Well, I have news for all of you out there: don't diet, and don't rush off to buy the next gimmick. Here's the real secret to losing weight: eat less!

That's right, that's the new word of the decade: sensibility. After all, doing everything sensibly in your life is the key to living well. You don't need to feel trapped behind the prison of your own body anymore. All you need to do is eat less, and eat sensibly.

Easier said than done? Well, like all things in life, eating less is a learned experience and takes some practice and patience. Our problem nowadays is that we're too lazy to turn this practice into a perfectly balanced meal plan.

"The problem for most people is that they maintain certain habits that make eating less quite difficult," says Pat Booth, assistant director of the Nutrition Services Department at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center.

Old habits are hard to break, however, tomorrow you'll be looking back at the "old" you and feeling good about the "new" you that's yet to come. Get my point? It also has a lot to do with your self-image perceptions. You must first change mentally in order to then change physically.

Anyone who has ever tried dieting knows the immediate feeling of deprivation that accompanies most weight-loss plans. The result for most of us is that we can't stick to it.

Instead of drastically cutting your diet, try to gradually accustom yourself to eating less. Take smaller portions. Leave a little on the plate. In time, you'll find you need less food to feel satiated.

As you practice putting less on your plate, consider these 7 steps to eating less (the following list is taken from Mr. Paul Wolf, Health Correspondent, and I highly recommend it):

"Even if you eat fruit as a snack, healthy as it is, you won't feel completely satisfied because it doesn't have any protein and fat," Booth says.

An apple followed by, say, some plain yogurt, will do more for satiety than two apples. A baked potato, which has 100 calories, contributes more to satisfaction than 20 potato chips, which, at 114 calories, adds up quickly. Top that spud with a quarter-cup of low-fat cottage cheese (100 calories), and you have a filling snack for 200 calories.

Don't count calories; just eyeball your portions. Let's say you hope to reduce your daily caloric intake from about 2,500 to 2,000. Focus on reducing your portion sizes by about 20 percent.

Within a matter of a couple of weeks, you will be adjusted to the new serving sizes and they will seem normal.

Obviously, cream sauces and fudge brownies at every meal will thwart your weight-loss goals. Learn to enjoy ordinary food as well as extraordinary delicacies.

Stick to water and tea and get your calories from more filling and satisfying food.

Approach your exercise and diet plan with a focus on how you look and feel, not how much you weigh. In other words, think in inches lost, not pounds. Remember; muscle weighs more than fat.

The satiety centers of the brain may not get the message right away that you've had enough. Eat slowly, chew carefully and don't put more food in your mouth when you haven't dealt completely with the last bite, advises Booth.

Everyone knows that bigger portions won't fill the empty spaces of our lives or give us lasting relief from unpleasant moments. Discovering your triggers is a step towards self-control, which is the basis for eating less.

So next time you see one of those annoying infomercials, follow this 3-step exercise: pick up the remote, change the channel, then put the remote back down. You actually burned 2 calories more by doing that than if you were staring aimlessly at Mr. Simmons "strutting his stuff." Good luck.