It's not just important what you eat, but the way you eat it, and your attitude towards food. This determines how our body utilizes the food. For example, a meal eaten in a hurry is not digested as well as a meal eaten in a relaxed atmosphere. Let's take a closer look at such factors and how they affect you. There may be hundreds of diet plans in the market, but this is the best diet to lose weight, because it involves healthy eating habits. There is a unique diet method that I have developed on my own, and it has helped thousands of clients get results. You can view my clients in action with exercise videos and download full color exercise routines, diet plans and ebooks by registering on my websites mentioned at the end of this article.Imagine your hunger as if it were on a scale from 1 to 5.

1 - you've eaten too much food and can't stand the sight of any more food.

2 - not hungry.

3 - starting to get hungry, about to enter ‘4'. Unlikely to overeat.

4 - hungry, eager to grab some food.

5 – very hungry, will eat anything in sight! You are very likely to overeat.

Never ever wait till you are at stage 5 before you eat.

This is exactly what happens when you skip a meal. You reach stage 5 and more than likely overeat. Try and eat when you are between stages 3 and 4. Stop eating when you are between stages 2 and 3. In other words, avoid wild fluctutions in your 'hunger scale'. If you start to get hungry, then eat something healthy. Carry balanced snacks (more tips and ideas on that in the coming chapters). Dont wait till you are starving and then binge (swinging from stage 5 to stage 1). Also, stop eating as soon as you start to feel even slightly full. Know when to stop!To improve digestion, eat in a slow and steady manner.

It's not easy to change your diet habits completely, and neither is it recommended. The process of change should be slow and gradual. If you try and change too many things too soon, the effort becomes hard to sustain and turns into an ordeal. Failure becomes inevitable. So its important to break one bad habit at a time. If you try to stop eating after 7 pm, quit eating chips, and snacking in front of the TV all at once, you're going to feel resentful and deprived. You'll end up bingeing. Stop one bad behavior, and make healthier substitutions for the rest. Gradual, positive changes can help you adopt new habits without feeling deprived.

Always take your time at the table. In our time-starved society, it's easy to consume too many calories in too little time. We tend to eat high calorie food, eat quickly and take large bites. We don't chew food as well as we should. In a typical workday, we rush through our meals. Our meals lack variety. We tend to stick with foods that we are familiar with, and are easy to prepare. This limits our nutritional intake and can cause deficiencies in some vitamins and minerals. To make matters even more complicated, there is always something going on while eating - watching TV, talking on the phone, reading a book, having a telephone conversation.

Let's look at a different approach to eating. Let's say a typical meal consists of salad, a piece of meat, some brown rice and a piece of fruit. The key is variety and moderation. Eat slowly, appreciate the way food tastes, smells and looks. Don't get distracted while eating. Enjoy food much more and eat less. Look at food as an experience to be enjoyed.

Good luck with these food strategies. Eating food should be considered an important and controlled experience, and overindulgence should be avoided.