Prep for a Food Assault

This can happen any time, any place. And they sound something like, "Come on! It's just one piece. It won't hurt you!" We all know it's never just one piece. But just as you can count on certain lines to come out of your friends' mouths, so can you prepare standard lines for defense.

One idea? Say something like "It's important to my health that I stick to my diet plan." Letting your friends know your decision is about health will shut them right up, Berkeley says. They want you to be healthy, after all.

Recognize Workplace Sabotage

Your workplace can actually encourage overeating. Vending machines, snack rooms, and cakes to celebrate the boss' birthday can all contribute to temptation to overeat. If these pressures are sabotaging your diet, you may have to get political. Tell your supervisor about your difficulties and advocate for what you want to change.

Follow a Plate Pattern

One quarter of your plate should be lean meat products like poultry, fish, eggs, or low-fat dairy. The rest should be plant foods. Make sure that the fruits and veggies you include are diverse and are different colors (each color signals a different nutrient), guaranteeing you are about to chow down on a balanced meal.

Treat Yourself

Once a day, you can eat just to eat. What food lover doesn't love that? Just make sure that your daily snack fits these four characteristics:

1. Is tasty enough to look forward to daily

2. Is low in saturated fats, has zero trans fats, and is not overwhelmingly sweet (too much sweetness can stimulate your appetite rather than filling you up)

3. Contains less than 150 calories per serving

4. Is satisfying and doesn't make you crave more

Find Support

When it comes to dieting, strength is all about numbers. If your friends are using the same diet plan as you, they can make a great support system. More often that not, though, support systems should be formal arrangements to guarantee that everyone in the group has the same diet mentality. Plenty of websites offer great networks, too. Or you can set up regular visits with your physician or dietician.

Have a Love Affair with Exercise

Exercise is an essential element to getting and staying healthy. It revs up your metabolism, making your body a fat-burning machine. This allows you to eat more on your diet and still have even better results than dieting alone.

Take a Break

No, not a break from your diet, a break from eating. It's important to have parts of the day when you immerse yourself in non-eating activities. The hormones that work to break down fat and glycogen (stored in sugar) need you to let them alone to do their job. That means not eating for an hour or two. Plus, the break might just give you time to finish that dusty novel on your bookshelf.