OMG! I am in shock! Next time I am going to tally up calories BEFORE I eat lol. We had Pizza Hut for dinner tonight. We got a handtossed italian sausage pizza. I had 6 peices. I didn't think that was so bad because they were smaller peices. (Smaller then most of the peices... I counted them as full peices on my calories though.) 6 peices of this pizza turned out to be over 1600 calories I believe it said! And I am only supposed to eat 1600 in a day! And tomorrow we are supposed to go to (my hubby got free passes for all of us) the fair! Which means elephant ears!!!! I am going to totally mess up tomorrow too! All that walking in the hot heat has got to account for something tomorrow though. Man... I hope it don't hurt the scale on next weeks weigh in! No more pizza for me!!

Always be prepared If you are going out to eat, you can almost always get a good idea of how many calories are in the food. If that's impossible, then there are a lot of things you can do to take control of the situation. If it's pizza, then order your pizza with half the cheese, and just get veggies such as mushrooms, and leave off the meat. It's just as good Then limit how many slices you have, and order a salad on the side. If you are used to eating a lot more, then don't worry, you will get used to it, but it takes practice

About those elephant ears... Fortunately, they are not required for admission, so you can hit the rollercoasters or do other fun things, without eating. I would suggest chewing a good minty gum, so your mouth will feel too good to ruin with greasy, fattening fair food! Bring along a sports bottle that you can fill with ice water. You're in complete control, and we know you can do it

Above all else, think about that 0.6 lbs that you lost and don't want to regain Please llet us know how it goes

Pizza Hut is one of my favorite binge foods. I reserve it ONLY for days I fall off my diet. Pepperoni with either olives or mushrooms, a large pizza with a stuffed crust, and CinnaStix, and eat only that the whole day.

Now keep in mind that I can be obsessive/compulsive about things but ... to be honest, when I was really losing last year, I just did not eat out. Not at all. If I wanted a treat I'd have ice cream and figure it into my calorie count. I just was not comfortable with the loss of control I felt with food someone else made.
When I grew more accustomed to knowing I would lose anyway ... then we ate out once in a while. But very infrequently. I had to have my everyday eating under control enough that one or two bad days didn't send my averages out of wonk.
In fitday's reports, you can get an average calorie intake for the week. Now, one bad day is not going to ruin EVERYTHING ... but a few bad days ....

I've realized that I simply cannot eat pizza ever again. It's probably my ONLY real "trigger food." I love it...I love it cheesy and greasy and covered in pepperoni. But I can't even nibble at a corner of a slice because I can't eat just one piece. My trainer says if I have a craving, I should go out and buy one small slice, but -- literally -- if I had one piece "it would be over," and I'd go back for another piece and another and another until I'd eaten a whole large pie on my own. It's the one food I've banned completely from my life.

Suzanne,

Ummmm... the only reasons I go to the fair is to 1. walk all day (and sweat ) and 2. for an elephant ear hahaha. But the good news is... I do NOT eat it myself!! We share them between all 5 of us!! And we only get 2 through out the whole day.... so it is not like even eating half of one. The kids always eat most of it... I swear they don't breath while they are eating it haha.

We are going after an early dinner here at home though!!! We don't eat at the fair except for an elephant ear. The food there is to exspensive. We wouldn't even be going at all but my hubbies job has a booth there and some employees and there families get in free! So we are going for free this year. My kids got lucky this year!!

We don't do roller coasters. To many bad things can happen. We do let the kids play some of the games, we watch some shows, derby's (we love the derbys), tractor pulls (yeah we live in the country lol) and stuff like that. But basically we just walk around and look at the booths with stuff for sale and stuff.

My activity in fitday will be awesome today!!! BUT... I will have to figure out how to mark it in there haha.

No. I do not want to gain the weight back... and want to keep losing! I am going to have to work extra hard this week now though! All the walking out there later today should help though too.

I read your post to my hubby this morning. He giggled a little about the elephant ear thing lol. But like I told him.... if everyone would leave the dang thing alone I could make that thing last all day and night by just taking a small bite here and there! Sheesh, I had a hershey bar on my desk for over a year!! Yeah... I wouldn't eat it either lol.... but I am like that.. I don't eat things quick. It takes me a while to eat things... exspecially (sp?) sweets.

Thanks so much for your post!! You are such a doll! Oh... the site is working now lol. Sorry about the confusion in emails this morning lol. I needed my 3FC fix hahaha.

Victoria,

Lol.. your making me think about there breadsticks lol. I love them!! I didn't have them last night though. I new it would costs to many calories lol. The only reason I went there in the first place is because my family wanted pizza! Lol. Never again!! Well, maybe once every few months or something lol.

Susan,

I forgot about that. Yesterday I still blew it though. I ate more (more red then green) then I burned. And I felt it last night too. Well, and later during the night into the morning when I woke up with heartburn really bad lol. So not only did I get punishment from my calorie counting but also from the pain of the heartburn lol. It was so NOT worth it lol. Next time the kids want pizza hut I am going to get a salad somewhere!! Lol. It still says around 1500 calories for an average a day... so I guess it is ok so far. Now I just gotta walk that pizza dough off haha.

Kate,

What about ordering one slice, take it to go, and don't eat it till you get home? I always try to take it to go. If I am craving something I realized awhile ago that depriving myself made it worse. So I will get some of whatever it is, eat some and give the rest to my family. A few bites kills the craving to want it to bad, and it don't hurt the waistline that much.

I do realize that not everyone is like that though! And when it comes to pasta... I am like that too! I try to stay away from pasta... or at least have tons of veggies and boneless skinless chicken breasts with the meal. It makes it easier not to over eat the pasta.

Being italian can be the pits!! Italian food is so bad for you lol.

Hi Tracy,

I agree totally...and I'm able to "manage" my cravings by eating a sane amount of whatever food it is that I crave about 98% of the time. I can do it with certain foods, but not pizza for some weird reason. Example: I used to eat A LOT of Doritos. Now, if I have a craving for them I go out, buy a small snack-size bag, and eat it (SLOWLY). And then I'm fine -- I move on and don't beat myself up about it. I can do this with cookies, candy, anything else that I crave...but I just don't have any willpower in the face of pizza. At least not YET. I was at a friend's house in July and she had ordered 2 pizzas for her kids. I had to WALK OUT OF THE KITCHEN to get away from it...she said, "C'mon, Kate. Just one piece!" and I felt like I was being offered heroin. I just had to get outta there!

I suspect it's because pizza was a serious stress/comfort food for me for YEARS. When I was teaching, if I had a truly horrendous day I would buy a large pizza on the way home. At one point, my Thursday schedule was hideous and I ended up having a large pizza for dinner EVERY Thursday for the entire school year! There's some emotional connection for me between pizza and stress/misery.

So yeah, I'm with you 100% on giving in (in moderation) to cravings. Problem is, I can't DO pizza in moderation just yet. LOL, it's actually become a point of pride for me, because I haven't had pizza since New Year's Eve 2004. All that time pizza-free has actually become a motivation for me...it's like I'm an addict that's been "clean" for nine months or something.

Tracy about the walking around the fair ... there's several levels of walking at fitday. I think there's something like walking shopping without a cart. It'd be kind of like that. Walking stopping, looking around. That'd probably be pretty accurate.

I think I learned at 3fc ... to blot my pizza. You know how some grease sort of sweats out the toppings? If you take a few napkins and blot that off, it lowers the fat content. I don't think there's any effective way to record that in fitday but you'll know you did better than usual.

Kate....

WOAH!!! That is a long time!! Your a strong women! I completely understand what your saying though. I am like that with pasta. You know what I do to make servings/portions seem to last longer too... I suck (let the fit sit in my mouth) on the food for a few seconds.... not nasty like lol. I enjoy the flavor/taste longer this way. Ever since I quit smoking I had to have something in my mouth a lot.. not as much anymore though. And I just sucked, chewed, nibbled, whatever for awhile on the same peice of whatever. My hubby hated it... but I haven't had a smoke!! Lol. Now if I can get the weight off from it that would be awesome! And I will do that to!

I am not really an "all or nothing" attitude. I believe that unless it is a trigger food (a food where you absolutely have no control over and have to stay away from) that you can have pizza and lose weight. I eat at Pizza Hut about once a month, and STAY ON PLAN.

The keys are:

#1-Portion Control-You simply cannot have 6 slices of ANY pizza. It is simply too much. Knock that down to 2-3 slices instead-no breadsticks, no cheese bread-just 2-3 slices.

#2-Order Smart-At most pizza places, Pizza Hut included-the thinner the crust, the less calories. At Pizza Hut, order Thin n'Crispy crust on the pizza that you will be eating. The Pan crust is the most fattening, and besides it being "more" bread, the pan is also heavily coated in oil. Also-order smarter toppings. Stay away from fatty toppings like extra cheese, bacon, pepperoni, and sausage. Go for the ham, or the veggie toppings, or grilled chicken.

When I go to Pizza Hut, I get a Thin N Crispy Veggie Lovers. If I order a medium size pizza-one slice of this is 190 calories. If I have 3 slices for my dinner-it is UNDER 600 calories-a far cry from 1600.

Pizza Hut has a nutritional calculator on their website, and you can see what calories are going to be per slice depending on the toppings, crust, and pizza size. Check it out BEFORE you go.

Other favorites of mine are the Chicken Veggie Lovers, and the Fit N Delicious pizzas. (They have double sauce, half the cheese, and 2-4 of the lower calorie topping combinations) I can't think of the calorie counts right off hand, so check it out on their website.

Aphil

Pizza Hut can only kill you if you don't practice these two keys. I can eat out in about any restaurant and NOT gain. You just have to order in a different way, and practice portion control.

Susan,

Now that is not a bad idea!! I will try that next time... but it won't be for awhile lol.

Yes I noticed there were tons of different walking levels on fitday! I think your right too... the shopping one without a cart I think would be a good one. I will have to look in there.. and watch my day so I mark it correctly.

Aphil,

Pizza Huts web site is awesome! That is how I tallied up my calories last night. They give you all information on there. It was great. Kind of lol. I wish all places did that. I didn't think to do that before I went though. I should have! Heck, I was there to print out a coupon I could have look at the nutrition at the same time too!

I used to eat pan pizza. That is all that I would ever eat. Now I eat handtossed. It is between thin crust and pan. Not bad taste wise. I can't eat thin crust pizza really. I have a partial and eating crispy (hard) things is hard to do. I don't even eat potatoe chips and stuff really because of it. I used to eat tons of those before though!

Grilled chicken sounds awesome on a pizza though! I didn't even know that was available. I am going to have to research things more before I plant them on my tongue! Lol. I was satisfied at 3 peices last night!! I really do not know why I went to 6! Probably out of habit! Bad girl! Lol.

I am going to research first next time though.