You can lose weight by overcoming your cravings now. Here are the latest tricks of the trade from researchers and experts.

Avoid Your Triggers:

Some people believe dieting is as simple as eating less of the same favorite foods you always eat. Not so, say many experts. To start new eating habits, you need to establish new eating patterns, at least for now. The old foods you crave will just bring you down. Over time, as you try eating new and different things, your body will begin to crave those new foods.

Destroy Temptation:

If you've succumbed to a craving and bought a box of cookies or some other trigger food and start to feel bad while eating it, destroy it. It’s the same technique smokers use to kick the habit. Take your temptation food and ruin it, run water over it.

Go Nuts:

Drink two glasses of water and eat an ounce of nuts (6 walnuts, 12 almonds or 20 peanuts). Within 20 minutes, this can extinguish your craving and dampen your appetite.

Jolt Yourself with Java:

Try sipping a skim latte instead of reaching for a candy bar. The caffeine it contains won't necessarily satisfy your cravings, but it can save you the calories by quenching your appetite.

Let it Go:

Since stress is a huge trigger for cravings, learning to deal with it could potentially save you hundreds of calories a day. This will take some practice. You can try deep breathing or visualizing a serene scene on your own, or you can speed things up by buying one of the many CDs that teach progressive muscle relaxation.

Take a Power Nap:

Cravings sneak up when we're tired. Focus on the fatigue: Shut the door, close your eyes, re-energize.

Get Minty Fresh:

Brush your teeth; gargle with mouthwash. Once you have cleaned your teeth for the night you will be less tempted to go back to the fridge for seconds or thirds.

Distract Yourself:

If only ice cream will do, it's a craving, not hunger. Cravings typically last ten minutes. Recognize that and divert your mind: Call someone, listen to music, run an errand, meditate or exercise.

Replacement Food:

Gotta have a cookie? If you have to have one, you’ll probably need three of six more to go with it. If you can’t talk yourself out of a craving, replace it. Instead of reaching for the cookie, eat bananas. That’s right, more than one if you have to until you don’t want the cookie anymore.

Plan to avoid. On your way home from, or on that new daily walk you are taking, vary your usual route to avoid passing the bakery or pizzeria.