Follow these guidelines at the next holiday buffet or cookout, and you’ll avoid overeating without even realizing that you’re doing it.

Enjoy without overindulging: 5 simple rules prevent buffet overload.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Bottle rockets aren’t the only explosive you’ll encounter this weekend. The ginormous holiday buffet, with its intense magnetism and immense quantities of mayonnaise, has the potential to absolutely explode your diet, if you allow it. That’s why we asked Brian Wansink, PhD, the endlessly inventive Cornell University professor and author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (Bantam, 2006), to make us mindful of what we can do to resist its siren call. Here are Wansink’s five practical, easy-to-implement strategies for beating the buffet—and the calorie gain that often comes with it.

#1: Employ “the Rule of Two.” That is, limit yourself to just two foods at a time. “A real danger in a party situation is that food is really convenient, and it’s really varied,” says Wansink, who shares his advice about eating in a blog on Prevention.com. “And that combo is a recipe for diet disaster.” To sidestep disaster, Wansink suggests serving yourself no more than two foods at a time, but giving yourself the option to go back for more if you like. “This is a powerfully successful strategy,” he says, “because you’re not denying yourself, which can lead to bingeing, and—and this is important—you’re not getting caught up in filling your plate.”

#2: Pick a smaller dish. Research has shown that the size of the plate absolutely changes your perception of the proper serving size: The larger the plate, the more food you tend to serve yourself. “If different-sized plates are stacked next to the buffet, always choose the salad- or dessert-sized plate—or even the children’s plate,” says Wansink. “You’ll serve yourself smaller portions without even realizing it.”