Why is this so hard?
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I'm sure there are biological reasons for it, but I just accept it as being what it is. Could be lack of variety in your meal plans, could be a lot of things. Personally, I just try to hold out for a cheat day, or I'll change my plans to fit something from Blaze or MOD Pizza in. It's easier when I am also exercising as the offset of calories burned allows me the flexibility to eat more if I choose. Sadly heart issues have put that on hold.
I do also find that I've slowly accommodated to eating less which also helps, but some days for sure all I want to do is order a large pizza and eat the entire thing.0 -
Starflight00 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »your husband holds you down and force feeds you?
Yes, he does. :-D of course not, but I'm not a very strong-willed person and I surely do have my cravings as well. It's VERY difficult to eat a salad when he is eating a burger. When I do feel strong and make healthy choices he either makes fun of me or complains that I make him feel bad about his choices. Though I think his mindset slowly starts to shift as well (with emphasis on "slowly").
My OH and eat eat the same things, but in different portion sizes or proportions.- When we have burgers, I have a smaller burger and a large salad.
- When we have an 8 slice pizza, he has 5 slices and I have 3. We both have salad - mine is bigger
- Tonight we're having spaghetti, meatballs, and sausage. He will have at least twice the pasta and sausage I'll have. The meatballs are lower-calorie chicken MB. I will also have broccoli, cuz the bulk helps fill me up.
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kshama2001 wrote: »Starflight00 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »your husband holds you down and force feeds you?
Yes, he does. :-D of course not, but I'm not a very strong-willed person and I surely do have my cravings as well. It's VERY difficult to eat a salad when he is eating a burger. When I do feel strong and make healthy choices he either makes fun of me or complains that I make him feel bad about his choices. Though I think his mindset slowly starts to shift as well (with emphasis on "slowly").
My OH and eat eat the same things, but in different portion sizes or proportions.- When we have burgers, I have a smaller burger and a large salad.
- When we have an 8 slice pizza, he has 5 slices and I have 3. We both have salad - mine is bigger
- Tonight we're having spaghetti, meatballs, and sausage. He will have at least twice the pasta and sausage I'll have. The meatballs are lower-calorie chicken MB. I will also have broccoli, cuz the bulk helps fill me up.
Yep, this is exactly what my husband and I do. We often eat the same things, but he'll have larger portions and I'll frequently use things like vegetables or brothy soups to help fill myself up.3 -
When I was just starting out, I didn't put myself in positions where I would be sorry later. I didn't buy junk food as I would be like a vampiress chin deep in blood. lol! Instead I made homemade versions of things I liked where I could control the calories and still satisfy the hunger. I needed to control the cravings, but I couldn't control the cravings if I was hungry. I kept low calorie snacks, fruits, nuts available always, and I always planned my meals. On occasion I would order a pizza and calculate exactly how much I could eat. Sometimes I would go over. Sometimes I still do. I also changed my negative talk to positive talk. Instead of "I can't have pizza!", say, "I choose not to eat pizza today." You put the power back into your court.
As time goes on, you will learn some self control, probably from past failed experiences. It's ok. And if you find yourself kneeling over a dead pizza with pepperoni on your forehead and cheese dripping off your chin, don't beat yourself up. There's always tomorrow. Peace!9 -
OP, you've gotten several good replies about different techniques to handle these cravings when they come up. Hopefully something mentioned will help. I'll just drop one of my favorite comic strips in here:
THIS. SO MUCH THIS. Seriously, I've wasted so many calories eating alternatives of what I was craving, only to end up not satisfied when I could just have eaten the thing I was craving in the first place, be satisfied, and probably have spent less calories in the process.
Don't order a whole pizza. Go to a place that has slices and buy one, or just order a small one.
ETA: it doesn't always work for higher calorie things, and yeah sometimes I have to wait until I get together with my friends to make the brownies/pie/dessert I'm craving so I can leave the leftovers there, but it's often possible to find reasonable portions of at least most of the things I crave.7 -
OP, you've gotten several good replies about different techniques to handle these cravings when they come up. Hopefully something mentioned will help. I'll just drop one of my favorite comic strips in here:
THIS. SO MUCH THIS. Seriously, I've wasted so many calories eating alternatives of what I was craving, only to end up not satisfied when I could just have eaten the thing I was craving in the first place, be satisfied, and probably have spent less calories in the process.
Don't order a whole pizza. Go to a place that has slices and buy one, or just order a small one.
ETA: it doesn't always work for higher calorie things, and yeah sometimes I have to wait until I get together with my friends to make the brownies/pie/dessert I'm craving so I can leave the leftovers there, but it's often possible to find reasonable portions of at least most of the things I crave.
For foods that I find too calorie-heavy to fit in on a regular basis or am prone to over-eat, I've found it helpful to tie them to specific recurring special occasions. I love sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits, for example, so I get one every eight weeks before I donate blood. When I go out to a movie I always get buttered popcorn, but I don't keep it in the house. If pizza is your jam, make Friday your buy-a-slice day. Or make it a monthly date/friend/family night. Or whatever! This is hard, but you can make it easier!3 -
I can usually cure the cravings with a substitute, for pizza, I roast a portabella mushroom and top it like a pizza. If that doesn't work, I make plans for the weekend to go to dinner and get whatever I am craving. If I have the plans made, I can usually handle the cravings.
I will say that being able to cook and enjoying it makes a huge difference. I am better at controlling my portion sizes at home than I am at a restaurant and I can control the amount of the higher calorie ingredients in the meal.1 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »OP, you've gotten several good replies about different techniques to handle these cravings when they come up. Hopefully something mentioned will help. I'll just drop one of my favorite comic strips in here:
THIS. SO MUCH THIS. Seriously, I've wasted so many calories eating alternatives of what I was craving, only to end up not satisfied when I could just have eaten the thing I was craving in the first place, be satisfied, and probably have spent less calories in the process.
Don't order a whole pizza. Go to a place that has slices and buy one, or just order a small one.
ETA: it doesn't always work for higher calorie things, and yeah sometimes I have to wait until I get together with my friends to make the brownies/pie/dessert I'm craving so I can leave the leftovers there, but it's often possible to find reasonable portions of at least most of the things I crave.
For foods that I find too calorie-heavy to fit in on a regular basis or am prone to over-eat, I've found it helpful to tie them to specific recurring special occasions. I love sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits, for example, so I get one every eight weeks before I donate blood. When I go out to a movie I always get buttered popcorn, but I don't keep it in the house. If pizza is your jam, make Friday your buy-a-slice day. Or make it a monthly date/friend/family night. Or whatever! This is hard, but you can make it easier!
@MegaMooseEsq Exactly what I do...and in reality, it has made those things much more "special" and I enjoy them and appreciate them even more than when I ate them with frequency and it's something to look forward to...
Pretty much every other Friday is pizza and movie night...we go rock climbing about once per month and we get our pub grub on afterwards, etc, etc, etc...
I don't log, so I have to have various strategies in place.3 -
OP, you've gotten several good replies about different techniques to handle these cravings when they come up. Hopefully something mentioned will help. I'll just drop one of my favorite comic strips in here:
THIS. SO MUCH THIS. Seriously, I've wasted so many calories eating alternatives of what I was craving, only to end up not satisfied when I could just have eaten the thing I was craving in the first place, be satisfied, and probably have spent less calories in the process.
Don't order a whole pizza. Go to a place that has slices and buy one, or just order a small one.
ETA: it doesn't always work for higher calorie things, and yeah sometimes I have to wait until I get together with my friends to make the brownies/pie/dessert I'm craving so I can leave the leftovers there, but it's often possible to find reasonable portions of at least most of the things I crave.
Same. If I want Pizza Hut pizza, for example, a homemade version just isn't going to cut it. A large thin-crust 2-topping is ~260 calories/slice, so I can usually fit a few slices in when the urge really hits. I've found that for myself, personally, I'm better off doing that than trying a hundred different things that just leave me feeling unfulfilled in the end.4 -
Starflight00 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »your husband holds you down and force feeds you?
Yes, he does. :-D of course not, but I'm not a very strong-willed person and I surely do have my cravings as well. It's VERY difficult to eat a salad when he is eating a burger. When I do feel strong and make healthy choices he either makes fun of me or complains that I make him feel bad about his choices. Though I think his mindset slowly starts to shift as well (with emphasis on "slowly").
I get what you're saying. Ironically, I think that because we eat out quite frequently I'm accustomed to eating different foods than the people around me. So when we're at home portion control is a lot easier.
I've gotten really good at eating within my calories whether or not I can accurately log as well.
It all definitely takes practice and discipline.0 -
fastfoodietofitcutie wrote: »I didn't eat the pizza last night but will go through the whole torturous event again later for dinner. My ultimate goal is to be able to eat whatever I want in moderation and not have it be a struggle.
Do you have a dominos near you. A small thin crust pizza with veggies, light cheese and chicken is surprising low in cals. Check it out. 760 for the whole pizza. Have half with a salad each night. It's very doable.3 -
I
pizza and make it a weekly meal in my house. I have 3 young kids that also like pizza so I bank some calories leading up to the pizza night and continue my exercise to have some extra calories and enjoy that pizza night. I've still been able to make my weight loss goals too. Just limit my pizza consumption to once a week (most of the time) so I stay on track. 0 -
This may be dumb but for me it helps to think of people less fortunate. Think of people in other parts of the world who are starving and I am here all upset because I can’t eat 5 slices of pizza. This has helped me feel content in my life in general. Instead of being jealous of people who have nice things that I don’t have, I think of people who are less fortunate and it makes me grateful and realize I have it pretty good.9
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This may be dumb but for me it helps to think of people less fortunate. Think of people in other parts of the world who are starving and I am here all upset because I can’t eat 5 slices of pizza. This has helped me feel content in my life in general. Instead of being jealous of people who have nice things that I don’t have, I think of people who are less fortunate and it makes me grateful and realize I have it pretty good.
Wow - that really puts things into perspective - thanks for sharing!2 -
Hey OP couple of things....
Are you over restricting? For example have you set your goal to a 2 pound a week deficit maybe reduce to 1 pound a week, no need to struggle every day otherwise we end up yo-yoing when we crack, once you've mastered a smaller deficit maybe increase it later but for now don't try to lose all the weight at once. x
Any chance you could add in some extra walking or exercise to earn some exercise calories for higher calorie food?
As others have said can you make your own healthy pizza? Get some bases, tomato sauce, low fat mozzarella, sweetcorn, mushrooms, peppers, chargrilled chicken and other yummy veg and make your own pizzas? I make my own pizzas all the time, at least once a week, thin crust proper italian style and now I'm not as keen on an oily greasy take out pizza.
You got this OP but don't punish yourself and it's okay to have 1 day a week at maintenance if it helps, I have always done my entire weekend at maintenance, sure I lost a little slower, but it helps my brain and my commitment. x Good luck.1 -
I go over on cravings but when I do I log it. I always try to remind myself that I could go to the store and buy A, B, or C anytime. But I don’t. So, just because I crave it now it doesn’t mean I need to eat it. This applies especially to free food, at parties or at work.0
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All you guys have some great tips! I need to start cooking more. It's not so much what I'm eating but the portion control that's the problem.0
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fastfoodietofitcutie wrote: »All I want to do is order a pizza right now instead of eating my planned out dinner. No reason, I didn't have a bad day, nothing happened, I just want junk food all the time. I know I could still get the pizza and only eat two slices but that would never happen..
I'm not going to order the pizza but I've been thinking about it for 2 hours, that's not normal.
Tell yourself you can have the pizza on the weekend, after you go for a long hike or bicycle ride.
I ate pizza about once a month when I was losing weight.
And that's basically how I handled all my cravings ... I told myself that I could wait till the weekend when I did lots of exercise. By the time I got to the weekend ... sometimes I still wanted whatever it was ... sometimes the craving had passed.
This is pretty much the strategy I followed too, and I'd recommend trying it. It was much easier for me if I just said "Saturday" and very often I did not care anymore about whatever it was.0 -
The best way to do things with a new lifestyle is to not deprive yourself of things, that's the way I've been doing it now and im enjoying my food and life
Last week I really fancied a pizza, I said to myself If i still crave it tomorrow then I will allocate enough calories and fit the pizza in. I did get the pizza in the end and made it a low fat cheese with just onions, chillies and as a small. Ate the whole damn thing with a dip and lost weight the next day.
Enjoy yourself, but within your calories and it wont be a diet anymore but a lifestyle change!
I'd agree. Eat the pizza but don't go overboard. I, personally, can eat a large pizza by myself no sweat. I'll be miserable later but I can certainly do it. To avoid over-indulging like that I'll start with a salad first, to decrease my hunger and desire for the pizza, then eat a moderate amount. I have always practiced IIFYM so if it fits in my macros and my calorie goals it's not off limits. Makes me happier and I still can lose weight when I want, maintain when I want, and gain when I want all based on the calories.
I do have an advantage though, I'm 6'2" tall, have built a fair amount of muscle over the last couple of years, so my TDEE is somewhere in the 2100 range. I also exercise 4-5 days a week for a minimum of 90 minutes fairly intensely, so I can eat an average of 2500-2700 calories a day and not gain weight. When I want to lose weight I'll drop that by 500/day and stick to around 2200 calories, that's about a 1lb/wk loss rate for me. Lately though, I've been sticking to about .5lb/wk because I'm not in a hurry right now to lose much weight. When warm weather hits I'll probably increase exercise rather than reduce calories further.
If you're interested, check out iifym.com, it has free calculators that can help you set your calories and macros so that no food is off limits, as long as it fits.0 -
Spliner1969 wrote: »The best way to do things with a new lifestyle is to not deprive yourself of things, that's the way I've been doing it now and im enjoying my food and life
Last week I really fancied a pizza, I said to myself If i still crave it tomorrow then I will allocate enough calories and fit the pizza in. I did get the pizza in the end and made it a low fat cheese with just onions, chillies and as a small. Ate the whole damn thing with a dip and lost weight the next day.
Enjoy yourself, but within your calories and it wont be a diet anymore but a lifestyle change!
I'd agree. Eat the pizza but don't go overboard. I, personally, can eat a large pizza by myself no sweat. I'll be miserable later but I can certainly do it. To avoid over-indulging like that I'll start with a salad first, to decrease my hunger and desire for the pizza, then eat a moderate amount. I have always practiced IIFYM so if it fits in my macros and my calorie goals it's not off limits. Makes me happier and I still can lose weight when I want, maintain when I want, and gain when I want all based on the calories.
I do have an advantage though, I'm 6'2" tall, have built a fair amount of muscle over the last couple of years, so my TDEE is somewhere in the 2100 range. I also exercise 4-5 days a week for a minimum of 90 minutes fairly intensely, so I can eat an average of 2500-2700 calories a day and not gain weight. When I want to lose weight I'll drop that by 500/day and stick to around 2200 calories, that's about a 1lb/wk loss rate for me. Lately though, I've been sticking to about .5lb/wk because I'm not in a hurry right now to lose much weight. When warm weather hits I'll probably increase exercise rather than reduce calories further.
If you're interested, check out iifym.com, it has free calculators that can help you set your calories and macros so that no food is off limits, as long as it fits.
Mad jealous of your TDEE and your height, curse my short stature!
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