Back in the fat old days, whenever you did something you were proud of, how did you reward yourself? If you are like most of us, you probably treated yourself to something like a candy bar, an ice cream cone, or maybe dinner at a restaurant.

What do you get at a congratulatory party? Lots of rich food. The mathematical formula seems to be: success = reward, reward = food.

This approach has drawbacks when you are trying to drop a bunch of pounds. You lose some weight. You feel happy and you want to celebrate. So what comes to mind? A bag of cookies, perhaps? Can you spot the flaw in this little drama? Somehow, you need to find other ways to celebrate without the caloric overload.

After you have lost some weight, and your clothes are starting to fit more loosely, you may experience what long-term dieters refer to as a plateau.

This term describes an annoying situation — even though you are still doing the same good things, following your meal plan and exercising regularly — your weight refuses to budge downward any further.

Your body has adapted to your current diet and exercise pattern, and has found a new metabolic equilibrium. Here are some tips to get you off that plateau and back on track toward your goal.

You’ve probably seen the ads — "Lose Weight with Great New Diet Discovery" — "Ancient Secrets of the Far-East Revealed" — and it turns out to be a "magical weight-loss tea".

What’s the big secret? Is it even a secret? Well, not exactly. What you get, if you succumb to the hype, is pretty much the same as most diet plans: A generic, reduced-calorie diet, a recommendation to exercise regularly, and the secret ingredient — in this case, a "special" tea.

Don’t get me wrong — I am very fond of tea — green, white, black, or herbal. I drink lots of tea, both hot and cold, with meals and for snacks. But tea is hardly a secret. And its benefits are well-known.

Here’s exciting news about a major peer-reviewed study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine. This study documents results of a two-year project to determine the best weight-loss diet for most people. This was a relatively long-term trial involving 322 moderately obese people, 36 of whom were diabetic.

Researchers compared three diets — an Atkins-style low-carb diet, a Mediterranean diet, and a low-fat diet — in a highly-controlled environment.

When you decide to take control of your eating (a.k.a. "go on a diet"), you don’t have to completely change your life. You can still go to parties, eat at restaurants, visit friends, eat your favorite foods, and have lots of fun.

You do need to maintain a high degree of "eating awareness."

When you are trying to improve your eating habits, one situation that causes endless problems is the fast food restaurant. The choices are often quite limited, though improving somewhat. It would be wise to plan ahead for such occasions.

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.

Some people avoid dieting because they are afraid they will be constantly hungry. On many diets this is a genuine concern. If all you get are three tiny meals and some boring snacks, you may become more obsessed with food than ever. An empty, or near-empty stomach can be very annoying — constantly hollering for attention like the monster in a bad movie.

  "Feed me!!!"

  "But I just had lunch."

  "You call that LUNCH? Bah! I need FOOD!"

You've heard that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Or in this case, the noisy stomach gets the food. And there goes the diet.

You see them everywhere — on TV, in magazine ads, on bus stop benches, and more. "Use this and lose weight!" It is usually either a meal replacement, or some kind of pill, or a glassful of some viscous liquid. But what are they? And do they work?

There are several approaches to appetite control. Protein is well-known to help curb a raging appetite, and so is fiber. These work in different ways, and they work well together.

Here is a way to use the benefits of both protein and fiber to help get control of your appetite. If you have been overeating for a long time, it may take a little while before this takes effect. That’s because you may be out of touch with your appestat, the part of the brain that tells you when you're full. But keep at it, and eventually you will feel satisfied with smaller amounts of food.