What's your plan to lose weight? Are you going to give up sweets for a month? Padlock your fridge? Refuse to sip another martini? Don't bother. The best way to peel away pounds and get the body you want is to eat what you want in moderation. Here are seven tips on how to dig into the foods you love without sabotaging your weight loss goals.

1. If you want the cookie, have the cookie. If you really want a treat, you should indulge. Once something is off limits, you'll want it more than anything and you'll eat everything else you can to compensate for that forbidden snack. In other words, if you don't let yourself have the cookie, you might eat three rice cakes with almond butter and jam instead and still want more. But when you have what you want, you satisfy your emotional need for a specific food and usually end up eating less. 

2. Are you enjoying your food? There you are, eating what you want. Are you eating it slowly enough to ask and answer the question "Am I enjoying this?" If you've already swallowed a few bites before responding to the question, slow down. After you've eaten a small portion of your meal, ask yourself the question again. When eating goes from fun and satisfying to rote, it's time to make some changes in your diet and focus more on the food in front of you.

3. Butter your bread. Before you on the table are a bread basket and a tub of butter, and you're hungry. Don't skip the butter just because it contains fat. Fat fills you up and satisfies hunger. And butter on bread tastes fabulous. Half a roll with butter is ultimately more satisfying and tastier than two rolls without. But your don't need a lot of butter--just a little will taste just as good as a lot.