eating too many calories and going out to eat

Willpower

For increased satiety, higher protein intake, smaller more frequent meals/larger less frequent meals, higher fiber intake, more water intake may be things that can help

^^ Ditto

You have to say NO over and over and eventually it becomes a habit

Meal plan! I menu plan for an entire month, and then grocery shop accordingly. When i realized it wasn't hard, I started meal planning lunches for my husband to take to work, and my son to take to school. Most cook book now have portion size and calories just under the recipe.

I had a hard time staying under my calories too until I started using MFP. Seeing how much everything was really put food into perspective for me. It allowed me to see that I wasn't eating many raw fruits and veggies. I can put away an entire box of Cheez-Its! After inputting them into my calorie counter, I stopped buying them for several weeks until I knew that I could portion manage.

Water, water, water! It's a natural appetite suppressant!

Like others have mentioned, small steps, small changes. Rather than trying to cut everything out completely, start by cutting back, and finding healthier alternatives. For example, setting a goal to have an apple or carrots with your sandwich at lunch instead of a bag of chips or side of fries.

A starting point might be to look at trends in your diet..where are the most of your calories coming from? What points/meals in the day do you seem to have trouble with having willpower? Figure out these, and start the changes there. Eventually, meeting small goals makes you feel good, and want to keep doing more, and over time you can change the way you eat.

I also found that watching Forks over Knives helped me really change my perception of food, and definitely encouraged me to get more veggies in.

I know it's not easy, and it's something I still struggle with, too. I haven't cut anything out, I still get take out, have alcohol on the weekends, and go over my calories here and there, but it's much more in moderation now, and I am so much more mindful about portion sizes, and keeping track of things on a weekly basis. At the end of the day, what keeps me motivated is how much better I feel, and seeing the weight come off. One of my favorite motivational quotes is "A year from now, you'll wish you had started today"

Good luck to you on reaching your goals!

I pre-plan my meals. Even when I go out to eat. I pack my breakfast and lunch and snacks and take to work and plan my dinner in advance.You are in control. Not the food. If you stick with it and see results, that will help motivate you to keep going. You have willpower you just need to access it. It will become a way of life and you will feel so much better that it won't be worth it to you binge. You can do it!

Figure out which recipes you are going to make for the week (I usually make two to three in bulk on Sunday: Breakfast (big batch of oatmeal, healthy pancakes, tofu scramble etc), a dinner (which can double as lunch at work), and sometimes a backup meal when I get home and am starrvinnggg).

Cut up and wash fruit/veggies after buying them and put them in to containers for easy snacking and cooking. Put treats like chocolate, muffins, homemade granola/energy bars in the freezer. (You don't normally open the freezer and browse for snacking food, do you?)

Pre-pack lunches, dinners and snacks.
Pre-log and stick to it.
Allow wiggle room, some days are harder than others.

Rinse and repeat!

WILLPOWER.

And like someone above said, make small changes to your food slowly. I did, and now I can't imagine eating white bread or white rice. I'm hooked on whole grain/whole wheat bread and brown rice. I've been adding new fruits and veggies to my diet and trying new things. I managed to wean myself off of energy drinks and take Excedrin if I get a withdrawal migraine. I bought zero calorie, sugar free water flavoring liquid like MiO and it's helped me drink more water. I joined a challenge group on here for this month and it got me to start working out again after a LONG hiatus. I've dropped almost 7 pounds since the start of the month, lost over 10" total from all over my body, and I'm addicted to exercise now! I log EVERY food I eat and if I want something special, I put in extra time working out to allow it into my calorie limit for the day. I haven't gone over my calories in a long time. I take daily vitamins and supplements and am working hard on incorporating more whole foods and clean eating into my diet. The last fast food I had was taco bell, and the sad part is, my favorite part of it was my side of pinto beans! We get take out once a month as a treat, and instead of going out for pizza, we make it homemade from wheat flour and homemade sauce. I've switched myself over to 1% lactose free milk which tastes like whole milk. I keep a pedometer on my jeans at all times, even if I'm not working out. My job is mostly sedentary so if I can get 2000 steps on that thing in a day before exercise, that means I managed to walk a mile inside my office. I wear a reliable heart rate monitor with a chest strap when I'm working out to get an accurate count of my burned calories, and I ALWAYS push to work out at least an hour a day. On the weekends, I split it into two 1/2 hour sessions. My 4 year old daughter thinks it's fun to do simple yoga with me and helps me when I do crunches by sitting on my feet. Sometimes I change it up and do pilates so I don't get bored with the same routine.

One of my supplements suppresses hunger, so I usually have a very low-cal breakfast, which is a 190-cal special k protein shake... followed by a high-cal lunch that I eat slowly over the course of the day from lunchtime til the end of my workday. I wind up not being hungry for dinner and use that time to do my workouts. Then I'll have a snack like some fruit or popcorn later with my husband while we have our nightly routine of watching anime, then go to bed around 10 or 10:30.

I started here at 340lbs. I'm down almost 20lbs now with nearly 7 of it being over the past 2 1/2 weeks because I've finally gotten into the groove of pushing myself. and if I unlock a harder level on a Wii Fit aerobics exercise, I do it the next day and keep with it until the next level is unlocked.

You have to find a routine that's right for you and stop making excuses. Nowadays, I make excuses for OTHER things so I have time to fit my exercise in! I caught an awful cold from my daughter on Sunday and missed three days of workouts. Yesterday, I made it to work, so I forced myself to do my exercise and managed to get a full hour in and burned over 800 cals.

You have to do it for yourself, because nobody can do it for you.

I agree with everyone else, willpower, less eating out, ....but I want to add, as I've had my struggles also, I have to do this like I did when I quit smoking, I have to LIVE this program, every day, all the time, till it becomes the normal. No cheating for me or I will over do it. I've lost the same 20 pounds 3 times in the last year and I want (NEED) to lose the rest, not the same ones. So I will be LIVING this and eating clean now. I do budget the calories when I know I will be going out, but I make better chioces there and tell myself, that I can eat the other stuff, in moderation, once I have this down. I don't have it yet, but I WILL GET IT! You will too! Keep the faith!

I used to have the same problem when I tried to eat the small frequent meals that so many people suggest. I barely had enough left over calories to make a meal out of by supper time. Worse than that, I was ALWAYS hungry because my meals/snacks were so small. So I quit eating small frequent meals. Now I do IF (Intermittent Fasting). There are different ways to do it. I follow Lean Gains, which basically means that you fast for a portion of each day and then you eat for a portion of each day. I eat from 12pm-6pm. The rest of the time I fast. It allows me to eat 2 large meals, feel full after a meal, and not be constantly hungry. It also helps me stay within my calorie goal.

Limit your eating out to once a week. Think of your body as your car. Feed it to fuel it.....don't plan your happiness around it. Find other means of comfort and I know that's much harder for some people than others but it is so important to not let meals drive your happiness. Also, when you do go out to eat there are lots of options these days if you plan ahead. Most restaurants have online calorie and nutrition guides to their menus. Many offer low carb menus also. If not, you just order what you can eat and avoid large portions, sodium and high carbs. For example, if you go to a mexican restaurant you can order a chicken fajita dinner but tell them not to bring the rice or tortillas. You would be surprised how good this meal can still be if you leave off the portions that are notorious for packing on calories. And eat a salad before the main course. Motivate yourself!! You can do it

I concur with these previous comments. IT's the combination of eating the RIGHT types of foods (to satisfy your hunger for longer than 30 minutes) and to eat smaller portions more frequently. Water intake is a HUGE factor in the management of weight, your hunger, and generally your health. How much water are you consuming every day? As a rule, a minimum of 8 cups is the starting point. I try for 10-12. My sister is a nurse and her advice to me was: "Unless you're in the hospital, hooked up to an IV, you're dehydrated!"

Good luck to you! And BTW - I love fried food too. That's why I'm on this site - encouragement from and solidarity with others in the same quest - that's a very helpful tool. Please keep coming back and keep us posted.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

For increased satiety, higher protein intake, smaller more frequent meals/larger less frequent meals, higher fiber intake, more water intake may be things that can help

This ^

Well said and I think you might have been the first to congratulate her.

Willpower

For increased satiety, higher protein intake, smaller more frequent meals/larger less frequent meals, higher fiber intake, more water intake may be things that can help

This. I love going out to eat too, A LOT. I finally got to the point, after not getting anywhere for almost 3 months, where I had to make myself cook and eat at home and not give in to those so easy snacks. I think there comes a point where you're just tired of kidding yourself and you do something about it. Like said above, protein packed foods are great and smaller but more frequent meals.

1. WATER! Drink water all the time. Your body recognizes thirst and hunger as the same thing. Before you eat drink a full glass of water and wait 15 minutes. If you're still hungry then eat.

2. STAY AWAY FROM FRENCH FRIES! They're the devil, seriously. French Fries have way more calories than they should. Find something else on the menu. Which leads to...

3. Plan out what you're going to get before you go. If you know how many calories are in something before you go somewhere you'll be more likely to stick to your plan and keep your calorie count low.

4. Burn it off. Yep, you can eat more than you're supposed to. Just be ready to burn off the calories with exercise. My current exercise of choice is an hour of biking at 12-14 MPG. According to the calculator it's around 900 calories burnt.

When going to a restaurant, ask for a box right away and immediately put away half the food. They give you way too much at most places. Also, drink an entire glass of water before the food arrives (it is easy to confuse thirst with hunger for many people). Set a "dine-out" limit. For example, I only dine out for lunch once a week and brown-bag the rest.

I used to do that too. Then I quit doing it. Works like a charm! It only takes a week or so to get used to a new way of eating. Bite the bullet and "just do it"!

I don't pre-plan every day ... but I have a "range" for each meal that I stick with to save enough calories for dinner and snacks. Example: My calorie goal is about 1300 a day. So I try to stick to 300 for breakfast, around 200 for lunch, about 500 for dinner and about 300 for snacks. If I am eating out, I will not do any snacking and just exercise more to make up the difference. It helps me to have those "ranges" in mind for each meal and discover meals that stay within 100 calories of those mini goals.