Serve individual courses rather than piling everything on one plate.

52. Serve individual courses rather than piling everything on one plate. Make the first two courses soup or vegetables (such as a green salad). By the time you get to the more calorie-dense foods, like meat and dessert, you’ll be eating less or may already be full (leftovers are a good thing).

Brush your teeth after every meal, especially after dinner.

51. Brush your teeth after every meal, especially after dinner. That clean, minty freshness will serve as a cue to your body and brain that mealtime is over.

Order your dressing on the side and then stick a fork in it — not your salad

50. Order your dressing on the side and then stick a fork in it — not your salad. The small amount of dressing that clings to the tines of the fork are plenty for the forkful of salad you then pick up.

Stock your refrigerator with low-fat yogurt.

49. Stock your refrigerator with low-fat yogurt. A University of Tennessee study found that people who cut 500 calories a day and ate yogurt three times a day for 12 weeks lost more weight and body fat than a group that only cut the calories. The researchers concluded that the calcium in low-fat dairy foods triggers a hormonal response that inhibits the body’s production of fat cells and boosts the breakdown of fat.

Watch every morsel you put in your mouth on weekends.

48. Watch every morsel you put in your mouth on weekends. A University of North Carolina study found people tend to consume an extra 115 calories per weekend day, primarily from alcohol and fat.

Order wine by the glass, not the bottle.

47. Order wine by the glass, not the bottle. That way you’ll be more aware of how much alcohol you’re downing. Moderate drinking can be good for your health, but alcohol is high in calories. And because drinking turns off our inhibitions, it can drown our best intentions to keep portions in check.

Sniff a banana, an apple, or a peppermint when you feel hungry.

46. Sniff a banana, an apple, or a peppermint when you feel hungry. You might feel silly, but it works. When Alan R. Hirsch, M.D., neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, tried this with 3,000 volunteers, he found that the more frequently people sniffed, the less hungry they were and the more weight they lost — an average of 30 pounds each. One theory is that sniffing the food tricks the brain into thinking you’re actually eating it.