To be able to trust your body to help you with the what and how much of eating, you must provide it with the support it needs. Whether your family numbers one or ten, meals are a priority. Provide yourself with regular, reliable, rewarding meals as well as sit-down snacks if you need them.

You will eat as much as you need of a variety of food if you:

• Reliably feed yourself at more-or-less predictable times.
• Go to some trouble to make food taste good.
• Eat often enough so you can go to the table comfortably hungry but not famished.
• Take the time to tune in and enjoy your food.

On the other hand, you won't do a good job with the what and how much of eating if you:

• Are casual about feeding yourself.
• Grab food when you happen to think about it or when hunger drives you to it.
• Absent-mindedly snack and nibble instead of taking time to feed yourself.
• Chronically restrict yourself.

For more about eating competently (and for research backing up this advice), see Ellyn Satter's Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family: How to Eat, How to Raise Good Eaters, How to Cook, Kelcy Press, 2008. Also see www.EllynSatter.com to purchase books and to review other resources.