I wrote before how there is this common meme in all dieting which says "you can't deprive yourself for very long." I wrote that what I thought this meant in terms of low carb diets was that ocassionally you had to come off the diet and have a cheat day. I think this is actually counterproductive.
What I think it really means is that you have to endulge in ways that are concomitant with the diet -- meaning endulge in luxurious steaks and fish with good (often salty) seasoning pretty regularly. For me it also means ocassionally adding raspberries or keto cups.
My mental health professional shys away from talking about food or sex issues as addiction. Unlike substances, you can't totally quit food, and it plays a positive role in your life. Same with sex. However, I think there is a real argument for completely abstaining from high-sugar, high-refined-carb foods.
My argument is that there is a physiological adjustment to low carb or "keto" (see "keto flu" or the "Atkins flu"). There is also an adjustment to your pallette that happens, where you fundamentally stop craving sugary foods in favor of just real nutrition.
An additional note on the palette changes that make this diet sustainable: I'd stay away from artificially sweetened soda. I don't really buy the argument that says it subtly raises insulin, but I do buy the argument that it exerts a pressure on your palette towards the old way of eating. It's better to just become accomodated in a way that makes seltzer water and lemon more appealing.
Finally, there is an aesthetic shift that happens: once you realise you can have success eating this way and have lost some mass, it becomes very hard not to walk through the world looking at the huge people who haven't figured it out. (Nutrition isn't about willpower, it's about knowledge, so these fat bastards shoveling pancakes into their faces at 9am on a Thursday are more stupid than slothful. [sorry, I couldn't resist -- that statement will probably come back to haunt me karmically])
