Contest: What’s Your 20?
UPDATE: This contest is closed. Visit the 30 Day Challenge Contest Page to find out which contests are still open, and to view winners.
The Prize:
It’s Sensible Vice time…
Chocolate. The Malibu farmers’ market sets up shop about a half block from my office every Sunday, and one of the regular, irresistible booths is Choco Vivo. Organic, fair trade, fermented less than 3 days – this is chocolate for people who like cacao, not chocolate for people who like candy bars. Winner receives an assortment of 100%, 85%, 75%, raw nibs, and the cherry, almond, peppercorn blend. For those outside the LaLa Land farmers’ market circuit, you can find ChocoVivo here.
Coconut Juice. Today’s second sensible vice comes with or without pulp (or with a hint of lime). In the pursuit of all things coconut, the winner will receive two mixed cases of coconut juice, courtesy of Amy & Brian Naturals. That’s over a gallon and a half of liquid. For all the athletes out there trying to bridge the gap between ideal Primal living and endurance training, this is good stuff for the days when you clock the extra mileage. And to clarify, coconut juice and coconut water are the same thing.
Miracle Fruit. Say what, now? No, it won’t cause rapid weight loss. No, it won’t cure cancer. No, it won’t make the Giants fumble on the last down of the game. But it will make a lemon taste like candy, a Guinness taste like a chocolate milk shake, and a blueberry taste like God pouring heaven’s manna down your throat. It’s a fruit that plays a delightful game of chaos with your taste buds. And ThinkGeek, the folks who donated the Homo Sapiens kitchen tool last year, are offering up a packet of miracle fruit this year.
The Contest:
For those unfamiliar with the 80/20 rule, I’ll discuss it in depth later today, but in brief: if you align your life with the Primal Blueprint principles 80% of the time, consider yourself on course. While you should strive to be Primal 100% of the time, 20% happens. And today it’s time to share 20% stories…
So, what’s your 20? Mine is beer. And I’m not talking about Bud Light Lime. I like a beer dark enough to make motor oil jealous. An no, beer is not made from meat and veggies. Despite Michelob Ultra’s ad campaign, beer will not improve your performance time. It’s made from wheat and barley. My 20 is an Old Viscosity Ale from Port Brewing Company. While I very rarely imbibe, I never have regrets when I do.
Now it’s time to tell me yours. Today’s contest isn’t designed to celebrate the bad or knock all the beginners off the Primal wagon. It should serve as a reminder that even the most Primal of us have unPrimal moments, and that when we do, we shouldn’t be ashamed or embarrassed about those moments. We should simply recognize them for what they are – that 20% – and keep on striving to live Primal the next day. So share your moment. Your best (or worst) 20% moment. Do so in 150 words or less in the comments section of this post.
We’re not just picking a winner at random this time. The Worker Bees and I will pick our favorite moments and then hold a poll next Sunday where you’ll pick the winner. A good moment is one that either shows excellent use of sensible vices, or a moment that exemplifies how you can pick yourself up and keep going Primal after a moment (or crazy night) of vices that are anything but sensible.
The Deadline:
September 16, 9:00 am. Only one day!
Who is Eligible:
As with most of the other perishable prizes, this stuff ain’t crossing borders. A substitute prize of equal value will be offered to an international winner. Sorry, Swedish readers. Next year I’ll have a Swedish prize just for Swedes.
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
loukoumades (deep fried pastry soaked with honey sugar syrup) and frappe (instant coffee, cream, ice) while sitting in a cafe overlooking the mediterranean
Beer .. I have a local beer place that has 500 bottles and 40 taps of the most wonderful micro-brew beers . . I even have a loyalty card. Good think fat helps with hangovers . . . . .
You know, I just had some loukoumades the other day. First outright cheat in a while. Excellent choice.
My husband is in the Marine Corps and he ends up being gone a lot because of that. So when he’s home and we finally get a chance to just go out and spend time together with our 10 month old baby, we like to go to a nice restaurant and have an excellent primal appetizer (we love insalata caprese and/or beef tartar), primal dinner (usually a salad with a grilled chicken breast or steak and sauteed veggies) and then we splurge on a dessert. My husband loves creme brulee, so we split one once in a while. Definitely not primal, but it’s so worth it to share that dessert together and enjoy the moment with our son. The next day I get back on the wagon like nothing happened and I make sure to get an hour of low-level cardio and chase my son around for a while to get in some good play time. He’s just now learning to wrestle, so we have fun rolling around together.
I love food! I love chocolate! I love bread and pizza and hamburgers and bacon and donuts, etc, etc! But I have found that I can do without all of those things except beer and chocolate. I do limit myself to only occasional pieces of 85% cacao, but the beer is much harder. I have gone from drinking beer 4+ nights a week to maybe one, and gone from 4+ beers a night to maybe 2. I, like Mark, do not go for the weak light beers, but the deliciousness of an IPA or wheat beer. I overindulged in crappy food for many, many years, so the fact that I do CrossFit 5 days a week and eat primal makes me feel really good about being me. I will enjoy the occasional beer and chocolate… as long as it stays in check.
~Karyn
cheesecake. i sometimes will cure my urge by making the primal version, but once in a blue moon i head over to the local joint and have a CW slice. i then vibrate into another dimension thanks to the sugar overload.
Cheese. I was a vegan for three years, so when I started eating cheese again it was as if every type of cheese I hated before then turned into manna from heaven. I’d been tricking myself into thinking soy cheese was of comparable flavor and texture. I don’t eat cheese every day and avoid eating it in massive quantities, but when I do it’s like being in a York Peppermint Patty commercial without the corn syrup.
My 20% is coffee and dark, dark chocolate. I’ll have a square of an 85% dark bar every now and then, and I have to have coffee every morning (psychological habit, but it’s not going away). If dairy is considered part of the 20%, then that too – hard cheese is a dietary staple for me, but I try to limit it, and I have a touch of cream in my coffee every morning.
Double Chocolate Stout….this stuff is so thick and tasty that I only have it every couple months. If you like really dark beer then this is the one to try. It was once described to me as chocolate milk for adults
Amen! Young’s is THE best beer I’ve ever had! I actually have some in my fridge right now waiting for my next craving to hit.
Oh, the Double Chocolate Stout…made me smile just reading this post. I like it just a little bit cooler than room temperature. It really is fantastic.
+1 on that. I love the Double Chocolate, but have you had Buried Hatchet Stout by Southern Star Brewing company? Oi. We have ONE bar around here that carries it and it is well worth going out of the way for. Mmm. Now I want some beer.
Try making a drink with half double chocolate stout and half framboise. Oh my goodness!
Young’s is absolutly one of my favs….Another great one, but sometimes harder to find is Rogue Choc stout
Sourdough. I make my own sourdough, and once a week or so, I’ll have a bread day. That and tarts and pies. I just love to bake– it’s one of my greatest pleasures in life. So I’m a 6-day a week primal person
.
(and anyway, numerous studies have shown that white sourdough bread has a negligible effect on blood sugar levels
)
OMG…I was just going to write that Sourdough was also my favourite vice! My goal this fall was to make my owner starter. I love the delicate crunch of the crust, the tangy sponge and beautiful texture. It’s even better toasted. My favourite is to use it as the base for bruschetta with my home grown heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil out of the garden. mmmmm….now i want some!
I totally LOVE sourdough! I was also going to list that as my favourite vice
I love the crunchy crust, the delectable aroma and tanginess of the crumb and love it even better toasted! In my mind, nothing beat my sourdough bruschetta: a generous piece of toasted sourdough with olive oil brushed on, topped with my chopped heirloom tomatoes, garlic, fresh garden basil and sprinkling of sea salt. Mmmm…food nirvana…
sorry for the double post..thought it hadn’t gone through!
Call me sentimental or just old fashioned, but my 20% includes family birthday cake. While I will keep my pieces as small as possible, and my family is only 4 people, I cannot imagine passing the “wish of good health” that the cake is thought to symbolize.
I agree with you Steve. Birthday cake is too important. It sets the whole celebration mood (so everyone has to partake) and makes the upcoming year SWEET.
I’m sure this will be a popular choice – Chocolate. Rich, dark chocolate. Whole foods has a whole wall of different kinds! I’m big on the dark chocolate covered goji berries or dark chocolate with almonds or hazelnuts.
That and a good stout from the local microbrewery of course!
My 20? A big bowl of high quality vanilla bean ice cream, smothered in warm crunchy peanut butter & thinly sliced bananas. Let the ice cream melt a bit & mix it altogether… incredible. I’ve given up a lot, but there’s no way I can give this up.
There’s a restaurant near me called Fedora’s, and my favorite way to break a 24 hour fast is to go there and order their “Steak and Bleu Sandwich.” London broil, fried onions, bleu cheese on a homemade roll, served with sweet potato fries and ranch dressing instead of ketchup. Finish it off with their M&M Chocolate Cookie. Perfect.
Jif Peanut butter! I know, I know, legume and lectins and trans fats and sugar and all that, but I just don’t care!
I have a tablespoon smeared on some good dark chocolate a couple times a week and finish with a happy grin and no guilt. I’m trying almond butters, but so far I’d rather have the nasty old Jif. Also- Sushi. LOVE sushi!!! My only grain weakness, I absolutely adore it and we go out for sushi like once a week. -Val
It wasn’t very sensible, but I had 3 pieces of wedding cake Saturday night, mostly for the frosting. The occasional celebration cake is about the only sweet I eat.
The Super Deluxe Carnitas Burrito *with* the basket of corn chips from the taqueria around the corner.
Sometimes my hubby and I spend all of Sunday morning riding our bikes around and then doing some heavy-duty gardening. Nuthin’ hits the spot after that like a burrito and chips.
Anniversary vacation with my wife in Porland, ME at Gritty McDuff’s Brew Pub. We tried the litany of beers and a mead (my first mead ever!) along with the best damn slice of chocolate cake ever: Dark Chocolate Black Fly Stout. The next morning was Primal as usual.
omg I LOVE that place!!! black fly is fantastic!!! good choice Jason
Every time we go back to Portland we’ll be sure to visit Gritty’s!
I’m a Mainer myself…I love gritty’s…Bull Feeney’s is another great one in the old port
mmm… mead! looking forward to warm mead this fall!
From MDA comment rules: “So while spam is technically meat, it ain’t anywhere near Primal.” Well, it’s my 20%, Minnesota Style. It’s particularly egregious when I slap pan-fried SPAM between 2 slices of white bread slathered with Miracle Whip. One SPAM Sammich = 2 meals lost to IF.
Coconut milk mango icecream – it’s made with agave so just another form of sugar but it’s a clean and fruity taste
My guilty pleasure is almonds covered in dark chocolate and rolled in coco powder. mmmmmm! I swear they cure PMS.
My 20% is nice dark chocolate. Interestingly, I’ve learned some very important lessons on my PB journey.
1) It’s OK to have chocolate occasionally if I want some – not need some or desire some, but WANT some. A conscious decision instead of an uncontrolled impulse. 2) Quality over quantity. It is a treat, and as such, I savor it. Not wolf it down, but truly enjoy it more than I ever did when I was simply throwing it into that hole under my nose.
Right now, I’m studying Rome, so temptation is all around me. Pizza, bread, cheese, non-Priaml food is everywhere! However, gelato and cheese are my 20% nemesis! You cannot walk by a gelato shop and not want to try some! I limit to about one time a week but it is still tough to pass it up. Cheese on the other hand is tougher. I love mazarella and other hard cheeses too much to pass them up. I probably have some kind of cheese every other day…
M&Ms…started with regular ones, realized the supreme joy in Peanut M&Ms, heard about so had to try peanut butter M&Ms, bought into the good advertising for Pretzel M&M (not disappointed…least primal M&Ms though)…most recently, heard rumors of Coconut M&Ms–looking forward to that! It is a step in the primal direction!
Peanut M&ms for me too. They are delicious.
Funny, I used to love Peanut M&M’s.
They’re too sweet now. My sensitivity to sugar is very high. 72% cacao chocolate is plenty sweet tasting. I’m usually at 85%.
We had coconut M&M’s in Hawaii in April. They are fantastic! Like a teeny tiny Mounds bar.
Dark chocolate M&M’s (in a purple bag) – mmmmm
My worst vice is office birthday treats. They always seem to be at the front of my bay, and the birthdays always seem to clump together. Once I have 1 cookie, its hard to keep my energy up throughout the day without another.
I also enjoy beer, but I don’t feel guilty about that.
Oh… and good bourbon.
Mine is hot dogs, and when I say hot dogs, I mean hot dogs done right: cheddar cheese, ketchup, mustard, relish, and diced onions, served on a toasted bun along side an ice cold Coke. I have this for lunch probably once every other week.
Have you ever tried Applegate Farms 100% Grass Fed Beef Hot Dogs? They are awesome and are completely primal. Grass fed beef with a few spices – nothing else!
i LOVE their dogs! they are a staple in our house!
My 20% have to go to a classic dish from Northern Sweden where I live. It is called “Palt” and is made out of potatoes and white wheat flower. Potatoes are grinded and blended with the flower and then formed to apple-sized balls and then cooked. Sounds crazy, but it is really tasty. You eat it with lingonberries and lots of butter.
I’m only a week into going Primal, but my 20% is closer to being 1%. I’ve kept a full embrace of the PB tenants, except….
Yesterday I was buying a pair of Vibram shoes at a shop called Zombie Runner. Quirky, excellent running shop that contains of all things, a coffee bar. At this coffee bar I bought one square of dark chocolate, a piece of Poco Dolce Aztec Chilli.
A perfect balance of bittersweet chocolate, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, ground chiles, and grey sea salt. All natural, San Francisco based, and the best chocolate I’ve ever had in my life. I don’t regret it for a second.
Italian Ice…Our 20% moment arose recently while walking on the boardwalk during a visit to Myrtle Beach SC. The scene was beautiful, but the newly refurbished boardwalk was doing it’s best impression of a solar oven! The designers had done their part by providing NO shade over the available seating, and our friends had commented on the Italian Ice shop on the way to the beach…all signs pointed to a friendly pause in the cool storefront, eating a high-fructose, artifically-colored and flavored ICE BOMB! With our knowledge of the 80/20 rule we were able to enjoy the moment and also (hopefully) convince our friends that our new lifestyle does not mean NO FUN.
My husband and I eloped to Vegas on our second date. Most folks didn’t think we’d last a year, much less six. So when our anniversary rolls around, it’s time to celebrate and embrace the 20%. This year we ate at our favorite restaurant that sources all products locally. While the main courses were pretty primal, we enjoyed several glasses of red wine and to cap it off: Krispy Kreme doughnut bread pudding for dessert. Any Southerner worth their salt has a deep appreciation for Krispy Kremes, even if the primal Southerners are able to pass by the “Hot Donuts Now” sign most of the time. It was a great way to polish off an otherwise healthy meal and usher in another great year of marriage.
While 1 glass of red wine is okay, 2-1/2 glasses is not a good thing. I have had 2-1/2 glasses twice in the past month while eating primally. The first time, I was tipsy but okay. However after the second time, I felt tipsy, then bad in a weird way. This must be a sign that my body is healing!
Ice Cream. No doubt about it. My favorite kind is Peanut Butter Cup – chocolate ice cream with the peanut butter swirls in it. Aside from the cream… it’s just not primal.
I have found some Coconut Milk ice cream that’s a tad more expensive, but obviously is made with something a bit more primal. They even have Peanut Butter Cup flavored… not that that helps anything much with the peanuts in it. Wonder if anyone’s ever thought about a Almond Butter Cup Coconut Milk ice cream… then it’d just be the sugar that isn’t so great for you.