Interestingly, I use the same method to stick to my diet. I repeat to myself and others how gross fast food is and just say things like yuck, eww, etc when I think of eating it. It took a short time before I just naturally avoid it and have no desire or cravings anymore. And this is from someone that once consumed at least 1, most times 2, meals a day from fast food places.
My problem with dieting was different, I eat normal food, I just eat a lot of it, even if I'm not hungry. I realized this was because the long-term gain of not eating is just too long-term, so I set up a points system where I reward myself with points any time I eat less than maintenance, and I lose points whenever I eat more. It's been working quite well so far!
I've done something in the same vein, but not so detailed. Say I'm out for dinner and they offer desert. I have a sweet tooth, so I look at the menu. If it sounds absolutely great, I'll give in. But if it appears to be just OK, I say to myself "I'll save those calories for something better another day."
Likewise, if potato chips are served with a meal -- if I ate them I'd get some marginal pleasure from it, but I can think of 20 ways to get more pleasure from the same number of calories.
Mentally, I'm not denying myself pleasure; I'm banking it for future pleasure. The overall effect is I have fewer low-yield calories and fewer calories overall.
Well you basically made up reverse weight watchers. They assign points based on calorie counts (and I think healthiness factors as well but I could be wrong there). You have a set number of points per day.
My system is simpler in that you don't have to count calories or anything, you just ballpark the amount of points you gain/lose based on how you ate. It's not about the points anyway, the points are just there for motivation, so they just need to be accurate enough to keep you from thinking it's a sham.
Conditioning oneself to feel shame when purchasing or being seen eating unhealthy food works too. In fact I'm pretty sure it's a key component of the general food culture of most places that are slimmer than the US—which is almost all the places that there are.
