6. Once you have jotted down everything related to minutes before you ate (you may start out with very little to say but as you warm to this exercise, you will find yourself recording more and more information), consider how you felt directly afterwards. Did you feel satiated and serene? Did you feel proud of your food choices? Were you satisfied with all your selections? Did you feel stuffed and uncomfortable? Did you feel guilty about choices you made? Were you angry with yourself for giving in to temptation and blowing your diet for day? Did food make you light and energetic or heavy and sleepy? Did you think about tomorrow morning's weigh-in with dread or anticipation?

7. Take a look at day from perspective of now (last thing in evening or a look back following morning). Try to look at your entries as if they belonged to someone else. As a dispassionate third party, what are your conclusions about individual who recorded this data? Is this a self-aware, consciously motivated person or someone who lives on auto-pilot with little planning or direction? Is this someone who has internalized their diet goals and attempts to control their environment and intake? Is this an individual who merely 'talks talk" but pursues actions that break those verbal rules? Is this a happy person who is cheerfully continuing weight struggle with a sense of humor and self-forgiveness? Or is this someone who resents conspiracies of nature which attempt to load on as much fat as possible, to ward off some improbable future famine?

8. If you are generally satisfied with day's food intake, give yourself a mental pat on back and relish day's accomplishment. Promise yourself that one great day proves forever that you can do it. Identify a small, non-edible, reward for your self-discipline, inner strength, and personal commitment. Record your conclusions and bask in self-satisfaction you so richly deserve.

9. If you feel disappointed in what you read, remind yourself that it is only one day in a lifetime of thousands of days. Forgive yourself and start over. Think about one or two changes you can make so following day's record will not be quite so disappointing. Guard against swearing that today will be perfect: you are not going to get there overnight but you will get there, over time, slowly, one step at a time. You are learning to take baby steps that will nudge your food intake into closer alignment with your goals. You are going to gradually add techniques to your arsenal of weapons to keep temptation at bay. The simple fact of intake awareness will keep slowly propelling you towards goals you have so carefully set.

10. At end of your entry, enter your weight for day - it will always fluctuate a little bit but will show you how you are doing when viewed over a period of time.

6. Stay away from fat people.

In some offices, there are whole departments where staff are uniformly overweight. Being around fatties is guaranteed to turn up pressure to eat, to give in, to abandon your goals and dreams. Seek out skinnies - you may feel frustrated when you see them eat carelessly without dire consequences you suffer, but it will stiffen your resolve to gain their appearance to lessen your self-consciousness about cut of your own bloated jib.

7. Vary your routines.

We are all creatures of habit. If we didn't possess habits that allow us to accomplish basics without thinking about it, we'd be worn out by over stimulation, having too, too much to think about to get anything done. Eating, though, is an area where we want to steer clear of habits (because, if you remember, we want to be aware and in control). Without thinking, we slip into habit of an egg mcmuffin on way to work, or a bagel with cream cheese at our desk, or a drink when we get home, exhausted by an over demanding day. If possible, try changing your work hours, meal times, getting up and going to bed routines, and regular meetings with friends. The change will increase your recognition of comfortable habits you unwittingly developed in your old schedule.

8. Find a second job.

Some of you, no doubt, are shaking your heads thinking that current demands on your time are already overwhelming. If your days are already crowded with your job, your kids, school, chores - you don't have a problem with boredom and basis of your overeating must be sought elsewhere. Many of you others, be honest, have long evenings stretching out before you, filled only with television (and eating), socializing (and eating), shopping (and eating), or pastimes - crafts, computers, music reading (and eating). If you fill that spare time, in which lure of nibbling looms boldly, with a part-time job (paid or volunteer), you can significantly lower your daily intake while simultaneously bringing in a little money or gaining a sense of pride in helping others. You can always quit and take it easy later but change may help you make a diet breakthrough that will reward you handsomely.

9. Don't eat in bed.

The common expert advice is to only eat in dining room and make each meal an event. Sometimes that is effective but in our rushed lives often unworkable. But draw line somewhere: bed is for sleeping and making love, much better alternatives for your weight loss goals than midnight refrigerator raids.

10. Learn to live with leftovers.

Many of us hate to see anything go to waste. Remnants of childhood want or simply years of motherly training lead us to cringe at thought of throwing perfectly good food away. Kids are so smart - they eat only what they want and just leave rest. We can't bear that so we clean up their plates, make sure we send none of that expensive restaurant meal back to kitchen, or nosh absentmindedly on remnants of food we tucked carefully into refrigerator. Ask yourself: when was last time you threw away a half full bag of chips? A piece of chocolate? The final piece of cake? No, we tidy up to avoid emotional pain of waste, and increase our girth in process. Once you or kids are done, try to get in habit of immediately throwing remainder out - into a messy garbage pail which will avoid temptation to retrieve scraps later. The longer food stays in sight, more likely you are to scarf it down. If waste is so painful to you, go save environment, not leftovers on your table that have never yet made it to a starving child in China.