I never dieted before I joined SW and although I tried to diet on my own, it was never good enough. I had to learn a completely new way of eating which, even though I am no longer attending a proper class now, I still follow. Most of the big slimming companies have web based diets where you can join up, receive all the paperwork but not actually have to attend a class. You will need to pay a fee though.
I think the main rule of SW is not to mix your carbs (potatoes, pasta, rice etc) with your meats. We have red days (consisting of maintly lean meat and fish) and green days (consisting mainly pasta, pots, rice etc). You can have a little meat or pots on each day depending which colour is your main day (if that makes sense
). You can eat fruit and & veg in abundance on SW - the more the better. I tend to eat a lot of chicken with a mountain of veg or salad and a small portion of new potatoes (with the skins on as they are high in fibre). Try to eat wholemeal bread instead of white bread and keep that down to one or two slices a day.Its really difficult to advise someone about diets because everyone is different and while some things will work for me, it may be completely inappropriate for you.
As for alcohol. I would stick with the vodka & a diet mixer. Lager is very high in calories as is wine (which is my tipple).
I am sure that if you plough through this thread, you will get all sorts of great ideas. Everyone on here has been really helpful to me in the past and some great recipes have been shared. Im also sure that someone else may have some new ideas for you when they see your post.
Good luck with losing the holiday weight.
Sarah
) i have pots too but keep cutting them down each time i have them i try to have about 200gr of pots and two ryvita at lunch and yes try and eat before 7 i know its difficult but if i cant eat before that time i try and have me carbs at lunch time instead. as i am trying now to just have breakfast which are carbs and 2ryvita which are carbs and my tea which some times are a few carbs but i am trying to have stirfrys or just veg with out pots to try and help my weight loss. Keep up the good work girls and i will catch you when i am back you can go on w/w without paying i think but you wont get all the benifits on it. oh and buy the way i lost 1.5LBs this wk better than last wk but still aiming for me st by xmas. 
Thought i would bump this one back up to give us all some motivation. 
. I cant believe ive put on that much weight but there you go, the wine, mince pies and peanuts really took their toll. To be fair, hubby says that I dont look like ive put on a stone (bless him 
Im looking forward to sharing success stories again.
. Im sure you dont look as bad as you felt but your description of yourself really made me smile :). My daughter cheered me up no end this afternoon when she told me she didnt want me to lose any weight because I was "cuddly". Charming.
