Susan,

I think maybe I worded something wrong.  I've only cheated a couple of
times in 11 months, and the things I recently ate were chocolate and ice
cream.  (If I'm not mistaken, Ray Audette has said himself that he's eaten
ice cream on rare occasions, so I figure I'm in good company; nobody's
perfect!)  I'm discouraged by not only not losing, but gaining weight, and
that's not a function of the couple of cheats, but something that's been
happening over the past few months.  I'm not concerned about falling off
the wagon; it's not an out of control thing, it's more like once in awhile
I decide to have something.  Then it's over.  I don't go on binges or
anything, even though I may have incorrectly used that word.

I know now that my system cannot handle foods containing gluten.  I also
could not handle diary products at all, until I incidentally gave up gluten
when I first started Atkins last January.  I then learned that my "lactose
intolerance" was actually a symptom of my newly-discovered (but
still-unofficial) gluten intolerance.  I most likely will never
intentionally eat anything containing gluten again.  But whether I ever
lose weight again or not, I'm not perfect and I'll probably slip once in
awhile and then it will be something that does not contain gluten.

I'm not, nor have I ever been, unaccepting of Neanderthin.  I have been one
of it's most vocal proponents, especially when I was back on the old
lowcarb list (I've quieted down lately to let others speak).  I'm not
saying that anything is wrong with Neanderthin.  What I'm saying is that it
is not actively reparative; it will not necessarily "fix what ails ya".  It
will prevent further damage by removing the factors that are causing
damage.  But I'm coming to see that there are people such as myself who are
just too damaged for the simple removal of aggravating factors to cause a
complete turnaround.  I can stop beating on my car, but that won't undo
that damage I've already done to it.  I see it that way.  If we could
survey the people who've used lowcarb diets all the way to success (in
weight loss), I bet the following things would be uncovered, that they
were:

1.  Young (mid-twenties or younger) or...
2.  Thirty or less pounds overweight

For people such as these who haven't beaten their bodies into the ground
metabolically, lowcarb, and especially Neanderthin, is a panacea.  I'm
guess that not too many people over thirty with over 75 pounds to lose have
lost it all without resorting to extreme measures such as heavy aerobic
exercise, etc.  And I'm sure that there are also exceptions to these
guesses; there always are when you're talking about the human body.  But do
you see what I'm saying?  I know how to remove the causative factors, now I
want to know how to effect repair without having to become a fitness
fanatic.  I don't really believe it's possible, and what's got me down is
that I'm coming to believe that it means that the future will be very high
maintenance for me.

Take care,
John Pavao

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Hi John
Regarding your discouragement about not losing weight and falling off the
wagon:

perhaps you should be checked for allergies to dairy products and gluten
and all the foods you are cheating with. You might be more accepting of
Neanderthin when you find out you will die if you eat certain foods.

I have celiac disease/lactose intolerance etc. I wouldn't cheat if you paid
me.