Why?
 

I am fine when I am in the comforts of my own home. I know what food I have and what I am allowed to eat. I know my portions and servings. But once I step out of my comfort zone, it's a free-for-all. I eat like this socially. When I visit my fiance's parents we go out to eat and I indulge. When we just hang out we eat all kinds of snacks and goodies and I just can't say NO.

I finally got over my emotional over-eating, but I can't get over my awkwardly-social indulging.

Why?

I don't know why, but I often do the same thing.

I do the same thing, too... If I'm eating at home, I don't overeat, and don't struggle with temptation b/c I don't keep junk at home. If I go out to a restaurant, it feels like I lose all my self control. I try to order something it's (Less bad) to pig out on, like a yummy salad.... But usually, I just aim for not leaving the restaurant not feeling really sick and too full... and if I leave, full but not stuffed, I chalk it up as a victory. I take it one day at a time, it's all you can do. But I reeeeally have to prepare myself mentally before I go to a restaurant, and tell myself its NOT okay to eat myself sick. Sometimes at a restaurant, when the food comes, I look at what I'm about to eat, and tell myself it's too much food (if it's a huge portion), cut off what I don't want to eat and push it aside on the plate. If I know where we are going to eat, I also try to find a healthy option on the menus online... hope that helps!

when going to a restaurant, I have had to get the idea of value for money out of my head. Just like buying quality food at the grocer, I decide to spend more to have food of the amount and quality that I want. So I will order a smaller but more expensive entree, like a small steak, or seafood, and skip the potatoes or rice, and either substitute a salad, (usually for a bit more) or ask for double veggies. Servers never give me a problem with this.
I stick to water or have one glass dry wine if I want a treat.
Hope this helps

great suggestions:)

wormwooddoll,
i sometimes will do the same thing. on occasions where i do loose all sense of sensibility in regard to eating, my reason is that i am wired to believe that going out to eat is a special occasion, thus, since it is a special occasion, that gives me license to overeat.

it took me a long time to undo this way of thinking. But i knew it was getting absurd because i became very creative in thinking up a special occasion of at least 5 or 6 days out of the week. :)

i don't know if it's just me, but my mind will struggle and struggle to find excuses to over eat :(

I do the exact same thing. Last week we wnt out to eat with my in laws. I ordered good. They order fried pickles and onion rings for an app. I don't even eat that stuff anymore but I sure did that night. Then I went home feeling horrible.

***As an aside: Fried pickles? I have never heard of this, but hey, if they can fry candy bars, then anything's fair game.***

I'm like fatmad. I have this idea of getting value for my $$. So if twice as much costs less than the smaller portion, I feel like I have to go for a bargain. I know this is from the way I was raised. When my mother visited, I bought orange juice & full-fat milk for her. (I don't touch either.) I got them in small quantities, since they just had to last for her visit. She was practically accusing me of being extravagant: "It's so EXPENSIVE to buy them this way." She hadn't even known they sold milk in containers like that. I told her, "Ma, you're in NY. We buy everything apartment-sized here. We don't have the storage for buying in bulk or from warehouse stores." But I felt guilty afterward.

Same thing goes for leaving anything on my plate. I feel as if I have to eat it all, because I paid for it. All the talk about recession makes this internal struggle even more acute for me.

I am the same way. At home I basically have total control over my eating, but as soon as I step outside my door with my friends I tend to lose control.... :dunno:

Yes saef. Fried pickles. They fry everything in the south.

I'm the same as well. I've found that whenever I feel out of control, I eat in an out of control way.

I try to plan what I'm going to eat before hand. I sometimes even practice ordering it.

If you are worried about getting your money's worth, order something that reheats well, then you'll have an extra meal or two for later.

Like, I said, I "try" to do this, but I still sometimes eat crazy amounts in restaurants. We are all making progress though!

YUMMMMM I *heart* fried pickles.... then again... I *heart* fried anything.

I have this problem too. I come from a family that is part-southern/Part Italian.... I can't win. With the Southern half (from Talulah Louisiana) we have HUGE family get togethers with southern comfort food. When relatives visit from Italy (Parma) we have HUGE Italian meals... Neither side of my family makes healthy food.... and I love it all... Most of my family is on the heavier side (except my sisters) I have 22 (first) cousins on the Southern side and 16 (first) cousins on my italian side... makes for a big family... the funny thing is, as big as I feel, they are always telling me to "eat to put some meat on my bones" -Southern side and "Mangi! Siete troppo scarno!"-Italian side... I feel like they are trying to sabotage me

Intuitive Eating
 

This is just a theory, but when we're at home we control both our environment (external control) and are more in control of our psyche (internal control), but when we're outside of our home environment, we don't have the same level of control over our environment. When we lose control over the environment, it leads to a breakdown in the internal control mechanism, so we overindulge.

You might consider looking at some of the Intuitive Eating stuff. These programs tend to focus more on the internal control mechanisms, which perhaps is better preparation for real life, seeing as how we often have little control of our external environments. I'm not saying you would have to rigidly adhere to one of these programs, but you might get some great tips on dealing with the situations that are frustrating you.