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Relax, we are not about to pitch the new Exchange “No-Sweat, Eat-All-You-Can-Eat 10 Day Diet.” Nor are we fans of the many flavor-of-the-month diet plans. However, we found some practical ideas that make sense in Stephen Gullo’s book, The Thin Commandments (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 2005):

1. Banish trigger foods. People with weight problems almost always have one or more “trigger foods,” such as cookies or potato chips, that sabotage their diets. Determine what yours are and banish them from your house.

2. Focus on negative image. Associating a particular food with a negative image makes that food less appealing and easier to resist. For example, Gullo suggests thinking of “chocolate as just brown fat.”

3. Keep your stomach satisfied. Blood sugar levels fall if you go more than a few hours without eating. Low blood sugar causes food cravings. Eat small meals or healthful snacks a least every few hours -- such as a handful of nuts, a bowl of whole-grain cereal, a small container of yogurt, or a few slices of low-fat cheese.

4. Learn "caloriemetrics." You body has a calorie budget. If you exceed that budget, you will gain weight. You can maximize your caloric budget by eating foods that provide a lot of satisfaction for relatively few calories -- such as mussels or flounder.

5. Get enough calcium. A University of Tennessee study found that dieters who get adequate calcium -- 1,200 to 1,600 mg from dairy foods -- lost 11% of total body weight over six months. The study’s researchers concluded that dieters who eat high-calcium foods can lose up to 70% more weight than dieters who don’t get adequate calcium. Calcium supplements don’t work as well as dairy foods. Dairy products contain a number of compounds that exert a much stronger effect on fat cells than supplements do.

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