Habit formation is an important goal for behavior change interventions 
because habitual behaviors are elicited automatically
and are therefore likely to be maintained.

 
All habits—no matter how large or small—have three components, according to neurological studies.

• a cue—a trigger for a particular behavior;
• a routine, which is the behavior itself;  and
  
• a reward, which is how your brain decides whether to remember a habit for the future.

The two basic rules for forming a Habit are:

First, find a simple and obvious cue.
Second, clearly define the rewards.

According to Scientists, Habits are so powerful because they create neurological cravings.  Most of the time, these cravings emerge so gradually that we’re not really aware they exist. But as our brains start to associate certain cues (a bakery box!) with certain rewards (yummy pastry!), a subconscious craving emerges. And so whenever we see the bakery box in the break room we start craving a pastry—even if, just moments before, we weren't hungry at all.

If you can identify the right cue and reward—and if you can create a sense of craving—you can establish almost any habit.

For the past six years I've been interested in the well-thought-out Habit concepts of The No S Diet, and at  present, I am very focused on turning some specific Behaviors into Habits.

I believe achieving success in this area would be tremendously helpful to me in the areas of weight-loss and maintenance.  Wouldn't it be great if I CRAVED the Eating BEHAVIORS that served to keep me a "normal" weight?

Although I'm finding this type of Habit formation quite difficult, I feel certain that it's possible. During the past nine-and-one-third years, I've succeeded at establishing the habit of tracking all of my food intake into a computer food journal every day. Now… if I can just do the same thing with several specific positive eating behaviors …….

 

I read a lot about various Diet Plans, and I've spent a lot of time experimenting with them. I am not a fan of the Intutitive Eating Diet (and it is a Diet, although proponents like to label it a "non-diet"). 

My research and personal experience with it  has proven to me that "Intutive Eating" is an absolute disaster as a weight-loss plan for almost every person who struggles with obesity.  In my opinion, even "Faith Healing" has a better track record.

People who embrace the Intuitive Eating concepts sometimes develop Peace of Mind about their eating...but that usually lasts only until they realize that, not only are they NOT losing weight... they are Actually becoming fatter.

However, adding some simple guidelines to that concept can help stop the Intuitive Eating runaway train to Fat City.

I think that embracing the No S Diet plan is a useful strategy that can be helpful for people who have bought into, and found themselves trapped inside, the Intuitive Eating fantasy mindset.

Here's a very insightful quote by a long-time member of the "No S" forum:

When a thin person says she eats as much as she wants, it is a different "as much" as the typical overweight person.

Most thin people have a different definition of what full or stuffed is. Most of them hate the feeling of being stuffed. And most of them will routinely wait a long time to have a meal, if necessary. If they have to wait longer for dinner one day, they just get hungrier and wait. They will leave even food they love on their plate when they are full.

If eating as much as you want routinely means eating when you are hungry and beyond full or slightly less than full, you will not lose weight.

In the meantime, when you are intermittently reinforcing the habit of overeating, eating just because you have an urge that has nothing to do with hunger, responding to environmental cues, etc., you are making that habit stronger and stretching out the time it takes to help establish and solidify the habit of allowing yourself to get hungry several times a day by eating moderate amounts and then waiting an appropriate amount of time.

I spent years looking at why I ate. It wasn't until the No S Diet that I realized that it didn't matter. The best way to cut the cord between multiple reasons to eat and eating was to surrender to the one-plate 3-meal structure.  I won't ever be able to remove all the reasons I would like to eat.  On N (normal) days, most N days, they are irrelevant.  The problems don't go away.  The random eating has.

I eat my meals, some light, some heavier.  I get hungry, I satisfy the hunger.

It is ten times easier (but not easy at the start) than anything else I've done and that includes several years wasted trying to just read my body's signals. It is too easy to lie to yourself or to just not be sensitive enough. Besides, on that system, I was routinely getting hungry even fewer times per day because I would overeat the wrong foods all the time. Do you think you can get used to that?

Then again all the experimentation did finally make me see the futility of the other methods for me.
 

There are many different food plans,and many ways to look at eating.
All of them work for someone, but none of them work for everyone.

The following quote is from a member of a forum I frequently visit.
The principle discussed is the matter of choice and responsibility for that choice,which actually fits into many different food-plans, however. in the present quote,
the principle is being applied to “S” days in the No S Diet.

“Something I want to mention is out of the books
Beating Overeating and Overcoming Overeating by Gillian Riley.
She says to give yourself Complete freedom (seriously)
and tell yourself you CAN do whatever you want.
Then ask yourself, I am I really Choosing??
This has really freed me in the past eating changes.

I ask myself, What do I really want,
do I want to go ahead and eat/overeat,
and then imagine the outcomes of both choices
the negative and positive, how I will feel, ect.
if I choose one or the other.

Then I can decide what I TRULY want to do,
whether its negative or positive,
and I also have to ACCEPT the consequences ect.
So in doing it this way I am taking responsibility for my choices.

Instead of just binging a whole bunch and beating myself up afterwards,
If I think it over and imagine how I'll feel later
and what might be the consequences of doing it,
I didn’t always want to overeat/binge!
In fact, a lot of times, I chose NOT to do the negative thing!

I can ask myself what I REALLY want (quality vs. quantity)
and then eat accordingly. If I REALLY want to binge, I can binge,
but then accept the consequences with no problems.
If I REALLY want to enjoy a few treats without going overboard,
then I could choose that too.

I think If I truly ask myself I could be more true to myself
and my true desires. It is a powerful tool,
with also allowing yourself complete freedom!”

This is a principle of mental control, and seems completely reasonable.

 The elephant in the room here though, is the possible chemical effects of highly altered foods on the body,
and their attraction and availability in our current world.

And ….if…. these modern (non) foods with combinations of salt/fat/sugars and man-made chemicals that help with flavor and shelf-life, actually affect an individual body the way alcohol affects an alcoholic… making it almost impossible for some bodies to establish ongoing mental control after any of that substance enters the body.

I don’t know. 
But when bingeing is a personal problem, it seems like this might be an issue to consider.