Dealing with temptations... page

[Lmans77]

First off, I don't need handholding, but I don't need a whippin either. I just need real advice.

How do you deal with temptations? I did really well the first two weeks, I honestly wasn't craving carbs or sweets, felt like I was eating Primally.

But then last weekend, I was tempted...went out to dinner with the extended fam to a TexMex place, and I ate the refried beans and tortillas. I was tempted, and I fell.

Ok, I chalked it up to lesson learned, got back on the wagon and did fairly well last week, but struggled a bit more with low energy and cravings.

Well, then I go and do it again. My son's first birthday was this weekend, had a big party, and caved to all the non-primal things we laid out for guests. Made his cake, and had a piece.

I feel like such a failure...I am back on the wagon today. I guess I'll keep dusting myself back off and climbing back on.

Any words of wisdom? Got another big event coming up this weekend -- cousin's wedding, with lots of fun and open bar I'm sure. Arg!

[tradawg]

Eating a few non-primal foods every couple of weeks certainly isn't a failure! Chalk it up to part of your 20% and move on. Dwelling on it will only lead to guilt and possibly more "slips". My suggestion would be to make sure you're eating enough, and when you're hosting or attending parties where you know there will be lots of tempations, make sure to have/bring some of your favorite primal foods so you'll be less likely to eat the other stuff. Enjoy your cousins wedding. Eat before you go so you're not as hungry and remember that it's more about the socializing than the eating.

[huntergirlhayden]

Its different for everyone, but I find the biggest motivating factor for me is looking at the progress I've made and saying to myself "You did that, you worked for it, now you're gonna trade it for... this?" I keep a food diary on Livestrong and then I have a pocket calendar that I keep up with my "days primal" in. If I have a day where I slip up I still enter whatever I ate into my food diary and I write on my calendar, NOT PRIMAL. In a way I'm competing with myself against how many days I can go completely primal. The food diary is helpful because I know if I eat something that doesn't fit in the diet I'm going to have to enter it in on my daily consumption, it keeps me honest. It helps stop the "Oh just one M&M wont hurt..." Just one turns into 8 then comes the peanut butter sandwich and all hope is lost! But I know if I have to enter in that one M&M I'm less likely to grab it.

[naiadknight]

i fought that demon last night. It's not easy. For me, it's "is it worth it?" Is it worth undoing tht straight chain of however long I've been at it this time? Is it worth the physical pain or distasteful abdominal effects? If the answer is yes, I go after it and don't spare it another thought. If the answer is no, then I ignore it as "notfood."

[Lmans77]

yeah, the problem is that Saturday, spilled over into Sunday, and before I knew it, I was eating a sandwich for lunch yesterday and pizza for supper.

thanks everyone...I'll try not to beat myself up too bad, and just keep on moving forward.

[Griff]

First off, I don't need handholding, but I don't need a whippin either. I just need real advice.

How do you deal with temptations?

It's your choice, every time. You have to decide that your health is more important than birthday cake, wedding cake, or refried beans.

As far as the guilt - if you made a mistake one time and you are determined not to do it again, then let it go. If you keep doing it over and over, you're probably looking for an excuse to keep doing it, and you need to decide what's more important to you.

[kitana]

Yeah - it's not the occasional slip-up that's damaging, it's allowing it to become another and another. I'm fortunate - teh husband is paleo and pretty strict about it. To him food is just fuel and nothing more, so he's very good about not slipping up which in turn really helps me. And then the longer I go without slip-ups, the less I even want to.

[DanC]

YOU are not a failure! This is life, some times we dont eat as healthy as we should sometimes we dont exercise like we should. It happens. keep your eyes on your goals, dont make a habit of the bad stuff, enjoy!

[Little_Fish]

I have discovered that if you let yourself slip and eat something really sugary out of temptation and it's not your treat day, you just give in so much easier the next time and again and again. Plan a day that you can treat yourself (in moderation, of course). Me and my man do pizza night at our local pizza joint. It's awesome. I try not to eat a lot of sugary stuff like cookies & cake because I know I will feel like garbage.. I just try to opt for the lowest sugary option or I bake myself some primal almond flour cookies... SO WONDERFULLY DELICIOUS.

[healthy11]

This was in my inbox this morning - Mark's Daily Apple Insider


Don't Panic

Look, I make no bones about the fact that the Primal Blueprint plan is technically a restrictive one. Since we're restricting only harmful or unnecessary foods and exercises, though, I'm also not apologizing for it. And since you've obviously gone out of your way to receive this PB Insider, you're at least interested in what these restrictions can mean for your life and health.

The thing about restrictions is that people don't always pay attention to them, even when they know they'd be better off doing so - and especially when the things being restricted are cultural or dietary staples that we encounter on a daily basis. I liken it to a reformed heroin user vacationing in Amsterdam's Red Light District: temptation abounds. Processed "food" is just as prevalent everywhere we go and it's even easier to give in. Your body may reject grains, sugar, and vegetable oils (oftentimes manifested in a physical revulsion), whereas the junkie still physically craves the needle, but social convention and our intense fear of awkward moments between friends or coworkers (or bosses!) can overpower our intellectual and corporeal rejection of such foods. Imagine your temperamental supervisor goes out of the way to buy you an ice cream cake for your birthday... are you really going to turn down a slice?

Restrictive regimens invariably create issues for certain people. Issues like guilt, food obsession, and mania can rear their heads when someone slips up and eats the wrong thing. Even though physical or metabolic health isn't really impacted much from that single, isolated event, a person's psychological health can really suffer.

And yes, even with the PB, people have these issues. I know, because I get emails and I notice this sentiment throughout the forum and on other blogs. You eat a piece of bread at dinner and freak out to the point of being unable to enjoy your grass-fed ribeye. You eat that proffered slice of cake (because, who knows, a promotion might hang in the balance) and feel like you undid weeks of solid Primal eating.

Just realize that the Primal Laws aren't enforced by pain of death or injury. They are guidelines - solid guidelines that you should follow for optimum health - but they aren't uncompromising. You aren't living in the Edenic grasslands of Eastern Africa. It's not a Primal paradise out there. You aren't actually Grok. If you mess up and eat a piece of bread or accidentally run a marathon, it's totally fine and even expected! We all make momentary compromises in life. Hell, part of being human is "messing up" and rolling with the punches. To deny that basic inherency in pursuit of absolute 100% unrealistic perfection can actually be worse than giving in occasionally.

Don't panic! Relax, and remember that an unofficial Primal precept is the 80/20 principle. 100% is great and all, but not everyone can, or even wants to, achieve it. Going 80% of the way is pretty damn good, and anything is better than 100% SAD. You might even say that compromise is part of the Primal Blueprint.

In those pre-dinner times of yeasty, bready weakness, just make sure you maintain a 1:1 bread:butter ratio. And keep them few and far between. But above all, don't panic! We've had people undo decades of metabolically destructive eating and exercising in mere months on the Primal path. There's no way a single meal of restricted foods throws you off. Just stay calm and get back on the horse. This isn't a crash diet designed to "shock" your body. There will be plateaus along with the descents, and for some, results come more slowly or gradually.

But results will come - mark my words - and slipping up once or twice won't really influence when or how they arrive.

Don't panic!