I’ve been thinking about how years ago I created the 80 Percent Rule of eating healthfully 80 percent of the time.

After being told to eat comfort food in response to a loss I can tell you that you and I can feel only worse after earing comfort food nonstop all the time.

A more realistic feel-good approach is in keeping with eating whatever we want 20 percent of the time. I call this weekly eating plan the Golden Ratio. The ratio is having 15 healthy meals and 6 of whatever meals we choose every week.

The 6 meals can be two each of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It can be hard for some of us not to feel poorly for eating whatever we eat.

In this regard I admire persons who at least cook their own dinners and serve themselves the food they like to eat. Like I quoted my old trainer at the gym the goal is to “Eat Food. It really doesn’t matter what kind. You just have to eat.”

I don’t like to call this a “cheat” day. Instead I use the term to have a “free” day.

I like to think that the majority of setbacks are only temporary. What I take from the Buddhists is their belief in the impermanence of everything.

A person can decide at 46 like I did to lift weights and eat mostly organic food. After decades of not doing that.

All is not lost if you and I are experiencing a setback. I’ll end here with this gem of advice: Consistency counts the most above all else in terms of health.

A slip up here and there is no cause for abandoning all your efforts and giving up totally.

I call this taking the Long View. What we’ve consistently achieved over the years counts more than if in two weeks or two months or two years we’ve gotten off track.