What kind of person are you? Are you easily swayed by temptation? If so, be careful: know your weaknesses and plan ahead so you don't get caught in a bad situation.

For instance, if you have a weakness for desserts, don't go out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory where you'll be tempted to have a high calorie dessert.

Another good tip is to come prepared with your own solution. Say you've been invited to someone's home for a party. You know there are going to be fattening foods offered, especially those delicious -- but ridiculously unhealthy -- appetizers. You don't want to go off your diet, yet you don't want to be rude either. So bring your own healthy appetizer!

A variation of this is to bring your own healthy snacks when you and your friends go out. They can indulge and you can feel like you're participating, but when they dive into that huge container of popcorn or those loaded nachos, you can pull out your celery sticks or apple slices or low-fat crackers.

Things have been hectic around here lately and I haven't been working on the book. I gave a copy to my dietician, hoping she could read it and give me any suggestions, but I haven't heard back from her, so I'm not sure what's going on. I suspect she's just busy, but when I was waiting for her feedback I put the book on the back burner and now a lot of time has passed and of course I've been super-busy.

Anyway, my goal now is to get it finished and shipping early next year (2008). It'll have to wait until after I get the next issue of my magazine out in mid-December, but once that's done and I survive the holidays, the book's going to be my number one priority.