Making horrible decisions!!!!

Set goals with rewards...For every 5 pounds I lose I have assigned an increasingly better reward. Works for me.

Planning ahead is the only way. I know what I am going to have today for lunch four days before. If you know you will not be home at dinner time tonight pack a lunch. i understand wanting certain foods, you have to make a healthier version or have small portions within the calories alotted. I decided getting into a smaller pant size is a much better feeling than the short lived feeling of an extra cookie. Good Luck! Dont give up!

stockpile your recipes and meal plan...crockpots are the best, or cook the entire pack of chicken breasts and freeze the left overs for another day...there are tons of different time management and meal planning tips on here. Don't forget to buy your veggies! Go to hungry girl.com for some awesome "eat this not that" recipes if you absolutely can not forgo the cheeseburgers and pizza...also this site has easy recipes (I'm going to try the flat bread pizza tomorrow I think)

Making a meall schedule is an awesome idea and way to stay on track! Also, for your favorites - to ease out of them have you considered healthier versions? Like making a whole wheat veggie pizza? Or there's a cool recipie for mac n cheese that's vegan, I think its called Squasharoni - and that's healthier but tastes just like mac and cheese. Maybe a veggie burger? I dunno about fries, I love sweet potato fries, but they're probably just as bad.

Stick to your guns! Good luck!

You could always try going cold turkey and cut out all grains. It sounds like a lot if not all of your trigger foods - pizza, hamburger, mac and cheese - are grain/carb based. I love those too, believe me! But for the last two weeks I've been avoiding them and eating only meat, dairy, vegetables, and fruits. You may have cravings, but if you stay strong you break the cycle of depending on them and can eat a lot healthier.

Is it extreme? Maybe. But it's been working for me (feel free to look at my food diary), and going cold turkey is recommended all the time for smokers and alcoholics.

You have to schedule your meals. Pre-cook your meats for the week so all you have to do is fix your sides when you get home.

How much time do you have to cook and eat? I season my chicken breast and stab them with a knife several time (cooks faster) and pop them in a 400 degree preheated oven for 20 mins and its done. Sides are cooked during the same amount of time.

Maybe you can find the time because everything being rushed isn't working for you clearly yanno?

I too crave my favorite bad foods. Most of yours are mine too. But what I do is have a cheat day. One day a week where I can eat whatever I want. I look forward to that day every week (Sunday). When that day comes I go and have whatever it was I was craving all week. Just be careful not to binge. If you binge and you have been dieting all week, your body doesnt know how to react to the food it doesnt eat all the time anymore (grease) and you will get sick. Just treat yourself to your favorite craved meal of the week and it will satisfy. I hope this helps!!

If cutting them out completely doesn't work for you maybe you should just try eating them in moderation. Literally have one portion of these items at a time. I haven't denied or banned anything really I just don't eat the horrible stuff often and limit the amount to a serving or sometimes a half of a serving. I know that if I start to tell myself that I CAN'T have something eventually I will give and over do it so this works well for me. Also I find a lot of good recipes for "fake-outs", really just a healthier version of the foods we like on here, allrecipes.com, and recently found skinnytastes.com. There is an excellent recipe for pizza on here called Cauliflower Crust Pizza... Hope you can figure out what works for you soon. Oh and like many of the others I agree that with food we've got to plan ahead, cook meals one day a week and freeze them if you don't always have time to cook. Good luck!

MFP friends. Add them! How much are they exercising. What are they eating? They'll support you.

Pre-plan and prepare snacks etc 24 hours in advance. Then you know what you can eat and its way easier to pace yourself with food. I'm a horrible binge eater and when I first started I had to FORCE myself to change how I eat food. 6 months in I'm disciplined and relaxed with my food choices (if that makes sense).

Make attainable goals and lots of them! The only thing worse than failing is not trying at all.

Stick with it.

Great options Julia!

Make a healthy pizza and cheese burger at home. Cook more eat out less to never. You can have what you like just in moderation. This is a way to learn to eat well and live a normal life within limits. Add more exercise when you want some food that's higher in calories. After a while you won't even like to eat the fast food as it will make you sick. Try maybe to have these foods once a week. I mean just one of them not all at once lol.

Hang in there it takes effort and dedication and time to break our bad eating habits.

It took no time at all for me to start getting sick off of fast food, I went without for 11 days on the 12th day I let my self eat fast food and I was sick all day that day and all day the next day. I didnt feel normal again until the 14th day. I did realize however that avoiding those foods altogether made me realize how they really dont even taste that good. When I get a REALLY unavoidable craving, I normally either get a lean cuisine that has what I want in it or I work out extra hard to work off the excess cals, but I havent really had any that bad yet. I actually keep junk food in my house for my hubby to eat b/c he's not into whole grains, but I havent even been tempted enough to binge. Hope I could help!

Trick yourself with something similar. In the past, I've eaten cereal (Raisin Bran Crunch) with chocolate milk to avoid ice cream... that's not the most low-cal meal either, but it took some willpower.

I think people who like chips could snack on cucumber slices for something crunchy. Maybe you could try carrots and cottage cheese or something. Work up to eating more and more carrots and less and less cottage cheese. For pizza, try savoring a low-fat string cheese. For burgers, make veggie burger patties. Maybe skip the bun or do a whole-grain option. Load it with more vegetables.