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Don't diet and still lose weight. In fact, never diet again! At least not in the usual sense of strictly limiting yourself to a certain number of calories, carbs or types of foods.
Recently I was diagnosed with high blood sugar. It wasn't really high, but it was over the recommended guideline of 100.
My doctor signed me up for a two day class in diabetes management even though I am not technically a diabetic yet.

Each student was given an eating planned based on factors determined by the answers given on a questionnaire.
The eating plan is the American Diabetes Exchange program. The personalized guide the dietitian created for me allows me 6 protein exchanges-4 fat exchangers and 11 carbohydrate exchanges each day.
A protein exchange is one ounce of meat, fish or poultry, 1 egg, 1/4 cup cottage cheese, 1 Tablespoon of peanut butter or 1 ounce of cheese.
A fat exchange is 5 grams of fat. 1 tsp of margarine or oil is 5 grams. 1 Tbs of salad dressing or cream cheese is one fat exchange. One slice of bacon is one fat exchange.
A carbohydrate exchange is 15 grams. One ounce of bread or 1/2 a cup of starchy vegetables such as corn, peas, beans or potatoes are 15 grams.
Fruit is very high in carbs and they recommended we eat no more than one serving of fruit a day which I found surprising until I studied the exchanges and saw that one small piece of fruit is one exchange.
This adds up to 1500 to 1800 calories per day. It isn't all you can eat, but it is what someone my age, size, and activity level should eat each day to maintain a healthy weight.
A lot of the two day course was aimed at teaching us how to recognize and control portions. Weighing, measuring and reading labels were the leading topics.
It was suggest we use our hand as a quick guide to determine a portion.
The palm of a person's hand is about the size of one serving of protein. The whole hand will equal a serving of bread, this includes the thickness of the hand, as well as width. The thumb to the first joint will be one fat exchange. The cup of the hand is about 1/2 a cup.
Of course, the size of the hand varies, but since the size of people varies it all works out pretty well.
I expected to lose some weight following this plan, but I was really surprised when a month later I was ten pounds lighter. After all I am eating what I am supposed to consume daily for the rest of my life.
I find that instead of thinking in terms of being on or off a diet, which is the condition I've lived under since I was ten years old, I now think "I can have this or this today. Which one do I want the most?"
I can have a piece of cake or some ice cream, but I have to fit it into my daily numbers. For me this is easier than avoiding such treats and thinking "I'll have some when I'm off my diet." There is no going off this diet so I have to learn the lessons of amounts and portions which is something I should have learned as a child, but didn't.
More information about this way of eating can be obtained from the American Diabetes Association.

Learn more about this author, Elizabeth J Baldwin.
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