My post is probably going to be very controversial but its just my opinion and experience.
My husband lost over 130 lbs on Atkins, Phase 1, cheating one meal per week for 8 months. The one meal a week kept him on the diet the rest of the week. He always had it to look forward too each week when he had cravings. And when he did cheat he was eating way less than he did before the diet. Sure he could have lost more faster if he hadn't cheated but I believe allowing himself to cheat once a week is what kept him on it. I realize this might trigger some people to binge or they wouldn't be able to stop at one meal but he had no issues sticking to his once per week cheat.
He did go the first 2 weeks without cheating so he did the 'induction' and then stayed on phase 1 because he was over 400 lbs and had no issues sticking to the diet. He has always been a big meat eater. He also had one Atkins bar per day the entire time (expensive lil buggers but those helped him too).
So I guess it all depends on how strict you want to be with yourself. Will you lose faster if you stick to the diet exactly, yes. But will you forever be able to go without holiday meals or ice cream? Probably not and when you slip up you may hate yourself and quit and go back to old eating habits undoing all of your hard work. So planning a treat meal makes it part of your 'lifestyle diet' that you will be able to follow the rest of your life. I am very impressed you were able to not cheat during the holidays. That must have been very difficult. I'm impressed! Congrats!
Right now I'm trying to cut carbs and then when my husband gets back from Mayo clinic we will do induction together and then I will probably move to phase 2 and he will again stay at phase 1 and we will continue to have our one meal a week cheat. I weigh much less than him so I guess we'll see if I can still lose weight and stick with it with the one meal a week cheat.
Keep up the great work. you are doing great!
