Dietary Vices

We all have them, whether we give in to them or not. I am one of those who does. It would be disengenous of me to pretend I'm the perfect Paleo/CR chick all the time. I do the best I can, and I think I do pretty well, and I'm happy with that.

I know there are a lot of people who take the all or nothing attitude with eating healthfully--I used to be one of them. Waaaaaaaaay back in the day in my deeply fat phobic phase, I would beat myself up if I had even a small amount of the stuff.

Then I happened on a helpful rule of thumb. Basically, would you talk to a friend the way you talk to yourself when you screw up? I began to automatically apply that rule to my self criticism, and I decided I should stop being so mean to me. So if I knew I was making a less than ideal choice, did that mean I had blown the whole day? If I had some chocolate at lunch, then I wouldn't have chocolate after dinner. After all, that's what I would tell a friend to do. I wouldn't tell her she was weak and lazy and didn't really want to be healthy.

And I still do that now, because I definitely have some dietary vices. I love how Mark Sisson advocates healthy vices, like dark chocolate, and I agree with him. But I also have some not so healthy vices. And even though I'm most definitely not Catholic, sometimes confession is good for the soul, so here goes:

1) Diet soda, aka Diet Satan: It erodes your teeth and your esophagus, it's full of crap, it's bad bad bad. But it's sweet and fizzy and caffeinated. Sigh. I have cut back on my consumption considerably, but I still fall off the wagon, particularly at movie theaters. Yes, I know plain water is better. Yes, I am trying to switch to seltzer. I'm working on it.

2) Ice cream: this is an occasional treat for me, but I don't think dairy is particularly good for me and I really don't think dairy full of sugar is good for me. And then I see the beautiful curvy bright red Dairy Queen sign and my mind goes blank... Good thing there aren't any near my home.

3) Low carb tortillas: Grain, soy, where do I begin with this? Again, it's an occasional thing, but every once in a while I miss the particular chew that comes with bread products. I justify them to myself because of the low carb content, but I'm a shitty liar and I know I'm full of it.

4) Vodka: I do have the occasional tipple... 'nuff said.

5) Almond M&Ms: only after the vodka. Sigh.

Phew! That feels better. I hope I haven't completely lost my Paleo cred with y'all :) I do always keep my calories consistent, so at least I'm CR'ed if not always ON'ed. I'm not perfect. I just try my best and make my peace with my screw ups--it's a much less stressful life that way.