I love food. Good food. DH and I both love to cook. I only eat fast food about 2x a year. I drink about 3 - 4 liters of water a day. I try to make healthy choices for my meals, and compared to most Americans I eat very healthy - no chips, no soda, no packaged cookies, rarely packaged candy. But, like I said, I love food, so the food I do eat I eat way too much of. Portion control is a huge problem for me. I noticed when DH cooks, he'll plate my food and give me as much as he gives himself (he's 6'5", 215 lb). I obviously don't need to eat as much as him, and I've tried explaining this to him, but he feels like he needs to be "fair" in portioning food. That "don't need to clear your plate" thing is a good idea, but my problem is if food is in front of me, I will likely eat it. Same thing at restaurants. I have a hard time responding to my fullness cue, to stop eating when I'm not hungry anymore. My other biggest problem is my carb addiction. It doesn't help that carbs tend to be more convenient for the busy person. For example I eat cereal every morning (healthy cereal, but still cereal, and a lot of it), and for lunch I like frozen pita pocket things, they are organic and filled with vegetables, but its still a ton of carbs. Damn carbs. I know that good carbs are essential to a healthy diet, but I go way overboard. Why isn't protein as convenient?

I am in the best shape I've ever been in, but I'm not the thinnest. Its so frustrating. I thought cycling would help me loose weight, but I actually gained weight. It was because I felt like I deserved more, but I was eating more than I was burning off. It didn't help that exercising so much made me so hungry!

A few things I've found helpful:
If I'm starving in the afternoon, have a snack, otherwise I will over eat when I have dinner. Plate my own dinner, or remind DH I don't need so much. If I'm eating at a restaurant, plan to eat half my food, then take home the rest for lunch the next day. Eat dinner as early as possible, metabolism slows in the evening, so a piece of bread at dinner can cause more damage than the same piece at lunch. If I feel like I have the munchies, I ask myself, do I want to eat because I'm hungry or because I'm bored. Usually its because I'm bored. There are all kinds of mental things that go along with my hunger. If I'm happy and busy, I'm not so hungry. Weight training is incredibly helpful. While cardio makes you feel like you're more in shape, weight training burns a ton of calories.

KSH and others from the triathlon board have inspired me to start keeping track of my food on sparkpeople.com. I hope that helps. I really need to make a concerted effort to eat more protein and ease off the carbs. Evil carbs!