Hi everyone,

This is the heaviest I have been in my life and I do not want to continue to get heavier!! I've just hit rock bottom, and am sick of feeling this way! So I am more determined than ever now to lose this weight! Weigh-in today was just under 13st. I want to eventually get down to about 10st. I have a holiday booked for July next year, and I would love if I could have lost quite a bit of weight by that time!

I had to cancel my gym membership, as it was my college gym - I've finished college for now though, and it's so far to go. It was easy to just go straight after or before class, but it's using up a lot of petrol and money that I don't have! So, since money is a problem for me at the moment, I am going to invest in the Wii Fit Plus tomorrow and start doing that daily! I'm also taking my dog out for longer walks now!

So, sorry to come crawling back here, but I really could do with the support! My friend is great and she also wants to lose weight, but she doesn't take it serious enough, as she will always have us eating take-aways, ice cream, crisps etc. So I need to be strong when it comes to visiting her! lol

Thanks for listening!

Stace x

Hi, Ladies!

It is not easy to lose weight and keep it off - the keeping it off is the hard part! Apparently 96% of women who lose weight not only fail to keep it off but put on more, so you are not alone!

I think the only thing is not to go on a diet - sounds silly, but the point is that when you've been on a diet and you lose weight, you think, "Oh good, that's over!" and you start eating the same way as you did before. With predictable results! But if you change the way you eat forever, then as long as you keep an eye on things (and yes, that's a pain, but worth it in the end), you should be able to keep your body the way you like it.

Which means, of course, that as long as you eat sensibly 80-90% of the time, you can have a take-away sometimes, or an ice-cream, or even a random bag of chips. The thing to do is to make sure the take-away is your main meal of the day, the ice-cream, if it isn't part of a meal then needs to count as part of a meal (so don't have another pud that day, for instance) and that none of these things happen too often. Keep a food diary at least half the time - it really does help keep a check on one's worst excesses, and if it's a habit, even when you don't keep it (I find, anyway) you think much more about what you're eating.

One big golden rule is don't eat anything you don't really enjoy! We all have some things life would be less happy without (pork pies!!!!! Cornish pasties!!!), and other "treat" foods just don't cut it for us. I have stopped eating mince pies, as they're okay, but only okay, and haven't really fancied a jam doughnut for years.

If, when you're with a friend, you know she's going to suggest something that you'd rather not eat right then, then have an alternative strategy planned: "I don't really fancy fish and chips right now; tell you what, though, let's go to Nando's, they do lovely chips if you want them, and I'd kill for one of their salads!" (Nando's is actually a lifesaver, I find - delicious food, mostly healthy, yet cheap and cheerful! And one can always nick a few of one's husband's/friends chips... although I actually prefer their spicy rice.).

I'm rambling, so I'll stop, but you get the idea....

Thanks so much both of you for replying.

TS - you hit the nail on the head for me when you said "Eat to live not live to eat"! Good luck to you too! Hopefully we will get there together! :)

Annabel, I completely agree that we have to get the word "diet" out of our heads. I tried this the last time I tried to lose weight. Everytime someone asked me "Are you on a diet?" i would answer "No, I'm just trying to have a healthier lifestyle".  I feel it made a lot of difference saying this, as for some reason I didn't feel quite so much pressure to lose lots of weight quickly! So that's always the phrase I use now!

We like to have 1 day a week where we have a Chinese for dinner, so that we get a break from cooking. I have been cutting down on the portion sizes of what I eat from take-aways, and make sure that I eat healthily the rest of the week, so that it doesn't pile up quite as bad on me! Does this sound sensible enough?