At first it sounds too good to be true. You mean I can eat what I want, never diet, never obsess about food, lose pounds and maintain a healthy weight for life? Put a price tag on the concept, and its creator would become a multimillionaire overnight. But this is no diet gimmick. It's an ancient concept available to everyone, and it's absolutely free.

It's called "mindful eating." Mindfulness means being fully aware within the present moment. When you practice mindful eating, you pay attention to your body's subtle and natural cues, specifically the ones that say "feed me" and "that's enough." It's appealing because it's a mind-set instead of a meal plan. Unlike a diet, there's no self-denial, no counting protein or carb grams, no measuring or weighing your food.

Much has been written recently about the more tedious practices of mindful eating: meticulously observing the properties of your food, slowly lifting the fork to your mouth, chewing each bite thoroughly, visualizing its journey to your stomach, etc. But even if you don't have the time (or, frankly, the inclination) to engage in this process every time you sit down to a meal or nosh, it's still possible to lose weight using some of the methods that make the approach successful. I know firsthand it works, after losing 4 pounds in two weeks simply by noticing when I was hungry, killing a craving with three cookies (instead of 10) and never eating past the point of being satisfied. As with anything else, the more you cultivate the mindful-eating habit, the more successful you will be. Remember: Concentrate on only one degree of change at a time. It's the small, manageable steps that will lead you where you want to go.

Ready to give it a try? Here's your five-day, it's-not-a-meal-plan guide to mindful eating.

Day 1: Eat until you are about 80 percent full
Eat normally today, but make a point of paying attention to the sensation of being full. Contemplate the word satisfied; enjoy your food, without the obligation of cleaning your plate. Think comfortable, not full.

Rivka Simmons, a psychotherapist in Medford, Mass., who created a program called "Have Your Cake and Eat It Too! A Gentle Approach to Food, Your Body and Yourself" (which she teaches at universities in the Boston area), suggests visualizing a hunger meter that works like a car's gas gauge. On a scale from zero to 10 (zero being empty, 10 being Thanksgiving-dinner full), how hungry are you when you begin eating? Check in at regular intervals, and try to stop when your scale is between 6 and 8.

Scientists have determined that it takes 20 minutes for your brain to fully recognize the food in your system. So, if you eat till you're 100 percent full, you're likely to eat about 20 percent more than you need.

Checklist
1. Did you stop eating before the sensation of being full? YES/NO
2. Did you eat less food than you normally would have? YES/NO

If you answered yes to both questions, bravo! You're beginning to concentrate on what you eat and on your level of satisfaction. Continue with what you've learned here, and move on to day 2.
If you answered no to one or both questions, try the suggestions here again tomorrow (and the next day, and the next, if needed), until you've answered both questions with a yes. Then move on to day 2.