Hey Teena--

I know it is discouraging. I feel the same way a lot of the time, but I try not to let it ruin the pleasure I get from eating. I fully admit I am a hedonist when it comes to food. I love the taste and textures of so many things.
On the upside though, I have developed a very healthy appetite for "diet" information. I am constantly reading about diet and nutrition, and wish that I had the money to go back to school and get a Nutrition degree right now!!
I suppose I am mildly obssessed with the concept of dieting. Some days though, I just want to not worry about it...

I do have a couple of strategies that seem to help. Like M1whowaits suggested, I have a group of recipes that I love, and I cook often and then eat them for a couple of days--when my DH is home, he will usually finish my casseroles up very quickly when I am not looking, so I always keep certain things around that I can make quickly (to replace what I planned for dinner if he happens to eat it before I get home). One of our standbys is caesar salad with chicken or steak.

The five meals a day thing is great in theory, but requires a lot of organization. I have several dishes that I make that I could eat maybe as 1/2 serving with some cut-up veggies, or fruit, but it gets kind of boring to be honest. I love Linda's Low Carb Recipe site for casserole ideas--I find that if I eat a lot of fat, I feel full and don't get as much of an urge to eat all the time--also, when my fat intake is around 60-70% of my total calories my calories actually go down--I may eat 1400 calories over the course of a day and feel fine when I have several helpings of a particularly high-fat casserole.

Of course in order to keep track of stuff like that you have to be fairly obssessive and enter all your info into some tool like Fitday consistently. At this point, I have resigned myself to being a "diet addict", so I suppose I will continue to be anal about it all. Supposedly after a while it becomes second nature, and you don't find yourself thinking about it all the time. Here in Germany, and even in France I have noticed that for the most part people are brought up with the idea that you should be able to eat what you want, but in small amounts, and not limit yourself by "dieting". (That being said, Gemany has the biggest diet industry in Europe, followed by Great Britain and France.) I for one can't eat a decadent pastry one day and not want another one the next day--maybe some day though...

Hope you are feeling less frustrated today!