How often can you cheat?

I know Mark is all about the whole 80/20 thing, but how often do you find yourselves cheating? I'm three weeks in and I think I'm going through the carb flu. I'm constantly thinking about food...ice cream, peanut butter cups, frijoles and rice, and a bunch of other stuff I know I shouldn't be eating. Today I had steak for lunch, with guac on the side and one enchilada (one corn tortilla rolled up with red mole sauce on top and stuffed with a little cheese). Last night I ate Primal all day, but had 1/4 cup of gluten free ice cream at night. So I've been cheating a little here and there .....is that okay? Am I just setting myself up for failure? Why can't I stop fantasizing about dessert and junk food?! Ugh.

my first year primal, i cheated maybe 4 or 5 times...on major holidays. now, i'm a lot less strict and cheat whenever there's a good reason to. a craving isn't a good reason in my opinion...there's always something primal that can beat that craving. but, i'll have pizza if i'm visiting friends and that's what they're eating. i'll have cake and ice cream at a birthday party. i'll be throwing back some beer at the warrior dash this weekend. but, i still try to keep those instances low and not more than a couple of times per month...except around christmas. i go food crazy at christmas.

the "cheating" that you're doing isn't all that bad; there are certainly worse things you could eat. a little cheat here and there isn't going to kill you, and it probably isn't even going to derail your progress all that much. but, if you're concerned about it, find out what a good primal replacement is for what you want. ice cream? maybe some dark chocolate or berries will fix that. peanut butter cups? almond or macadamia butter...or the actual nuts.

Just another view -- now and then is one thing, but your preoccupation with food is the actual issue. :) So probably you should cut out all SAD foods for 30 days, get rid of your sugar addiction, and then see what your triggers are. It's simple -- not easy. :) But hang in there.

Stay focused enjoy the fat. What is gluten free ice-cream? I hope it is not some high sugar full of crap substitute. All good ice-cream would be gluten free I would have thought.

I think going into it with the intent to cheat is really self defeating honestly. Sorry. :( I agree with ciavyn on this one.

In a bad week I've cheated 3x before on bags of chocolate chips. I think I devoured 3 bags + spoonfuls of Nutella that week. Gained 1.5 pounds, which sounds about right for the calorie overflow.

I cheat a lot lately. I'm pretty much addicted to dark chocolate (90% though). And there's a girl from school who I eat ice cream with everyday after school at some cool ice cream stand. I love it and I'm not going to cancel that or even bother with saying I don't want to eat the ice cream.

I hate the word cheating. It's not immoral. Recognize that you do it, and either strive to keep it limited OR come up with primal substitutes. Ice cream= well there is a lot you can do with that- berries and cream, chocolate mousse, smoothie with coconut milk.

Make sure you are allowing yourself to eat all the primal foods. Like, eat a banana if you want a sweet.

i don't cheat, but then i include lots of foods in my diet that most here don't touch. perfect health diet - livable & lovable!

Honestly, it wasn't very good. It was some weird organic, "chocolate fudge" icecream with weird ingredients that I can't even think of right now. I remember tapioca being in it, some fructose syrup and who knows what else. My husband and I bought it to try it out and I don't think we'll be making that mistake again.