How often can you cheat? page 2

[Damiana]

i don't cheat, but then i include lots of foods in my diet that most here don't touch. perfect health diet - livable & lovable!

Me too. You will have to pry my artificial sweetener of choice (aspartame) and gin away from my cold, dead, not-quite-100%-Primal hands.

[taina747]

Thanks everyone. I think I might have to take ciavyn's advice though. I definitely have a sugar addiction. It's easy to say, oh I'll just eat primal for 30 days, but much, MUCH hard to put into practice. Bananas are a good idea - I've been trying to eliminate fruit, since I'm trying to lose weight, but maybe that's not the best approach. Limiting my sugar might be causing the cravings for candy and ice cream to come on.

[Misti]

I know Mark is all about the whole 80/20 thing, but how often do you find yourselves cheating? <snip>So I've been cheating a little here and there .....is that okay? Am I just setting myself up for failure? Why can't I stop fantasizing about dessert and junk food?! Ugh.

Taina, I am with Mark on this. I am actually pretty close to 100% now, becauise I get very ill whenever i eat anything with coen in it or derived from corn. That's almost everything one might want to 'cheat" with. But I have been at this for several years. In the beginning, we started with "one primal meal per day" and we gradually found workable replacements for the things we wanted to eliminate. We ate *many* meals of pseudo-primal almond pancakes and very frequent pseudo-primal brownies and cookies for the first year. We aren't looking for weight loss, we just wanted our health issues to go away. And we didn't lose weight the first year and we lost very little the second. But our health issues did go away, and as we felt better and ate better, our urge for the "not up to snuff" replacements has waned. These days they are saved for a special occasion, and we rarely crave them. Because our older, longer abused bodies react very badly to grains, dairy, and legumes, we avoid them.

But, you know, "cheats" are what you do on a diet. A primal lifestyle is just that: a lifestyle. You can't cheat on a lifestyle...the concept doesn't make any sense.

ciavyn has a point that it would probably be a good idea to go cold turkey on the sweets for 30 days and then see where you stand. SAD foods are pretty addictive and not cutting the addiction will make it hard to stick with 80/20.

[RobinNM]

Thanks everyone. I think I might have to take ciavyn's advice though. I definitely have a sugar addiction. It's easy to say, oh I'll just eat primal for 30 days, but much, MUCH hard to put into practice. Bananas are a good idea - I've been trying to eliminate fruit, since I'm trying to lose weight, but maybe that's not the best approach. Limiting my sugar might be causing the cravings for candy and ice cream to come on.

I know where you're coming from with trying to lose weight. Another approach to take that might make things easier would be to not worry about any weight loss/gain right now. It's hard, I know. Focus, instead, on primal eating/living. Take one step at a time. Focus on eating the best foods that you can eat/afford and eliminating the grains and added sugars. Don't limit fruit, but do try to eat it in moderation. It'll be easier to do now that fall is approaching and the melons and berries aren't so FREAKING good in the store right now. (Yep, had my own binging this summer on those suckers.)

Focus on good, clean primal eating for the next 30 days and THEN once you've gotten a better handle on that and a new WOE, start tweaking it for weight loss.

Good luck. You can do it!

[ciavyn]

I'm glad you are considering the bigger issue. It was mine, too. Still is, depending on the day. I'm going to disagree with a couple of posters on this one, though: if you are truly going to get rid of your sugar addiction, you have to stay off sugar for those 30 days, including fruit. Fruit is sugar, even if it does have a healthy side effect. I've finally beaten my sugar cravings, and I'm not going to lie and say it was easy. For me, it took MONTHS. But I'm rid of it, and I feel pretty good. And now I can have some blueberries or raspberries, and not eat the whole container. Because it isn't about it being "bad" or "healthy," or whether the container has a certain number of carbs. The issue is me & food, specifically sugar containing foods. I will eat the whole thing, and rationalize, it's healthy. So that is why I say what I do. It's all experience...and researching A LOT of information.

Good luck -- you can do anything you decide to -- it just takes the decision.

[paleo-bunny]

Not as often as I would like to - I wish I could get away with eating convenience foods more often than I do.

[sbhikes]

You can never cheat. Cheating implies that someone else is responsible for your actions and success and that you are chafing under some kind of external authority that is controlling you. You can make better choices than yesterday. You can make worse ones. That's all you can do.

[magnolia1973]

Taina, I'm doing Whole 30 and going through sugar detox big time. Fruit is helping me and I don't want "sweets", I'm just cranky as all hell.

I dunno, try it both ways but if I could not have a banana or some blueberries, I'd probably be eating a gallon of ice cream right now. For whatever reason, now fruit, as long as I eat the fat and protein doesn't make me want more sweets.

[ecole66]

I'm glad you are considering the bigger issue. It was mine, too. Still is, depending on the day. I'm going to disagree with a couple of posters on this one, though: if you are truly going to get rid of your sugar addiction, you have to stay off sugar for those 30 days, including fruit. Fruit is sugar, even if it does have a healthy side effect. I've finally beaten my sugar cravings, and I'm not going to lie and say it was easy. For me, it took MONTHS. But I'm rid of it, and I feel pretty good. And now I can have some blueberries or raspberries, and not eat the whole container. Because it isn't about it being "bad" or "healthy," or whether the container has a certain number of carbs. The issue is me & food, specifically sugar containing foods. I will eat the whole thing, and rationalize, it's healthy. So that is why I say what I do. It's all experience...and researching A LOT of information.

Good luck -- you can do anything you decide to -- it just takes the decision.

This is me completely. I have been off of sugar for almost a year now and I do not have cravings anymore. If I'm hungry it is because I am hungry and not because I have a craving. Now, about once a month we go out for pizza or mexican and I know ahead of time I am going to have some cravings afterwards. But I also know what they are and that as long as I don't indulge them they will be gone the next day. I have to say it is awesome to be in such control of what I eat for the first time in my life.

[lowcarbjas]

@ecole66 that's awesome that you have so much control! I ate a couple of dates the other week and it set me off on a sugar craving - I had to throw them all in the bin to avoid eating them. I think if you're new to paleo (like I am) then cheat days may not be a good idea.