1) Your daily food plan is built around your favorite vegetable. Try several and remember to make it as delicious as possible. You may have several vegetables that you love. If so, rotate them daily. Eat this if possible between 11 AM-4 PM. This vegetable has to be a large enough serving to totally satisfy you. I count 300 calories for my sweet potato because I cover it in margarine and dark brown sugar.

2) Determine the food problem that gets you into trouble. Most of our overeating comes because we don’t discipline ourselves about the calories we are eating. Learn to read or research the calories in everything you eat. This chart will teach you how to read labels.

3) Also decide what type of eater you are. What one thing do you not want to live without? For me, it is having food to chew. Apples are always in my refrigerator for a sweet chew—at 100 calories each I sometimes have several over a day.

4) When you are feeling emotional, you need to drink as much water or other liquids as you can to delay the eating. If you aren’t hungry anymore which is what will happen, give yourself permission to eat the food later when you are hungry.

5) I created a Greek salad that is low in calories for my non-sweet chewing. I cut up the ingredients and keep them separated until I eat some salad. Without the dressing, the ingredients will last several days. I write more about this salad in my food plan.

6) I dislike the word “diet” because it sounds like deprivation to me. Food is one of God’s greatest gifts and is meant to be enjoyed. Food is the basic reward for many people. So begin noticing when you are eating emotionally and drink more water before the food

7) I am 69 years old but I had bought into that “you have to have breakfast” so this was a revolutionary idea to eat when hungry. I live with a slim person who generally doesn’t eat until his evening meal. I have nagged him for years about not eating all day and he has always assured me that he wasn’t hungry.

8) Since my overeating occurs at night, the later I start eating means I am eating less than I would be if I ate at any time I wasn’t hungry. Another of the 7 rules from The 7 Secrets of Slim People is to think of your fist to learn portion control. The fist is the size of your natural stomach.

9) Begin learning portion control. If you check out any of the more popular diets with food included, you will see that the main reason you lose weight on these programs is because you are eating much smaller portions. The High Energy Diet Plan does the same with one major difference. You will choose the foods you love and will learn how to eat them in moderation.

Make a list of all the foods that you love and enjoy. After you have the list finished, make a food list that you can include in your weight loss plan. The foods that you know you may not be able to use restraint with put on your foods for the future list.