Fat Trap No. 6
You're on the soccer mom (or mall rat) diet: constantly caught empty-bellied and forced to succumb to the snack stand or food court.

A recent study in the journal Obesity found that dieters consumed an average of 36 percent of their weekly calories on Saturdays.

Skinny Solutions
Be prepared! Keep a stash of snacks on hand: a mix of almonds and dried apricots in a mini plastic bag, Drayer suggests, or an energy bar with less than 200 calories.

Walk. Fast. Along the sidelines at the soccer game, or from Baby Gap to Sephora.
Go for the lesser food-court evils. If you find yourself peckish and snackless, hold your breath as you go past Cinnabon and head for one of these less egregious options, Gensler says: at Auntie Anne's, a plain pretzel with no butter; at Dunkin' Donuts, the Egg-White Turkey Sausage Flatbread sandwich; a slice of thin-crust pizza and a salad from Sbarro; Mickey D's Fruit and Yogurt Parfait; two Fresco Crunchy Tacos from Taco Bell.

Fat Trap No. 7
You barely have time to take a shower in the morning, much less shovel down breakfast.

If you regularly skip your a. m. meal, you might as well send excess pounds an engraved invitation to take up residence on your butt. Researchers know that morning fasters are more likely to be fat than morning eaters.

Skinny Solutions
Eat. Hey, it doesn't have to be an elaborate sit-down affair. You wouldn't be the first mom to bring an energy bar into the bathroom while you put on your makeup.
Prep in the p.m. Fill your cereal bowl (the kids' too) in the evening and cover with plastic wrap. The next morning all you have to do is add milk. Or make yourself a peanut butter sandwich with sliced banana while you make school lunches at night.

Have some egg with that toast. Or peanut butter with that bagel half. An all-carb (or very low-carb) diet will increase your carb craving and slow your metabolism, research has found, so be sure your morning meal includes a lean protein.

Suck down some moo. A new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition advises: Drink skim milk instead of fruit juice at breakfast and you'll feel full longer and be less likely to overindulge when lunchtime comes.

Fat Trap No. 8
Your grocery store cart runneth over with junk.

Skinny Solutions
Make a list and stick to it. Period. Include one treat per trip, Drayer suggests.
Don't shop when hungry. You're more likely to buy fattening crap.
Peruse the periphery. That's where you'll find produce, dairy foods, lean meats, and fish. The stuff in the middle is mostly highly processed (read: packed with calories and salt).

Shop online. The store employee who puts together your order will not toss in a bag of Chips Ahoy! unless it's on your list.

Fat Trap No. 9
Your pantry is stocked with kid-pleasers like cookies, chips, and soda.

Skinny Solutions
Stash that stuff where you can't see it. "Out of sight, out of mind" really works.
Keep your own treats. If you know you have a little something special hidden behind the spices or the frozen peas, you won't be as tempted to dig into the kids' Doritos. Limit decadent calories to around 150 a day, Drayer says: for example, seven Hershey's kisses (choose dark chocolate, for its cocoa flavanols); 3/4 cup of Edy's Slow-Churned Butter Pecan ice cream; or a single serving bag of Baked! Lay's potato crisps.

Back off the bubbly. New research from Johns Hopkins University says you can lose more weight by cutting out just one can of soda per day than by cutting out an equal number of calories from food. That's a good trade-off.