Atkins was hard for me to, but not for milk. I like milk, but I've got to have the lactose free stuff, and I prefer the skim milk. I don't really miss milk that much, because it was to wash down all the stuff you can't have with Atkins... Fruity Pebbles, brownies, oreos, etc... The funny thing was I never had any cravings while I was on the diet, until that one post here on FR about how some loons in CA wanted to ban the sale of Oreo cookies to children. That was the only time I craved something! I wanted Oreos, but I was able to fight off the craving.
No, my problem is with fruit juice. I can drink 1/2 gallon of grapefruit juice a day, easy. And right now, in KC they're selling a local orchard's apple juice. I fell off the atkins wagon at Thanksgiving, and figured I'd get back on after new years, but I've still got a gallon of that juice in the fridge, and there's no way it's getting poured down the drain... 8oz glass is 28g of carbs! But WOW, is it good. So, I'll probably start up induction again on Thursday.
If I can give up my breakfast of fruity pebbles, you can give up on the milk, at least for a few weeks (just the first 2).
Mark
As for Kahlua, it just wouldn't be Christmas without it as I have a long-standing tradition of sipping Kahlua by the Christmas tree this time of year. In fact, just seeing a Christmas tree makes me salivate for Kahlua. Sort of a Pavlov-dog thing going there. This year, I allowed myself a jigger of Kahlua each evening and I drank it real slow. Thus I only went through two bottles this season instead of the usual five or six (or more because I didn't really count).
As for Egg Nog, I used to drink it by the gallon other years. I'd have two to three tall glasses practically every day between Thanksgiving and New Year's in years past. It was a holiday staple with me. This year, I only went through two half-gallon containers and I would have no more than half a glass on any given day. As a result, I didn't gain any weight because I still didn't have any pies or cookies or any of the other things I used to gorge on in years past.
So it is okay to splurge a little now and then. I'm back on the straight and narrow for a while now.