Does anyone else not care? page

[john_solo]

I love reading all the forums, but doing so highlights the following aspects of my Primal-ness:

1. I don't track calories or macronutrients. I have no idea how many calories I'm eating in a day (a lot, I'm sure since I love meat and fat), the number of carbs, the grams of protien, the grams of fat - no clue and don't care to track.
2. I have no idea how much I weigh. My clothes are loose and my wife wants to bone me, so that's good enough for me.
3. I don't worry about having nutritional deficiencies. I take a multivitimin every day to hedge, but other than that I just eat what I want from the vast array of Primal choices.
4. I drink alcohol almost every day. Not just wine, but beer and spirits also. I like it...its awesome.
5. We try to feed our kids as primally as possible. We've eliminated cereals, and are working on bread. I think its the healthiest approach.

The long and the short of it is that I used to stress and agonize over all of the above. Since letting go and realizing that part of this lifestyle is eliminating stress, I'm a much happier person. If there's one thing I wish I could get into newbie's heads it would be to calm down!

[loafingcactus]

In general I agree. However, it sounds like you also benefit from excellent luck and are mistaking it for a choice. People with more serious physical and psychological problems have no choice but to take those problems seriously (or die).

[primalrob]

i'm right with you on 1-3...i just don't drink much, and i don't have kids (but all my pets eat primal foods). i think not getting stressed out about this is just about the most important aspect--primal law #11 kind of important (it also gives us the chance to say 'this goes to eleven').
i used to really stress over this stuff too, and i'm in a much better place mentally than i was. but, i realize that i'm also in a much better place physically, which probably makes it a little easier for me to allow a little more slack in how i do things. the structure really helped me out when i was getting started, and it wasn't until recently that i let go of it.

[healthy11]

I agree... I don't stress about my diet anymore (although I do try to make sure I'm not deficient so that I can optimize my health and energy). I definitely stressed about it in the beginning. I was starting to avoid social situations because I wanted to eat perfectly at home and that was a big red flag for me (obviously)... now I don't worry about the bottled marinade my dad used on our steaks the other night or the rice I had at a restaurant a few months ago. I even had spaghetti a few weeks ago (that I did stress over, but learned a lesson about letting go). I don't track my calories and never will (although, I did track it the other day out of curiosity). I have wine when I want to, which isn't very often anymore. I find that I can't drink more than one glass without feeling like crap the next day. One glass is perfect! I am loosing weight, but I don't weigh myself all the time like I used to and when I do weigh myself and haven't lost I don't worry about it. For the first time in my life I am at peace with food and a lot less stressed, maybe not completely... but a huge improvement for someone who has dealt with a lot of eating issues for many many years. I am really grateful for this way of eating!

[Cletc]

No, I still care and I'm fed up this week
This can be a good thing because I can't seem to stay motivated for an entire day yet!
:-)

[randallfloyd]

Yeah I stressed a lot when starting out. That seems fairly common with a major lifestyle change. Then once things become habit it's easier to relax. You no longer have to think about it so much.

[quelsen]

not carring has many connontations.

I have created an environment in my home where all my choices are beneficial ones. IE i cant fuck up in my own home.

I choose to eat in my home for all but extreme reasons and so yes i dont care

I am still reducing and so i do care about certain things.

but by and large i think about food and intake far less now than i did when i was ballowing out of control, however i have this luxury now becasue at some point i did care ... a lot

[naiadknight]

Most days, I don't give a flying fuck in a high wind. I eat Primal, but I won't say no to GOOD nonprimal food. I rarely drink alcohol, but that's by personal preference, not primal. I do use the scale, but more to make sure that I'm not losing anymore weight, as I can't really afford to lose more weight. I'm wearing a smaller size than I did in college (and some of those area bit loose), my husband wants to [insert raunchy sex scene] my brains out, and 2 or 3 of my guy friends would jump at the opportunity if I weren't with Geek. I don't watch carbs, except with an eye to staying over 50g, I don't watch calories, and I'll try anything twice. I take a multi, vit D3, and selenium to scare off any deficiencies, and drink nearly my weight in ounces of lqiuid most days. I have my days where I try to give a shit until Geek or a good friend reminds me that I'm prefectly awesome and have no need to go all orthorexic on myself.

[Sudenveri]

I'm one of those people eating primal for more serious business health problems that loafingcactus mentioned, so yes, I do care. Among other things, I have fibromyalgia, and came to primal/paleo hoping to reclaim my health and life - and it's started to work. I recently started using FitDay to track my macros and micros, and discovered that I need to up my K and Mg as a result; I'm hoping that keeping a closer eye on the details will continue my progress. Because of why I do this, I need to be 100% strict in eating paleo, too (both grains and even the smallest iota of dairy cause fibro flares); different people have different needs.

However, I do agree that stressing about it doesn't help anything. I might keep track of what I eat, but I don't weigh everything to the microgram. I don't worry too much about calories, but I'm not trying to lose weight, either (though more muscle, more better in my mind). I'll end up eating too many cherries this summer, just like I always do, but fruit is the only sweet I can have anymore so I'm not going to sweat it too much. I don't drink and don't have kids (for their hypothetical sakes as well as mine, heh), either.

[Edje Noh]

It's just a matter of how far you want to go. I did 8 weeks of detailed daily tracking, because I want to learn about my macronutrient breakdown. I don't care if Mark Sisson says tracking is primal or not. I liked learning about it, so I did it. Having done that, I now don't care so much about tracking anymore, because I know what kinds of food bring me what kind of macro ratio's.
As for weight, if you're satisfied with your weight, that's all that matters.

As for the alcohol, I don't know much about how drinking beer versus drinking non-grain drinks will influence you.
My take has to just stick to red wine as I've had so many beer in my pre-primal days that I've had enough of the stuff anyways :P
Plus alcohol in excess is not a good thing so I limit intake.