It’s a funny cartoon, but it reminded me of how I used to eat pizza before I changed my eating habits and lifestyle and adopted the Paleo Diet. I literally would order a large pizza for myself and another large for the rest of the family. I would eat that entire pizza as if my life depended on it, not entirely because I was hungry, but because I enjoyed it. I literally loved pizza.

Of all the foods I no longer eat, pizza is probably at the top of the list of foods I miss. Every now and then, we make a Paleo pizza, and it’s good, but I limit myself with the quantity. I’ve had one pizza in Salado at a food truck there that was gluten-free, and it was probably the best pizza I’ve had in the past four years. It was simply sublime.

As much as I miss pizza, whenever I start feeling sad about no longer eating real pizza or when I get hungry for a pizza, I remember how If let when I was morbidly obese and out of shape. I remember how hard it was to climb even one flight of stairs, to tie my shoes (I had to hold my breath), or to do even the most simple physical tasks like putting up a shelf (it would leave me in sweat). I think about how I can find clothes anywhere, about how I can fit into any seat, how I even have room in economy class on airplanes, and how much betterI feel being fit and in shape. As tasty as pizza is, it doesn’t compare to how I feel the rest of the time.

Eating is temporary satisfaction. Being fit and healthy is long-term. Do I miss pizza? Sure. But I will never go back to eating it with abandon. I won’t return to the obese life. I refuse.