Ok. So.. I'm an OUTRAGEOUSLY picky eater. I would bet that I'm more picky then anyone on the board. Here are a few examples:
Only animal i eat is chicken. And it has to be boneless skinless chicken with all the yucky bits removed (ie: cartalidge, fat, viens...)
I don't eat any other animals at all.
I don't like anything even resembaling a bean, or onions, or wierd textures. I have to strain my spagetti sauce because I don't like little bits in my food. (did i mention im nuts?)
There are very few vegitables that I like. Corn and potatoes of course are yum... And I'll eat a baked potato but not mashed potatos....
I LOVE cheese... but no blue cheeses... and I dont like cold cheese. And what I mean by that is I can eat cheese cold after its been melted.. But cold cheese straight out the fridge, ah no. cant do it.
Used to be able to eat egg whites (i've never liked the yellow part) but recently just looking at it makes me gag, so that's off the menu as well.
The things that I LOVE are pizza and fried mozarella sticks (particularly from Denny's).....

So, as I've started this whole new eating better being healthier lifestyle, you could say my eating choices are quite limmited. Even more then before.

I can't live without eating pizza though. it just isnt going to happen if I'm to go through this life as a good productive caring human being that doesnt shoot herself in the face.

With that said... How bad is pizza really??? How about if it's just two slices... maybe made on wheat bread crust?!? Im not really on a specific diet. Just eating sensably, higher protien then norm cause I'm lifting weights, no sugar really (I dont even care for the sugar, cheese sticks on the other hand...) No soda.. Just basically oatmeal, protien drinks, chicken and veggies, bread like once a day, and little to no carbs at night.

Thanks
michelle / hunbun

Pizza in and of itself isn't bad at all. It comes down to how much you eat, how often you eat it, and whether or not you are active enough to burn the calories. Incidently, this is true of ALL foods.

I'm a pizzaholic! I refuse to give it up. I like the new South Beach Diet frozen pizza. The cheese variety is good, has a whole wheat high protein crust, and has just 290 calories and about 30 grams protein. As far as carry out pizza, regular cheese pizza isn't very bad, as long as you can limit yourself to a slice or two. You can request half the cheese. I also like to make my own from scratch, and top it with high flavor, healthy toppings, like roasted garlic, porcini mushrooms, fresh tomato slices, yellow squash, grilled veggies, and so on. I use very little cheese at all, sometimes just a little fresh shaved parmesan, or goat cheese.

I haven't tried the SBD pizza yet, Suzanne. I was turned off when the ingredients on one of them was pork fat. I'm not sure what Dr. A was thinking...but that's a different issue!

Hunbun, watch out for sugar in pizza sauce, as well.

In general, I fully agree with the signature one of the mods (is it KarenK?) has: "If you want it, you'll find a way, if you don't, you'll find excuses." I found tons of excuses when I didn't really want to diet, even though I thought I did. When I finally decided that I was actually going to do this, NOTHING could stop me.

I have hated veggies (other than the ones you mentioned and things like onions and peppers) for my whole life and refused to eat them. On this diet, I eat everything but Lima beans and brussel sprouts. Today for lunch, I had chicken salad and steamed broccoli with lemon. To have done this over a year ago would have been UNTHINKABLE for me. At first, I literally had to squeeze my nose shut, chew, and down a ton of diet soda after each bite. But I worked through it, and in time, came to actually enjoy veggies.

If you really want to be healthy, you'll realize that most pizza, made with a simple carb crust, high-fat cheese, sugar-filled sauce, and high-fat meats, is not going to help. Yes, you can make your own at home from time to time and enjoy it, but it's not the healthiest choice for daily life. Those cheese sticks have to go, no matter how much you love them. You are basically packing your arteries full of saturated fat.

If you want to make changes in your diet, you can. Make some healthy pizzas like Suzanne suggested, and try incorporating more veggies on them to start out with. Then move to eating them without the pizza. In time, you'll not only feel better but look more healthy too...and I bet you'll be VERY proud of yourself!

I don't use pizza sauce, but just use crushed tomatoes. I prefer the fresher tomato flavor over highly processed pizza or spaghetti sauces. Yuck.

Great idea on the veggie toppings, making a pizza could be a great way to get started learning to like new vegetables and flavors! You should work on learning to like more veggies, if you ever want to be truly healthy. There are so many foods that I eat now that I wouldn't have touched 10 years ago. I didn't realize what all I was missing out on.

I love your story about broccoli and diet soda, Laurie!!

Humans instinctively are drawn to the tastes of sweet, salt, and fat. Food manufacturers cater to our love of sweets, salt and fat by by creating artifical foods that are mega-times sweeter, saltier, or fattier than anything ever found in nature. So our taste buds become corrupted and real foods just don't 'taste good'. It's hard for Mother Nature to compete with Doritos!

Over time, you can re-educate your taste buds away from highly salty, sweet, and/or fatty foods and back to natural flavors and textures. It's amazing how sweet an apple or carrot actually is! And how wonderful a huge fresh salad that's bursting with fresh veggies can taste. Believe it or not, you'll actually start to crave food that's good for you (nope, I didn't believe it either )

But it takes time, like Laurie said, so we all need to just start small. Try to focus on eating foods that are as close to nature as possible - the way they come from the tree or grow in the ground. Minimally processed, with as few additives as possible. Like Suzanne's idea of fresh tomatoes versus tomato sauce. And I'll take a sprinkle of real Parmesan over globs of mozzarella any day!

I don't eat pizza very often but here's what I do:

Generally - we don't even order a whole pizza - there's a couple of places that sell slices. A slice is good enough for this gal! (of course, if the entire PIZZA was in front of me, well, that would be a whole 'nother thing. )

I avoid the pizza places where I KNOW that the pizza is going to be higher in calories (usually fat calories). Round Table Pizza, Pizza Hut, and Domino's are in that category (personally, if I'm gonna splurge on pizza I want the BEST so I wouldn't go to Domino's or Pizza Hut anyway - our faves here are North Beach Pizza and Pizza My Heart).

If I DO order a whole pie, I place the following order:

EXTRA light on cheese and sauce - for me, the best part of the pizza is the CRUST anyway.

A lot of places add olive oil to the crust before applying the toppings - (Round Table is REALLY greasy). Keep that in mind when ordering.

I'm a one-topping at the most gal - I don't care for 'loaded' pizza or deep-dish - too gloppy IMO. Some of my favorite toppings include chicken, artichoke hearts, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, eggplant.

If someone else ordered the pizza and I just gotta have a slice, I'll generally peel off most or all of the cheese.

Just a few tips

Pizza can be healthy. Make it at home with whole wheat crust and you can make your own sauce or buy some healthy stuff, use low fat cheese, and veggies if you like.

funny you mention pizza because I just had some for dinner and boy was it yummy! I live at my university so I have it in the dinning halls where it's buffet style, but I just grab one piece and then pile on the veggies next to it, never ever do I go back for more my motto is if you love don't give it up, just get thinner crust, no meat, less cheese ... there are always ways to shave off a couple of cals Enjoy!

I've never had a problem with pizza. =D I usually eat alfredo pizzas, which are a lot less fattening than the normal kind, and two slices stuffs me. You can get 'em with chicken, though I don't suppose you'd like the mushrooms and stuff.

By the way, I'm the same way with chicken, so don't feel weird.

the one think i LOVE about pizza is the combination of tastes, so i sometimes duplicate them elsewhere.

current favorite: split a zucchini, and scrape out most of the seeds. top with some oregano, basil, small slices of tomato, and bake or roast until it's soft. [ok, some garlic if i feel ambitious]. then top with some shredded mozzarella and grated romano and let it all melt in ... THAT'S the combination i want when i want pizza. the crust just doesn't do it for me -

i make pizza at home with wheat tortillas as the crust when i have a craving. the tortillas have only 120 calories a piece. i go light on the sauce and load them up with veggies. some times i put a little bit of cheese on them, but i'm not a huge fan of it. i usually have to eat them with a fork in the end but they are great, tasty, cheap, and low enough in calories to eat as a lunch. if i have one with dinner, i can afford a couple of beers or a glass or two of wine.

I'm going to Little Caesar's tomorrow. And getting a whole large pizza. And crazy bread. And I'm eating all of it. Sorry.

HAA HAA HAA HAA HAA HAA HAA..... that's awsome. bad, but awsome.

ok. there's no way i'm not eating pizza. just not gonna happen. gonna go learn to make it at home. i'll make my own sauce.. we'll see. if it comes out good i'll let you girls know the reciepe.

Yeah, I know, bad. I just have this horrible craving right now, and it's not going to go away until I get some pizza. I can get back ont rack after I do that!