Nobody is perfect. I managed to get through the first two weeks of the Atkins diet without (really) cheating on it. Then, on the first day of week three, I totally went over the amount of carbs I was supposed to stay under. Were my reasons for doing so good ones? Or, did I get weak and fail?
When I first started the Atkins diet, I was very excited to see what this experience would be like. I had a goal weight I wanted to hit, and a very strong motivation to lose it. My sister was getting married, and I wanted to be lose weight before my family assumed I was a pregnant bridesmaid.
I bought the right foods, and keep track of carbs. I was totally committed to making this diet work for me. My third week started with a weigh-in, where I discovered that I had lost three pounds. Everything was going great!
So, what happened? The short answer is that my allergies got in the way of my goals, again. I happen to have a lot of food allergies. I put a great deal of effort into trying to avoid accidentally eating or drinking foods that are going to make me sick. I read absolutely every ingredient on the product labels. I’m super careful. Despite this, every once in a while, I make a mistake that I really end up paying for.
I was trying out a food that was new to me, something that is always comes with a certain amount of risk. This time it was one of those chocolate shakes made by Atkins. I checked to make sure that it was acceptable food for people who were in Phase 1 of the diet, (it was). I read the ingredients. Later, I learned (the hard way) that I’d missed something important.
Shortly after I started drinking the shake, I started to feel extremely sick. A quick scan of the label revealed that the drink contained “cream”, which is a dairy food. To put things politely, I suffered from symptoms resembling a really bad flu bug, for about four hours.
Usually, what works to make me feel better is to eat toast, or crackers. You can’t eat those foods without cheating on the Atkins diet. My resolve weakened as the day went on, and the allergic reaction continued.
Out of curiosity, I decided to weigh myself again. The scale revealed that I lost an entire pound that afternoon, as a result of being sick. This has made me realize that dieting can be dangerous for people who have severe food allergies, or other illnesses.
It seemed to me the only way I was going to feel better was by eating something. I recently discovered that I have a gluten allergy so I ended up eating some gluten free crackers and soup. This helped me to feel better. It also pushed my carb count up to around 50 that day. I ended up cheating on my diet, despite my best intentions. Time will tell what the results of that choice will be.
Image by snowpea&bokchoi on Flickr