On snacking

I'm convinced that taste is one of the main things that drive us to eat. We crave a certain taste, and that drives us to consume things, a lot of times more than we mean to.

I like to eat tortilla chips with hot sauce. Because I won't eat the chips without the sauce, the way I try to restrict my consumption of chips is to limit how much sauce I pour. I typically pull out a small bowl and add enough sauce to coat the bottom. (My rule: Once I get done with the sauce, I can't pour any more.)

After I get done with my snack, I typically like to get rid of that salty taste, perhaps eating something sweet. If there's something chocolate around, I may eat that.

The better answer, I've found though, is to keep tic tacs around. Each mint is less than two calories, which makes it ideal for watching calories.

Popping a tic tac after a meal is the perfect way to get the taste out of my mouth, and it keeps me from eating a lot of unnecessary calories.

A lot of it really does come down to taste, and tic tacs have helped me stay on board with my diet.