Am I eating 80/20?

Most advocates of the paleo diet recommend following the 80/20 rule or 85/15.  Basically if you follow the diet 80 percent of the time and allow yourself to eat non-paleo food 20 percent of the time you are still going to reap a lot of the benefits.


This rule helps for people to not feel that they have fallen off the wagon when they have some bread at a restaurant or eat the stuffing at the Thanks Giving dinner.  It also addresses that we live in the 21st century where eating paleo isn't always possible.

 You show up at a dinner party and realize the only thing to eat is that big old bowl of pasta, with a side of garlic bread and cake for dessert.  Its going to be kind of hard to avoid eating wheat in that instance.  Or how about today where I was about to eat my big bowl of salad for lunch and realized I didn't pack any salad dressing.

From the start of eating paleo I made myself little rules.  I was going to stick to paleo in the house but outside the house I didn't need to be as strict on myself.  Or small amounts of sugar in food is ok.  This worked great and I lost over 15 lbs with no problems when we first started eating paleo.

Then we went to France where I decided that there was no way I was going to miss out on all the bread and pastries.  I was completely fine with my decision and do not regret it one bit.  However since coming home and getting back to paleo eating, I have noticed that the weight isn't coming back off.3

At home I am probably 95% paleo.  No gluten at all, but sugar and ice cream have been known to slip into my mouth.  Eating out is my big problem, especially with returning to work and having lunch with friends and colleagues that I haven't seen in a year.  Sushi, pho and worst of all dim sum are my lunch guilt pleasures.  Dinner is even worse choices, of shawarma, burgers, fries, burritos.  All quick things that we can grab and go.

This has me questioning am I really eating paleo at least 80 percent of the time or have I slacked off too much?

I am going to commit myself to a week of being paleo 100% of the time. No sugar, no take out, and no just a little nibble.

This is going to take a lot of planning and making sure that I have my snacks on hand.  But the important thing is I believe that I can do it.