Some cheats are a whole lot more damaging than others. The longer I do Ideal Protein, the more I realize you should just never cheat.

However, most people at some point will. You'll have a special occasion or you'll be traveling and you will give yourself permission to cheat. It helps me to understand which cheats are the most damaging and which cheats are the least. If I do, through lack of planning or a failure of willpower, find myself in a situation where I'm tempted to go off plan, I try to stick with the least damaging cheats. I will ask myself - can I substitute this thing I'm planning to cheat on for another cheat that is less damaging? I have a hierarchy of cheats in my head. At the risk of creating some controversy, I want to know what you think the hierarchy looks like.

Here's an exercise. Look at the 12 items listed below and put them in order of most damaging to least damaging, according to the IP protocol. I'm curious to see if your list looks similar to mine.

Regular salad dressing – Ranch, blue cheese, caesar
Fatty meat – ribeye, strip, NY steak
Extra unrestricted protein packet
Complex carbs – brown rice, potatoes, oat meal, corn, beans
Sugar + Fat – doughnuts, French fries, ice cream
Off plan vegetables like artichoke hearts
Nuts
Simple carbs – white bread, white rice, pasta
Fat free dairy - skim milk, yogurt, cottage cheese
Extra restricted IP bar
Fatty dairy – cheese, sour cream, cream cheese
Sweet sauces - barbecue, teriyaki, cocktail

First of all, this statement is false - absolutely not true. Assuming that "most" people do and will cheat, and that most everyone will give themselves "permission to cheat" is wishful thinking on the part of those posters who continually bombard these boards lately with talks of cheating.

Second, a cheat is a cheat. There is no hierarchy.

I am not understanding the purpose of this question, unless it is simply to justify eating something not on the sheet.

If you can cheat and be successful, more power to you!

The way I look at is ...

it took a lot of willpower and 8 days of strict dieting to lose my last 5 pounds ...

Could I cheat? Sure, it would be fun for one day.

But then tomorrow my scale will show I gained 5 pounds (probably from salt).

Then I will spend the next 2 weeks trying to lose those 5 pounds to get back to where I was.
In the meantime I spent another x dollars on IP foods and more time went by and I made no progress.

Is it worth a one-night cheat for all that? No (not for me at least)

I couldn't have said it better.

To reiterate - a cheat is a cheat. This is a "no cheat" diet (and you aren't really cheating the "diet" - you are cheating yourself, read the thread lisa linked to up there).

Right on, sister!

Wow! I always love to read the responses when somebody mentions the "c" word!
Remember folks that we are all adults here and answer directly to ourselves. What we do and don't do only hurt ourselves.
I strongly applaud all the 100% IPers out there, and I myself am staying 100%. I do not believe this thread was started to encourage cheating and I do not think that anybody should be chastised for this post. We are all entitled to our opinions. What we believe and don't believe is up to us. If you don't like what you have just read then carry on.
Remind me to NEVER mention if I cheat... WOW

[QUOTE=DJ72; If you don't like what you have just read then carry on.
Remind me to NEVER mention if I cheat... WOW[/QUOTE]

Well, let us take a look at this, shall we?
You are saying if we don't like what we read, to just carry on? Yet, you obviously didn't like what you read in my post. So shouldn't you just "carry on" also?
Please, explain that to me. I'm dying to know the logic behind that statement.
I gave my opinion to something that was posted. The original poster certainly had to know this was a controversial topic, considering all of the trolls starting "c" threads lately.

Wow. At least you're being kind-hearted and polite about this. Troll certainly seems like a strong word. But hey, you be "true" to you.

I agree troll is harsh. I think the cheating conversations can be usefull not really for phase 1 but for phase 4. The list that 2much2do may be a way to discuss how to eat permently....if we think of food as cheating it looks MORE appealing, in my opinion. If we all could stay 100% all the time we all, or most of us, would have lost our weight on our first diet. I am willing to bet this is NOT most of our first diets....**** I have been on a million

Very well stated!
Had the cheating post been put under the 100% thread I would have found that completely disrespectful.
Now having been at the rath of a post I totally understand why some people tend to just lurke and not post. Sad really because there are so many amazing people here!

For the record, I was not calling anyone on this thread a troll, and I do not appreciate the accusation. I was referencing the several threads where people, certain people, continuously start the cheating conversation, only to bait people into arguing. I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to utilize the word "troll" when referring to trouble makers on message boards. Troll is a commonly used term. Google it.
As far as the original post in this thread, I maintain my stance that a cheat is a cheat. If someone is in a situation where they "feel" they have no choice but to have full-fat ranch dressing on their salad, they are perfectly within their rights to do so. BUT, that is no more or less a cheat than pouring pure maple syrup on your pancake.
A cheat is a cheat.

I agree!

I guess the idea of thinking about cheating makes me nervous as I try ever to head in that direction, so far 100%.

I will admit, though, that if I WERE to think about it, there would be no contest in heading straight for the doughnuts or ice cream.

The rest are really not tempting to me. It has always been the sweet baked stuff that got me into trouble but that was in a different life and this is now.

Relax. Cool down. Blowing up because of nothing really just raises your cortisol levels and slows down your weight loss. Remember, it is your weight loss you should worry about, not that of other people. Weight loss is personal and there are hopefully many different successful roads to it.