Enjoy what you are eating and take your time. Think about how wonderful each bite tastes and how it will nourish your body. You'll rediscover that one of life's greatest pleasures is enjoying good food. By eating slowly and thoughtfully you'll feel full eating smaller portions. Keep out as much distraction as possible and carry on a pleasant conversation with those you love. A meal is not the proper time to settle arguments or rebuke family members for misdeeds. It's better to listen to music than to watch television during dinner because television is too distracting and often deeply disturbing.

People who dine alone often like to read while they eat. And that's fine as long as you make sure to enjoy every bite and stop frequently to savor the sweetness of good food. And do read something pleasant, uplifting. If your work involves travel, you'll have to devise some special strategies to eat 7 colors each day on the road and enjoy what you eat. Al, for example, travels 50 percent of his time, and he finds that reading something inspirational during breakfast helps him focus later on his high-tech presentations. He selects fresh fruit and either a vegetable omelet or old-fashioned oatmeal with yogurt, depending on his plans for the day. If he's taking clients to lunch, then breakfast and dinner will be lighter meals. Al keeps mealtime with his clients low-key, focusing on enjoying their company and exploring common interests rather than promoting his products and services.

Most of us eat too much food and never feel quite satisfied. On a trip to Dallas I booked a room in a hotel that was hosting a convention for a group called "Take off Pounds Sensibly" or "TOPS." While visiting with a woman at the breakfast counter one morning, I pushed my half-full plate away. She was amazed that I could be full and told that she had never known what that felt like. Later you'll read about some of my clients and how they overcame the feeling of never being full when they followed the 7-Color system. You will eat less yet feel more satisfied. The trick is to choose the right foods and keep portion size under control.

The Importance of Presentation

Adults age fifty and older and those who wish to lose weight should serve their main courses on nine-inch salad plates. To enhance the meal's presentation and make it more visually appealing, place the food in the middle of the plate and garnish it with a sprig of fresh herbs or colorful strips of raw vegetables. A plate heaping with food and spilling over the sides is really unappealing, except maybe at Thanksgiving, a holiday that celebrates food with great conviviality.

It's best to serve main course accompaniments like salads on seven-inch bread-and-butter plates. Use small bowls to hold dipping sauce, brown rice, or vegetables. Serving various courses on separate plates heightens the intrigue and encourages mindfulness as you choose which plate to sample from next. Children know this innately. They hate when the gravy runs all over the vegetables and many find it disgusting if different types of food even touch one another.

The recipes in this book are planned for two people who are either on a weight-loss regimen or in their middle or later years, but they can be scaled easily to feed a bigger crowd at the table.

Excerpted from 7-Color Cuisine: Making healthy, colorful foods a lifestyle for nutrition and good eating(http://www.penmarin.com/proddetail.asp?prod=Zimmerman000&f rom=4) by Marcia Zimmerman, M.D. (Penmarin Books http://www.penmarin.com, February 2006).

About the author:

Marcia Zimmerman, M.Ed., C.N. is an internationally known nutrition author, educator and consultant to some of the country's leading nutrition and supplement companies. Zimmerman is a recognized expert on the use of dietary modification and supplements to address various health problems.