How do you make yourself stop eating...

All the awful foods that are horrible for you and they are just always there like fast food not like McDonald's but like restaurant style.  It is really my downfall to eat out... How do you stay motivated to give up the things you love to eat? Also how do you stick with it I have tried... and tried.... and tried..... AND TRIED!!! I am just so fed up with trying and getting no where. Can someone please offer me some advise.

you could try to make your own healthier versions of your favorite restaurant meals at home. better for you and probably cheaper!

I almost never eat out. If you know it's your weakness, the best is to avoid it altogether.

Yea, you could make mock versions of the things you like to order.

I make mock Frosties....

Thank you all! I will try this it will be hard though because I still live at home and my dad enjoys cooking not so healthy foods.. I already talked to him about it and he thinks a veggie covered in cheese and butter is healthy.

Mars- how do you make mock frosties?

I use this recipe:

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail. asp?recipe=321507

Looks good I think I'll make this for desert tonight

Original Post by cheerleaderroz43:

Thank you all! I will try this it will be hard though because I still live at home and my dad enjoys cooking not so healthy foods.. I already talked to him about it and he thinks a veggie covered in cheese and butter is healthy.

I know I run into this problem all the time ... not because someone else is doing the cooking (although sometimes that is the issue) but because my skinny BF won't eat a naked veggie!    So, what I have started doing is this:  I make him the cheese sauce on the side.  He can smother those veggies til his heart's content in whatever unhealthy amounts of cheese or butter that he would like ... but I still get my healthy version without making extra work for me!  Maybe your dad could hold back on some of those things ... or add them later after you have taken your portion?  Doesn't hurt to ask ... the worst he could say is no, right?

Another suggestion I have (which I have to do with my BF's mom and brother when we go to eat at their house) is to offer to cook some of the meals.  Find some super delicious healthy low cal recipes and offer to cook for the family a couple of nights each week?  You can turn your family on to new foods that are good tasting and good for them ... AND maybe even inspire your dad to start looking at cooking something more healthfully.  I brought over this recipe (Shrimp Feta Bake) to my BF's mom's house for dinner last Tuesday (I go over their every Tuesday to watch Biggest Loser with her) and I trade off cooking each week with her ... she LOVED it!  And, it is healthy and low in cals.  Once she found that out she has been gung ho to experiment with some lower cal versions of her own favorite recipes.  She just didn't realize that healthy food didn't necessarily equate to rabbit food.  Now we have a great time trying new versions of yummy old favorites ... last week we had a contest of who could cook the best oysters that were the lowest in calories ... we both win ... because we get to taste the yumminess of our favorite foods!

Put a picture of your dream body in your purse on your key chain on every pantry, cabinet, or door in the house as a constant remiender to yourself of your goal.

Take a sharpie pen and wright "NO" in big bold letters on everything that you can not have or should not have on your diet. because everytime you go to reach for them you will be remiended not to.

I'm going to do this when i get home from work today!

I have the same problem.. I still live with my mom and she can't cook ANYTHING healthy at all... And I don't know any healthy things to cook as well. So lately I've been eating before my mom makes dinner. Like, making a sandwich or something easy. Then I'm full by the time she makes dinner for the family and can politely excuse myself and not be tempted to eat what she made.

I'm still working on this, because I'm not sure what to cook for dinner. I'm just beginning my cooking experiences...

About eating out... That is my weakness too. I'm always going out to eat. They have weight watchers dishes that you can order, if you won't be tempted to get something else I'd try that. But if you are tempted (like me) I'd say just avoid it altogether. That would be the most effective route to take.

HAHA! That's a good idea about the pic of your dream body.. It would certainly get me motivated! 

Original Post by cheerleaderroz43:

Also how do you stick with it I have tried... and tried.... and tried..... AND TRIED!!!

Do or do not. There is no try. - Yoda. You can do it. I was in the same boat for years; make the decision and you can do it.

Original Post by andrea_smith:

I'm still working on this, because I'm not sure what to cook for dinner. I'm just beginning my cooking experiences...

Have you tried the CC database?  There are all kinds of good healthy, low cal recipes in the database.  Also, if you use Google, you will be surprised what you might find.  I LOVE teriyaki but the cals in that are sooooo high if I got to a Japense restaurant -- I found a lovely low cal recipe by Googling Low Calorie Teriyaki Sauce and now I like it better than what I would order in my favorite Japenese restaurant!

Cooking is pretty easy ... when you are starting it is just easiest to follow the recipe ... so if you can read a recipe you should be okay.  Once you get the hang of it ... you will be surprised what you can concoct on your own!  Good luck!

When I go out to a restaurant I have the waitress bring a take out box with the meal and immediately take at least half of it off my plate and put in the box for another meal or two at home. If its not on the plate you are not tempted to eat it.

As for fast food, I just don't do it. When I get a craving for fast food, I go to that company's website and look at their "lack of" nutrition guide and usually after reading that I lose all desire to eat that junk.

I finally started when I got so disgusted with being uncomfortable in my clothes that I just decided food is just fuel for survival.  If I was craving something bad for me, I thought about it and realized that it's not going anywhere.  McDonald's will always sell Quarter Pounders.  I gave myself a 'cheat day' where I would eat something I wanted that wasn't revolving around calories (Friday night dinners).

I started in late January and I have lost 12 lbs.  I drink a lot of water.  Afternoon hunger for me is usually because I am tired or dehydrated.  I chew a lot of gum, eat South Beach cereal bars, lots of fruit and I love grilled chicken and fish.  I have to be disciplined though.  I am not a naturally thin person, I am athletically built with the potential to gain weight if I am not careful.  I have to force myself to eat breakfast...banana and low sugar oatmeal.  I can't go full throttle carbless or fat-free because I won't stick to it.

You will know when your ready.  You have to want to be healthy more than you want to stay where you are at and then just go slow and be fair to yourself.   I don't eat out a lot anymore because everything in restaurants are pretty bad.  I cut up all my salad stuff on Sunday nights and put it in big ziploc bags and make big salads for lunch every day (feta, olives, beans, chicken, nuts, etc.)

It will take time...I know how you are feeling.  I felt like that from December to early January and then I just couldn't take it anymore.  Good luck to you. 

urm...idk if this will help but i always like to buy salads from mc'ds, sugar free lattes from starbucks, sandwichs from subway, ect. I feel like i've treated myself ...sans the guilt!

but then i go home and eat horrible stuff there *shrugs*

What works best for me is planning my meals for the whole day in the morning or even the night before and entering it here on CC, then I feel like I have a plan to stick to... and tonight even though i was dying for a cheeseburger I told myself that I was just really hungry and that as soon as I ate my healthy dinner, i'd be full and i wouldn't care about the cheeseburger anymore- and it worked!

Of course there are times when you're going to be eating out at places- sometimes I don't cook, or we like to take the kids out, etc.  and in those instances I try to order healthy while still getting something *restaurant-y* (in other words, not just a little old salad or something) maybe a grilled chicken type dish and pick healthy veggie sides and then I only eat half of what they bring me, or half what I would have eaten previous to CCing.  This way I still feel like I splurged on a yummy dinner out BUT I'm not totally killing my calorie count- and I make myself bring the other half home so I don't sit there and nibble on it and then I have leftovers for b/f's lunch or the kids.  If i can find the calorie info on here, then I log it, and if not then oh well I just forget about it- no one is perfect and I make a point not to eat out so often that it's a problem. 

good luck!

What has helped me is logging everything I eat on here. I try to log it before I eat it so I can decide whether it's worth it or not.

Usually I can eat half a box of oreos, but on here one serving is only 3 cookies. I couldn't help eating them, but by logging them on here it gave me some will power not to eat more than those three. I knew that if I ate them, I'd have to log them, and that usually makes me stop eating.

Before you eat, always think about logging the food into CC. If you're near a computer log it in before you eat it.

I think it's fair to say that different personalities will benefit from different methods.  In some cases, drinking water or brushing your teeth will stop you from eating more of something.  Also, ensuring that you're eating something with fibre in it will make you more full, and avoiding foods with corn syrup and artificial sweetners will lessen the cravings.

If eating out is the problem, maybe look at it from a financial aspect - how much are you spending when you eat out, and how much would you save if you stopped?  Maybe even think of something you'd really, really like to get for yourself, save up the money you'd usually be using to go to restaurants, and get that item you've wanted for a while.  Or even just save the money, and watch it add up.