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I never decide to eat something and then use the 20% rule as an excuse. For me the 20% covers those situations where I don't have a choice. (work camp, hotel/restaurant, etc.) Even in those environments I will do an IF before I will eat non-primal. Sometimes however, it is unavoidable and in those cases I don't dwell on it.
My 20% are my weekly trips to the microbrewery/restaurant. On the plus side, their beer and sweet potato fries are excellent. On the neg-side its beer and the sweet potato fries are in some nonprimal oil. On the plus side, i actually like their fish and chips, on the neg side, its battered fish.
I've always looked at it as do your best but don't beat yourself up if you aren't perfect.
Mixed feelings. On the one hand, life is too short to never eat my lasagna again. On the other, I usually only took the time to make it twice a year, so I skipped it this past xmas and didn't really miss it.
My 20 has usually been alcohol. Clear spirits, no mixer. Yesterday, I watched that lecture called Sugar: The Bitter Truth. Turns out alcohol and fructose are metabolized almost the same. While I realize that the lecturer was trying to say, "fructose is like alcohol, don't eat it," since fructose isn't a big part of my meals (especially in winter), the message I got was, "alcohol is like fructose, don't drink it!"
Anyway, 80/20 is better than SAD. For people who ease into things better than making drastic changes, it's a good transition. For anyone who is healthy, it's fine. For people with health or weight issues, it's probably better to go all in until health is again robust and weight doesn't diminish quality of life.
As a college student, I like to plan and budget exactly what I'm doing.
To me, the 80/20 means no going out to eat, no going out to the bar, no dairy, no alcohol, and no cheating, until Saturday. Every Saturday I go to the farmer's market in Marietta, try all the cheeses, breads, pastries, and pick up my vegetables for the week. Then I go try a new restaurant and a new beer. Saturday night I go to Atlanta with my girlfriend and, same thing, try a new restaurant and a new beer.
I do VLC during the week so this is a good carb refeed. Keeps my metabolism in tip top shape, and eases some of the stress of being very strict with the diet. I love my weekly cheat days!
[QUOTE=itchy166;1091103]I never decide to eat something and then use the 20% rule as an excuse. For me the 20% covers those situations where I don't have a choice. (work camp, hotel/restaurant, etc.) Even in those environments I will do an IF before I will eat non-primal. Sometimes however, it is unavoidable and in those cases I don't dwell on it.[/QUOTE]
I'm with you on that one. However, regardless of one's viewpoint, if there are metabolic issues involved 80/20 is not realistic whatsoever from a health standpoint, and shd.n't even be considered.
I actually decided to eat this way after reading both Mark and Robb. Throughout Robb's book, he challenges his readers to just try it for 30 days. If you like it, perfect - if not, then nothing lost.
I figured if I was going to really try it, I should stay as close to 100% as I could, so that is what I did. I feel SO much better now that I am AFRAID to go back. Even 20% of the time ;)
I'm definitely more 90% nowadays... at least I'd like to think so! Regardless, the non-Primal %age is mostly for eating out when I don't know if there is soy in the marinade, or the rice I eat once or twice a week because I ran out of sweet potato. It can also include the birthday shot my best friend ordered for our group, the one scoop of ice cream I have every month, or the gluten-free cupcake my boyfriend buys me maybe once a year to cheer me up on a bad day.
But, I honestly don't think about it that way. I used to be really obsessed with every morsel that went into my mouth, and it took a lot of effort to get away from the slippery slope back down to obsession. I just eat as primally as I can, and that seems to be working fine for me... even if it's more like 20% and not 10%. ;)
I am not 100% loyal to any food protocol, and I'm also not chained to percentages. Some days I might be 100% Primal-compliant--usually without trying to be--other days I am 0%. :)
[QUOTE=Ayla2010;1090836]I keep seeing people saying things like Oh ill drink booze as my 20% or ill have that cake etc.
The main thing I take from the PB is avoid poisons.
Then for the 80/20 I take it more as, if you go out to a restaurant and the meal is cooked in some nasty oil, but its a good plate of meat and veg, you don't beat yourself up and just move on.
So aim for 100% but if there are situations where you can't avoid something, don't worry about it so much.
How do you see it?
Just curious, don't want to start a war :)[/QUOTE]
I agree with you.
It doesn't mean you get to eat garbage 20% of the time. It doesn't mean 20% of the food you eat is deliberately non-primal. It means that 20% of the time there will be ingredients or circumstances that are out of your control and not to sweat it.
Anyone twisting the 80/20 guideline as a way to plan a cheat or a binge is missing the point and needs to reread the book.