that is so wasteful, too .. :\


but you reminded me. there is a woman who comes into the restaurant i work at from time to time. she is very thin. she will order a burger (maybe even a double burger) with cheese and bacon, and wash it down with a milkshake. i don't see her very often. it's gotta be her cheat day or something. either that, or she goes and hacks it all up into the toilet. interesting..

Ditto - I watched my husband eat 6 of the 8 slices of the large pizza we got last night and then have ice cream - he's 6'3" and weighs like 165...he LOVES to go to the gym and run...he actually loves it...

I have walked and AM WALKING in your shoes!!! I live with my boyfriend (who is THIN)--and his father just moved in after suffering a massive stroke....I cook dinner for them EVERY night--I HAVE to prepare all my food seprately which is a pain....but it is something I HAVE to do--This house is FULL of cheese cakes, cookies, pies, and EVERY variety of candy and chocolate known to man. Never eating all the junk is a challenge but (for me) getting this wieght off definatly OUT-weighs bad foods. Hang in there--I know how you feel!

I am a gourmet cook and baker. I live with my mother in law, my husband, m teenage son and a 7 year old son. There is stuff around me ALL THE TIME. Right now on my kitchen counter there is a tray of cupcakes I made for yesterday, a container of monster cookies I made last week, a box of pizza I picked up for dinner tonight and then a drawer FULL of chocolates that is alway stocked and then there is bread on the counter I made and on and on and on.

I figured I needed to learn to be around food if I wanted to be successful in keeping this weight off. I can't live in a vacuum where temptations aren't around me. I just needed to learn what I can eat and what I can't.

Since I do all the cooking, I do have control over the calories, but besides skipping the starch, I eat normal meals - the same meals my family eats. I just watch the amount. Tonight, I didn't eat any of the pizza, but that as because I was hungry earlier in the day and ate my calorie allotment earlier. Sure, I would have loved a slice of pizza, but I wasn't hungry. It just sounded and smelled good. I sat at the table with them all, but didn't eat - just drank my water. It's a choice I've had to make.

And I dont' want to choose eating separately from the rest of the family in general. Just means sometimes my dinner portions are smaller.

My husband literally eats double to quadruple the portions I do, yet remains 50 pounds lighter than me (we're the same height). If I make sandwiches, I'll have one while he'll have four! I'll take one scoop of no-sugar-added ice cream and his bowl will be overflowing with the full-sugar stuff. I rarely drink soda (maybe once a month, if that) and he'll easily go through a 12-pack a day.

We do tend to eat a lot of the same things, but I'll have a very small portion and will add some kind of healthy side or alternate main course to eat with it. Sometimes on the weekends he wants McDonald's for breakfast, usually three sandwiches (he's cut down, he used to get five!) and I'll hit the drive-thru for him. I might get an Egg McMuffin for myself, but I usually just grab what he wants and fix myself some oatmeal once I get home.

He's got plenty of tempting treats in the house, but technically speaking, I do too. And I'm fine with that, as I've been feeling pretty in control lately. I've got a containers of dark chocolate raspberry & mint M&M's tucked away in the cabinet, and I have a small amount every so often. He's got his ice cream, soda, tortillas, donuts, muffins, etc., and I leave them alone. I heated up a medium deli pizza from Walmart tonight, ate just one slice (he ate the rest!), and made myself a big spinach & arugula salad with homemade dressing to eat along with it.

Now mind you, it's taken me lots of time and realizations to reach this frame of mind, and I'm hoping it's something I can keep. I recently realized that I've been angry and bitter a long time over not feeling like I can eat like a "normal" person. Spending all of that energy feeling angry is not only wasteful, it's self-sabotage! If he wants to stop at DQ for example, I used to feel obligated to order something, like I was missing out if I didn't get a big treat too! I'm getting over that now. The last time we made a stop there on the way home from shopping, he got a milkshake, and instead of me getting my usual Blizzard, I shrugged off getting anything at all. And I was totally fine with it.

I think I've finally accepted the fact that I have to be careful with both my choices and my portions and that I can't worry about what the people around me are eating. And it's been quite liberating.