Whenever I'm trying to watch what I eat, I keep a food diary.  I find that writing down every single thing I eat keeps me from overeating, mostly because it doesn't seem worth popping a cookie into my mouth if I then have to find my list, write it down and calculate the calories.  I find that it also keeps me very aware of how much fruit, veggies, whole grains, dairy and protein I've eaten throughout the day. Recently, I started making lists of what my son eats each day as a way of double-checking that he is getting enough of the five food groups.  Check out a typical day in the culinary life of my 15 month old.