If you're still with me here then don't allow yourself to feel cheated out of your usual pre-diet binge - I know that your diet is often preceded by a frenzy of slamming cupboard doors as you attempt to clear the house of all the food you really love. You may still decide to do this in some measure but the key here is that you are not a dustbin. The redundant food does not need to be funnelled into your mouth.

So don't feel cheated - which implies that you've lost something - feel excited and know that you've everything to gain. Failing to plan is planning to fail, right? So spend the rest of Sunday in planning mode. Why are you back here again? We are creatures of habit and you will inevitably find that it's the same things that rear up to thwart your efforts every time. Be honest and decide what it is that always hampers your quest for a healthier you. Uncover your top three saboteurs and then decide what you will do to overcome them. Want an idea of what the most common saboteurs are for everybody?

1. Grazing. You pass the cookie jar and just take one. Surely one won't hurt? Then it's just a small square of chocolate as you grab the car keys on your way out. No harm in that. Later just the tiniest end of that freshly baked baguette. Before you know it you've mindlessly put away several hundred calories!

2. Emotional eating or eating for any reason other than hunger.

3. Regularly eating beyond the point of fullness.

Let's take grazing. Stop grazing! It is simply a question of taking firm control of your mind and deliberately choosing your habits rather than allowing them to just develop in any old way. Make a decision. There are only two alternatives. eg. I exercise/I don't exercise. I will follow this plan/I will not follow this plan. I graze/I do not graze. After 3 weeks not grazing will be your new habit. Done.

Similarly, if you're not hungry or eating simply to finish what's in front of you then believe me your body would really prefer to wait awhile. You know exactly what it does with excess food.