it's something that gets me EVERY time i follow a weight loss plan.
tonight i ordered a large pizza to share with my son.
that would have been ok if i had 2 slices - but i had half of the entire pizza!!
i ate so quickly, without even thinking about what i was doing.
once i finished eating, i felt disappointed with what i had done.
if i enjoy something i over indulge in it.
whether it's food or anything i enjoy.
i always over indulge.

can i overcome this?
have any of you overcome this?
it's my biggest challenge in making a lifestyle change.

thanks.

Hi anawhatsme,

There are some foods that I cannot eat without overeating, and pizza is one of them, so I don't order it anymore. I can make my own healthy pizza in smaller portions and it's almost as good, without the grease and guilt. Life's just easier for me when I don't eat certain foods at all.

Whatever works for you, good luck with your goals.

It's my guess that you "planned" to over-indulge....I mean, if you really intended on only having 2 slices, then why did you order a large for 2 people? They make pizzas in small and medium too! There are situations in life where we are thrown in the middle of difficult food choices, and it can be very hard to stay on track, (but possible), but it doesn't sound like this was one of them.

What you describe...I have been there, done that! I just choose not to do it anymore. I do have control when I want to, and so do you. Good luck. You deserve to be a normal and healthy weight.

Yep, I second what JessLess wrote exactly. Now that you know ordering pizza will make you eat too much pizza, you can look at alternatives:

- Make your own guiltless pizzas (homemade pizza tastes great )
- Swear off pizza until you become more used to smaller portions
- Make pizza strictly an "outside the house" food that you never order in
- Order a small thin-crust pizza with nutritious toppings

Most of us have that food or foods that just make us want to over-indulge in them. For me, it's salty, crunchy, fatty snacks like cheez-its and cheetos. My solution? Neither of those foods has passed my lips since late October because I don't buy 'em.

I don't have a whole lot of willpower, but I am VERY good at putting my inherent laziness to good use. If I don't keep "more-ish" food in the house, I'm too lazy to procure it, so I just won't have any. It also helps to have other foods that fall into the same categories around--crunchy stuff like crispbread and raw vegetables to satisfy snacking urges, sweet stuff like yogurt to stave off a sweet tooth, lean Italian or Mexican options to deal with cravings for a particular cuisine.

Ordering in is a great danger because it lets us off the hook too easily. If I want cheez-its, I would have to walk to the store, locate the red box of doom, carry it to the front, pay for it, walk home with it, and open it up. With all those steps, I can opt out at any one of them. I've actually gotten to step one, even step two a couple of times, but by the time I get to the store and get on the snack aisle, I think of other, better possibilities and wind up leaving with a new flavor of hummus or some popcorn instead. I have given myself time to opt out.

I can't do that when I order food; once it's ordered, it's inevitably going to appear at my door. Declare a moratorium on ordering in! It's expensive as **** and it gives you no chance to reconsider your decisions.

Edited to add: LoriBell is right on--I think sometimes we got so used to ordering large stuff that we forget that smaller sizes make more sense.

I agree, buying a pizza that big was asking for trouble. If the bigger size is cheaper, when it arrives - I mean, the minute it arrives -- cut it in half and put it in tin foil and pop it into the freezer for another meal another night. HELP yourself, don't rely on the starving you to make rational decisions LOL get the temptation out of the way before you even start, make life EASY on yourself so you don't have the chance to fail

I'm crazy about "Future Tracey" so I go out of my way to make her life very pleasant indeed! I make sure she has a nice lunch for tomorrow LOL We do lots of things for our 'future selves' right? We do laundry so we'll have clean clothes to wear, we put gas in our cars before we run out, we pay our bills so we'll have electricity next month LOL Why is it so hard for us to plan for our future meals at times?

If you eat the 2 pieces (with a GIANT salad) and it's still calling to you, do all the silly tricks that work. Go brush your teeth, suck on a strong mint, chew gum, etc. Pizza tastes super gross after gum as do most things!

Basically what I'm getting at -- don't rely on willpower alone, especially right in the throes of a delicious pizza! Help yourself out and get the extras out of your life immediately

Ditto everything that has been said.

For the longest time, I didn't make modifications like this because I thought it made me weak. In my head, I would think, "If I were strong, I could buy this bag of Reese's cups and only eat one a day." So I would test my strength by buying said Reese's cups, and guess what? That whole bag would be gone in 1-2 days. Then I would think, "Man, I blew it. I am weak. I'll never get this weight loss thing. Why even try?"

What I didn't understand is that, by NOT buying my "trigger" foods at all, I wasn't weak, I was STRONG. I was acknowledging that my relationship with food wasn't going to allow me to eat some foods in moderation, so it was better for me to just not buy them and have them in the house.

I make and eat homemade pizza all the time, but the last time I had Papa John's (my former favorite) I was at a friend's house and limited myself to 1 slice. I refused to bring leftovers home. I'm not going to say I conquered the pizza monster, but it felt good to know that I could eat it under certain conditions.

In a very general way, I divide foods into some categories:
- Buy and have them in the house.
- Buy and eat one a day, keeping the rest in my car/office. (No, really, I do this and it works for me!)
- Only buy one portion controlled amount when out, and only if previously planned.
- Never buy. (This category is small, but getting larger as I find some of my old favorite foods just don't taste worth it to me anymore. Why waste the calories on things I don't love?)

Finally, don't obsess over this. Learn from it, modify your plan accordingly, and move on. You can do this!

you guys are so helpful!
thank you so much for the great advice.

one poster said it seemed i planned on over indulging.
that wasn't the case.
i think a big part of the problem was that didn't have a thought out plan.
i saw the flyer and the large was pretty cheap so i went with it.
i wasn't thinking far enough ahead to realize i may over do it.

once i had that first piece, it was like i couldn't stop.
i often wonder if i'm a food addict.

anyway, thanks to the great advice you guys gave, and how this episode made me feel (physically and mentally), i will work on being prepared.
i will practice planning before making a decision like this again.

thanks a lot!

We really need to make a list like JenMusic! I cannot buy Breyer's mint chocolate chip ice cream because I cannot sleep knowing it is in the freezer waiting for me! Instead, I buy the WW mint chocolate chip ice cream cups; it satisfies me without that horrible craving. I only eat pizza out and only with a salad. I do not buy Hershey kisses or any other milk chocolate in bags. I do buy Snickers because they do not tempt me at all, while every other member of my family loves them. (I have, in desperate binges, eaten the bottoms off, but not in ages) Now I need to work on other foods that have taken their place, that in the past I have never had a problem with. I recognize my problem and try to deal with it.