Are you still hungry after eating a meal? Does that make you want to reach for seconds… or thirds? If you are going to conquer your desire to overeat, you need to be clever.

Take a typical meal. Salad, soup, sandwich, side dishes. At least I hope that’s your typical meal. It's well-balanced, with not too much of any one thing.

Start with the salad. It takes time to eat the leafy greens and chew up the carrots, so you'll get a good workout, and the soup can cool off some. Now have some of the side dishes, hopefully some good, nourishing veggies like green beans, peas, sweet potato, and so on. Take a bite of your sandwich or other main dish in between bites of veggies. This will keep you from gobbling up the sandwich too fast, and you will appreciate it more.

Did you notice, I had you save the soup for last? Do what the Chinese do — use the soup as a finisher — and have as much as you want, to fill in any "empty spots" in your appetite. Still a bit hungry? Have more soup. If that doesn't seem sufficient, have more salad. You would have to eat several heads of lettuce before the calories even begin to count.

You should be feeling pretty good now. Follow the Asian saying, "Eat until you are 80% full."

Don’t forget to drink a full glass of water. You can flavor it if you like. Sometimes people mix up signals, and think they feel hungry when they are actually thirsty.

If you are not yet on good speaking terms with your appestat (the part of the brain that tells you when you are full), stop eating at this point anyway. After a few days, you will notice the feeling of satiety that you were not aware of before, and it will feel good. That's the feeling of knowing that you ate properly and the right amount, instead of the feeling of being overstuffed and uncomfortable… and perhaps a bit guilty for eating too much.

You’ll be proud of yourself for the accomplishment. Notice it’s not so much that you ate different food, but that you ate the same food differently!