing I like about ip is that I have felt so good 90% of the time -- not starving at all.

I dont know, it sounds like a slippery slope to me. I just may not be able to get back on track after going hog wild one day. And also there is a method to this madness, it is about phasing off the right way and re awakening the pancreas. It's not just getting thin, it is about being healthy and STAYING thin. In order to stay thin we have to learn new habits and binging is an old bad habit that I am trying to get rid of.

It may just be me but the thought of having my body work the correct way for once in my life sounds very good.

I feel like an alcoholic. I think there are some foods I will stay away from for life. Fast food is one. I also don't have a desire for it right now.m when I eat extra I eat an extra IP snack. I wanted to last night after an argument but read a few pages in my book instead. It worked. Good luck everyone. Have a good day.

I'm with you:D

I'm with you Cadu and usmcvet. If I start, not sure I could stop - that is my choice though, everyone makes their own. Reminds me of when I was expecting my son, everyone kept pushing me to have some wine since "its okay to have a small glass" - I had none because I know myself, if I have a little I want A LOT.

And on that note, just tried my 1st restricted choco soypuffs.....this feels like a BIG CHEAT! Soooooo delicious!

DITTO!! Really folks. Sound like an addict. Like you just HAD to cheat. Self control in all aspects of life is important! Certainly we all make our own choices but from an ego and self esteem it is better to know you can modify old behaviors! We mostly all got here for being out of balance and we didnt use restraint. I agree with Cadu...use this time to get rid of these behaviors not indulge them. Of course just my opinion...

I agree with cadu, vet and the others. Feels like "gaming the system" to me. Like many of us used to take a laxative or a water pill in prep for a wt watchers weigh in. Most of us know how to get that extra half pound off when we need it. I agree with the pancreas retraining thing. I phased off for surgery recently and actually lost 8 pounds in the process, having a huge phase 3breakfast each day for a month. Now back to p1 to finish up.

For me it is all about honesty and accountability. I am the only one who can decide what goes in my mouth and I am the only one responsible for the consequences of those choices.

I cheated once, it was moving day it started snowing and everything and then some went wrong, my inlaws did not help the situation, I didn't enjoy my cheat and was so sick for days after, it was like starting IP all over again, it wasn't worth it for me. And I think now if I was to cheat I'll be spending at least another 90$ the money part to this diet keeps me going since I swear IP makes me broke lol

Cheating?
 

Hey Girls! Love hearing your thoughts on Ideal Protein and all! I am on my week 3 right now and have my 3rd weigh in Monday! So far I'm down 10.4 lbs and still feeling great! I think it is a trial and error to what you like and dislike for the IP foods! So far my faves are the herb & cheese omelet, white cheddar puffs, chocolate drink, and wildberry smoothie. It took awhile to like the crunchy cereal, but it is ok. It was a rough start, but after day 4 I felt totally revived! Good luck to all of you!!! :)

Absolutely. Totally agree with all of the above comments, describes my feelings to a 'T'. Allowing anything 'off program' would be a veery slippery slope for me... I've proved that in the past... just opens the door to additional cheats, and then I'm eventually totally off the diet wagon. That mentality has gotten me to where I am today. No more. And a 'splurge' for me, until I get to goal, will be an extra 'helping' of an acceptable IP alternative product. I'm on alternatives, and if I were on 'IP proper' the cost alone would keep me strict. But as it is, the knowledge that a 'cheat' would hamper the long-term benefits to my pancreas and improved metabolism is enough to keep me 'honest'. I bumped the thread about 'The High Cost of Cheating' yesterday, but it's already disappeared. It is well worth a read - and a re-read.

Everyone is different and it's really important to know what is right for you. I had an accidental cheat in P1. I was consuming a product I thought had no sugar in it and then after a few days I read the label and was so miffed. But, it was also funny because I swear I read the label 10 times. You know that brain fog we get on this diet. I laughed it off but I think that week's weight loss was really low and the following week was better. I have no way of knowing whether or not I was knocked out of ketosis.

That said, things happen and the mental self-torture we inflict on ourselves over the rigidity in this diet is simply not worth it. I do believe some can cheat all through this diet and do fine. They will still lose weight but I believe most of us can't. I think you can start to feel so wound up, so controlled on this diet that a release, a stray, the big bad cheat, might help to get you to chill and move on. That or it's the end. You threw away all your hard work and money and you will feel bad and have to start over.

I hate the word cheat. I have hated every since I first heard it associated with this diet.

But, I will say this, when I accidentally slipped I felt good. I had convinced myself that this product was great for me and each time i had it I felt good. I did not realize it was because it had sugar in it. That's what made me feel good. My body wanted it and it was happy. As soon as I realized the issue, I went back to things are they were and so did my body and mood.

Based on me and my body, I would not have knowingly cheated on this diet during P1. I don't think I would have been able to handle it but having accidentally done it, it got me thinking. There's something to be said about making your body happy and feeling food (nice typo) again. Something I am discovering on P3.

Just be realistic with yourself and your boundaries. know what you can and can't do. Some people need to see losses every single week on the scale and can't handle it otherwise. Some have to get down to a certain number or they are not done. There are all these different things we do with our thoughts to make ourselves crazy. Not worth it.

Decide what you can commit to realistically and potentially successfully and do it. When you ca'tn do it anymore or you don't want to, consider yourself done or almost done and try to start phasing down. There's no reason to mentally torture ourselves like we do and I have seen it time and time and time again on the boards. I do it and I make myself crazy.

You do the best you can with what's you've got. Eventually, you will be off this diet and you will have to make decisions for yourself. You will have to make the best ones that work for you personally.

...stepping off soapbox. :soap:

:cp::cp::cp::cp::cp:

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:

agreed....

I agree this is a place to keep us on track and encourage success.....

It does seem that different folks require different things to stay on track. No surprise. Some of us need to feel that the rules are rigid for our own good and some of us need to know we will be forgiven by their metabolisms for slip ups.

True but some of us find out the hard way that our metabolisms are not very forgiving. I'd be in that group I know.

Oh my gosh! Those choco soypuffs got me through my first week. DEEEE LICIOUS!

I totally agree! I went off diet for two days (after a death in my family). At that point, I had been on IP for eight weeks. Before going off diet, I had small losses the previous weeks. After getting right back on IP after those two days, my weight loss was -5.6 lbs for the week . I also think that it jump started things for me.

It was easy for me to jump back on IP being 100% OP because I have seen incredible results and I have decided to keep at it until I reach my goal. If I see the slow weight loss again, I'll probably do the same thing.

Everyone is different, so what works for one, might not work for another....

Good for you! I cheated last night..had one 5 ounce glass of wine and was up a pound this morning!! I know it's not a real pound..but depressing!

Your scaring me!! I leave for Paris in a week and I do plan to go off plan for 5 days...because it's Paris and I have not been alone with my husband in 7 years or ever out of the country. Do you think I will get sick? Should I slowly introduce whole grain carbs a few days before the trip?

By the title of this thread I honestly thought this was a troll. Assuming it's not at this point, after reading the entry...

I want to say that I am upset that this thread was posted, since with my own experience, I know that cheating is not the way to go, believe me. And I am scared that some newbies would assume that it is ok to cheat on this diet and that it might even be a boost to their weight loss (which is wrong)

I know from my own experience that cheating on this diet put me way back and I regret each and every moment I did, I wish I could go back in time and undo it, but I can't and now that I can't, it got sooooooo hard for me to go back 100% like I used to be, I struggled like crazy to go back on this program just because I decided that I wanted to cheat for my Christmas break (which by the way continued until my Easter break plus some more), so I lost time and money and most of all I did not lose the weight I wanted to lose and now that I see my fellow Ipeeps who stuck with it and I see their numbers and mine, I really regret my acts.

So, please, do not consider cheating, you will only be cheating yourself.

Sincerely.