Kat, that's partly why I joined 'Slimming World'... there's a group meets just up the road - not far enough to drive or bus, so I get excercise going to it. It's lots of sitting around clapping people who lost half a pound this week sort of thing, but there's a good support network and the advice is good, sound stuff.

It works on the Red and Green day principle - eggs and most fruit and veggies - raw, steamed or boiled - are 'free'. You can munch on them all day long with no worries. Then there are other freebies for Green days, including wholemeal bread, pasta, nuts and pulses, plus a choice of up to four from various meats (with fat removed and cooked with no extra fat), noodles, brown rice, sea food, fish, beans and dairy products. Red days have more protein and Green days more fibre.

In addition, there are various points given for other foods, known as synergous or 'Syns'. You can have up to 10-15 of these points a day - so the odd square of chocolate isn't going to do any harm.

It seems to rely on the cutting down (but not total elimination) of fats and processed white sugar/flour/rice. Carbohydrates are allowed but are limited, unlike the Atkins diet which has screwed so many digestive systems.

Once you get into the habit, it's hard not to find anything you don't like, and so far, the rest of the family haven't complained much. In fact, Limpit loves the amount of egg noodles we've been getting through!

For me it's slow going, because I'm a skinflint and don't want to waste the food we already have - industrial sized boxes of white flour pasta and rice for the price of a kilo of wholemeal or brown pasta and rice - but it's already had an effect.

I had to lose weight due to Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - I was getting stomach pains, feeling bloated and 'squashed up', I had a cough that wouldn't go away, and a blood test revealed an abnormal liver function. It's fatty deposits on the liver which could lead to non alcoholic related cirrhosis and worse.

Well.... since I started this new eating plan, the pains have subsided, the cough has gone and I no longer have trouble with certain clothing pressing against my abdomen - it still presses but no longer hurts. I've yet to have another blood test to check the liver function, but I feel more energetic and comfortable than I have for many months. I've actually had the desire to go walking, rather than just the requirement.

My goal - and the doctors' suggestion - was to lose 2 stones by Christmas. Quarter of a stone down and still 3 months to go sees me on track for this... and so far I'm not feeling the 'I shouldn't be eating this' guilt that so many other D***s and eating plans give people. An important part of this is the support from the group. Someone phones me once a week to ask how I'm doing, we swap recipes, have quizzes, whine about families and just encourage each other to carry on.

Good luck with it Kat - take to heart that old Maine proverb - the journey of a thousand miles begins with getting off your ass!

LTS