I've learned with my new attempt at losing weight to never deny yourself a food that you want. Just don't eat the entire thing. I love a seafood alfredo from a particular restaurant. When I first started the diet, I was craving this platter. I ordered it. Ate about a third of the dish but ate all of the seafood. I was full, didn't take too much of a hit on the calories and my cravings were satisfied.
If you don't feed you mind, you will overfeed your stomach. The biggest thing I've learned this time is that I can go on a strict diet and find myself cheating which causes my weight to yoyo or I can do a push away diet and be perfectly satisfied when I go to bed each night.