[lukifer]

I found the opposite to be true: Bright Lines are more effective than half-measures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright-line_rule

I tried keeping soda and fast food to only one day per week, but bit by bit, "just this once", it kept spilling back into day-to-day habits, and/or miserable cravings. Only when the stimuli were removed entirely (and substituted with other goodies likes steaks and raspberries) did I start to get results, both in behavior and health (45 lbs in two months).

YMMV, different strokes, etc.

[Dewie]

It's not clear that they is advocating 'half measures'. They is advocating changing one thing at a time. That could mean to only eating chocolate on the weekends, or to stop eating chocolate entirely - both of these measures are just changing one thing. I've had success just cutting out one thing at a time - instead of cutting out snacks entirely, I've cut out sweet snacks. Not salty snacks, just sweet snacks. This, in a way, "removed the stimulus entirely", because I find craving for sweets and salty/fatty stuff to be more or less distinct cravings. Now after I stopped having sweet cravings, I cut out salty/fatty snacks, and then I would hardly ever get cravings for chips and such.