Where is your balance?

ChasingKatie

Since completing my Whole30 in September I’ve been struggling to find the right mix of paleo/sanity for me. I loved the Whole30 and the way it made me feel, but eating that strictly for the rest of eternity would be difficult.

I’m wondering where your balance is? Are you 100% paleo every single day no matter what? Or perhaps are you paleo with a cheat day once in a while? Do you bend on certain rules like cream in your coffee? Just wondering where other people’s sweet spots are and maybe that will help me find mine.

PitBullMom_Liz

I do Primal as it's less restrictive than Paleo in that it allows small amounts of dairy. Even with that, I still cheat every so often (and regret it later!). I find Primal very easy to maintain as I love the foods I'm eating.

LeidaPrimal

I do what feels good and results in advancing my fitness and aesthetic goals. All and all, I love the grass-fed and organic and local approach. However, sometimes I need to eat art sweetened crap; sometimes I want a candy. I tried ketonic lifestyle, but it sent my fitness down the drain, so I will use white rice and white potatoes.

I prefer Primal to Paleo because of the higher fats and better selection of fats. 80/20 is a good adherence imo. I tried very hard to lead Savory Life of a Saint. I discovered that I binged. Better having a sweet than binge.

After months of back and forth, I also decided that peanut is not a legume, white potato is not a fiend, and seeing I had been eating sugar every day for > 35 years before converting to paleo/primal, not to mention all the grains (gasp!) a bit of honey and sugar in hoisin or Worcestershire sauce ain't gonna make that much of a difference. If i am doing a <1,000 cals day, I am making a toxic jello. And consume all 40 non-nutritious calories of it.

All and all, I shoot for the best and the cleanest, but I also am not afraid to break a rule a little to satisfy a small craving here and there, and keep the balance between perfect nutrition and perfect state of mind. After being in the trenches of fighting getting fat for 25 or so years, I am coming to realize that 99% of the battle is the right state of the mind, and avoiding the grid-lock conflicts within it. And prohibition, harsh rules etc tend to create this conflict very easily.

Please, understand, I am not advocating eating toxic and unhealthy. What I mean is that the clean wholesome food tastes wonderful and my goal is to be in the state when I would chose it 90% of the time. But I also aim to avoid conflict when I want toxic and unwholesome food. Therefore, I eat it - within limits and I think long and hard before I do, making sure that it is EXACTLY what I want and that it will eliminate conflict and a binge on healthy foods.

I also always know when I am eating something that is not compatible with the human physiology (like a piece of gum!). I make it very clear to myself, and don't try to excuse or justify. I file it away as a fact & do it in perfect awareness. Whenever I eat something toxic, I have a mental picture of Kelly from the Firefly series when she savored a strawberry (it's one hell of the scene!). If my food doesn't make me feel like Kelly feels at that moment, I would try to stop eating it.

twinmom01

I do Primal as it's less restrictive than Paleo in that it allows small amounts of dairy. Even with that, I still cheat every so often (and regret it later!). I find Primal very easy to maintain as I love the foods I'm eating.

This is what I lean towards too...

I went from clean eating to strict Paleo and after doing strict Paleo for a month I realized there were a few things I simply was not going to live without - namely creamer in my coffee, good quality greek yogurt, good cheese every once in a while, among a few other things.

So I follow more along the lines of Primal guidelines...and I stress the word "guidelines"

The thing is I don't stress if faced with foods outside the realm of primal as long as it is the exception and not the rule. I.e. I don't count it as part of overall diet, I don't plan for it, but if something comes up i am not going to beat myself up for it. yesterday I was a an amusement park with my daughters and friends of thiers helping to celebrate one of thier friends birthdays - I had a small slice of pizza...now it has probably been about a year since I had a piece of pizza and will probably be another year before I have another slice...but I am not going to beat myself up about it.

Overall my diet is quite healthy and has rubbed off on my daughters to a point. I have one that refuses to drink soda when offered (we don't keep any except for a few cans of ginger ale in the house - but I allow them to have soda every once in a while if we go out) and will volunterially eat raw broccili

ChaoticMum

Well said. I think of my diet as eating primal....although I don't have dairy only because I don't react well to it. But, I like the principle of the higher protein, higher fat aspect of primal. I like how Marks Daily Apple describes things in regards to carbs. I tried the South Beach and it was just too restrictive in "you need to go low carb...you can't eat this, or this, or this...". Instead, it's more a case of "if you want weight loss, keep carbs in the 50-100g range..only restriction? No grain. It you max out carbs on fruit one day to satisfy a sweet tooth,so be it.".

The whole reason we embark on these journeys is to be healthy and enjoy life. If cream in our coffee makes us savor it and we are able to be reasonable about it....go for it. If chewing a wad of gum satisfies the inner child...or we need that extra fresh breath...chew it! Enjoy the life we are living.

I do what feels good and results in advancing my fitness and aesthetic goals. All and all, I love the grass-fed and organic and local approach. However, sometimes I need to eat art sweetened crap; sometimes I want a candy. I tried ketonic lifestyle, but it sent my fitness down the drain, so I will use white rice and white potatoes.

I prefer Primal to Paleo because of the higher fats and better selection of fats. 80/20 is a good adherence imo. I tried very hard to lead Savory Life of a Saint. I discovered that I binged. Better having a sweet than binge.

After months of back and forth, I also decided that peanut is not a legume, white potato is not a fiend, and seeing I had been eating sugar every day for > 35 years before converting to paleo/primal, not to mention all the grains (gasp!) a bit of honey and sugar in hoisin or Worcestershire sauce ain't gonna make that much of a difference. If i am doing a <1,000 cals day, I am making a toxic jello. And consume all 40 non-nutritious calories of it.

All and all, I shoot for the best and the cleanest, but I also am not afraid to break a rule a little to satisfy a small craving here and there, and keep the balance between perfect nutrition and perfect state of mind. After being in the trenches of fighting getting fat for 25 or so years, I am coming to realize that 99% of the battle is the right state of the mind, and avoiding the grid-lock conflicts within it. And prohibition, harsh rules etc tend to create this conflict very easily.

Please, understand, I am not advocating eating toxic and unhealthy. What I mean is that the clean wholesome food tastes wonderful and my goal is to be in the state when I would chose it 90% of the time. But I also aim to avoid conflict when I want toxic and unwholesome food. Therefore, I eat it - within limits and I think long and hard before I do, making sure that it is EXACTLY what I want and that it will eliminate conflict and a binge on healthy foods.

I also always know when I am eating something that is not compatible with the human physiology (like a piece of gum!). I make it very clear to myself, and don't try to excuse or justify. I file it away as a fact & do it in perfect awareness. Whenever I eat something toxic, I have a mental picture of Kelly from the Firefly series when she savored a strawberry (it's one hell of the scene!). If my food doesn't make me feel like Kelly feels at that moment, I would try to stop eating it.