Thanks so much for sharing your goals and your struggles.  I have gained 40+ pounds over the last 6 years and it has really effected how I feel about myself.  I have set a goal for healthy living too and I hope to eventually lose 40+ pounds.  I have debated whether to join Weight Watchers or not so I am anxious to see how you like it and how it works for you. 

You can do it!!

 Hi Stephie,  I know how you feel, I really do.  What I discovered was that eating in a low glycaemic way was the trick to losing weight because it turned out my weight gain was mainly stress related so my stress hormones were all over the scale, which, in turn, affected my insulin so I was spiking insulin in the evenings because I had been eating lots of carbs in the daytime.  That made me want to snack a lot so I gained and gained.

Eventually, I went to a nutritionist who explained it all to me and told me what to do. I lost 28lbs last year from eating low GI and then I moved into a house with a friend who is vegetarian and who eats a lot of carbs and gradually I started to eat carbs more, and, guess what, I started to gain weight again.  She decided to do WW so I said I'd go along as they have a new system, which, to my mind, is a lot better than the old one and has more focus on how foods are processed in the body.  I am doing it more to keep her company and to keep me on the path but I am basically going back to eating low GI.  It's the best way because it's not a diet so you don't feel deprived.  

For example, I have an boiled egg, 2 ryvitas with non-dairy spread and Marmite (I know, most people hate Marmite!) and that keeps me going for hours. Lunch could be a big salad but the key here is to always have protein at every meal so I add tuna or salmon and then for fibre I add chickpeas or other legumes, along with lots of veg. I make a nice dressing and it's delicious. That also keeps me not hungry for hours. For snacks I might have a small handful of almonds or cashews. Dinner would be whatever you fancy but keep the carbs to an absolute minimum or not at all and, if you do eat any, make sure they're wholegrain so they process more slowly.  Lots of water, the odd dessert without guilt and I lost 28lbs in 4 months!  

Not bad, eh?  Back to the drawing board now.  I will update here although I still have figured out how to do that.  Maya x

Maya, welcome to the challenge! So many of us have this goal right now, I'm glad to see you've joined the conversation. Your perspective on eating is exactly what a nutritionist shared with me when I was pregnant. Your body needs protein, carb and fat in every meal so it can fully process in your system, and it has to be in the right amounts. I am a big fan on not "dieting" because I think it puts the focus too much on food and not enough on being healthy. Your past progress will definitely come back to you, I'm sure! To post your updates, just add a note right here on your goal page and those who are following your goal or the Challenge will find you. Engage your friends to post resources and support to help you and you will climb in the rankings! Good luck and again, welcome!

 Thanks for the encouragement.  I have been sticking to my goal to exercise at least 30 mins a day and even went out in the rain and wind today so as not to miss a day. It was actually quite nice as it wasn't too cold.

Finding the WW thing a bit hard to do as it's putting me in a diet mentality which immediately makes me want to eat things I 'shouldn't';  I think I will trust my instincts to go with the low GI balanced eating I was doing so successfully before and use some of the tools from WW to help me track things. Otherwise I will end up failing as I have at every 'diet'.

Staring the 5 Tibetan exercises tomorrow as well and looking forward to that.

Maya