So, briefly, I have just discovered how to lose weight and keep it off without starving myself.
This is the third in a little series of articles where I share this information.
So, how to begin? Next time you cook for yourself, think seriously about how much you are putting on your plate.
Don't worry about WHAT it is you are putting on the plate, just look at it and think about where it is going.
Is your stomach really that large? Where are you keeping it? People have found it really helpful to put less on the plate, and to try wherever possible to leave something at the end.
Then, whatever it is, you will have eaten less of it.
And don't be ashamed or embarrassed to stop when you begin to feel full.
There is no shame in leaving something that you really don't want.
While you are eating, try to slow yourself down.
Don't eat on the run.
Sit down at a table and make it possible to put your knife and fork down between each mouthfull.
Try to focus on the food and not on the television as you eat.
Some people even turn the thing off and just eat at meal times.
Now there's a revolutionary idea! Many older people have lived through a time when wasting food was a sin.
Our kind and loving parents reminded us that the children in somewhere or other (my mother used China, some used other countries) would be grateful for what we are about to leave.
Now you are an adult you do not have to eat foods you dislike - so why are you still 'eating it all up' now your mother is no longer in charge? If you begin to slow yourself down you will find time to really taste and enjoy the food you are eating, be it burger, pizza or something more haute cuisine.
You will not be involved in a kind of race to get your food down before someone else steals it.
I used to find myself eating as fast as I can when there was no-one else there and I had plenty of time.
I think perhaps that eating as fast as we can has some primeval echo of when you had to fight for your food and the right to eat it, and when your lifestyle dictated that you got lots of it so you could run away from that marauding sabre-toothed tiger.
Most of us do very little running now, and even if we go to the gym, do not require all that we put into our bodies to survive.
So, try enjoying your food.
Try to discover when you have had enough by eating more slowly and by stopping between each mouthfull.
Choose to eat food you really enjoy.
Don't tell yourself you cannot have chocolate.
Just tell yourself you cannot have too much chocolate.
I have finally learned that what I want with chocolate is the flavour.
I have started buying myself really wonderful chocolates, wonderful dark, aromatic chocolates, and when I feel the need for chocolate I eat one, slowly and with a feeling of total luxury.
Yes, I can really eat ONE.
And since I have stopped feeling guilty about the one chocolate, I have wanted chocolate less, and no longer have cravings - because if I really want a chocolate, AND I AM HUNGRY, then I have ONE.
The last tip for this article.
About a half an hour before you expect to eat, drink a glass of water.
Drink more water all the time, but don't drink it with meals.
This just confuses your stomach and sends false messages.
And forget that stuff about not eating between meals.
Just don't eat when you are not hungry.
In my next article I will enlarge upon that last bit, because you have to know when you are hungry.
And that can be a real problem!