Does anyone eat pizza?

[swizzly 901]

I eat pizza toppings, not crust. And not very often cos I'm not so fussed about pizza anyhow. But yeah, I do eat it from time to time.

[Escape_Pod 358]

I'm going to go against the grain here and put a big huge question mark on the pizza. Yes, lots of folks find success with the "everything in moderation" approach, and if you're one of them, you have my admiration, and more than a bit of envy. I spent over a year in a losing battle with the scale, seeing my old binge eating habits take over my life again trying to convince myself I could eat certain foods in moderation. Turns out, I was lying to myself. chocolate and sugary carbs are my kryptonite. Once I start eating them, I crave them constantly. As in, bags of chocolate hidden in my desk drawer, sneaking downstairs after my husband's gone to bed to get my fix, polishing off a doughnut AND a sticky bun AND god knows what else for "breakfast", and gobbling sugar the rest of the day. It's awful, and it's humiliating, and I've spent the last 14 weeks losing 25 pounds of regain, and I've got a bit more to lose.

Now... do I eat pizza? Yes. Sometimes a healthier substitute (cauliflower crust, or on a low carb tortilla), sometimes the real honest to goodness thing. Can I have some, even too much, and then get right back on track the next day? Yes. So, pizza is something I can enjoy in moderation. Chocolate chip Cookies, not so much. For my "kryptonite" foods, I've found low-carb, sugar-free substitutes that I find enjoyable and satisfying, but that don't pull me down into a sugar spiral.

The only reason I'm waving this flag of warning is the way you described how you feel about pizza. I'm not suggesting you avoid it forever, but I AM suggesting that you be brutally honest with yourself about how you (and your body) handle pizza, or any food you can't imagine living without. Some foods honestly and truly are worth giving up for what you really want - a body you can live happily in, and the energy to do what you want with it.

[soocalchic 1,087]

I eat pizza.. I'm at goal and I don't consider it a cheat or have any foods on a banned for life list. I can only eat one piece and most of the time I don't eat the crust depends on how hungry I am how fast I eat it. When I was still in the losing phase I would just eat the cheese and toppings off the pizza it was all that pizza taste without the carbs.. Can you say #winning

[indecision 863]

I eat pizza but not too often. I average about 1 time a month. I always stick to thin crust but that really is the only rule I have about pizza. I can usually eat about 1 slice and that is it. Even at 1 year out.

[PdxMan 4,292]

I'm going to go against the grain here and put a big huge question mark on the pizza. Yes, lots of folks find success with the "everything in moderation" approach, and if you're one of them, you have my admiration, and more than a bit of envy. I spent over a year in a losing battle with the scale, seeing my old binge eating habits take over my life again trying to convince myself I could eat certain foods in moderation. Turns out, I was lying to myself. chocolate and sugary carbs are my kryptonite. Once I start eating them, I crave them constantly. As in, bags of chocolate hidden in my desk drawer, sneaking downstairs after my husband's gone to bed to get my fix, polishing off a doughnut AND a sticky bun AND god knows what else for "breakfast", and gobbling sugar the rest of the day. It's awful, and it's humiliating, and I've spent the last 14 weeks losing 25 pounds of regain, and I've got a bit more to lose.

Now... do I eat pizza? Yes. Sometimes a healthier substitute (cauliflower crust, or on a low carb tortilla), sometimes the real honest to goodness thing. Can I have some, even too much, and then get right back on track the next day? Yes. So, pizza is something I can enjoy in moderation. Chocolate chip Cookies, not so much. For my "kryptonite" foods, I've found low-carb, sugar-free substitutes that I find enjoyable and satisfying, but that don't pull me down into a sugar spiral.

The only reason I'm waving this flag of warning is the way you described how you feel about pizza. I'm not suggesting you avoid it forever, but I AM suggesting that you be brutally honest with yourself about how you (and your body) handle pizza, or any food you can't imagine living without. Some foods honestly and truly are worth giving up for what you really want - a body you can live happily in, and the energy to do what you want with it.

I love what you said here.

Just to put it out there, last night I brought home an Escape from New York large half cheese, half Canadian bacon pizza. A real NY style pie which is one of the best you will find on the West coast. I had just over half a slice of the CB.

Your share reminds me of something shared at an AA meeting this past weekend. A fellow was in rehab following an intervention. He said he didn't drink all the time. He was able to control his drinking most of the time. He didn't believe he had a problem. A counselor then asked him to think about this next question, not answering it until the next day. The question was, when you are not drinking, what percentage of your mind is spent thinking about alcohol? This is when he realized he had a problem as after some reflection, he realized not only did he merely think about it, he romanticized it.

The moral to my story is that even if we are able to control our consumption of a food with the aid of the sleeve, if thinking about it in an unhealthy manner occupies our time when we are away from it, perhaps it is something which should never cross our lips in the first place.

Edited April 8, 2014 by PdxMan

[NMJG 1,266]

I eat pizza on rare occasions, and then it's one or two small pieces without the crust and it's the best pizza I can find (no frozen or fast food pizza, but really good pizzeria pizza so it's worth it). I calculate it in to my foods for the day. I may even do a bit of extra exercise after pizza or have a modified fast day the following day. This is how I keep it in line.

Pizza can be a slippery slope for lots of people. Thankfully, after I have my pizza craving satisfied I'm good for another month or two. I would caution anyone who has less pizza control to avoid it, though, or try one of the yummy pizza alternatives people have posted here. Lots of times it's just the sauce and cheesey goodness that we crave.

[alwaysonadiet 47]

So it is possible. Yay!! I'm just wondering if I'll ever be able to eat a piece again. I crave it so bad but my sleeve isn't old enough yet. Only 6 weeks.

[McButterpants 2,846]

@@PdxMan has some good points (he usually does!).

For me right now, at 5 months post-op, I find it's fairly easy to make good choices because I'm in tune with how I feel when I eat something. I once took a class about mindful eating and one of the things they said was to "eat like a skinny person"...there have been studies that show that skinny people often think about how they are going to feel after they eat something as opposed to the obese who don't. I can now think about how something is going to make me feel after I eat it - I won't eat it if I get a bad or gnarly reaction.

pizza was a go-to meal for me pre-surgery - we would have it once or twice per week. I loved pizza. I loved Pasta. But now, I really don't think about it. Here's what happened last week...my husband wanted to go to our favorite Pasta place and asked if that was OK. I really don't care much about food any more, so I was like sure, I'll just order something with chicken in it. I took a couple of bites of the bread (pre-surgery, it was multiple pieces), we shared an entree (of which I ate a few bites of chicken and a couple of bites of pasta - the pasta did NOTHING for me), then came dessert...the dreaded "D" word. The Zappolli at this place is amazing... I had 3 of the smallest pieces I could find and dipped them in raspberry sauce. It was delicious...but I knew if I had more, I wouldn't feel good, so I stopped. I left feeling perfectly normal and perfectly satisfied.

I am thankful for my sleeve - it makes me think before I eat. It doesn't make decisions for me, but I have to make decisions for it's sake and I have to treat it with respect or it gets angry with me.

You'll be able to eat all kinds of foods eventually - it doesn't mean you should. There is a certain amount of fear for me with my sleeve - I don't want to abuse it, I don't want to waste this opportunity I have been given. Right now, food just doesn't mean that much to me.

[piercedqt78 658]

I didn't read all the replies, but I was sleeved in May 2013, and have been at goal for a few months. I have pizza at a local pizza place, they make an amazing thin crust New York style pizza. They have a 3 slices and a drink for $3.99, My hubby and I do this deal, they have premade cheese pizzas and for $.50 you can add a topping per slice. I have them add Tomato or spinach, and hubby has sausage or pepperoni added. I eat about 75% of my slice, and take a refill of the drink for later. It didn't slow my progress in the slightest. I also have a Papa Murphy's Pizza (their delite pizzas are amazing) they make the pizza in front of you, think subway, and you take it home and bake it to your liking. Their delite pizza is lower in carbs, and thin crust, like a tortilla. I get them with no sauce, garlic and olive oil as my sauce, chicken, spinach, 3 cheese blend, and tomatoes and artichokes. It makes a wonderful meal, and reheats great too. I just wish they made them in personal sized delite. They have regular crust in personal size, they call them mini-murph pizzas. ( www.papamurphys.com ) They also make personal and family sized salads, and cheesey bread, just crust with garlic and cheese, or dessert pizza. I only have the delite, and I LOVE their garlic parm seasoning, I have them add extra to my pizza and have bought a bottle to keep at home, we love it on chicken and I do it on grilled shrimp too.

Don't look at food of any kind as evil, or cheating. When you make a food forbidden it makes you that much more likely to binge on it. So I have had the mindset to eat what I want, in a reasonable quantity, and be done. For example last year I would sit and eat and ENTIRE bag of Cadbury eggs (the candy coated chocolate eggs) in one sitting, during a movie for example. This year I bought a bag when I first saw them on the shelf, around valentines day, to use on top of mini-cupcakes for my great nieces so I used about 10 of them the day I bought them, I have had one or two here and there, and I still have a ton of them left over, that would have never happened pre-sleeve. LOL I would be on my 10th or 12th bag by now, but I'm most likely going to end of throwing out the bigger portion of the one bag I bought this year.

[Kindle 8,667]

I'm 3 1/2 months out and went to my doctor's son's 18th birthday party at a local brew pub/pizzeria last week. I managed 1 piece of calamari and about 3/4 of the toppings of a piece of pizza. It was super thin crust, but I still stuck with just the toppings because they are my favorite part anyways. At this point I eat anything I want....protein first....and just stop before I'm full. After all, I didn't have this surgery to be on a "Diet" for the rest of my life.

[marfar7 1,533]

I didn't read all the replies, but I was sleeved in May 2013, and have been at goal for a few months. I have pizza at a local pizza place, they make an amazing thin crust New York style pizza. They have a 3 slices and a drink for $3.99, My hubby and I do this deal, they have premade cheese pizzas and for $.50 you can add a topping per slice. I have them add Tomato or spinach, and hubby has sausage or pepperoni added. I eat about 75% of my slice, and take a refill of the drink for later. It didn't slow my progress in the slightest. I also have a Papa Murphy's Pizza (their delite pizzas are amazing) they make the pizza in front of you, think subway, and you take it home and bake it to your liking. Their delite pizza is lower in carbs, and thin crust, like a tortilla. I get them with no sauce, garlic and olive oil as my sauce, chicken, spinach, 3 cheese blend, and tomatoes and artichokes. It makes a wonderful meal, and reheats great too. I just wish they made them in personal sized delite. They have regular crust in personal size, they call them mini-murph pizzas. ( www.papamurphys.com ) They also make personal and family sized salads, and cheesey bread, just crust with garlic and cheese, or dessert pizza. I only have the delite, and I LOVE their garlic parm seasoning, I have them add extra to my pizza and have bought a bottle to keep at home, we love it on chicken and I do it on grilled shrimp too.

Don't look at food of any kind as evil, or cheating. When you make a food forbidden it makes you that much more likely to binge on it. So I have had the mindset to eat what I want, in a reasonable quantity, and be done. For example last year I would sit and eat and ENTIRE bag of Cadbury eggs (the candy coated chocolate eggs) in one sitting, during a movie for example. This year I bought a bag when I first saw them on the shelf, around valentines day, to use on top of mini-cupcakes for my great nieces so I used about 10 of them the day I bought them, I have had one or two here and there, and I still have a ton of them left over, that would have never happened pre-sleeve. LOL I would be on my 10th or 12th bag by now, but I'm most likely going to end of throwing out the bigger portion of the one bag I bought this year.

Luv the Cadbury Mini eggs. They r like crack. However, like u, I could devour a whole bag in 1 sitting pre surgery (2009 I got the lapband. Last July I revised to the sleeve). Even just last year (banded but had all my fill removed for a slip) I could eat about 1/3 of a bag in 1 sitting. I also bought a bag when I first saw them (those and a bag of Starburst Fav Reds Jellybeans). I just opened the bag of jellybeans a few days ago (where I ate about 6 of em) and I still have about 2/3 of the bag of Cadbury eggs in my nightstand (where I stash my nightime snacks). And it's been since before Valentines Day.

Thank God for the Portion Control that the sleeve gives me. I feel so in control when I open the bag of chocolates and can stop at 5 of em. Now I enjoy them much more than when I swallowed them without even tasting them.

So I'm in ur corner when it comes to the "Easter crack"!!! Luv em 2!!!

[LipstickLady 25,682]

I love pizza. My favorite part is, of course, the crust. YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM.

I am almost 11 months out and pizza makes me feel like crap. The dough totally gets stuck and after three bites, I feel as if I need to yarf. I don't like the toppings only because I am not a fan of Tomato sauce and it's the bread that makes it so yummy.

So...I don't eat it. In fact, I know that it's going to make me feel bad, so I don't even want it any more.

What I will have occasionally is wonton pizza cups. They are delicious, they have a bit of crunch and I skip the red sauce. I get the cheesy, veggie goodness with some bacon thrown in for good measure.

Here is the basic idea. I don't like these fillings but you can obviously use whatever you want. I make taco cups, bacon and egg cups, sausage and gravy cups... YUM!

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/pizza-cups/6f7535bc-3bab-46dd-99f7-7db1bc1feabf

[Blondiee 278]

I've had the toppings (cheese and pepperoni) of one slice of pizza. It satisfied my craving.

[swimbikerun 1,045]

No.

[Jack 855]

It took me about 18-24 months to even think I wanted any pizza postOp.

And like Pasta, while I now 'can' eat it, it just isn't all that appealing as it once was.

I have it maybe every 2 or 3 months, and 'my half' takes days to finally get eaten.

PreOp I would inhale a whole large one several times a week, along with adult liquid to just wash it on down.

Symbiant, my Little Angel of the Silicon Fist, allows me to eat mostly anything I want.....while my Band helps me simply not care to continue my old unconscious over consumption.

Sometimes only 1 or 2 bites is 'just right'.