How do you view/deal-with *cheats* page 9

[Gravyboat]

you can control your brain! I don't understand how hard it may be for some, but will power can trump everything, your brain only picks up sugar or foods you can't have if you tell it to, but by no means was I trying to sound ignorant to the challenges some people face.

There is that aspect to it for people sometimes. I have been talking in my journal about how I feel unable to indulge myself now that I can't eat ANY sugar, and that is bumming me out and making me feel psychologically deprived, which unfortunately has stepped up my desire to buy material things.

BIG difference, however, from biological sugar cravings. It's like saying heroin addicts can just psych themselves out of withdrawal if they stay positive and have willpower. It's like saying that all schizophrenics need is talk therapy because clearly they just need to work out some issues and have a good cry.

I mean, I ultimately did willpower my way through those cravings, so it can be done. But it was NOT easy, at all. I felt like I was going to die, because that's what my body thought was happening. It's hard to explain what that's like to someone who has not experienced it. It's not just "oh man, I could go for a piece of cake right now," it's actual starvation. It's like trying to psych yourself through severe dehydration when you can barely see straight because all you can think about is water. It is an emergency situation and your body damn well does anything it can do to make you fix it.

[Paleofan]

I can cheat a bit with no affects. That means a small roll or bread at a restaurant or small desert with sugar or wheat. But that happens less than once per month.
Yesterday I had real pizza for the first time this year. Had issues with it a few hours later. Feel fine today, but I usually will have some lower back pain/inflammation show up about 2 days later. Good news is that it doesn't spark any cravings. I just move on and I am fine.
I don't cheat much, but seriously for me, never ever having some foods, especially in a social setting would feel like a diet. Been there, done that, don't like it.

[wolfman]

That's why I said "I don't understand" because I personally don't expirience what some people do when they eat bad foods, and one day out of the month isn't going to do anything, I've actually been eating whole foods since I was 16, but just recently went primal.

[wolfman]

More power to ya! I get what you mean, I'm rooting for you, It helps me when people such as yourself share your expirience because it gets me super pissed at the candy/food companies for making people feel that way....I saw we hunt them down and make steaks out of them!

[Daisynyc]

I think cheating is a stupid word because it attaches morality and emotion to eating. Eating McDonalds does not make you a bad person. Eating strict vegan raw organic lovingly grown foods that you hand harvest yourself doesn't make you a good person.

I hate it because for YEARS I failed at common wisdom and all I could think of was that I was out of control, a bad person because I snapped and ate a cookie, something was wrong with me because I did not thrive on eggwhites and whole grain tortillas.

Through Primal I've found a way to eat what I want, and it is good nutritious food that is healthy for me. I sometimes miss certain treats, and now and then I enjoy them. But damned if I'm going to feel bad about eating ice cream when probably 90% of the time I am eating high quality whole foods. It doesn't seem to start a slippery slope for me (which I think can be the issue for some people).

+1

[fiercehunter]

Since I increased daily carbs & started drinking milk I have no cravings for grains.

[Paleobird]

I don't want to sound like those older people of my youth, but damn, they were right. They didn't know why they were right, but it doesn't change the fact that lots of "cheating" now, even if you don't feel the negative effects, will be detrimental to your health and probably set up habits that will be wicked hard to break 20 years from now. Ah, if I'd only knew then what I know now.

Exactly.

[Evita]

If I eat something thats shit, I move on.

Apparently, some peoples bodies self destruct if they waver off of a primal lifestyle, but I've never had anything adverse other than some water retention or heartburn.

I prefer my "cheat" to be something ridiculous high calorie but primal so I'm talking homemade lobster bisque loaded up with butter and heavy cream. So I indulge with eating more calories instead of different types of calories.

[Gravyboat]

Apparently, some peoples bodies self destruct if they waver off of a primal lifestyle

I love it. I'm imagining wheat entering my body like a genetic virus entering a borg cube. Moments later: cataclysmic explosions.

[JoanieL]

I'm not good at adapting to anything 100% unless I created it. So, if I stray off a given path, I don't think of it as cheating. I allow myself a small amount of empty calories on a regular basis. In my mind, this isn't cheating, but my decision to do it my way. If I'm learning a lifestyle change, then I need to do it in a way that I can do for life. While I certainly have no desire to eat wheat every day, if I go into my freezer every once in a while, and eat two slices of no sugar added sourdough bread, and that fits into my empty calorie allowance, I'm not going to feel like I cheated.

The one thing I don't want to do is to go into something all gung ho and then burn out and fall off the wagon so completely that I do damage to my body and psyche. Stepping off the wagon on occasion in a controlled manner works better for me.