Divide your daily food intake so that it comes out to about 40 percent carbohydrates, 40 percent protein and 20 percent fats. As a slow burner, your diet should be light in fatty foods and heavy in protein and carbohydrates (NOT the processed kind).

Make sure to include lean protein in at least two meals per day. If you'd like, you could even eat protein at every meal (this will help speed up your metabolism). Get your protein from leaner meats like fish and fowl, rather than heavier selections like beef and lamb. Avoid fatty meats like ribs and steaks and dairy products like milk and cheese, and instead opt for poultry, eggs and light fish like cod and tuna.

(Hint: If you're preparing meals for six people, or if you eat out a great deal, you're probably not going to want to weigh and measure everything and do exact calorie computations. If, however, you cook everything for yourself and feel like using a food scale, you may find it to be an interesting experiment. I once did it for about a month, and learned a great deal about how my body works.)

Avoid milk (commercial cow's milk, that is), unless you tolerate it very well. There are many reasons why commercial milk is overrated as a food. Great alternative sources of calcium include sardines, broccoli, almonds, goat's milk, turnip greens, soybeans, tofu and many other foods, all of which can easily be worked into the dietary guidelines. Among dairy foods, a mere 1 1/2 ounces of Swiss cheese beats milk for calcium by a mile, and with only an extra 50 calories or so. Yogurt just about ties milk as a calcium source and has the benefit of live cultures and better toleration by people who are lactose sensitive. Look at soy and rice milks as well. And, if you really want to increase your calcium absorption ... try cutting out (or cutting way, way down on) sodas (including diet ones).