I read this on another blog and it made me laugh. This is exactly what I have done with food since I have started taking my training diet more seriously. What is an "FO Food Scale" you ask? Well, first of all, FO is stands for f-off. Sorry if that offends you, but there is no way to make it pretty for the ears. As for the "FO Food Scale" this is how I have started to rank food. If you make a line graph "Health" on the vertical axis and "F-Off" on the horizontal axis I can easily show you where a food stands with me. Take spinach. I know spinich is very healthy for me. I don't really care for spinach, but I eat it because I know I should. So this ranks high on the healthy axis and low on the "FO" axis. Low on my "FO" scale. Next lets look at sweet potatoes. Yes, sweet potatoes provide many nutritional benefits, but they don't fit into my training diet because of their glycemic load, more carbs and sugars than I want. I eat them moderately. I like them, but know I can choose something better for my diet. So this ranks right in the middle of "healthy", right in the middle of "FO". I don't really feel strongly about sweet potatoes either way. You can stay, you can go. Now for my favorite group of foods. I love flavored lattes or tea lattes. But, I don't want all the sugar so I go with sugar-free which is flavored with Splenda. A lab made chemical that is sure to eat at my insides and cause cancer in laboratory rats, but you know what I say, "FO". Desserts, chocoloate is best. I love baked goods of the chocolate kind. I really do limit my intake of them, but I will have a small bit of something everyday if it is around. Again, "FO". Corona Light or a Diet Coke with Malibu. Alcohol, not good for the serious training diet, "FO". To make this one even more enjoyable, the diet coke is loaded with sweeteners. All of these fall very low on the "Healthy" scale, but very high on the "FO" scale. I have decided that I train hard and try to eat well, but for the sake of my sanity and to enjoy life these few things get to tag along on my Zone/Paleo way of eating. Little hitchhikers on my diet that make me smile when I pick them up.
So I encourage you to make your own little "FO" scale and decide what doesn't matter and what really matters. Food should be enjoyed and I intend to enjoy some more than others . . . without the guilt.
Thank GOD!!! Another real person. I've had a few successfully strict weeks Zoning on Paleo, but have hit the brink and face planted off the wagon too many times to be proud of. Conclusion? Absolute abstinence and I don't mix well. You've probably heard of food porn, and people, I'm a freakin' nympho! Sugar-free, chemical laden lattes...now you're speaking my language. I'd never heard of the "FO" Scale, but I've been Fin' off on my diet for months, struggling to lay off the chocolate! Thanks for this post. I feel less like a failure, and a little more justified in my occassional splurge. I agree, hard work should be rewarded...even if the reward is a lab rat cancer causing agent :) Keep up the inspiration.
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