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Is it ok to cheat sometimes?

@NatJS hello there

some good advice about 'treats' on here already but one thing that strikes me about your post on re-reading it is that part of the difficulty you say you have resisting food you really like may be the difficulty you have in resisting your friends. I suffer from this too, I really hate to disappoint or disoblige people.

It's not easy, but, I have got better at resisting food and friends with practice and to be honest it has made me much better at resisting people i don't like so it's win win for me

I don't preach but now gently explain that my body is carb intolerant and encouraging me to cheat even 'just once' is not a helpful thing for them to do, though I appreciate their gesture and understand they don't intend to make life harder for me.

I do apologise for turning their offer down but I am finally beginning to feel that I'm not apologising for being me and it's a real self esteem boost to feel that I'm the one in control at least some of the time.

I'm not saying I don't 'cheat' but I try to keep it 'treat' and I feel so much better if it's on my own terms, I plan even if it's only to the extent of setting rules for myself in an unexpected situation.
 
I would say you shouldn't really have a cheat, but you could still enjoy a controlled treat.
Best thing to do is measure your bg before and afterwards, and make sure you have a good handle on where your readings are, and where they will end up: I went out for dinner earlier this week and started with a nice low-carb German pig knuckle, but then I ended up eating some pasta and birthday cake to be sociable- fortunately, I thought there would be a chance of something like that and I had drank some clear spirits to keep the worst of the sugar down. Two hours later, my blood sugar was still only 5.2, and the fasting the next morning was 4.6.
I wouldn't do it as a matter of course though. On another occasion I had a small, light curry with a little bowl of rice, and it somehow put me up to 10 point something. Had I not tested, I would have thought the birthday cake would have been seriously bad and the rice would have been OK.
 
If you find it tough to say no when out with friends could you fib a little in the short term and say you have a sensitive tooth and can't tolerate sugary stuff for now. Arrange to meet up for breakfast/brunch and tuck into eggs and bacon without feeling guilty.
 

If you feel you can cheat, you really haven't addressed your relationship with food.
I had to completely reset mine.

I did it by changing my sweet tooth for savory, and re-assessing how I looked at food.
Have a look at the Newcastle diet, it's 8 weeks of 800 calories, mostly shakes, which breaks the habit of eating continuously, and eating what you like.
Then you can decide what you want to eat when you finish.

It has also reversed diabetes for many people, (myself included) so possibly there is a wider option to choose from when you finish.
But you have to keep the weight off!
 
I agree with quite a few of the previous posts. How you can cheat with what is basically a lifelong, life threatening disease is beyond me. I have recently started (five weeks) the low carb program. My attitude is this: If I eat excessive carbs I could end up paying the ultimate price, sounds a bit dramatic....I don't think so.

I know of two ladies with type 2, a mother and daughter who's attitude all along has been "I'm going to do what I want to do and nobody is going to tell me otherwise".

The mother is currently at home without any care package and can just about move her head to eat and drink, so has to wait for her other youngest daughter to come home from work to feed her. She also has to go to toilet on a commode. The diabetic daughter cannot look after her mum because she has been in hospital for six weeks having her sugars stabilised.

So if you fall off the wagon beat yourself up about it.

I am personally fed up with feeling like rubbish, brain fog, tiredness, joint inflammation, neuropathy, early symptoms of diabetic cataracts. I want to be 'normal' again, so should you.
 


if you are really well regulated and have a low HbA1c some can cheat without it doing much damage if you only do it at seldom occations.... I can do that now, but I also compensate by doing really much exercise... if one can not use ones body, of cause it means that the diet must be even more strickt (well also depending of the serverity of ones diabetes; after all we are not diabetic to an equal degree, there is a great variaty of the serverity of how diabetic people are...Some are very hard hit already at diagnosis time and can hardly do any cheating at all..)... every effort equals another benefit in this I think..

but mentally it is also very individually how well we can cope and also realize the devastating potential in our disease...
 
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Low carbing for blood glucose control should be looked on as a way of life rather than a short term diet. I would suggest you try and build treats in to your menu rather than eat something very high carb that could take you days to get over and will leave you with some hard to resist carb cravings.
 
Good morning you have to change your perception of what is a treat a treat for me is my once a week sunday roast,2 small roast potatoes,2 small yorkshires,lots of broccoli,cauliflower,brussels,skinless chicken breast and a minute drop of gravy,I have always had this treat since being diagnosed 6 months ago,my last Hb1Ac two weeks ago was 39(5.7) that's including 12 Sunday roast dinners within that period
 
OK too many people are being unfair. Its not cheating its rewarding yourself lchf is a punishment of sorts as it totally changes your regular diet if you have a sweet tooth that's not fair of a disease to let it have its way. Do cancer sufferers lie down and take it no they don't.

When u go over 6.5 all complications start but retinopathy and major organ damage occurs after 7.5.

Remember even normal people can reach 7.5.

With treatments today I'd say that unless u had zero control ul be fine. And also hazard that during our lifetime there will be a cure.

Treat yourself all major diabetes sites agree just don't do it all the time. Find the balance if you stick to 100 carbs u could eat 60g of chocolate through the say but u woukdent gave much left
 
At the end of the day...only you can answer if the cheats are indeed treats. And if they are worth it.

After a while of low carbing, my taste bud has changed. Sugary drinks that used to be satisfying, has become sickeningly sweet. And the headaches, and hypos that often follows a high carb meal just don't give me as much pleasure as before. It becomes rather punishing rather than pleasurable.

Now I treat myself to a few days of fasting instead...
 
And therein lies the rub - seeing food as rewards and punishments isn't a mind set that is good for anyone. I don't see anyone being unfair - all I am seeing is good advice on how to incorporate foods you like into your plan rather than look at it as treats and rewards because "you've been good"
 
I am trying very hard to stop thinking of foods as " treats " - if I want a square of dark chocolate I have one - but I only do that if my blood sugar reading is already under 5.

I love chip shop fish in batter. I have found that if I follow the same principle and make sure I go for a walk to and from the chippie I can do that and still stay under 7.8 . Am I tempted to buy the chips too? - no because although one or two is nice overall its just padding.

In an Indian- the curry sauce with some yoghurt raita is lovely - the rice and naan is jsut a cheap filler so I skip it.

Practically everywhere you go its possible to eat the good stuff and just toss to one side the cheap fillers that damage us. Even in Italy - home of the pasta!

In any event the real cheat is not testing - if you do something that will damage you but you don't know how much then you will only miss out on being able to eat stuff that didn't hurt and eating stuff causing you untold damage !

I have found for example - cauliflower cheese made with a small amount of flour butter and cream works fine, yet pea soup made with potatoes doesn't . Onion gravy , mushroom as pepper cream sauce - both no change to my meter .
The issue then becomes much more of do I want to limit calories enough to actually lose weight as well.
Whilst I would still like to et slimmer , I like the new me at this stage and I love the fact that i now seem able to eat consistently and not actually start putting the weight back, in my previous life any weight loss came back within days of relaxing anything.
Learning how to cope with the new way of life is interesting and rewarding and once you do start getting readings in the 4's and 5's it becomes a lot easier to think - why should I give up those numbers for three days just because I want three chocolate biscuits which won't actually taste as good as you remember anyway.

I've found that mydesire for that control is so strong that I can actually eat a bag of crisps, one crisp at a time over a week - I would never have imagined that possible before. Now that is not a " treat" its simply something I can do if I want.
 
You can...BUT- REMEMBER THOU ART DIABETIC!! Use extreme caution.
 

I can't look on low carbing as a punishment. That would mean, in effect, that one day the punishment will end and low carbing can't end for me unless I go back on insulin again which I REALLY don't want to do.

Low carbing is my way of not lying down and taking it that I have to live a life structured by insulin injections or developing diabetic complications - and some of those are absolutely horrendous. I also find that if I eat too many carbs in one go I feel tired, bloated and out of sorts and then end up with a craving for more carbs.

I find it easier to just build treats in to my food plan - its easily done - just an extremely low carb meal followed immediately by your treat of choice.

They've been saying there will be a cure for years and years and there isn't a sign of it yet. The nearest thing to a cure is the Newcastle Diet.
 
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I consider food as something I eat or don't eat. Sometimes (every couple of months or so) I go to the chippy and I get a fish and a sausage or a fish and a steak pudding. I eat it and it's awesome. I don't think of it as a treat or a cheat. I never buy chips as they are far more accessible and for me addictive . My BS rise is nominal and returns within the 2 hour window. If I ate it more regularly this may not be the case also I would gain weight. Its down to individual personality types you know what level of control you need to keep you on track, we are all different where motivation, addiction and reward are concerned.
 
Cheating needs defining.

Cheating to me would be a deliberate choice of any carb that takes me well over my carb allowance..

Treats on the other hand, such as a few chips or baked beans, would be built into my carb allowance.
 
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