I say, “Bad food” here and there when referring to those foods that are not in my Paleo lifestyle. I call them bad because I avoid them. Much like playing with electricity is bad, or playing with TNT is bad, so is eating foods full of carbs, sugar, and other toxins.

But, as Collin noted in his excellent article about his own journey towards better health, calling certain foods bad isn’t really constructive for everyone. This is a very salient point, and something that bears further discussion.

I’ve stated before that we all have to find what works for us. For some, it’s a grueling workout routine and schedule coupled with sensible eating. For others, it’s counting calories and portion control. For me, it’s living the Paleo lifestyle. Our net result: we all get healthier and lose weight. Though we go about it in very different ways, we each found a way that works best for us. The same goes for how we categorize foods.

I really like what Collin said about foods and lifestyle change: “It’s about an attitude and a positive mental shift about food, not about how you need to deprive yourself of things because you are bad.” This is a great point. If you eat something that’s not necessarily great for you, you’re not bad or being bad. It’s just a food decision you made that you now have to just move on from.

When Sherry and I were on our most recent vacation, we made decisions that included foods that were not Paleo. In some cases, they were so far off the reservation as to be borderline crazy (in terms of our new healthy lifestyle). We made the conscious decision to not mourn our decisions or to get depressed about them. We made peace with what we ate, and continued on to the very next meal eating “On plan.” It’s a lot easier than we thought it would be, and in a lot of ways, was quite comforting. We re-affirmed our ability to control our eating, and we were showing ourselves that we were in charge. We didn’t just say, “Screw it. I ate bad, so I’m just going to eat crazy all day!”

Just yesterday, we went to a fantastic lunch at a local restaurant called B&B Butchers. It’s a steak place with really fancy foods. We always tell our waiters to not bring us breads, but this time we forgot. What we got was an amazing looking basket of breads. One of these was an apricot-filled bread of some sort. Sherry decided she had to have a bit; the curiosity was killing her. She had one bite, said it was pretty good, but she said it was odd, because she didn’t feel the need to eat the whole thing. She was satisfied to have only tasted it. I then decided to go ahead and have a bite as well, and I had the same sensation she did: it was good, but I didn’t feel like I was missing anything by not eating the whole thing, or eating more bread. We stuck to our eating plan and while we may have eaten more in volume than we normally do, it was all food that was good for us and our bodies.

Making good food decisions is tough in the beginning, but gets easier with time. After eight months, Sherry and I are both pretty solidly into the Paleo lifestyle. We love the flavors and textures of our Paleo foods and the fact that we feel so good after eating. We don’t have cravings, we get full, and we’re full of energy. These are all new sensations for two people who have spent a lifetime eating foods that were wrong for our bodies.

Whatever you do, stay positive. Whether you call foods that are off-plan “off-limits, “No-go,” or “Bad,” be able to identify those foods that would sabotage your progress on your journey to getting healthy and avoid them by eating foods that are delicious, that are satisfying, and that ultimately get you to your goal: getting healthy