Regarding our food intake and eating pattern:

It is ultimately in our own hands.....

What we choose to live with.                 
                   and
What we choose to live without.
 

The ability that our bodies have to adapt to our behavior is remarkable.
One thing about counting calories is that no matter how careful we are,
the number we deal with is still an estimate.

As most of you know,
PERSONALLY, I choose to log all of my food into a computer journal every day,
which forces me to continually face my own food intake and my own food issues

I do my best to keep my calorie averages around a specific number,
because I am personally unable to keep my calorie-intake consistently similar, day-after-day.

Remember, our bodies are organic adapting devices,
not mechanical devices...
...although almost every "expert" uses the mechanical model
as an example of the way our bodies work.

A mechanical device in good working order, operates the same way every time.
A specific behavior - like pulling a lever- always causes the same result.
This is NOT true of our bodies, because we are organic adaptive creatures.
Although basics general laws of nature apply, there are great variations between
individual bodies, and even between the results of the same body at different times.

It is very hard to sustain consistent and patient eating behavior
when we do not see the hoped-for-weight-results,
but that is actually the requirement for successful weight-loss
and for long-term weight maintenance.

Sometimes we get tired of the struggle.
Sometimes we just want to "do what comes naturally"
...unfortunately this results in eating the way we did when we became fat....,
and actually, that Behavior is the only one with Guaranteed Results.
We will become fat again, only this time it will happen a little faster,
and we will become a little fatter.

For many years, I've also found a Focus on Behavior,
rather than on Results, to be essential for my own success.

One of the things I like about Reinhard of the No S Diet
is that he agrees with me in this.
On page 130 of Reinhard's book,  'The No S Diet"
regarding a "focus on behavior" he states :

"When you focus on behavior,
you get results thrown into the bargain
because behavior causes results.

When you focus on results,
you get neither because results cannot exist without behavior.
And behavior, besides being a better thing to measure,
is also an easier thing to measure.

Diet does not mean a diet plan…
…a brief term alteration of regular eating habits.

Diet means the everyday, day after day,
...for all the days of your life...WAY that you eat.

For a few lucky people losing and maintaining weight
is a easy matter of cutting down portion sizes
to move from “bad” eating to “good” eating.
However, this is not true for most of us.

An important key to sustaining an effective diet is planning,
and one of the biggest barriers to weight-loss and maintenance
is lack of planning.

 The best benefit of planning is control over our future eating environment.
Our weight loss efforts will succeed or fail based largely on our food environment.
We set ourselves up for success by taking charge of that food environment
which is:

when you eat,
how much you eat, and
what foods are available.

For some people the planning will involve specific advance menu planning,
and some people find a more general plan to be workable.
No matter whether our planning is specific or general, planning our future
food intake involves our shopping process, and what foods we choose to buy.

  When we cook meals at home,
we have the control over exactly what goes into the recipe
and therefore into our bodies.
However without a meal plan,... for some people ...
the longing for inspiration on what to cook may prove to be too much.
This results in take-out or eating-out again, and when doing this
someone else decides what goes in the meal,
and our control becomes far more limited.

There are plenty of small but powerful, changes we can make
that add up to lasting weight loss success.
The key is to create a plan that we can individually live with.
Part of planning is understanding that occasionally the plan will fail.
We must not let a failure discourage us.
Cheating with one snack or at one meal does not mean
that the whole diet plan has failed.
Keep in mind we have an every-day-forever diet plan,
not just a few-days diet plan.
For me,   planning involves the use of tools that help me track my progress.
I keep a food journal and weigh myself regularly.
Tracking my food-take, along with my weight loss efforts,
shows me the results in black and white, which helps me stay motivated.