Michelle's Top Tips

BYO condiments. When going out to eat, Michelle brings along her own low-cal salad dressing, low-cal butter spray and reduced-calorie sour cream and cheese. That way, she can order an unadorned salad and baked potato, and doctor them up without going over her calorie allotment. She also takes a measuring cup to family-style restaurants so she can mete out half-cup portions of rice. Says Michelle, “I have a lot of big purses!”

Work the Web. “Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone is amazing,” says Michelle, who used dwlz.com to get the calorie counts for food at restaurants from Cheddar’s to the Cheesecake Factory. Sites like Dotti’s not only consolidate calorie and weight-loss info, they also run message boards where health-minded dieters can swap tips. Many restaurants and food companies also list nutritional information on their Web sites. Check before you chew!

Make it a party. If you’re worried about how to hold down your calorie count in the presence of fat-happy pals and relatives, convince them to join the losing battle with you. Michelle recruited her mom, two co-workers and a friend to fight fat with her. The group shared tips and took turns playing food cop and cheering each other on.