Does anyone ever get the feeling their cheating on their diet even though they've been eating diet friendly foods? I only ask because yesterday I made a phase 1 brownie recipe and i felt like I cheated afterwards and the same thing today...I had ricotta pancakes with a little bit of splenda maple syrup. I totally feel like i've been cheating!

I make a "milkshake" that is just milk, sf cookie dough syrup, and ice, blended. Sometimes I'll add a few choc chips. It is sweet and creamy and tastes like a real chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream milkshake. It's crazy! Other times when eating steak or chicken and salads, or have you ever tried the taco bake??? There are so many delicious OP foods and recipes that I can't believe this is healthy and beneficial and I'm losing weight! I love SBD!

Just to clarify, do you mean you feel like you're indulging in food that almost seems too good to be true (but you're happy and satisfied with that), or do you mean that you actually feel like you're cheating (is there any guilt involved, or is it just a happy surprise that the food is good and something you can totally see eating forever?)

I think no matter what plan you're on, enjoying the food is really key to making it a life-long choice; and food guilt (especially when it's associated with foods that are on-plan) is a recipe for disaster. Even when it was associated with eating off-plan foods I think it's self-destructive. At least for me, it was. Whenever I felt food guilt, it usually drove me off my plan, and eventually off dieting (and right into gaining). Mostly because I tried to atone for the guilt and punish myself by crash dieting, restricting calories to insane levels.

I have rid myself of food guilt almost entirely (it crops up occasionally as an unwanted thought, but I scold myself and move on). I always used to see diets as punishment for being fat/overeating. Now I see it as a legitimate, and deserved way to pamper myself. I take as much care choosing exotic fruits and vegetables as I once did over a great ethnic restaurant menu.

I got to keep my love of food, and fascination with the food of other cultures, and what's not to love about that.

I shoud mention that while my food choices are strongly influenced by South Beach (and other whole food and low-glycemic plans such as Good Calories Bad Calories and Primal Blueprint), but I use an exchange plan, because I tend to stall on any plan that doesn't include calorie/portion control).

You know you've been on facebook too long when you look for the "like" button for the post above this!

That's a good point. My response was more of the first, happy and satisfied with this way of eating. I KNOW food guilt and I know the horrible way I feel (not only physically, but emotionally and mentally) when I go off plan. I never feel that way when eating OP, in fact, I feel so excited and happy when I find a new recipe that tastes amazing and I just want to share it with everyone I know! I love that I can keep my love for food and cooking and turn it into something positive.

I do wonder now what you meant, maita88, when you asked that?

Small world! Last night I made a buffalo chicken that I served on mashed cauliflower (sort of like an upside down spicy shepherds pie).

I pulled the meat off of a rotisserie chicken, and simmered it with 1/2 cup of hot sauce, and a can of Rotel diced tomatoes with green chiles and a pinch of salt or powdered bouillon and a pinch of Splenda to offset the tart hot sauce (the Splenda isn't always necessary. I buy whatever hot sauce I can find cheapest, and the tartness varies depending on how much vinegar is in the sauce). I simmered the mixture for about 20 minutes to thicken the sauce.

I served it over mashed cauliflower and sprinkled crumbled blue cheese on top (about a tblsp).


I also make a similar dish by simmering french style green beans with a can of the diced tomatoes (with or without chilis) and tomato sauce (or jarred spaghetti sauce), and serve that on mashed cauliflower too.

My grandmother used to make a lot of wonderful saucy dishes to serve over mashed potatoes (most of them super high in calorie) this reminds me of those comfort foods.

It's that the foods taste too good for it to be healthy! I made a SB version of Fettuccini Alfredo that I found on here and it was fantastic and afterwards i felt like I have broken the diet. I think I've just been trained to think that anything that tastes really good must be bad for me, since it usually was...

so funny I keep thinking the very same thing!!!!
*consider this post liked *

Yes! When I eat the Peanut Butter Cup and Taco Bake recipes on here! Too good to be true!

Ditto for me on the Peanut Butter Cup....SOOOO yummy!

@Asphyxia - your milkshake sounds delish too! Gonna have to get me some SF cookie dough syrup. I love cookie dough blizzards

There's a peanut butter cup recipe?

I had this the other night- spaghetti squash with shrimp, broccoli, and sauce that was half light alfredo with some fat free milk and pesto. Delicious!

Or, this weekend, I planned and executed an entirely on plan bbq for a whole group of non dieting people- delicious steak kabobs with veggies and bbq chicken, some fruit salad, green salad, sugar free broccoli salad, sugar free vanilla pudding parfaits with strawberries. Other people had some hotdogs, or some chips, but it felt like cheating to have a whole bbq of foods that I could eat.

Wow that sounds good! I think I'm afraid I'm going to overdo it portion wise or something. I'm a big sweets person and even though i know I'm having SB custard or SF stuff, I'm still feeling guilty about it. Whoa do I have food guilt or what?