Week 5 - Low Carb Bootcamp - The cheating stops here

[StuntNun]

Hello again and it's time for weigh in. The cheating seems to have edged up a bit in the last week so I want to remind everyone that cheating is a really bad idea and will hinder your weight loss. It's called Bootcamp for a reason. We only want ten weeks from you and the cheat foods will still be there at the end of Bootcamp. But for now no cheats please. Next time you're tempted remember it isn't the last scone/cake/wine in the world.

If you need a reminder or you're joining Bootcamp partway through, the rules are on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness and you can also track your weight on the Weight Tracker.

As promised last week I've written some info on the science behind diets...

How do we lose weight?

First, why don't low fat restricted calorie diets work? It comes down to homeostasis: our bodies actively resist change. For some reason in humans our resistance to weight change appears to be asymmetric, that is we resist losing weight much more effectively than we resist gaining weight. Most of us have experienced first hand the gradual increase in weight over time, or the more abrupt but still unshiftable weight gain that happens with pregnancy. Basically it's easy to gain weight but difficult to lose weight. So we go on a reduced calorie diet, eating 1800 calories while our bodies are expending 2000 calories. We may lose some weight at first but eventually eating 1800 calories becomes the norm and our bodies resist the change by dropping the metabolic rate to match calorie output to input. But, and here's the problem, the metabolic rate might drop to reduce calorie expenditure by 300 calories rather than 200 in order to regain the lost weight and get back to our normal weight. So weight loss stops, we get disheartened and quit the diet and our reduced metabolic rate allows the weight to pile back on and then some, just in case we encounter this artificial famine again in the future.

So what's different about a low carb diet? One of the key rules of Bootcamp is to eat when you're hungry. This works to prevent the reduced metabolic rate that scuppers a reduced calorie diet. When you start eating a low carb diet and you have exhausted your glycogen stores, the liver starts converting fat from your diet into ketones. Your muscles start using ketones and then adapt to using fatty acids for energy. Your brain uses ketones and glucose from your diet along with glucose produced from protein by gluconeogenesis. The low levels of insulin induced by a low carb diet allow fatty acids to flow freely in and out of fat cells. It is this free flow of fatty acids from your fat cells that allows you to lose weight on a low carb diet without restricting calories. Your muscles cannot distinguish whether fatty acids came directly from your digestive system or from your fat cells, they just use them up as needed. As you adapt to the low carb diet, there is a reduction in your appetite in response to the ready availability of energy at all times. A low carb diet works simply by allowing your muscles and liver to freely use fatty acids released from your fat cells.

Good luck for the coming week. Keep on keeping on.

linesandlines - you've made me laugh ALOUD with your comment!

my trousers are baggy too even though I haven't lost that much weight in total

I think this WOE takes care of loosing fat and fat is bulky!

Evening lovelies, a big cheer to pisses and BIWI thank fuck you guys said what I was still thinking I was starting to feel deranged and grumpy as fucknard....

scousa I may be entirely making this up, but as a person whose suffered endless bastard ankle issues (I have hypermobility syndrome and all the ligaments in my right ankle are way too long and thinned) I have found that I am really hungry and tired if I have tissue damage stuntnun am I babbling utter shit or may there be something in this?

We are currently all in good gut health round mine! Yippee, I'm ecstatic! I only had one episode of stomach cramps today, and they passed really quickly. I'm almost finished my antibiotics. My poor hands, however are so dry from excessive and thorough washing and my nails are shredded. I don't even care, it's soooooo good to be well again.

Food today has been a little odd cos I need to do a proper shop, as opposed to running through lidls collecting fatty cuts of meat

B - yoghurt and three lc sausages
L - Restaurant, sirloin steak in garlic butter with a green salad. I left half the salad because it was shredded iceberg, which imo is a belly full of wank water. Coffee with cream
D - Crayfish tails, sliced ham, guacamole, cold lamb with mint concentrate (mint in vinegar I think... anyway lc) kalamata olives. (not enough veg in the house...) and a small piece of cheddar.

Obviously three plus litres of water.

Other News

My little puppy is now four months old, and still merrily crapping on the floor/in her crate if the need takes her but we are chugging on regardless, and it's not very often she gets the opportunity. Fortunately all the floors are wooden, and the turds are tiny and hard

Continuing with mega clean tomorrow - I have a 15 year old foreign student coming to stay for two weeks on the 5th. He has ADHD but is on meds. I have little practical knowledge of the condition, but he is able to manage well apparently.

Hello all - quick check in here, and no deliberate cheating, although it is difficult to know exactly what is in everything, as I am eating in restaurants all week.

Today was:
B: 2 poached eggs, mushrooms, bacon and tea with cream
L: chicken in cream and mushroom sauce, with salad, grilled veg, and cheese
D: Curry buffet, so I chose Goan fish curry, curried aubergine and pepper and lamb and spinach. No bhaji, no poppadoms, no rice and no chutney. And you know what - it was good and I did not feel deprived.

And over 3 lts of water.

I hope I have not contributed to the cheating torture. I am trying my best in unusual circumstances, and I do not want to be the cause of making trash, pisses, stunt and BIWI grumpy. Come on everybody - we can do this!

To be honest I'm actually finding the whole cheater-bashing theme of this thread over the last few pages to be really un-supportive and actually a bit annoying. I get that some people find reading about other peoples accidents/planned diversions from the path somewhat demoralising but equally I think that if someone is using the thread to talk to others about their experiences of this WOE/bootcamp including negatives and/or difficulties they are having then having a bunch of people shouting repeatedly at them and telling them what they can and can't say may be equally damaging.

Considering that some people are having planned social occasions where carbs are unavoidable, or even holidays where bootcamping is not possible but this is deemed ok to discuss I don't really think that someone saying that they had a glass of wine due to stress or a couple of chocolates as a one off really necessitates post after post of people having a go. I was following bootcamp by myself for quite a while and in that time I read the threads from the previous bootcamp and the level of support in those threads and the sharing of struggles and successes is what made me sign up this time. Unfortunately, despite there being a pretty regular and common sharing of cheating/struggles/socially unavoidable situations which was met with support and encouragement to get back on track with the majority of the people posting in the previous bootcamp threads, that solidarity and understanding just doesn't seem to be present here.

Obviously I'm not saying hey everyone just cheat uncontrollably and brag about it on here, who cares etc etc. There does seem to have been a rather large number of people slipping up recently, but it seems to me that for the most part people who have posted about cheating have been pretty disappointed and regretful about it and having people telling them not to share their experiences and berating them to this extent is, in my opinion, unnecessary and excluding. Also there are some people on this thread who, like me, are planning to do this permanently and for us that means having the odd, very rare, "cheat" just to keep things sustainable and the experience positive. I'm aware that this will most likely prove an unpopular view but I feel that if things continue the way they are then this thread and maybe even the whole bootcamp is going to just end up divided or exclusive to those who have been doing it long enough to have got past the initial cravings/temptations/difficulties. A little understanding and compromise is needed on both sides I think and being considerate of peoples feelings should apply to everyone.

Anyway with that massive grumpy post out of the way, probably not helped by the fact that I have had a pounding headache all day which is most likely raising my grump level to the max while simultaneously removing any patience I may usually have, I hope everyone is having better luck today resisting the evil carb cravings and keeping on the right track.

I decided to have a go at making the mayonnaise recipe that someone posted on one of the earlier threads today and amazingly it actually worked. I found that I needed to add a second egg to the mix when using the mild olive oil to get it to thicken up which was interesting as when I did a trial run with normal olive oil it only took one egg, maybe something to do with the density of the oil. I never knew mayo was so easy to make and it's really good to be able to know what's going in to it and getting rid of all the extra junk that gets put into the shop bought stuff .

birdcage I really don't want to upset people with my hard line. I have been turning solutions to this over and over in my head for days now. I want to try and explain and explore why I have such a forceful reaction when reading about other peoples cheating.

I think one of the really amazing things I experienced on last bc, was when I had a stressful situation that in the past may have had me reaching for comfort foods, I used this thread to verbalise those thoughts and desires. So I faced a really deep routed habit, which is using food to alleviate stress, and I shared that, sometimes minute by minute with the thread. I identified that saying 'I deserved x/y foods because this awful thing happened' was a really destructive behaviour for me. A lot of people were able to identify with that, and some pretty deep sharing went on (you may or may not have read those bits of that thread). It felt like a shift in thinking, and the thread evolved to be very supportive of that kind of personal progress. I suspect, that, as I am moving past that kind of thinking, I'm a bit like a recent ex-smoker, and just struggle enormously when I perceive others to be doing the same thing as I have escaped eg 'Had a terrible day so had to eat/drink this'

It almost physically hurts me to read it (blimey I know that sounds really sad ) but that's the truth.

The threads definitely seem to have their own 'flavours' to me, so the one where we identified deep routed unhealthy behaviour patterns, had a clean crisp flavour to me, and I felt nourished by them (good christ I really sound wafty here, but bear with me )

When I come on to catch up, what I'm personally looking for, on this particular thread, is success, and I take strength from that. When I come on and read, so and so cheated because of x or y reason, and then hearing about gains or losses, 'but that's ok, because I cheated so....' It saps my strength.

I was wondering if it would be too divisive to suggest that we have a weekly confessionals thread to go alongside the chat thread, and have any cheats people want to disclose on that, and keep this one for motivation, thinking through shit, and general chit chat which doesn't involve cheating?

I do get that there are those amongst us who are just not cheaters. I am definitely in that category, and am lucky in the sense that I'm a stubborn fucking cow who won't give in. I'm as intolerant of my own cheating as I am of others, which is why my cheating is rare and private. I also realise there are those amongst us for whom cheating is inevitable, and they need or want to discuss it.

In a non fighty way, I think we must be able to come up with a solution to this issue and not polarise ourselves.

Has anybody got suggestions? What do others think of mine? And what are other peoples general opinions?

Sorry for a long post and my ramblings...

I think for me the clue is in realising that:

• sugar is addictive
• emotional eating can be controlled
• I CAN control both!

I am still unable to put my finger on what makes me reach for a biscuit or a toast on some occasions whilst it doesn't in others

I really felt positive on Saturday that this time I am going to last - yet I wasn't able to stop and have glass of water instead of some carbs.

I read somewhere that we are used to having something in our mouth. That hardly 40 min passes on an average between us eating/drinking. Maybe if I concentrate on having longer than 40 min between stuff going into my mouth I am going to be more successful in long term?

Every of us has to find a way to change how we behave. We can not write about cheating at all. What is the cost and benefit to the person writing and to the person reading it?

I was thinking that not writing about failings and how we can get better at not doing the right thing is likely to create an artificial picture of only positive reports where no one is failing. Whilst we know that isn't a case. Then those who have less positive reporting to write about will fail over the wagon as they will write less and less.

trashcanjunkie - I agree it would be better to stop, not have that first bite and come here and try to verbalise what pushes me to to do it. And hopefully to find the way out of lots of bad habits and excuses.

Being honest with myself helped me a lot in getting over many emotional issues in the past. Maybe being brutally honest and not pretending that I am always able to be in control of my reactions is the way for me to deal with my sugar cravings?

I just feel no one is interested in reading about my wobbles over packet of biscuits in the kitchen
Coping mechanism for me was always to do things by myself, not asking anyone for help. Knowing best! Yet I know intellectually I don't know much!
However emotionally I feel I have to be THAT strong. I feel that if I start being unsure I am going to fail. Need to think more about it. ANd perhaps discuss it with someone or look for counseling.

There's a lot of issues for everyone behind reaching for the fix of sugar or cigarette. I am hoping I can start working through mine.

trashy It's interesting I've noticed that each bootcamp has it's own "theme. The first one I did discussed a lot of the emotional and psychological side of eating, the second was all about gourmet low carb cookery, another one focussed a lot more on size and measurements and after that I forget.

For me, and probably for most of us, cheat/confess/support is great but there is a point where it becomes overwhelming and begins to undermine. That bar possibly becomes lower as you get more into and used to low carb eating as a way of life so it may have those of us who have done this for a while shrieking FFS at a point where it is still a useful learning experience for somebody newer as birdcage said.

I don't know about a cheat thread although I don't have any objections to one but we already have a main, a recipe and a questions so the issue would be, at which point does it become too unwieldy.

This cheating thing has cropped up on bootcamps before and it has always proved difficult to get agreement. BIWI has posted in the past that it's great to support each other but we need to be aware that there is a point where the thread becomes about cheating rather than about healthy eating and she asked people then to maintain an awareness of how their posts may affect others and I think that is the key. We all cheat now and again, we all need support or the big stick at times, we all have "fat days" but when everyone talks about that all the time it pulls folk down where we need positivity, enthusiasm and encouragement to boost us up.

1lb off for me, slow but steady.

FFS.

After posting yesterday, woke up this morning - my official first week weigh-in - and am 3lbs heavier than yesterday, bringing my total loss to 2lbs.

This is really frustrating. I'm doing everything as I should.

The only thing I'm wondering is whether it's this poor because I have done this before. I LC from September to November last year. Would it really stall me this much?

I'm doing all the meals properly and drinking so much water. I'm sure I'm in ketosis as I have the taste of it .

The really disappointing thing is I'd had a holiday just before I started, so the 2lbs that I've lost would have probably come off due as water weight anyway.

I'm big and need to lose quite a bit. I'm used to losing about 7lbs in the first week. I'm just really worried this isn't working for me anymore.

I've rushed to get ready in order to have 15 min to post before I get the kids up- I apologise if it doesn't quite make sense

Re: cheating + posting about it:

Food is different to other addictions in that you cannot stop eating.

IME posting about a cheat does have an effect on others - I went into the last bootcamp as my first one and it just hadn't crossed my head to eat anything that I shouldn't, and seeing others cheating planted the seed and eventually I had 2 cheating moments in the 10 weeks.

However: If I can't cope with reading about someone eating a cake, for instance, how the fuck am I going to cope with watching my husband eat great big lumps of icing from the birthday cake that I made without putting a morsel in my mouth? (That was possibly the hardest moment all bootcamp!) (Husband is a skinny f*ker). Or the friend that served a beautiful, home cooked afternoon tea with not a single LC item on it, despite knowing that I'm doing this.

For me, part of the mindset that I need to develop to be successful is that I have to ignore what other people do and to be 100% happy doing my own thing. Discussing ways around difficult situations is helpful and discussing our reactions to those situations certainly helps me.

I am getting a bit nervous about posting at the moment - I keep wondering if my 1/2 bottle of wine over 3 days which was supposed to be BCL and part of my current "plan" (ubercamp in the week, BCL at weekends) has offended. Equally, that much wine is a very loose definition of BCL and do I need to be challenged on that? (not to mention the 3d weekend )

These are just musings and I don't really have an answer and I only have 2 min time left!

I suppose I think that we should have a separate thread (patter of tiny feet on its way, off now....)

Morning all

Kinky - are you weighing daily? it really messed me up last week. I'm 268lb and it seems my body moves up to 5lb a day, so I’m trying my best to keep to the weekly weigh in / same time / same clothes (ish) and trying to ignore my demons.

Birdinacage - I think you’re right we / I need to be more supportive and I want to be but I find that hard as I don't want to sound smug or preachy, as that would piss me off and frankly I’m doing well at this. That’s a big achievement for me as I have a very long history of messing up diets. I came to this forum directed by DW as again i’d fallen off another wagon and obviously needed the support of a group, something I find very hard to admit.

And the big effect that this thread had on me yesterday is that I went and snacked*, straight back to where I came from - Cause and effect. So if it is a case of a bottle of wine over a few days then ok tell us, but don't give us chapter and verse ‘cheating’ with a meal plan as it is not productive, it just says that you don’t care for the rules that the rest of us are following.

Sarah - isn’t that a win? You need to celebrate the fact that you’ve not joined in on the cakes and you’ve fed your family and friends, make it a strength.

*they were pig based snacks

I think the hardest thing for me is not hearing people cheated per se, but the 'I ate this and this and this and it was good'. I don't know why but that is a huge trigger to me in terms of then craving stuff. I can sit and be with someone eating crap and be firm within myself because it doesn't look appetising anymore or I'm tucking into my nice bit of LC food, or I'm going through thoughts in my head where I'm reminding myself how much being healthy and trim means to me and really my resolve doesn't waver.

But have someone describe cheat food, well I'm salivating, and cravings come up massively, and in my head something that in real life holds no pull suddenly seems the answer to how crap I might be feeling in that instance. And then if someone still has weight loss despite cheating, well, I become massively self pitying because I really battle with my scales and a loss on them is so arrears, despite trying very hard at this.

I don't mind people saying they cheated, I don't mind people exploring why they did. I do mind hearing what people have eaten, that maybe it was delicious and that they only put on a pound for cheating or worse still, lost weight (and I realise I have described cheats, will apply all this to myself too). It really does help to think we are all in this together, we will all lean on each other in weaker moments, and hell if I'm tempted, then I know there are other people out there at that moment who are tempted but who aren't giving in and I want to be like that.

I'm with birds on this. a thread where talking about cheating is utterly prohibited feels oddly unreal to me, and perpetuates my 'all or nothing' dieting head which I'm trying to get rid of. Whereas realistically, I'm planning on doing this strictly for at least a year, and LCing permanently. I want to minimize cheating, yes, but there will be the occasional slip up, and these threads have been most helpful to me when we've talked about, for example relatives putting pressure on to eat forbidden stuff, and eating to be socially acceptable/not stand out. It's knowing other people are going through or have been through the same stuff that makes these threads supportive, surely? Talking about cheating and how to deal with it is important. However having said that I don't find other people's cheats affect me in the same way some of you do.

I found that the IPD had a really useful section on occasional cheating. [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SJc4PCgtZzUC&pg=PT237&lpg=PT237&dq=neris+%26+india+diet+cheating&source=bl&ots=J1EtDTIM5-&sig=1CCMweJ2__35u8rHxedCc4n_ELk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=m9COU8uWEIGsOoaFgBg&ved=0CF8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=neris%20%26%20india%20diet%20cheating&f=false here]

Anti - I for one am interested in our wobbling over biscuits, because I'm probably stood in my kitchen having the same internal dialogue!

here Proper link.

pisses plenty of studies show that group support is a massive part of loosing weight successfully, don't feel ashamed about it.

And yes, the birthday cake was certainly a success! But my point is that I have to be able to ignore my husband, the cheaters and anyone else who had a better metabolism than me and without being able to do that I won't succeed. I can't control other people's actions but I can control my response to them.

The problem in a group like this is that people are in lots of different stages of the journey and finding a way of pleasing everyone is quite hard.

to everyone and good luck for today.

I don't like posts about cheating as it just rubs in how exciting everyone else's life is compared to mine. I don't have work conferences, flights, loads if meals out and holidays! Also I am so enthusiastic I can't understand people cheating. I have had a lot of emotional issues around eating and have finally found a way through. I can see that we are all at different parts of a journey, and will focus on my annoyance being my issue, not anyone else's.

Anyway. I lost another 1.5lb since Monday. I have now lost 2 stone since I started. I will break 200lb soon. I am so happy!

Thanks for bootcamp biwi

I find flavoured coffee is a good replacement for biscuits :)

It's a very difficult balance to achieve, and I'm really sorry if asking/telling people not to talk about cheating is being deemed unsupportive. That is the last thing I want to do. The greatest thing about Bootcamp is the support that it provides.

That said, it is important for all of us to realise that what we post (about anything) could have an impact on other posters.

Each Bootcamp is different from the next one, but this one has been marked right from week one with people cheating and talking (sometimes almost gleefully, it seems to me) about their cheats. The wine, the chocolate, etc.

From my own perspective, this is very difficult. It's difficult because I know that this will have an effect on weight loss. Then there will be the inevitable, as-night-follows-day posting/wailing that people haven't lost weight/enough weight and therefore that Bootcamp doesn't work.

Low carbing generally is unforgiving. It's not like calorie counting or low fat diets, where one good day can compensate for a bad day.

Bootcamp is tough. It is supposed to be tough. And that's for a reason.

If people don't want to Bootcamp, then - frankly - I do sometimes wonder why they bother to sign up. Not Bootcamping, and talking about not Bootcamping, isn't helpful to those of us who are working hard to stay on it.

And, being totally 'me me me', I find it very disheartening after the work that I (and others, like StuntNun, Willie etc) put into Bootcamp. So much so that this time around, after around at least half a dozen previous Bootcamps I nearly chucked it in after week one.

However ...

... life does happen. And occasions occur where we simply can't eat what we want. In those situations, yes it's perfectly legitimate to talk about it here and ask for support. We can help reassure you, or give you guidance, or simply say 'we understand', and hopefully give advice about how to handle it/what to do next.

I suppose I would say that there are slippages (out of our control) and there is cheating - something which we can (even if it's hard) control.

I'm more than happy to hear about/discuss slippage. Much less happy to hear about 'deliberate' cheating.

But above all, it's always about thinking about other people on the thread, as well as all those lurking. Be mindful that people have different experiences, attitudes and needs.

And when I say chuck it in, I don't mean my own efforts, but running the whole thing.

"I'm with birds on this. a thread where talking about cheating is utterly prohibited feels oddly unreal to me, and perpetuates my 'all or nothing' dieting head which I'm trying to get rid of."

Talking about cheating isn't utterly prohibited. However, I'm afraid, though, that Bootcamp is a pretty 'all or nothing' thing - albeit for only 10 weeks.

"Whereas realistically, I'm planning on doing this strictly for at least a year, and LCing permanently."

Brilliant. This is perfect - and there are always continuation Bootcamp threads, once we have finished the ten weeks!

^"I want to minimize cheating, yes, but there will be the occasional slip up, and these threads have been most helpful to me when we've talked about, for example relatives putting pressure on to eat forbidden stuff, and eating to be socially acceptable/not stand out. It's knowing other people are going through or have been through the same stuff that makes these threads supportive, surely?
"^

Yes, absolutely there will be - this is what I mean by 'slippage'. And finding strategies to deal with it is really important and has been incredibly useful over all previous Bootcamps

"Talking about cheating and how to deal with it is important."

Agree, totally. See points about 'slippage' earlier.

"However having said that I don't find other people's cheats affect me in the same way some of you do."

And this is the nub of it. Other people do have issues here, which is why I just ask you to be mindful about what you're posting.

------------------

I was going to respond to your post as well, Birdinacage but I have to go into a meeting now (drat that RL!), so please don't think I'm ignoring the points that you made. Will be back later!

But not all of us can put our lives totally on hold for 10 weeks. I had this weekend away booked months ago and I went with the food & drink flow with my friends for 2 days. I was 100% strict in the 9 weeks leading up to this weekend and I've been 100% strict since.

It may be just me but I'm not bothered if other people want to cheat / fall off the wagon etc - I can't understand how someone else eating a cheat meal will make me want to do it? I don't get that at all. I am in control of what goes in my mouth - not someone else.

If anything, most people (including me) have a pretty bad experience after eating carbs after low carbing - almost everyone I read about says how much they regret it / had the shits / felt horrible / had to cope with cravings again etc. It should be a warning to others.

I've been quiet this bootcamp as after enjoying great success (nearly 3 stone anyone!) last time I've struggled with feeling unwell, faint etc. But I know that when I was feeling like that it was my fault. I hadn't prepared/got a great LC fridge full so instead of eating the wrong stuff I just wasn't eating enough at all. I've kicked myself up the arse and am fully BC light currently (breast feeding).
BIWI I find it sad that people say they want to do bootcamp (implied by the joining!) and then can't forgo cheating. However it's not a reflection in you, or anyone else who follows the WOE to the letter and sees results and therefore knows it works. I'm afraid that if you cheat on bootcamp then the last laugh is on you as IT WON'T WORK for you, not to its full potential anyway.
I have been evangelical about the WOE to my postnatal group and people have tried to join and I've offered support via a FB group. But one by one they are dropping out as it really is tough and people don't realise this until they try it.
It has always stuck with me (from previous comments you've made) that if you have an unavoidable event where carbs will be taken, they should be mindful carbs. Savour them, enjoy them (think to yourself they're really not worth it tbh!) and move on the next day.
Keep on keeping on

I agree with BIWI. I think we know this isn't going to be easy and, for me certainly, its about starting a new way of eating completely. Kind of low carb is for life not just for Christmas iyswim.

I disagree with unavoidable carbs, it's another instance where you have to control what you put into your body. Yes there are times there is nothing else but usually we can adapt - eat the sandwich filling not the bread etc. And if you are going to an event, be upfront and say, thanks but I'm low carb now so will bring my own snacks.

I'm not saying its easy to do this but for the first time I'm being selfish and putting my health first.

I am by no means perfect but when I slip I prefer to reflect on why and put strategies in place to deal with it.

These threads are amazing and for BIWI and StuntNun, amongst others but especially them, to take the time to help and support a bunch of randoms through their journey is wonderful and I certainly wouldn't be so far along without them. I guess it feels like I'm letting them down if I let myself cheat. Perhaps we need stickers for our kitchens with ooh what would BIWI say?!

Sorry if this doesn't make sense or seems a bit up my own arse, just trying to verbalise thoughts.

I think we need to make a difference between cheating and falling off the wagon. There's no doubt that talking about cheating affects some people. I was so good over Christmas about sticking to low carb then in the run up to the January bootcamp everyone was talking about eating up all the carby crap that was leftover from Christmas and I ended up doing the same thing and actually gaining weight right before bootcamp that it took me the whole bootcamp to shift again.

BUT posting what we eat day to day on a forum like this one does help with sticking to the WOE so I wouldn't want it to become artificial by only posting the good stuff. Pingu's post yesterday about falling off the wagon and how awful it felt was helpful because it showed how unrewarding the cheating was. On the other hand if someone gets bored and eats a load of chips and says they were lovely, that isn't going to help anyone. So maybe the answer is to be mindful of how we're framing our words so that we can confess to eating mistakes without leading others astray.

It is a perhaps unfortunate aspect of this WOE that one size doesn't fit all. My DH cheats like mad (I'm talking apples, bread and potatoes the bastard not cakes and biscuits) and still manages to lose weight. I just have to grin and bear it, and try not to be tempted, while I strictly limit my carb count and dairy.

Keeping on, keeping on. :)