We’ve all got a weakness for something brimming with calories. Knowing how to cope with cravings and resist bad menu choices in restaurants can make or break your weight-loss plan. Here’s how our successful losers did it:

Cave into chocolate. There aren’t many days when I don’t have some form of chocolate. I’ll eat a Hershey’s Kiss or a handful of chocolate chips. I’ve learned if I try to fight my chocolate cravings, they’ll blow up in my face and I’ll end up eating three chocolate bars in one sitting.
Sheila Clark, 31, lost 65 lbs

Keep a stash of baby carrots in your purse, your car, and your desk at work. Eat those when you want a snack and they’ll fill you up and keep you from munching on chips or chocolate.
Mimi Abu-Saud, 39, lost 14 pounds

Budget for eating out. If I know I’m going to be eating at a restaurant for dinner I’ll eat something light for lunch, like a salad, so I can afford to eat more at dinner.
Lilian May, 34, lost 110 lbs 

Put pictures of yourself on your fridge; one of you at your heaviest weight and one at your lowest. I did it because I don’t want to go back to what I once looked like. When you go to open the fridge, seeing the pictures will help you make a healthy choice.
Carrie Morris, 32, lost 25 lbs

Don’t drink during the week. When I analyzed what I was eating, I realized I was having one or two glasses of wine every night, which is a lot of empty calories. Now I wait until Friday or Saturday night to have a glass of wine and it’s a treat.
Jayne McCaw Gilbert, 41, lost 10 lbs

Order from the kids’ menu. Your server will probably object but insist on a smaller portion and tell them to charge you more. They’ll tend to accommodate you and if you perceive they’ve made it difficult, take your business elsewhere.
Pauline Wallace, 43, lost 50 lbs

Ask people to stop giving you chocolates as gifts because I’ll eat them. I don’t have a lot of will power so I try to limit the possibility that I’ll binge.
Shona Nicholson, 43, lost 90 lbs

Eat what you want once a week. Have one day where you eat what you want. It helps you manage your cravings and your social life. It allows me to have a night out and eat chicken wings or have a drink and then put it behind me.
Cathy Downey, 32, lost 36 lbs

Realize that every meal in a restaurant is not a celebration. The majority of the time we eat out it’s because we’re too lazy to cook or we don’t have any food at home. So why would we eat any differently? If you wouldn’t eat fettuccine alfredo at home, then why would you eat it in a restaurant?
Darlene Murphy, 48, lost 232 lbs (12 sizes) in 2003