variety gets me in trouble

I know variety is the spice of life, but the more variety I have the more I eat.  Even if it's "good food" I seem to lose some self control when there are lots of options. Ok- I need to use self discipline.

I agree, I think variety derails diets.

I eat basically the same foods everyday at generally the same time and haven't gained a pound since highschool - I'm 37 now.  The less variety you have in your diet allows you to get into a rhythm and eat a controlled quantity of food.

Variety works well.... don't give up so easily.   Plan what you're going to eat in advance & build in the variety at that stage.  If you just buy loads of different foods and can't choose between them, yes you'll eat the lot of course you will.... like a kid in a sweet shop.   But if your variety is planned and managed it's so much healthier and more fun to eat different things.

I've found that it helps if I limit the AMOUNT of variety at a SINGLE TIME. I'm always trying different things, but I try them one at a time, so that I don't feel torn between which to try and end up trying anything. For example, this week I bought some Nutella. Next week I'll buy some of the mint chocolate rice cakes. But I didn't buy them together so I wouldn't end up eating both at the same time!

I can go overboard as well when given lots of options -- just look at what most anyone does at a buffet table. Even if you try to take little portions it adds up quickly. But on a day-to-day basis, variety helps me ensure that I maximize my intake (nutrition and taste-wise) without risking cravings because I'm bored with my food.

A couple of tricks that work for me and you may find helpful: if I'm in a situation where there are several choices and I can get myself in trouble, I limit myself to one plate of food and try to make sure that the total quantity of food on the plate is around the size of my palm. Then, to make sure I don't get hungry (hence binge) I fill up on veggies.

I have young kids at home and a husband so my house is full of peanut butter, nutella, chips and other things. When I feel like having some, I do. But I diligently weighh it and log my intake into the computer BEFORE eating so I know exactly what I'm doing. I get in trouble when a spoonful of nutella becomes 4 or 5 spoonfulls.

I am very careful to try and pinpoint the craving. If I want chocolate, but try to satisfy the craving with something else, I usually end up eating twice the amount because I'm not satisfied with the substitute food. If I want chocolate but with the first bite realize that it's not really what I want, I throw out the piece I'm eating and put the rest away.

I try to make sure to have enough room in my food intake to allow for a few treats here and there so that it's easier to stick to the overall strategy of eating healthier foods in reasonable quantities.

There's some study out there showing that this is true (I don't have any links sorry, but I would imagine it'd be fairly easy to google).

The study involved participants and a buffet. The wider the variety of foods available, the more people ate. The researchers' advice was to put more of a lesser variety of foods on your plate in order to eat less.

Obviously, this advice might be useful for a buffet but less useful in real life, where a wide variety of healthy foods makes good nutrition - getting adequate nutrients - easier.