Break the rules once in a while.

Cook. Cooking for yourself is the only sure way to take back control of your diet from food scientists and food processors, and to guarantee  you're eating real food and not edible food-like substances, with their unhealthy oils, high-fructose corn syrup, and salt.

Plant a vegetable garden if you have the space, a window box if you don't.

Leave something on your plate.  OR, without wasting, take smaller portions and don't go back for seconds.

Treat treats as treats.  There is nothing wrong with special occasion foods, as long as every day is not a special occasion.  These special occasion foods offer some of the great pleasures of life, so we shouldn't deprive ourselves of them, but the sense of occasion needs to be restored.  Some people follow a so-called S policy: "no snacks, no seconds, no sweets - except on days that begin with the letter S."

Try not to eat alone.  I have a hard time with this one and will try to work on it. It's pretty challenging to cook a healthy meal for one after cooking for a family (for years). In fact, when it's just me, I will usually dine out. My 2 reasons are: it can seem like too much effort to cook a meal for one and it also makes me a little sad to dine without the company of my two favorite people. But, eating out can lead to unhealthy choices or overeating.

Do all your eating at a table.  No, a desk is not a table.  If we eat while we're working, or watching TV or driving, we eat mindlessly - and as a result eat a lot more than we would if we were eating at a table.  Here's an exception: when eating somewhere other than a tabl

Don't get your fuel from he same place your car does.  American gas stations make more money now selling food (and cigarettes) than they do selling gasoline.  Consider the quality of the food and what it is...

Limit your snacks to unprocessed plant foods. The bulk of the 500+ calories Americans have added to their diets since 1980 (the beginning of the obesity epidemic) have come from snack foods laden with salt, fat, and sugar. If you are going to snack, try to limit