the ideal student vs. mr. bungles

[Raw Kyle]

First off a background for the name of this thread. One of my friends had a class in community college called "The Ideal Student" and it was just about good study habits and how to be a good college student. He was talking about it at home and his dad said that reminded him of a character they used to use when he was in grade school called "Mr. Bungles." Mr. Bungles did everything wrong, and presumably the ideal student would do everything right.

Having gotten that out of the way, I have a question about how often you can "do the wrong thing" without too much consequence. As far as following a diet like this, is it even worth it to cheat on the diet? When I do I usually feel less good than before, I've learned not to do that on work nights or days because I don't want to be feeling crappy when I have things to do.

But living life I see people cutting back and eating unhealthy food and drinking alcoholic beverages, you know that kind of thing. Sometimes it seems like life isn't even worth it if you're not able to cut back and do what you want sometimes. It's like living forever but to achieve it you have to cut out everything you like about life.

That is not to say that being on a raw paleo diet is completely unsatisfying and not worth it, but after being raised on eating whatever you want (or close to it) and then self-imposing (without any serious health problems) such a strict regimen, you start to question what the point is.

So I'm thinking of doing an experiment that I would call "The Ideal Student vs. Mr. Bungles" and seeing what happens if I eat whatever I want on a restricted basis. I was thinking that I cannot go off the diet any sooner than late Friday (after work) and not stay off of it any later than after I go to sleep Saturday night (all Sunday will be back to normal).

Can you adapt to something like that? My body was certainly used to eating SAD for years and it didn't bother me much, but now when I eat something SAD I feel it sooner or later. Can your body get used to eating different stuff on a stratified basis? Or will you just detox when you're being good what you ate when you were being bad?

[Raw Kyle]

The biggest problem when going off of my diet with "junk" is the change in digestion and elimination. Bowel movements are strange which is not fun unless you're home all day to answer the call whenever it comes. Always looking for a balance between my healthy diet and the ability to go off of it for social and fun reasons but not too far.

[Sully]

Even if i was the only one eating raw in the world. The farthest I go off my diet would be eating non-organic plant foods. Actually I wouldn't even do that anymore. I train alot and enjoy training. So the slightest decrease in energy really effects me because I'm very active and can feel changes in energy levels alot. For my birthday that just passed I ate raw goat cheese and dried dates and fruits. Effected my training alot. Takes a while for my energy levels to come back when i go off my diet.

[lex_rooker]

Kyle,
You've just run headlong into the essence of life.  Everything is a tradeoff that forces you to make a choice.  Everything you propose is possible but you'll have to live with the consequences of your choices.  Do I believe that you can eat whatever you want anytime you want and not suffer some adverse affects - especially over time, the answer is no.  Do I believe that you can eat turkey, mashed potatoes w/gravy, with apple pie for desert at Thanksgiving and Christmas with little or no problem - of course.  Everything is a tradeoff and every tradeoff is a matter of degree based on how far and how long you stray.

You are young and you'll tolerate deviations from the optimum much better than someone my age.  In my 20s and 30s I could eat just about anything and convince myself that I was doing great.  At 57 I find it much more difficult to fool myself.

What are your core values and your general philosophy of life.  Are you willing to sacrifice your overall ability to do some types of activities, (say you gained a lot of weight and can no longer move around as freely as you once did), because immediate gratification of eating the foods you like are more important to you than maintaining a bit of athletic ability.  I'm not making a judgment as to what is right or wrong, good or bad, only trying to point out that these are choices that each of us make every day.

In my case I've reached an age where it is clear that my physical abilities are in decline.  The choice I've made is to sacrifice my favorite foods (cookies, ice cream, pizza, hamburgers etc) in exchange for extending the number of years where my physical condition and overall health is good enough to support the activities that make my life worth living.  I'm trading the few minutes of pleasure I get from eating my favorite foods for the hours of joy I get from working in my shop making things for friends and family.  My doctor has also warned me that my diet may lead to sudden death from a heart attack.  This is perfectly acceptable to me because the way I eat also allows me to feel wonderful and gives me the energy and positive mental outlook to do the things I want to do.  What good is a long life if I feel miserable and can’t do the things that I enjoy.

I suggest that you spend some time determining your core values.  Once you've identified what is most important to you in your life, you can then decide how best to live your life in a way that supports those values.  In other words, rather than looking at each decision you face as a separate and independent choice between two opposing things, look at it in the broader sense as to how the decision you make supports or undermines what is truly important to you. 

Lex

[Raw Kyle]

Thanks for the insight Lex. I find it hard to fortify my decisions so as to not have to make a new one every time something comes up, especially in a changed situation. For example today I wasn't able to make my meat mix for lunch (meat didn't thaw fast enough) and now I'll have to try and get sashimi for lunch or skip it.

[Raw Kyle]

Maybe I'll try only going off of raw paleo for cooked paleo foods. Maybe that won't give me the immediate negatives that going off my diet for other stuff does.