Does eating pizza make you gain weight?

• Stop feeling guilty about eating pizza
  
• Get your body out of the weight-GAIN mode!
• Eating pizza HELPS you break a bad habit & lose weight

For the 10 years I was overweight I was sure eating pizza would make me gain MORE weight.

I felt terrible about eating pizza, whether I was at a sleepover, with my rowing team, sitting in a friend’s dorm room or at a pizza place during teacher’s college.

And I wasn’t alone. Many of my friends felt badly too. So we’d pick off the pepperoni to cut some of the calories and blot the cheese with a napkin to get rid of the grease.

…Somehow all these thoughts and behaviours became “normal.”

And worse, I’d still worry I ruined my diet.

Now I know eating pizza wasn’t the problem

After eating pizza I’d be full of regret. Eating anything outside my list of “good foods” made me anxious—even if I was at a friend’s house and eating pizza was the only option.

So I’d restart my diet. And be even MORE restrictive. Why? Trying to make up for lost time helped me stop worrying.

Soon my behaviour escalated. Once I ate something I regretted I’d tell myself: Eat whatever you want. It will draw a line in the sand between today and my new diet, tomorrow.

I went from days of under-eating to suddenly over-eating.

Before long I got caught in a vicious cycle of starving, binging and purging.

The problem was everything I did AFTER eating pizza

As you can see I didn’t gain weight from eating pizza.

My weight ballooned because of the choices I made AFTER one I regretted.

Restricting the amount and types of food I ate, then eating lots of food I’d normally never eat and finally, getting rid of as many calories as possible CONFUSED my body. Then it went into survival mode; a state the makes it hard to lose weight and easy to gain weight.

This self-defeating pattern is mentally and physically exhausting. And it becomes a habit.

An unhealthy habit that CAN be broken!

Even if your experience isn’t as extreme, you can see why a milder version of this cycle makes it EASY to gain weight. How often do you hear people say: “I’ve ruined my diet so I may as well keep eating…”?

Too often!

It’s important to get back on track after you think you’ve made a mistake.

Eating pizza actually helps you break bad habits

These 5 steps help you carry on after a choice you regret.

1. Recognize your eating patterns
Do you restrict, overeat and then exercise or use other means to purge? Are you on and off diets? After eating pizza or other foods do you feel like you ruined everything?

If you’re not sure of your eating patterns, write down what you eat for a week or so.

2. Understand why these wild extremes work against you
When you realize that starving and then binging or starving, binging and purging slows down your metabolism it’s MUCH easier to break this self-defeating cycle.

3. Take a new approach
Be more flexible about your food choices. Try eating pizza and simply enjoying it.

4. Get busy
After eating pizza, do something you love to do.
It will feel strange to have fun rather than be full of regret. But remember, if you want your life to be different you have to do something different. And different will always feel odd. Ignore the desire to do what you usually do. Rather than punish yourself for eating pizza, read a book, phone a friend or clean out a drawer… anything to refocus your energy.

5. Enjoy the results that come from breaking the starve-binge-purge cycle
The next day you’ll be amazed how great you feel when you haven’t jerked your body around with wild extremes after eating pizza (or whatever food you thought you shouldn’t have eaten). And you’ll LOVE the freedom that comes from being able to focus on something meaningful rather than being preoccupied by what you ate.

What happened when I started eating pizza

Life became so much easier after I broke the cycle of starving, binging and purging.

I lost 30 pounds (weight I’d been losing and regaining for the previous decade) and I could finally concentrate on the people and projects I LOVE.

Also, social events became night-and-day more enjoyable. Eating pizza is part of many gatherings. Putting a balanced meal on a plate before you begin eating, and then giving people your full attention helps you:

i) feel good about what you ate
ii) break the starve-binge-purge cycle
iii) lose weight NATURALLY

And make the most of TODAY.

Eating pizza these days

I love pizza and the bigger the crust the better! I love bread. But I don’t eat pizza every day.

When we can, Alex and I make our own pizza. Recently our bread machine broke so I started buying dough from the grocery store.

Then we roll it out on a stone plate.

Next we add some natural flavour. This past summer we discovered a community herb garden on a dog walk. Since then we’ve been putting sage, thyme and oregano on the tomato sauce. It takes the pizza from 5 stars to 10. You’ve gotta try fresh herbs. And if you “Wannabe” eating pizza with a little zigazig-ah (thank you Spice Girls), crisscross the tomato sauce with Sriracha—or any other spice that’s nice.

Now we’re ready for toppings… we use mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, red onion, thin slices of tomato, pineapple, chili’s and anything else we can find in the fridge.

Then top it off with cheese. If we have goat cheese we sprinkle it around the top. Sprinkle may not be the right word, but you know what I mean.

Now you’re ready to throw your pizza in the oven for about 15 minutes; just enough time to make a quick olive oil and balsamic vinegar salad dressing. Presto! Your roughly balanced meal made mostly of whole foods is complete. Delizioso.

Eating pizza at home is even better with this dish

If you make pizza at home it’s worth investing in a stone plate. It’s the next best thing to having a pizza oven. But this version stores easily between your fridge and the wall. (Doesn’t everyone store stuff there?)

Make Today Count

Are you ready to eat a ROUGHLY balanced meal made MOSTLY of whole foods and then move on with the day without worrying?

Just remember, it’s everything you do after eating something you regret that makes you gain weight.

You CAN break the starve, binge and purge cycle.

Try eating pizza tonight with someone you trust. Then go out and do something you love to do.

Build healthy eating and exercise habits, a healthy weight will follow.

Next Steps

Are you able to make your next meal a balanced meal? Do it! It could be pizza, a salad and drink or it could be something else. Eating a complete meal and then moving on with the day changed my life. And so did one of the BEST weight-loss strategies I learned. Sign up for my newsletter (below) and you’ll receive information that took me 10 years to figure out, TODAY.

My pepperoni pillaging and cheese blotting days o-o-over. Are yours?

What part of this post about eating pizza and breaking cycles resonated with you the most?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

 

Want a One-Day Meal Plan? It’s an example of what I eat each day These kinds of meals and snacks unlocked my HAPPY weight 21+ years ago (I lost 30 pounds without dieting!)

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Want a One-Day Meal Plan? It’s an example of what I eat each day These kinds of meals and snacks unlocked my HAPPY weight 21+ years ago (I lost 30 pounds without dieting!)

You'll also be subscribed to my newsletter. Don’t like it? Unsubscribe in one click

Want a One-Day Meal Plan?

It’s an example of what I eat  each day

These kinds of meals and snacks unlocked my HAPPY weight 21+ years ago (I lost 30 pounds without dieting!)

You'll also be subscribed to my newsletter. Don’t like it? Unsubscribe in one click