What's your 20? page 3

[parrottrl]

My 20 is the stuff that makes more primal food edible, like peanut butter, pickles, cheese, cream, caesar salad dressing, or stuff that's occasional, like not having to pick every single crouton out of a salad. I never intentionally cheat, but I do make mistakes and stuff creeps in there, especially eating out.

[jakey]

diet soda. i don't want to fucking hear about it, fuck off. otherwise clean.

[Iron Fireling]

I really feel that 80/20 wouldn't work for me... like one meal in five not primal wouldn't cut it. It's not so much that I have to be all or nothing... it's just that when I start making exceptions frequently, they become the norm. To me it's easier to quit sugar and grain than think about having it sort of once every couple of days.

That being said, I will probably end up having a non-primal meal tomorrow night as it's my son's birthday and his food choice (last I heard he wanted Pizza Hut ) That's sort of a special occasion though, and something to just do... get over and move past.

I actually find primal eating quite easy for the most part. There are some things I guess I miss... but not the way I thought I would. I'm not perfect as I still like sweet stuff (so I have Natvia which is erythritol + stevia... not perfect but better than actual sugar or artificial sweeteners). But grains, I just gave them up. I feel if I make an exception too frequently to any of this, I'll end up going back to the way I was before.

The way I see it, no more than once every couple of weeks is best for me. That allows me to occasionally have something not 100% primal when eating out, or visiting a friend or something. If I'm somewhere where I can make a good primal choice, great! But somewhere like Pizza Hut just doesn't HAVE primal choices (unless I just eat some iceberg lettuce from the salad bar...nom nom...) and I ain't paying "all you can eat" to chow down on a few soggy lettuce leaves!

So I focus on eating 100% primal at home (or when I can) and on the rare occasion when I have to be somewhere, I eat primal if it's possible, but if not... no biggie. If I had to eat out a lot this would be a problem but it's quite infrequent!

[cori93437]

diet soda. i don't want to fucking hear about it, fuck off. otherwise clean.

Here ya go... this makes it all better.

[primalrob]

my 20% comes in the form of conventional meats, occasional dairy, etc.

i don't see birthday cake as part of that 20%; i see it as something else. call it a cheat if you want, but i consider them conscious choices usually made for a good reason. i see the 20% as striving to eat primal all the time, but not quite being able to do it. i can find/afford grass fed or pastured or organic foods all that often, so i go conventional. that's my 20.

[Quarry]

The question betrays a profound misunderstanding of Mark's 80/20 principle. Reread the book

I think Peril's point is that the 80/20 is not about how closely you adhere to the diet or the % of your diet comprised by cheats. The 20% applies to all the laws of primal - sleep, move slow, play, lift heavy things. Primal isn't about following 80% of an eating plan. (Not saying I am 100%, I just think that is his point).

Right, and I put that option in the poll.
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What do you mean re-read the book?

[JoanieL]

It means I wasn't clear in my opening post. I wanted to know what responders thought of 80/20, not what Mark thought. That is available, but a poll was a way I could see what others thought of the 20.

I was thinking responses would be along the lines of, "I eat quinoa," or "I can't sleep 8 hours per day," or "I'm still too tense to make time for play." Like that.

[jakey]

Here ya go... this makes it all better.

gimme that shit, now!! and some disease of civilization - it's worth it, i've just stopped caring.

[beachrat]

I reject the 20, but I don't sweat it or beat myself up emotionally when I eat or drink something I shouldn't have.

I've been doing this so long that my body kicks me in the butt when something slips in. About 22 months in, and I am still learning!

[paleo-bunny]

I take the 80:20 rule as being a very clever pragmatic rule of thumb, which acknowledges that we're all only human. And many folk don't need to be strict.

I eat a lot of sheeps' and goats' dairy, and white rice, so strictly speaking I fail on the 80:20 rule. On the other hand I've not touched a wholegrain in over a year, and I rarely eat sugar. I just do what works for me.

I had some diet soda (tonic water) with gin earlier this evening without worrying about it.

I do a lot of cardio but it's not chronic (i.e. < 75% max heart rate). I have the lung capacity of someone 17 years younger, which indicates that I'm doing something right.

I sometimes stay up late and consequently don't get enough sleep when I have to get up early the following morning.

I cannot lift very heavy things due to joint hypermobility.

I agree with comments above that there's too much focus on nutrition on this site. However, I can understand why this happens, as following the two primal laws to do with nutrition is not as straightforward as it seems, compared with the other eight laws. Not saying it's always so simple for those either.