Can you please stop referring to 'picking the right plan' and 'diet' as if its a short term thing? I love you lots, but its a lifetime diet lifestyle you are looking for :)

First, I'm sure I'm not the only one sick of reading comments criticising your choice of terminology for eating plan/diet/lifestyle change. We all know what you mean: changing your eating habits. A rose by any other name..

I've tried Weight Watchers and had a similar experience, plus the pain of having to whip out the little points book every time you wanted to eat was a pain. And Jenny Craig is not even worth mentioning. I have found that when I've tried to do it my self that I've ended up gaining weight - no one to report to and a lack of knowledge about food in general. Now I've seen a nutritionist and have lost 5kgs in a month through small simple and easy changes like just eating slowly!

I use sparkpeople.com, which is probably very similar to fatsecret. In Sparkpeople you can load your own recipes and it calculates the nutritional info for you, it's free too. It's American though so it's US foods in the database, but you can put your own foods in as well.

What works for me is eating small meals every three hours and a total of around 1500-1600 calories a day and recording everything is a must. I like treats and I don't deny myself but I've learnt that when I eat the good (healthy) stuff I can have more of it for less energy, so don't end up getting hungry. I don't restrict the macros as I end up craving them, it's really about portion control. A fist for carbs, palm sized for protein, the rest in veggies with some seeds or nuts chucked in - yum!.

I am doing Weight Watchers online. I dont stress about what the points values are before I eat, I just enter them once eaten and see what my day looks like. Some days that has meant I have eaten WAY too many points, but I figure I'm using it as a learning tool and a motivator to get me changing the way I eat / think about food.

So far it is working, I have lost about 3kg in four weeks, which is a rate I am eminently happy with as I only have another 10kg to lose to be the lightest I have been since finishing high school - even if my rate of loss halves, I'll still hit that weight some time later this year. :)

But I agree about needing to feel "ownership" of your eating plan. I've tried on my own before with very limited success (and actually a lot of failures along the way), but this time, I feel like this is the right thing for me to be doing at this time. Perhaps it wont be what I want to do long term, but for the moment it feels right :)

Good luck Rachel :)

I'm with Emily #2 - in no way have you led us to believe this is a short term thing, something you'll 'take a break from', or something you'll stop once you've reached your goal! Once I went to a godawful SureSlim presentation (I felt like I was in the audience for an infomercial) and there was another lady there who just couldn't grasp the concept of a lifestyle change. She kept asking questions like 'can I take a break and come back' or 'what if I want to go off the diet for a month'. Clearly, and sadly, she was destined to fail, no matter what diet she followed.

Anyway, thats not where I was heading, I'm commenting to answer your question about preference. As I said in an earlier comment, I've found 'Potatoes not Prozac' an immensely useful book (for anyone interested, go to www.radiantrecovery.com). It's not for everyone, as not everyone has issues with sugar sensitivity, but for someone like me, it shed so much light on what I'm going through! The basic premise is cutting out sugar. But what I particularly like about the programme is that it does not cut out carbs. I personally think low-carb diets are ridiculous, as it's well established that we need carbs in our diet - I think the medical standard is around 30% of our intake? The programme (for want of a better word) instead distinguishes between white and brown carbs, and focuses on moving you away from both sugar and white/overly-refined carbs, which our bodies process in the same way. The second major thing I like is that it provides a means to an end, rather than a set diet to follow. There are seven steps that lead you to a lifestyle change - which we all seem to agree is most important!

Writing every little thing down streses me out, with the end result of me binging on all the foods I told myself I shouldn't have... I am trying a new technique (which, having only just started is too early to tell whether it is working for losing weight)...of not saying "should" or "shouldn't" in relation to food. It is certainly making me happier, and I haven't been craving foods as much... Will see how it goes : )

Enjoying the blog - keep up the good work!

I am still trying to figure out what my preferred style of dieting is? 18 months and having lost 15kgs I still dont know. But you have sparked off an idea for me - I still have 50kgs to loose, so I think I will make a personal study of this aspect of loosing weight. All I do know is that its up to me and that I am the only one who can make it happen. good luck with your journey.

I too use sparkpeople, it's a great site, although as has been mentioned it's pretty American in terms of food choices and vocab.

I entirely agree about doing/changing your eating plan by yourself. I can't seem to do it with other people involved :)

I'm all about cutting out the carbs and replacing it with a larger serving of vegies ...has really helped me lose weight that and cutting out gluten/wheat - I never feel stodgy anymore and dare I say it, my insides work better :)

My fiance and I are trying to lose weight at the moment. We tried the gym but we both work full time (and he doesn't finish work until 6pm) and then going to the gym for an hour was a bit stressful and hard to keep ourselves motivated. We're trying something new now which is making sure we eat heathily, cutting back on our drinking, and we've ordered an ab circle pro. We get it next week some time and then we will use it for 3 minutes a day and see what happens.