I don't know Debbie Jones.

I only know what she said to Don Lee for a newspaper article about how Americans are spending more money at restaurants than ever before.A Los Angeles lawyer and mother of 9-year-old twins, Jones finds that eating out provides an escape from her speed-of-light life. And when she escapes, she orders a treat, and justifies it by telling herself, "Oh, I deserve this."Clearly, the "this" to which she refers is the enjoyment she gets from eating a fine - and probably fattening - restaurant meal. But you, as someone who strives to stay healthy and fit, need to recognize that however well deserved a "this" may be, it comes with a "that."That food does more than sate your appetite and satisfy your taste buds. Food can function as medicine or operate as poison - albeit a rather slow-acting one.For instance, I know a cyclist who was the odds-on favorite to represent the United States on the track before the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Olympics. He quit after that, resumed riding a few years later, and then dominated the pro racing at the Trexlertown Velodrome (as it was known back then) for a few years.He switched over to road racing by the mid-1990s and continued to ride competitively for about 10 years. Frequently back then, we'd meet the same group and train together on weekends. Since he also loved riding his motorcycle, he'd often get up early (so there was little traffic) and take a drive (an illegally fast one).His destination: some rather distant diner to have a less-than-healthy breakfast.During the bike ride afterwards, he'd tell tales about how fast he had gone and how poorly he had eaten.He always had bacon with his eggs - unless that specific greasy spoon made especially good sausage. Or scrapple. He regularly ordered home fries, too - unless he felt like a change and hash browns were listed on the menu.As we'd stand and climb a tough hill, he'd often joke about how he could feel all the fat he ate sloshing around his insides. Then he stopped joking.And riding.Because he had a heart attack that should've killed him.During an off-season mountain bike ride on the trails around Blue Marsh Lake outside of Reading a few years ago, my friend just didn't feel right. He fell behind the group and then felt such a tightness in his chest that he had to stop.Luckily, his companions came back to find him, and luckily, he was stricken at a spot on the trail that passed a parking lot. Because of that, the EMTs manning the ambulance that arrived in less than 10 minutes were able to administer to him immediately without traversing the muddy trail. According to his doctor, that early intervention and the fact that St. Joseph's Hospital had recently moved from inner city Reading to a site close to the lake, were the only reasons why he is alive.But he certainly is not the same.Thirty years of poor breakfasts - and probably 30 years of poor lunches and dinners that I never heard about - insured that.But what if you want to occasionally eat out, sometimes even eat fast food, but would rather not have those "escapes" that Debbie Jones feels she deserves result in unwanted weight gain, let alone a disease such as type 2 diabetes, or the aforementioned extreme end result: a massive heart attack? Then you need to employ other positive, routine behaviors.The Cornell Food and Brand Lab researchers have an online site called Global Health Weight Registry where adults who maintain a healthy weight are invited to share the strategies they use to stay that way.Surprisingly, 74 percent of respondents never or rarely diet, but 92 percent of them are always conscious of what they eat.This may be the saving grace to a bad meal: the awareness of one. When you recognize an unhealthy meal as just that, you're far more likely to follow it with a series of super-healthy meals.Moreover, 50 percent of GHWR respondents weigh themselves at least weekly (again, a great way to insure awareness), and 42 percent exercise at least five times a week.How important is exercise? I've discussed weight-control and fitness regiments with hundreds of people over the years, and I can't recall more than a handful who had weight control problems while working out ambitiously five or more times a week.While ambitious exercise doesn't allow you to eat whatever, it certainly does provide some margin for error.Additionally, consider the words of a diabetes researcher quoted in an article written by Dr. Philip J. Goscienski, better known as through his syndicated column as "The Stone Age Doc": "Type 2 diabetes is an exercise-deficiency disease." While this doesn't mean exercise makes you absolutely immune to the ailment, it does suggest it's the first line of defense.Finally, 96 percent of GHWR respondents claimed to eat breakfast. For most people, eating early seems to keep them from overeating later in the day, another key in weight control.Adopt some or all of these positive behaviors, and it's far more likely that you'll be able to eat out once or twice a week without gaining weight, increasing your risk of type 2 diabetes, or - god forbid - having a heart attack.