If you aren ' t addicted, then you have room to maneuver. The occasional slice of pizza or the ice cream cone just might be permissible. I don ' t recommend such compromises, I simply recognize that human nature demands them now and then. But be careful: Remember 5 pounds above your goal weight is the maximum; then take yourself firmly in hand and get back on plan. A firm resolution to deal with weight regain immediately will serve you well. An even better idea is to hold out for sugarless, full-fat ice cream.
And, don ' t forget, the way you ' re eating now is healthful. Junk food isn ' t, and it isn ' t going to make you feel good. After you ' ve been off it for a while, the ice cream or the pizza go down nicely, but once you ' ve eaten them, you may notice a temporary return of some familiar old symptoms. Many of my patients tell me that after not eating junk food for months while doing Atkins, the distress they experience when they do eat it has cured them of these urges once and for all.
===================================================================== Influences Beyond Your Control
As you have learned, a proper lifetime eating plan involves utilizing all four phases of Atkins. That ' s because, much as you may not want to hear it, maintaining your goal weight can provide a challenge or two. Factors independent of your appetite can influence it. No one ' s weight is constant. There will be times in your life when you gain some weight back. A change in activity level-a more sedentary job, for example-hormonal changes, the addition of certain medications and simply the passage of years can slow your metabolism.
Fortunately, you ' ll have developed the confidence to know that those small weight gains can be easily controlled. But such changes also mean that you may need to adjust your CCLM from time to time, in effect going back to OWL or to Pre-Maintenance or to Induction for a week or so. If you are eating just as you always have on Lifetime Maintenance and you suddenly begin to gain weight, try reducing your carb intake by 5 grams and see if your weight stabilizes. If so, that number is your new CCLM. Of course, you will then also want to trim off those extra pounds by temporarily dropping below that number. =====================================================================
Some Parting Recommendations
For those of you who have been successful, your nutritional voyage with me seems to be almost over. It will continue-indefinitely, I hope-but now you ' re driving the car. I want to leave you with eight basic principles for your lifetime doing Atkins:
1. Be food aware-remember that fresh meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, nuts, seeds and occasional fruits and starches are the foods nature intended you to eat. That packaged refined carbohydrate stuff in the supermarket puts money in somebody ' s pocket. And it puts garbage into your stomach. This is the only body you ' ve got. Notice how good it feels now! Notice how much better it looks! Keep it that way!
2. Be wary-endlessly wary-of sugar and corn syrup, and white flour and cornstarch. Look at the labels of any packaged food you are considering and avoid( like the plague) those that contain sugar, corn syrup and honey. And read those labels for the carbohydrate content of the foods you want to eat.
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