Its been a bad day for you and your feeling down. You walk over to the freezer and pull out that box of pizza. Taking the pizza out of the box you have alot of mixed feelings, your hungry and you know it will be good but you also know that you can never just have 1 piece, you always end up having two or more. Just before your about to take the pizza out of the wrapper you stop...

So my question to all of you guys is what thoughts, visuals, ect., stops you from going off track when the temptation is strong and you know you cant have what your about to eat?

I definately need some ideas because Im the one that unwraps that pizza and pops it in the oven.

What stops me is from past experience with trying to lose weight. When I have eaten something that I shouldnt have, it all go right down the tubes from there. I give up so easily! So I know what will happen if I have that pizza. Just say NO! And you will feel better about yourself and no guilt trip afterwards.

I ask myself some of the following questions: Is it worth it? Are you really hungry? Is this the best choice? and the most important one for me is How will I feel after I eat it? In my program no particular food is off limits - if I really really want it I have it, but alway always in moderation. I'm scared to death of losing control and going right back to where I started and I refuse to let that happen. It's like a little game that I play with myself. Everytime I resist temptation I get stronger. I guess you have to be stronger than the temptation and you have to want to be thin more that the temporary pleasure of the food. You are strong and you can do this.

Not having that pizza in the freezer in the first place helps

A second after you have that pizza, all you have left are the calories and the memory. You already have the memory of other pizzas and you don't want the calories.

But as far as what I use in the moment to cause me to remember that I want to make a better choice, one thing is to have lots of good foods available that are just as easy to prepare and just as attractive. Meals are planned and shopped for so I'm less likely to decide on the spur of the moment to make something that's not the plan. Good snacks are handy and plentiful.

I think if the pizza is really going to help.

And then I think "I'm not saying NO to the pizza, but YES to me."

And then, if I'm really in a good space, I decide to exercise instead, knowing that it WILL help me feel better, even if I don't want to do it.

calorie counting stops me. I always have a running total in my head... and I can eat whatever I want within that total.... so I plan days for pizza.. and if it's truely a crappy day I skip cooking and head to Subway. (yesterday I did both.. one piece of cheese pizza and a six inch sub -- a better choice than I would have made in the past)
I only buy frozen pizzas that have a low enough calorie count that I can eat the whole thing (because who am I kidding? I'm going to eat it all).... and I keep whole wheat pitas on hand to make my own.

What stops me:

1. I never have that pizza in my freezer. I just odn't let it live there.
2. I have small, 300 calories each, pizzas in there (only keep 2 at a time) in case I have to have pizza.
3. I look at whatever I am tempted to eat. Then I look at my thighs and belly and know they are made up of lots and lots of bad choices and junk food. That stops me.
4. If all else fails, I make myself eat it in front of a mirror. Just sit and watch yourself eating that crap sometime. It sort of makes me lose my appetite and feel sick.

If I'm about to eat the pizza (in my case, the chocolate) because I've had a bad day, I ask myself, "How is this pizza going to fix my bad day? How is it going to make me feel better?" The answer is always that it can't. The only problem food can solve is hunger. So then I figure out if there's something that will really make me feel better - go for a walk, watch a funny movie, call a friend, work out - and I do that instead.

On the other hand, if I'm about to eat pizza because I've been wanting pizza all day, and I all really want to eat is pizza, I'll go to the pizza place and get a fabulous slice of pizza, and enjoy the heck out of it. Normally it will just take the one slice to satisfy me.

Lisa

In the beginning, I motivated myself with diabetes. If I wanted something, I would tell myself, do you want that potato chip or your foot. It would help me to prioritize and it helped me stay away from things at my most frustrated, amputation is too big a risk to take. The other thing is really not keeping things in your house that you don't have control over. It's also important though to learn self control as well. Prepare for things that you know won't have your food. I do not go to the movies without taking my own snacks. If I go out for the day I take a snack with me.

Avoiding temptation does become easier with time and I don't really struggle with that so much. Sometimes, when I am having a bad day, I'll do what I call double snack. That's when I have 2 of my allowed snacks at once. This is probably the one thing that I like to avoid and if I am doing it out of emotional/stress issues I tell myself, do not do it. Do not eat out of emotion.

I like to think of the word AFTER. How am I going to feel AFTER I eat the last slice? How am I going to feel AFTER I know I've gone off plan? How am I going to feel AFTER I weigh in the next day? How am I going to feel AFTER my clothes feel tight?

We all know how we feel during eating: usually, pretty good, if not almost high. But after? Not great.

All this being said, I don't consider pizza a "never" food. I still eat pizza. Just much less often and in much smaller quantities.

I take the "don't have it in the house" approach as well.

There are times when I really feel like I NEED pizza, or fast food, or something of the sort... but since I live with several people who all WANT me to fail, I can't bring myself to order a pile of take out and have them witness me going off plan. It's winter right now, so even if I'm desperate enough to drive and get it, usually the process of cleaning off the car gives me enough time to talk myself out of it.

So my advice is to just make it as difficult and/or time consuming as you can to things like pizza - that way at least you'll have more time to think it through before you chow down.

I'm also one of those who just won't allow the temptation into my house in the first place.

That hasn't stopped me from binging in the past, though. When there's no junk food, I'll make it: I'm embarrassed to admit that one of my binge foods of choice is cinnamon toast, smothered in a butter-frosting I would make myself. Blech.

What stops me now is a big picture of me taped to the fridge that shows me how I bad look, and reminds me that my past eating habits got me there. I kinda lose my appetite whenever I look at that photo.

Also, since I've lost 10 pounds, I keep a 10 pound weight on my kitchen counter. When I pick it up I'm reminded exactly how heavy 10 pounds really is!!! It helps me remember the work I put into losing that much, and I realize I don't want to put it back on my body.

I would try not to have frozen pizza in the house if it's a temptation for you. I struggle with the lets just eat the frozen pizza thing too and you just have to stop yourself and ask if it's REALLY worth it. I don't know about you, but I feel horrible after I eat something that's not on plan or if I overeat. You have to decide if it's really worth having the pizza. It's not if it's going to sabatoge your weight loss.

Just like so many of the others here, I don't keep anything in the house that isn't on my eating plan. Some things on plan I still can't keep in the house because they are trigger foods for me to overeat...like nuts, especially pistachios. DH takes those things to his work and keeps them in his office.
Also, I like to find ways to satisfy my cravings for certain foods/flavors by finding new recipes. Instead of mexican food out, I make the Taco Bake recipe from the SBD forum. I am craving pizza, funny thing you mention this today. I just told DH that I was going to have to try one of the suggestions of the forum to use WW pita or portabella mushrooms for the pizza crust and make our own.

Visualizing myself on that scale at WW...

That usually stops me