Enough diet advice to go 'round

I've been stock piling techniques to lose weight, never fully committing to any of them, but dabbling and searching for some dynamic equilibrium. These rules go through my head constantly, usually when I'm breaking them. They often contradict each other, but I'm not big on absolutes. Some of the advice here actually has done me some good, but regardless, they need to be shared cuz some of this might work for you as well.

Here's my ever growing diversity of dietary tactics:

-In the AM, eat nothing but fresh fruit - as much as you want. (I lost 7 lbs in three weeks doing only this)

-Eat all of your favorite foods, but swap dinner for breakfast. In other words, eat a breakfast that is the size of your normal dinner and eat a dinner that is the size of your normal breakfast.

-Green smoothies. Put your favorite fruits in a blender, along with water or juice AND A BIG HANDFUL OR TWO OF KALE OR SPINACH. Blend until the greens are totally liquefied (you may decide to pick up a Vitamix for this if you get into it). Drink about a quart of this with lunch or sometime before dinner.

-No food after 8pm, not even ice cream.

-Bring some weights into the living room and do a few sets of this or that during TV time.

-Quite calorie counting. That doesn't help you choose healthy foods. Too many low-cal foods are processed, full of preservatives, carcinogenic fake sugar, and just plain "untasty." Instead, find out how yummy healthy food can be. As you expand your healthy repertoire, the stuff the weighs you down will slowly get crowded out of your routine.

-No sugar in your coffee or tea (but keep the cream... incremental change, yall). Slowly, you'll grow to appreciate the true flavor of your favorite hot beverages.

-Before a meal, drink a low-calorie smoothie. If you exercise, make sure to add some kind of protein (like powdered soy, whey, etc). This should cut back on your appetite come meal time.

-Smaller plates. This generally leads to smaller portions at meal time and tricks your mind into thinking you've accomplished the ritual of eating a whole meal by "clearing your plate."

-Eat at these Richmond restaurants for a change.

-Don't finish your spouse's meal after s/he is done. Let it go. One of you can take the leftovers to work for lunch the next day.

-Eat more of these. Not the book, the stuff inside.

-Do like my wife: Eat small portions slowly. Chew with deliberate mindfulness. Save room for desert and then make that small as well.

-Don't order salads at restaurants. They generally suck and are laden with heavy dressing. Eat what you want when you go out, and learn to make some really kick-ass salads that you like. Eat those at home for dinner twice a week.

Here's a satisfying salad recipe:

• lettuce or other tender greens
• sunflower seeds (or pepitas or other salad topper type nuts)
• ginger dressing (make this one if you can't find the divine stuff from Makoto)
• strips of wanton wrappers (saute them on the stove for 1 min w/a little oil until crunchy)
• seared tuna with an Asian spice rub (veg-heads: just use some tofu, but be sure to get some char marks on that thang).

Toss it and sit down to watch a movie with this in your lap and maybe some sake. Mmmmmm.

-Another approach I've taken to my nutrition is to buy supplements that are in the clearance bin at Vitamin Shoppe, GNC, etc. Sometimes the discounts are around 75% and they'll have a bunch of stuff that is really trendy and would otherwise be expensive. Sure, the expiration date is probably approaching or past, but don't let details like that keep you from a bargain and a worth-while experiment.

Here's some stuff that I'm taking religiously right now:
(no idea if/what these might actually be doing for me at this point)

• Tahitian Noni juice, but not from pyramid scheme marketing sales guys (smells like liquid antibiotics - ew)
• Whey protein isolate (taken as a smoothie, partial meal replacement cuz you eat less after drinking it)
• Dehydrated ground Acai berries (added to the whey shake for antioxidant properties)
• Royal Jelly 300mg (good enough for the queen bee, good enough for me)
  
• Men's Multi-vitamin (Origin brand from Target, super cheap, but has some cool stuff like Q10, green tea extract, etc)
• Vitamin D3: 1000mg megadose (father in-law says it's the ticket to health)
• Migra-ease (contains butterbur, ginger, etc, cuz I get headaches)

Okay, so what do you think? Have you had success with any of these techniques or products? Got any suggestions? If you decide to adopt some part of this, lemme know how it goes.