Papa Johns Doesn't want me to lose weight.

make your own? and not by dough scratch...premade dough, healthy toppings...voila...even do a light alfredo sauce instead of pizza sauce or buy sugar free sauce...*drool*

Don't you just hate trying to come up with dinner ideas in the midst of all the crazy that is home? I go to the gym in the evenings after work, which means I'm thinking about cooking dinner at 8 p.m. I've recently started using my Sundays to cook a couple of meals for the week ahead. Last week, I made a couple of casseroles. Today, I'm going to roast a chicken and make some (turkey) taco meat to have a couple of things ready to go.

Crockpot meals and soups can also be your friend. ;-)

I love pizza. Nothing wrong with an occasional indulgence. Just limit yourself to a slice and then have a salad or something else to finish off the meal.

As far as making mealtime less stressful, I have lots of tricks. When you make a healthy meal, make a double recipe and freeze half for use on one of those busy nights. Salads are quick and easy. Taco night can be easy and healthy, if you don't overload yours with cheese and sauces. Keep frozen veggies around for a healthful side dish. If you can, plan your meals ahead of time -- some people do a week or a month at a time, but I can't ever seem to get that together, so I plan the night before so I can make sure I have all the ingredients ready for dinner the next day. And for those nights when takeout is inevitable, have a plan of healthier options you can order. Look up nutritional information online to build a healthier pizza, know what healthy options are available at your favorite fast food restaurants, etc. For instance, I found that if I order a pizza with chicken, green peppers, and onions, it's really delicious and a bit healthier than my old favorite of sausage and pepperoni. Find a way to make it work for you.

What our family does, is keep pizza ingredients on hand all the time. It takes about 20 minutes to make, which is wonderful on mondays or any hectic day for that matter! We get the refrigerated pilsbury pizza dough (usually where the croissants/biscuits are), shedded mozarella, and pepperoni. We just prebake the crust for 5 minutes, top with cheese and pepperoni and then bake until cheese is melted in the middle!

I actually prefer the same crust, with alfredo sauce, some mushrooms and spinnach...made the same way.

My husband has been a cook his whole life and taught me that it's basically being 'prepared'. He preps basic ingredients every weekend, like grate the cheese, thaw the ground beef or chicken, and cut up our veggies for snacks. That way when the hunger comes, it's easier and quicker to get the meal out.

Better yet, when you do have time to cook, make extra and freeze it! For example, we make home made pot pie, we always make at least two. One for us to eat that night, and one to cut up and freeze...that way when we don't feel like cooking, we have a home made meal that HEALTHY and not full of preservatives.

Good luck, I hope I helped!!

So I have an online account for this particular pizza chain. And over the last few weeks they have been doing a weekly pizza give away for "60,000 random" customers. I have won 3 WEEKS IN A ROW! Yeah, what are the odds. The trouble is that with kids, work, school, life in general ect, It is just so easy to do take out or delivery. Ideas or suggestions on how to make mealtime less stressful, more easy and healthy are most welcome. And we will see what my inbox holds this week on whether or not my winning streak for free pizza is a fluke or not.

All I read was a bunch of excuses.
Gaining weight is easy, which is the route you're going.

Until you make changes, even if they're tough, you're doing yourself no favors.

I agree. I see a lot of justifications and excuses on this site.