People attribute my success in weight loss to my Marine Corps background. They think that I possess some sort of super-ability to resist temptation and to stick to my diet. While I will admit that some of that comes into play, I think my ability to stick to the Paleo lifestyle has been more due to my desire to reach my goals. To that end, I’ve been very mostly Paleo, but I can’t say I’ve been 100% Paleo.

When I eat lunch on Fridays with my friend Steve, we eat steak. With that steak I normally eat a baked sweet potato with plain butter, but as an appetizer, I order the Caesar salad without croutons. This salad comes with Parmesan cheese and the Caesar dressing which I’m pretty certain is made with some kind of dairy. I normally pick off all the cheese I can, but some of it gets into my mouth. I allow myself this small indulgence once a week and it doesn’t seem to have a detrimental effect on me or my progress.

Every now and then, I imbibe alcohol or cheese. This past weekend, we went to a dear friend’s birthday party, and they served wine, cheese, and meats. I ate a lot of it. Fortunately for me, they had Paleo crackers on which to eat these foods, and I took advantage of that. Again, every now and then is not going to derail my progress. I took into account that I had a very small breakfast, a small lunch, and I ran a 5k at max effort that morning (and got a personal best pace, time, and splits!). I figured that I had earned a little extra allowance that day.

When people ask me if I’m strict, I tell them that I am because I really am. However, there are times when I allow myself either a little alcohol or some non-Paleo compliant food. I don’t allow myself an entire day to go off-plan, however. Not ever. One meal or one course of a meal is okay, but I never go an entire day off-plan. That’s just unacceptable to me.