Hello? Am I in the right room? (Givinya)

Hello, I'm Givinya and I want to give this a go too. I'm not sure how I'll go because I've never been able to control my weight before - to gain some when I'm skinny or to lose some when I'm un-skinny.

I have had two periods in my life when losing weight was easy. I was pregnant both times. Something happened to my metabolism and I started feeing amazing! I was putting on Baby and losing Fat, and after giving birth both times I've thought, "Great! Let's keep it this way!" But I haven't been able to manage that.

But I have come to the realisation that popping out a baby each time I am getting a little dumpy is probably not a realistic weight-loss strategy.

What do I weigh? I don't know. Honestly. I don't have a working set of scales. I've never really measured my, err, 'fatness' in kilograms, I've measured it in fat on the tum, being unable to fit into certain clothes and generally feeling lardy. Currently, I feel like Adrian Plass' description of one of his characters, Mrs Flushpool. As if my body is really a collection of black plastic bags half-filled with water.

How much do I want to lose? Enough to lose this amazing amount of fat that has settled itself across my tummy.

What on EARTH have I been eating? Honestly, I don't know. We eat pretty healthy meals here. We love fresh fruit and veggies, I am not afraid to go to extra effort to prepare something healthy instead of buying something quick and fattening, I don't have fast food very much, and my idea of a good takeaway meal is steamed rice with Thai stir-fry chicken with cashews.

Dammit, how on earth did my tummy get so lardy? My only suggestion is that I don't have a very good off-switch with my eating. I love good food, and over the years it's taken much more good food to make me feel 'full'. And when there's bad food in the house, well, I eat too much of that too.

How will I do it? I know that I will not be disciplined enough or clever enough to remember to count calories or points. I wish I could, but I can't remember to wear deodorant half the time. Calories/kilojoules/points? Don't hold your breath! But when you're walking past me on a non-deodorant day, feel free to hold your breath as long as you want.

'Weekday Vegetarian,' however, I could do! I love vegetarian meals: I love the way veggies taste and I love the way they make me feel. When I'm eating vegetarian, more often than not I lose my desire for bad food. I stop looking for things to snack on. I take real gastronomical pleasure in a great fresh salad with a splash of Greek dressing for lunch instead of a cheese sandwich ... no I'm not full, I'd better have another sandwich ... and a few more slices of cheese ...

So my family and I have been trying some great vegetarian recipes out on Monday-Thursday nights. On Friday after a very long day working, I bring home some Thai or Indian for our weekly treat (and that will include chicken - yum!) and on the weekend, we eat meat. It's been great, but I've felt the need to include meat in the kids' diets a little more often. I don't really want them missing out on their meat more than 2-3 days a week.

What won't I give up? The occasional Nestle Club Dark chocolate.

What are my obstacles? Eating too much is one of them. I can overcome this by drinking more water during the day so I'm not as empty, especially at meals. My dear dear husband is another - he likes to have a steady supply of foods I would like to keep only as occasional treats. I do my best to keep no bad food in the house, then he goes and stocks up on biscuits!

It is a measure of the success of my No Bad Food In The House policy that I often find myself looking through the fridge and the pantry saying, "If I only had a packet of chips here, I'd eat the lot!" Most of the time, no overeating happens, not because of my own willpower (I don't have any) but because there's nothing to eat except breakfast cereal, dinner ingredients and mountains of fresh fruit and veggies.

My last obstacle is simply that fitting exercise into my life is a total joke.

I'll leave you there. I take comfort in the recent studies that show you have a harder time losing weight if you don't sleep well. That's a free ticket to look after myself and demand 7 hours a night! Let me get into it right now ...