hello here are my rules I follow!

1- eat breakfast
2- drink atleast 8 glasses of water
3 no junk food (there are healthier versions of some of your faves)
4 eat a total of 3 mini meals I like to say 3 meals/3 snacks
5 no eating after 8 weekdays 9 weekends (up later on weekends)
6-my last big meal between 5-6:30
7-Drink water the rest of the night if I get desperate and I am hungry after
hours I suck on a piece of sugar free hard candy or 1 piece of gum!
Tammy

eat healthy (lowfat dairy, high protien, whole wheats, friut and veggies)
lotsa water
take a walk everyday
no ho ho's!!!!
and to not take myself to seriously

Lots of GREAT info that I've read on this thread. The only thing I can add that has worked for me is to think of yourself as a machine...like a car. A car needs fuel to run, you need fuel to run. Refer to food from now on as "fuel" - eliminate the word "food" from your vocabulary and replace it with "fuel" - "fuel" up when needed....

I just thought of this too...you ever put sugar in a gas tank? It screws up the engine...same thing goes for your own engine if you put sugar in it.

Hope you like the analogy

I read about this thing called a "No-S diet", it's not really a diet but it seems more like a lifestyle thing. No S means no sweets, seconds or snacks on all days except "S" days, which are basically saturdays, sundays and special days such as birthdays, national holidays and such.

It's really quite a good guide because it doesn't allow you to snack, eat sweet stuff like cookies. and best of all controls portions because you can't go for seconds. And you get days off on S days, so it's not so bad after all.

You could modify the rules to fit your own lifestyle, but i think the main idea of this is to control portions most of the time, and let you relax on your diet on certain days. Hope this helps!

for food guidelines... you could checkout your government's Food Guide, or check out a bunch of them using Google... ie(Japan, Australia, USA, and Canada). Then you can build our own personal guide off the basics and see what works for you.

Here is Canada's Food Guide:
Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide - Main Page
I am Canadian, Eh!

I like this site. Instead of the food pyramid, they have food circles.

Better Food Choices - Your Kids Health