I think the more meat you eat, the less difficult it all becomes. The butcher's counter has become my candy shop window.

Living your life in perpetual FEAR of anything is likely to SHORTEN your lifespan.

Kind of defeats the purpose of being on Paleo, doesn't it?

I have to admit I'm a little jealous of Paleos who only have imagined future consequences for falling off the wagon. My RA makes pain my motivator. I know that if I have even a crumb of that Chocolate Chip Cookie, my feet and wrists will heat and swell painfully, and I might have to spend a day in bed with crushing fatigue. I never want to go back to that again, so even though it has only been a few weeks, I can look my old favorites in the eye and say definitively,"That shit hurts me." and walk past.

Also, a spoonful of butter with coconut on top kills the cravings a little.

I went to Dr. Lustig's talk yesterday at Harvard and he said that dopamine receptors with drug addicts take 3 weeks to normalize but that cravings can last up to 5 years. Since grains, especially gluten can target opiate receptors like drugs, I'm not surprised!

The hubby and I have been Paleo exactly a year now, and I had my first Gluten nightmare/craving. I dreamt I was at this buffet eating fruit tarts, blueberry cobbler, jalepeno cheese bread - all wheat gluten etc. and enjoying it! There weren't any non-gluten grains like rice, corn, quinoa in the dream. I was mortified afterwards. But I didn't act on it. :)

My hubby who has celiac like gluten sensitivity during the 30 day elimination last October had dreams about pretzels, pizza, and cookies - specifically wheat! No corn or rice dream! Hahah - gluten you are so sneaky.

The media and culture bombard us with memories of love and reward gluten and sugar - birthday/wedding cakes, apple pie - etc. it takes time for our brains to rewire (even on Paleo)!

I was partly relieved that cravings are normal even on Paleo but I know we both can control them because it's NOT in the house and we barely eat out. We also know how sick we both can get on it so the temptation lasts a brief millisecond. Working in an optometry office, I see so many people on meds, sick, and overweight/obese that I know we are blessed with Paleo.

I think if you need to be afraid as a means to stay on Paleo, you're doing something really wrong... on Paleo, you should enjoy what you're eating day in and day out. And Paleo makes it easy cause it's also tasty!

I do not need motivation or willpower to stay 'paleo' - it is now my lifestyle, it is just the way I live now, its as natural now as breathing is. I have absolutely zero interest in SAD foods, nothing is tempting anymore. I feel great in every conceivable way and I am going to be shot by a jealous husband when I am 93 years old ;)

I think how difficult it is for an individual to stay on a paleo diet has a lot to do with what their diet looked like before paleo. If you are coming to paleo from a totally SAD diet I think it would be much more difficult because it is such an abrupt change and there are so many aspects of your diet that have to change. It's a completely different approach to buying and cooking food. I think it is much less difficult if you are coming from a whole foods or WAPF style diet because the changes are much more moderate.

I used to need to stay motivated...

Before I realized that I when I stay strict paleo I don't have gas, bloating, achey joints, headaches, fatigue, constipation, trouble falling and staying asleep, need for naps after lunch, depression, weight gain, diarrhea, heartburn, congestion, acne, dehydration and no energy whatsoever.

Now that I'm feeling better than I have in my entire life thanks to eating real food, I guess you can say I "fear" feeling as shitty as I used to.

Theres a certain level of discipline required for success in any area of life so it doesn't really bother me when I have to consciously decide not to eat something that I know is bad for me. Sometimes I give in, but for the most part I just think about how good Im going to feel in an hour if I don't eat that food. I think that most people are driven by reward in the present versus the distant future so the fear of being very sick(as scary as it may be) may not be enough for them to avoid the junk thats in front of them now.

Sometimes I have a hard time staying away from paleo "treats"--which I do indulge in every so often--but having come from a whole foods/gluten-free diet I know how terrible it is for me if I "cheat" by eating anything with gluten. If I eat something that's not paleo (minus a bit of hummus or something), I am in pain for days. It's just not worth it to me. I sometimes read about people who enjoy the occasional slice of bread, but that stuff just looks like poison to me now, because I know what it does to me.

A big part of my motivation comes from seeing my mate's reaction as I've gotten leaner and gained muscle. Hee.

Total agreement. But I can't seem to quit the diet root beer lately. Even that, I'm pretty sure, is bad for me, and I've totally off sweets before and I didn't miss them. But somehow this dad's diet root beer became a monkey on my back. Dumb, huh?

It is very hard to stick to a strict Paleo diet but the way I see it, I'm proud of myself for every day that I eat Paleo foods and resist the temptation of cheeseburgers, pizza, and cupcakes.
I'm the only one in my family that eats Paleo and I cook all my meals. I see my sister eating cup of noodles and frozen dinners and even though it's much easier and more convenient to eat those foods, my meals look so much more delicious and appetizing.
And like many say, even though I'm only a couple weeks in to the Paleo lifestyle, I'm scared to even think about what eating something non-Paleo will do to me.

I actually don't find it a challenge and my desire to eat this way is driven by positive emotions. I enjoy most 'paleo' foods more than stuff like pizza. Plus I have issues with gluten so cheating with most foods is not worth it.

I'm not the strictest with my diet by any means... I eat ice cream, macaroons, chocolate, cheese...

My motivation comes from the knowledge I have gained.

I do occasionally need to kick up the willpower...this is usually in response to peer pressure and not so much from the foods.

I do, however, enjoy a treat occasionally that most wouldn't consider paleo/primal, but I know how they effect me and am able to make an educated decision, even if it's not considered the "right" decision.

No motivation or will power needed. I "look feel and perform"™ much better now. I have seen the light. There is no going back. The old way now looks like a slow, perverse form of suicide.

Using fear of other peoples illnesses and maladies for long term motivation is eerily similar to all the "thinspiration" sites myself, and I'm sure many other people in particular women, frequented throughout eating disorders. Health is closely linked to diet and exercise- we have a quantity of control over how our life course will be charted in terms of our physical bodies. We sometimes confuse this quantity of control with absolute control- something which no one has. Some of us on this forum have had cancer, and some of us will get it. Some of us will get into car crashes, contract serious viruses, harbour bacterial infections, break hips, and have heart attacks. As Forest Gump indirectly said, "shit happens". Eating well and living a healthy lifestyle do not make us immune to cracks in our complex biological and genetic systems.

Those retirees picking up their pill bottles, do you think they are an image that should be feared? You will get old too someday, there is absolutely nothing that will stop that. Maybe you can delay the process, but one day you will be there. And maybe you will live long enough to see the complications that aging brings, and will have to rely on modern medicine to live out your days to a hopefully natural death. After one of my heart surgeries due to a genetic condition, people used to literally gawk at me in the cardiac award because I was so young- they showed me an amazing amount of sympathy and compassion. The elderly there were very supportive of me and would always want me taken care of before themselves, when a lot of them were suffering from the same condition and issues as myself- we both were stuck in a bit of bad luck, but they weren't feeling sorry for themselves or considering that their lives were not worth living. Getting sick and having things go off script is part of being a physical person in the world we live. This realization is what snapped me out of an eating disorder- I thought I could control what I looked like and how my body worked at every aspect. But no matter how fine tune you get your system, no matter your willpower, motivation, or drive, you will get older. If nothing else goes wrong, you at least know that. You might gain weight, lose weight, build muscle, eat less, eat more, whatever, you can't stop the march ahead. Building up your reality on a steady-state of constant levels means that as those start to fluctuate, the reality might just crack.

If the only thing you want to be is "not bad", your life will not be great. Fear creates a baseline- it takes something of much greater substance to elevate you to a lifestyle

These are good observations. Fear drives me too in a sense. I started this WOE because I have celiac disease and sooo many foods make me sick. It's a good reminder not to cheat if you know you will have a stomach ache the next 4-12 hours!! But after a couple months of paleo I was feeling far better than I ever had imagined. One example, the first year I only got the flu once, briefly. That's motivation, not fear! Another motivating factor is looking at the people who surround me. Diabetes, obesity, daily aches and pains, horrendous acne. this is our society when we could so easily be so different. Anyway. Back to your question, yes, you need motivation and will power for any diet, indeed any lifestyle change.

Are you kidding? I eat like a queen!

Why would I want to eat cardboard-and-chemical-tasting things?

But... you know... you can make VERY healthy paleo desserts! Raw milk is healthy.. eggs are healthy... bananas are healthy... and so on... :-)

Absolutely not! Today I ate a delicious egg scramble, ribs, guacamole, asparagus cooked in butter, pot roast, and the best blueberries I've ever tasted. No will power required!