But this time, I'm shopping with my new roommate, and those chips have lost their appeal.

Usually, they're something I eat with one of my siblings' delicious homemade salsa. Now, though, I'm living on my own, and my siblings won't be coming over for dinner.

Food choices are solely up to me. But it's not until I reach the checkout that I realize something startling - nearly everything in my basket is fresh produce.

The only item that is prepackaged is a small package of Fig Newtons.

As I've discovered over the past week, one of the great parts of living on my own is that I have complete control over my food in my house. While my parents have always done a good job of making healthful, nutritious meals, it's often difficult to provide fresh fruit and vegetables for a house full of teens and preteens.

My siblings always seem to manage to smuggle junk food into the shopping cart or bring it home from school or friends' houses.

Not to mention, I have family members who tend to enable my junk-food eating, be it a berry pie or homemade fried chicken.

Now I live with people who don't care what I eat for dinner or how low-fat I make it.

But now I can simply stop the flow of food into my house. If I don't buy it, I don't have it to tempt me.

Yes, my roommates have their own tastes and bring in their own food. But anything they bring in isn't a temptation because it's not food I can take from a sibling. There's an invisible force field around their food, flashing "not mine" in orange neon.

The good news: They tend to eat pretty healthily themselves.

So, for all of us during the past week, plums and nectarines have sated cravings for sweets, and a low-fat, low-carb pasta salad has served as my default dinner or lunch choice.

Yes, I've gone back to the store and I now have some low-fat popcorn and crackers, and some sugar-free pudding and Jell-O.

But overall, I'm reaching for a banana or orange instead.

And even though I can still hear my dad's voice telling me that living on my own I'm going to have to face "real-world expenses" such as food, the ability to keep out the cookies and cupcakes is worth every cent.

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* SHEENA MCFARLAND can be reached at smcfarland@sltrib.com or via her blog, "The Incredible Shrinking Sheena" at www.sltrib.com/blogs. Her phone number is 801-257-8619. Send comments about this column to livingeditor@sltrib.com.

Sheena's stats

* Part of a regular series. You can also follow Sheena's progress on her blog at www.sltrib.com/blogs.

Starting weight on May 29, 2006: 290

Weight last week: 247

Weight this week: 245

Total weight lost: 45

Weekly milestone: I've eaten more salads and fresh fruit in the last week than in the last two months.