As some of you know, I've been on a bit of a mission for the past 15 months to lose some weight & still eat what I want. To date, I've been fine eating well, exercising pretty religiously and drinking a ton of water instead of soda...I can even contain myself to eating moderate portions when dining out (with the exception of Hell Burgers, but I make concessions elsewhere those days).

But every so often I have a fruzenglasia (sp?) moment, but instead of finishing off a pint of faux ice cream, my kryptonite is marshmallows. Those tricky grocery store marketing bastards put the candy on the hot & cold cereal aisle right across from the twig & bark cereals, and there are times when I can't seem to stop myself from picking out a bag of puffy white pillowy goodness when I stroll down the aisle to pick up my granola. I say to myself, it's good to have a treat in the house just in case, and maybe if you get the minis they won't go so fast. But within a day the bag is empty and I am kicking myself, plotting to do extra sit ups, run another 15 minutes the next day, or sweat it out in the sauna to lessen the damage. But I know better. Nothing will work. If only there were a rehab program for marshmallow addicts.

So I ask you good people two questions: 1) how the hell do you stop yourself?! and 2) what's the one food item you can't seem to stop yourselves from binging on when a whole bag/plate/box is put in front of you?

I come from a long line of ice cream eaters. I will eat it until I feel sick but am also perfectly satisfied with a single scoop if that is the serving. If I have dish it out from a pint, consider that pint history. This has been fairly simple to handle by sticking to getting my fix at an ice cream store. More expensive this way, but that also helps moderate.

My new problem food are pita chips. I haven't found an effective control for them and it is a horrible feedback loop. Get pita chips to go with hummus or chicken salad for lunch. Eat normal size portion of hummus or chicken salad but most of the bag of chips. Run out of pita chips before chicken salad. Buy more chips.

An ice cream pint is a serving - Isn't it?

1. Scoop out or dole out only a set portion. Reevaluate your refill level after you finish. Allow yourself a second helping, but a little less, and less guilt too... Sadly, this is what I have to do when I find good cereal -- I eat a great big bowl, and even though I know I'm full, I'll still want to have seconds...

I also think that Don has a point that when you eat better, there's less of a craving for certain things processed maybe? All I can think of is that I would probably eat more grocery store-bought marshmallows than 1 scrumptious vanilla-lavender marshmallow from The Dairy Godmother.

2. Pork jerky for some reason. Processed and marinated in its salty goodness. Only of the Chinese/Malaysian variety. That or bowls of shaved ice with condensed milk.

But I can never finish a pint of ice cream in one sitting. The fact that people can do that still astounds me.

I fall into this camp as well. Ice cream is my go-to item for a host of inappropriate situations (breakup? ice cream! celebration? ice cream! bored? ice cream! lazy? ice cream!). I try to console myself by thinking that this is slightly less damaging than performing this ritual with drugs, but I'm not always so sure.

If I have it in the house, it's gone pretty much as fast as I can go through it (I live alone, so there's no shame factor). The only way I can deal with it is by not bringing it into the house - sometimes it ends up just wandering its way into my grocery basket, but I pretty much try to follow the "only outside the house" rule as well.

Speaking of, I should try to do a 30-day no ice cream and see if it's possible. Just for kicks.

I have no problem with sweets, but put a basket or bowl of chips in front of me and I am a gonner. Those goldfish at Hanks? All mine. Chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant? Who needs dinner? I actually go on autopilot with those things. I usually move the offending item as far away as I can. It at least makes me think before I shovel. I don't have the stuff in the house typically, but then again, I don't usually do the grocery shopping. The worst thing my husband will buy is pretzels, and he buys the big thick ones that don't have nearly the salt content to satisfy my cravings. He buys ice cream and it sits in our freezer untouched for months.

My own personal food crack is the Brown Sugar Gingersnaps from Gourmet. I do not make them anymore, except at Christmas, when I purloin from my cookie baskets which are supposed to be going to friends. I eat them until I'm sick. It's so good and then so, so bad. Some things I give over into my husband's keeping, for instance, the case of Thin Mints I buy every year is hidden in the downstairs freezer someplace, and he doles them out like the Mom in the Tupperware commercials.

Cheese-its and Cheetos. If I buy them, I know I will inhale them, so if I have a serious craving, I'll buy a little bag. That way I don't feel deprived, but I also don't overeat.

Lime Tostitos.

Any sort of crunchy thing paired with any sort of creamy thing (crackers and cheese, OH YEAH!!!).

Before you do that we should have an ice cream party at Moorenko's.

Hmmm....I feel like I was being watched last night as I worked my way through a good portion of pita chips Same here - LOVE those pita chips! Found some -slightly- healthier ones at Trader Joe's - a new kind, that are pretty good and sort of a double layer which makes for extra crispy goodness. They are definitely things I just don't need to have in the house.

I think I go to Mexican restaurants less frequently now for this very reason - they are one of my biggest weaknesses. Salty and crunchy make me very happy!

The freezer has been a very effective way for me to make my Thin Mints last - out of sight out of mind! Plus it makes it seem like more of a treat, so one frozen cookie, carefully dispensed is much more enjoyable than chowing through the whole sleeve. Of course, now that I'm on the last sleeve in the box and it's a LONG time 'til GS Cookie sales season, they're even more precious!

MelGold - what if you divvy up your mini marshmallows into a reasonable serving size and package them in containers or baggies and freeze them? Maybe between the out of sight, out of mind thing and having to consciously choose to eat another portion it might help.

Don's right though - eating better makes all the difference. If I have baby carrots or celery sticks or cucumber slices for my hummus, I don't miss or want the pita chips. All about planning ahead and making good (better) choices. Easier said than done

1) I've quit quitting.
2)
--potato chips of almost any kind, so long as they're not baked
--dry roasted peanuts
--Macadamia nuts
--Smokehouse almonds
--second Dan's lime Tostitos; I just discovered those a couple months ago and found out there's all kinds of addictive stuff in them besides lime flavor. Yeah!
--BBQ pork ribs
--booze

I used to inhale Doritos, but since the flavoring has become so "extreme" I really don't care for them much anymore.

ETA: any of the meat dishes from Fuchsia Dunlop's "Land of Plenty."

Oh, I put the bag on the top shelf of the cabinet behind the bag of flour so I don't see it when I go into the kitchen. I pour a portion into a small glass bowl, telling myself once the bowl is empty, that's the end of the marshmallows for the day. I've also tried splitting up the bag into separate baggies, much like I do with my proteins that are going into the freezer (individual sized servings). It doesn't matter...if they're in the house, the bag's gone. Maybe freezing them might work.

And while I appreciate Don's suggestion, I finished off the bag yesterday between a big 'ol salad, a peach and a well-rounded chicken dinner that had a pile of broccoli on the plate. The rest of my "diet" is great and the weight is staying off, but it's when I weaken & splurge that I have no control. Maybe hypnosis would work.

Try Better Cheddars.

I have found that the greatest motivation for both exercising and staying on a diet comes after you begin to see results. Stick with it for a couple of weeks; you'll notice that you feel better and your clothes are getting looser, and you'll really be motivated to keep exercising and stick to your diet to continue the process. The problem is sticking with it after you arrive at your target weight/size/marathon time/whatever your personal goal may be, but you can cross that bridge when you come to it.

Don't sweat it if you miss some gym time or backslide on your diet a little bit. Think of fitness is a journey, not an event.

my big weakness is chocolate chip cookie dough - scarily enough i cannot stop eating it raw from the roll of slice and bake cookies - i used to live half a block away from 7-11 and much to my scale's demise I discovered the raw slice and bake cookies. I cant even have chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream - it serves as a trigger for my addiction.

Lolita

Beef jerky and cashews.

Salt is yummy.

If anyone is really serious about stopping their junk food habit I know this place called Quitter's Inc. that might be able to help...

I'm thinking that's a bad idea. (She said, grabbing the car keys to head to the store...)

At least marshmallows are fat-free!

Has anyone had success with the gorge-on-it-til-you-make-yourself-sick-and-never-want-any-ever-again approach? I know it's worked on some friends with certain alcoholic drinks.

Baked goods! Especially if I made them myself. Like the 20 cupcakes sitting in front of me. I can't keep eating carrots; it's just not working anymore. I need the cupcakes!!!!!

I heart you!

potato chips, any flavor
cheesy popcorn
nuts, especially marcona almonds
olives
wheat thins
gin

Welcome to our lair Lolita.
Stop with the dough, okay?

Oh man I am right with you on this one. I will get a small bit of cheese on a plate and the box of wheat thins, long after the cheese is gone I will be pinching the last crumbs out of the bottom of the wheat thins bag. I have definitely eaten these till my stomach hurts. Heather, do you do the same with generics? I have yet to find another brand that does it to me like the actual Wheat Thins. There is just something about them that I can't put my finger on...

Some sick bastard ordered two of those big gallon-sized cartons of Goldfish for the office.

So much for the plums and nectarines I was going to snack on.

There are few foods that keep my attention long enough for me to swear I will never touch them again, but homemade spinach dip is one of them. About once every six weeks I make a batch (using the Knorr recipe but with fresh spinach), and eat the entire thing in two sittings (I usually run out of bread about halfway through and also it gets a little warm so it needs a bit of a chill).

I am one of those serial monogamous snackers. I eat something for days or weeks until I'm over it and something else grabs my attention. I've learnt to go with the flow.

It's the sugar in them. The sweet/salty combo gives Wheat Thins their crack-like quality.

Note to self: stay away from Landrum's nuts.

No, it only Wheat Thins. The generics never taste as good.

You mean....?

Over the years I've managed to learn how to parcel out my Wheat Thins. Man I love those things.

One of my biggest weaknesses is the mee goreng from Cafe Asia. I wouldn't go out of my way for it - but it's right across the street from my office, and lunch is a huge weakness for me. (Thank goodness Ray's Hellburgers isn't open for lunch!)

I did really well on my first go-round with Weight Watchers. I lost about 60-some pounds. I've put a bit of that back on, and I'm trying to lose it again, but it's just so hard for me to get any motivation any more - mostly because I just get frustrated with it. That, and I stopped having "the only thing I drink is Miller Lite" and instead keep insisting on drinking "better" stuff.

Couple that with a crappier job situation (less time to work out and more "let's go out after work because our souls are rotting at our desks") and it's a bad situation...and let's not get into the kegerator...

I love this post! It is making me want to eat all sorts of forbidden foods...

I re-started the south beach diet on Monday, so to celebrate my last meal on Sunday night we went out for mexican at Mi Rancho in Silver Spring. Now I know it's not gourmet food, but man is it good. And the thing I eat the whole plate (or basket if you will) is chips and salsa. They are my weakness in life... (shameless plug - I reviewed the restaurant in my blog which you can link to from my sig).

Happy dieting!!