In your day-to-day life, you are constantly making choices: What to wear, where to go (at least at weekends), what to do and, of course, what to buy.

Say you want a new CD player. You may have a look at a consumer magazine, you may surf the internet, you may take advice from a shop assistant or you may ask a friend who knows about these things.

But, at the end of the day, you will only buy one CD player, carefully chosen from among the large range on offer.

Now I'm going to offer you the theory that, for slim people, choosing food is not very different from choosing a CD player.

It sounds preposterous but just read on and you'll see it's true.

First, let me start with how I would have behaved in my overweight days. Imagine me (or you) at a party and there's a beautiful buffet table of desserts laid out.

In the past, it would have been too much for me - I would have chosen two or three or four desserts, muttering to anyone within earshot that I just couldn't resist.

Then, of course, I would have gone back for more, taking a clean plate in the hope that anyone watching me would think it was my first time round.

Of course, I would have done this all the while telling myself: "Tomorrow I'll go back on the diet."

The self-deception and subterfuge that one practises is frightening.

Now let's have a look at the behaviour of the naturally slim person at the buffet dessert table.

The slim person hovers, enjoying the conversation around, listens to their taste buds all the while and makes a choice.

You can bet they'll choose either one dessert or a small portion of two. No apologies.

Maybe just a whisper of "naughty but nice". And you can be pretty sure they won't go back for more. They'll be satisfied (not stuffed). After all, tomorrow they can have a different dessert somewhere else.

Yes - they chose from among the tasty food. Just the same as they would only choose one CD player.

Choosing food is a characteristic of a gourmet eater.

Some of us with a weight problem have lost the art of being gourmets. We'll eat anything.

How many of you can own up to eating stale bread or stale cake?

Or, even worse, frozen bread or frozen cake?

If only we could train ourselves to make gourmet choices, we could solve a lot of problems.

If we can learn to eat food which is really really worth having and reject the run-of-the-mill, we will make weight loss a very normal process.

We must practice very, very slow eating. In doing so, we will come to savour food and appreciate every bite.

The dieter has come to view food as always being rationed.

But, if you can just rid yourself of the deprivation diet mentality, there's always more tomorrow .

Here's to the future gourmet you.

You can get support from Dr Judy Citron and her team of DietCoaches by joining her telephone weight-loss classes, right from your own home. "You lose weight and you're not on a diet. It's amazing." Seperate clases for men and women. Phone free for more information on 0800 074 0260 or visit the web site at www.thedietcoach.com