It's a mix of being ready to do it (like a lot of things, you have to be
ready or you won't do it), having health issues, and being bloody
minded!  :D

First off, I was bored with avoiding mirrors and ignoring the
ever-expanding waistline, and saw pix of myself at a friend's wedding,
and thought 'Jeeze - -I look like a hippo in drag!'

I had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and I had IBS...  And was then
diagnosed with gall bladder disease.  I needed to lose weight for the
op, and even after it was over, found I was one of the 10% or so that
can never go back to the old diet as I cannot process fats properly.
Losing the weight and getting a lot fitter also made a big difference to
the fibro: I'm in no less pain, but not having an extra 70lbs to drag
round with it has given me a lot more energy to cope with the bad times.

And when I get my teeth into something, I'm like a terrier at a
rat-hole!  ;)

I've always loved food and cooking, and I like a challenge, so the
fat/red meat/coffee/red wine/sweet stuff free diet was a chance to
explore a different way of cooking.  I'm also sensative to wheat, so
exploring the low gluten/wheet free aspect of bread and cake has proved
a fun thing as well.  I'm getting quite good at it, but have to admit
that giving up proper bread is MUCH harder than giving up chocolate!

I tend to plan the meals for the week ahead, use that to make the
shopping list, send the hubby out to do the shopping, and cook acording
to the plan.  We buy less food, eat better, waste a lot less, and all
three of us benefit Hubby is a Type 1 diabetic, and son is a vast and
ever growing 13 YO (5'10" with 33" waist - so huge, but NOT fat!  just
rugby player/swimmer... ).

I have a whole heap of Weight Watchers cookbooks.  I often cook a 4
portion recipe, and rather than having 'seconds' or bigger portions, I
dish the fourth portion into a freezer box, and have a collection of
home cooked 'ready meals' waiting for emergencies.  Now and again I
leave a dinner space on the weekly plan and we have a TV Dinner Night
and use some of them up so that we don't end up with half a freezer full
of fossils in permafrost!  :D  It just takes a little more organizing,
but you soon fall into the way of it.  And I find that I look at the
menu for the day in the morning, get anything out of the freezer that I
need for the day, and then don't need to think about it again until it's
time to make dinner.

I'm flexible enough that nothing is carved in stone, so if something
happens that requires a change of plan, there's always something that
can be done to cope with things like not getting home in time to cook
the planned meal, or there being extra mouths to feed, or whatever.  And
I never beat myself up over a bad day: just start again tomorrow.

Thanks.  :)  It's been a bit harder than usual recently because of the
holiday/fribro/cold, but I'm back on track now.

I managed 60 lengths (so 1500 meters) last night, and spent today
heaving stuff like boxes of old videos and garden chairs out of a
friend's loft, packing china, taking an ENORMOUS carload of crap to the
dump, and generally getting thoroughly dirty and sweaty!  I'm sure THAT
earned a few exercise points!

We stopped for coffee and cake mid afternoon, but the last of those
extra points will be worked off in the pool again tomorrow morning.  :)