I hate the word cheat. I like to think of it as temporarily expanding my food reality. In the end I eat paleo to improve my life. I still have to live it and enjoy it to the fullest. Sometimes that means eating un-paleo food and I'm good with that. A piece of bread or scoop of ice cream will not throw my little paleo world off its axis.

I will leave my paleo diet on very special occasions or at very special restaurants. PMS pretty much does me in every month. Also period of grief are very hard for me. Just coming off one of those and although it wasn't too ugly I did eat a lot of things I wouldn't normally though most of it was in the way of "safe" starch which come to find out is not very safe for me. Just ask the new roll of fat around my middle.

The only thing I will not do is eat non-pastured animal flesh. That's the only paleo rule I never break.

Quality pizza = cheat. Oregon microbrew= cheat.

I'm pretty much Paleo, but I have no willpower towards an IPA and a slice of really, REALLY, good pizza.

If I cheat, I usually feel like crap for three days. My body cries out against the non-paleo food and makes me pay for it.

I have found that it just isn't worth it.

I might cheat on once in a life time eats (e.g. pizza in Italy, world's best BBQ, a pastry in France) ... but I'm yet to endeavor to travel to such places.

To each his/her own I guess.

Two words: PUMPKIN ICECREAM!

And I don't need any other reason to cheat with it other than it being around. It is my kryptonite!

I hope I don't get your question wrong.

The most likely circumstances driving me to cheat are definitely lack of sleep, hunger and having a hangover. They are all pretty dangerous on their own but it gets even worse when they are combined together. Be aware of them and try to avoid them as often as possible :)

If i had a dinner at The French Laundry :) I would cheat. But i dont live in USA and i dont have money for 400 usd dinners ;)

Tex-Mex

Chips 'n queso. Enchiladas. Flautas. Home made corn tortillas hot off the griddle with butter. Refried pinto beans. Yellow Mexican Beer with lime.

Can. Not. Resist.

If I am left on my own with a "cheat" food, it is hard to resist.

For instance, someone brought made-from-scratch cupcakes to work today and they bombarded me in the break room. Luckily, before I gave in and picked one up, a co-worker came in the break room. Just having another person present usually keeps me from divulging.

Most of my cheats are planned: a trip to Satchel's Pizza in Gainesville, FL (yum, deep dish!), BOGO sale on a favorite cheat item, ladies' night out for drinks. Except for the pizza, I still keep it grain free. My biggest cheat is sugar...

Yam fries when eating out. Easier to justify in my head because they're yams. It's a shame they're fried in crappy vegetable oils!

Two things for me: hormonal/stress issues, and being too busy. Someone on here once said that paleo has nothing to do with willpower, and everything to do with planning. The latter (too busy) issue definitely interferes with my ability to plan.

As for the former, when I occasionally indulge in an emotional cheat, I have a logical hierarchy in place. First, I make sure I truly want what it is I'm cheating with. Sometimes I'll try to talk myself into something more paleo-approved, and find myself still craving the thing I actually wanted afterwards. For example: sour cream and onion Lay's. I think, hey, I've got this bag of organic, palm-oil fried sweet potato chips, I'll just have some of those. But by the time I'm done, I'm still dying for the Lay's so I eat them TOO and now I've lost even more :P

Second, I avoid gluten at all costs (have not [knowingly] had gluten in 8+ months) and will usually go for some kind of high quality starch/sugar bomb, like Pamela's relatively low sugar, gluten free (but real butter and eggs) shortbread cookies or coffee cake. My palate has changed so much that I can rarely eat a lot of anything. Oh, and I make sure to enjoy it, not feel guilty.

Being used to some intermittent fasting also helps get through tempting situations.

But when I'm properly managing stress, sleep, and planning, I rarely have major cravings.

I guess I regularly cheat with coffee. Then an occaisonal pieces of bitter chocolate at times. I will taste someones pizza, but never ever oder one when out.
For me, desert made at home with stevia and healthy ingredients is not a cheat. (??) Outside, my favorite desert cheat is mascarpone cream.......yummie fat cheese with egg yolks. Pity it has sugar.

The candy bars sold by people at work for their kids are my biggest offense. If I see a unique micro-brew at a bar I'll give it a try. Wing sauces are also cheats for me.

Special occasions definitely. Also, ovulation makes me crave sweets. However, when I am out with other people at a birthday party or other celebration, I try to stick to paleo but if the cake looks good, I will have some. Otherwise, on my own, it's not so difficult.

Also, if someone offers me something I must eat, like if one of my students (whose Mom is an excellent baker) gives me cookies.

My worst temptation is a locally owned amazing donut shop. They are incredibly good, and full of soy, sugar, wheat, and dairy. Despite the food allergies & leaky gut I am dealing with, I am sorely tempted to treat myself to a dozen (yes I said Dozen!) for my birthday. I haven't yet decided if they are worth wrecking all my progress for or not. I about lost it when my husband woke me up from a detailed dream where I was eating a donut from that shop. (Food fantasy dreams are the realm of dieters and people with food allergies. I have so many pathetic dreams where I go into a bakery or am out for a fancy dinner and I have say I can't eat those, I am allergic.) I dont count coffee (americano's) a couple times a week as a cheat. I count that as a full out necessity!

Being stuck at a friends house for 2 days and being too polite to either not eat or say what was on my mind

Malaysia. Hamee, laksa, chasiu, maifun.. DURIAN.

The Anti-Cheat: Realizing that paleo-approved food tastes 1000x better than anything on SAD. I guess the one thing I do sometimes cheat with is honey but very rarely. I almost never cheat with food. Beer is a different story. I haven't been in the situation yet but I don't think I'd be able to turn down a few pints of Guinness or a fresh microbrew.

My mom makes a blueberry pineapple dump cake that I always have to have a serving of.

Beer is definitely my vice. Then wine, and mead... pulque now, thanks to my travels. Good rum or mezcal, sweet champagne. Alcohol has definitely been the hardest thing for me to give up. I still eat raw and fermented dairy, fresh cheese, etc. and I drink coffee on a fairly regular basis.

Social events and special occasions, and perfect food in the perfect place while traveling are definitely the situations that drive me to make exceptions.

For me its beer. I have season tix to the Seahawks, and go to a lot of Mariners, Huskies, and Sounders games. When not at the game I stick to wine or whiskey, but beer is just right at a sporting event.

since going paleo I do tend to watch the game at home rather than head to the pub, which helps. I can drink wine, or not drink at all if I'm at home. But i just have to have a beer at the game.

ice cream in the summertime!

Chinese food, both authentic and American style. Dumplings, fried rice with Chinese sausage, noodles and most especially Sichuan food, so hot you get an endorphin rush from eating it, plus I've always had a special relationship with Singapore Mei Fun. I still make Kung Pao chicken at home, lord help me, which has soy, honey, sesame oil, and shaoxing cooking wine. I make it with almonds instead of peanuts though.

I've been dreaming about Dim Sum for days. :(

Craft beer. I won't drink cheap fizzy nonsense (which ironically is probably "better" Paleo-wise), but craft beer is sort of a hobby of mine so I drink some a few times a week. I'm trying to cut down though to once a week.

I tried mochi ice cream for the first time a couple weeks ago. For someone as tactile as me, it was heaven -- a chewy, soft, pillow-y gooey mochi shell, with cold, sweet, creamy strawberry ice cream in the middle. My mouth loved it, but my stomach hated it. It's a struggle to stay out of the rest of the box, as my partner is taking his leisurely time to finish it off.

Also, thick, fluffy white buttercream frosting gets me every time. I don't care one iota for chocolate icing, but put creamy vanilla in front of me and I'm a goner. Fortunately, I rarely have to face it. However, for my birthday, my fella got me a cookie cake slice with extra buttercream. I ate a few bites of the frosting and passed the cake off to him. It was a nice, once-a-year treat. :)

Before I found Paleo, I had three rules. Don't fuck without a condom, don't drive around in an automobile without a seatbelt, and don't ride a bicycle without a helmet. I abideded by these rules pretty (very) well for the first 55 years of my life. Eating off the Paleo template is a habit even less desirable than the afore mentioned three. The damage done by violating the first three "rules" remain a probability until they become a reality.The penalty for violating a Paleo Rule, rather Paleo "Law", results for me in a day after , Neolithic food hangover simply not worth the momentary pleasure. And really, what neolithic food or worse,processed crap,can beat a third of a lb. of grass feed beef and an organic vegetable soup.Food as nutrition YES/ Food as pleasure YES/food as entertainment NO. Life is too short to waste it on some form of indigestion/malnurishment.

Since for many the word "cheat" is now synonymous with "consuming foods I like though they may not be good for me" (forbidden food), I propose an allied term, "paleo penance," for post-consumption contrition, shame, guilt. "Oh dear Lord, why did I fall prey to that devilish ____ (name of food)? I fall on my knees and declare Never Again."

Or, one could choose to replace "cheat" with, like, "reward." You still might feel "sick" after eating what you shouldn't have. But at least without having to add the "I was so bad in doing that" veneer. Unless one finds contrition-for-sinning really pleasurable, in which case, "cheat" may be the right word after all.

Me, I'm thinking I'll opt for "I had the yummiest ___ ever yesterday."

I had an iced coffee with 57 grams of sugar yesterday. Does that mean i'm not paleo any more? how long before i'm paleo again??