Not little or a miss
Hi I'm littlemiss, BUT I am neither. I am married (Mrs.) and anything but little! I have never been exactly little at 5'9 and I have not been skinny since about age 12 (puberty). But I do miss being that skinny kid, who loved sugar and treats just like any other kid, was very active and seemed to be able to eat anything I wanted and still stay skinny.
Now, I am 37 and still trying to lose the 80 lbs I gained through two back to back pregnancies 8 years ago.
I have been a yo-yo dieter since my teens. I feel like I was able to conquer my struggle by time I was 18-19 and found I did well on a low-carb regime, things started to falter and become my biggest struggle after moving in with my boyfriend (now husband) who has no desire (and never has) to eat right or exercise. So I am constantly trying to encourage the man I love to take care of himself - but it seems he will never see the value in it and would rather be in front of a screen and eating pizza most of the time.
This is the challenge of my life and now that I am getting older I am starting to wonder if it is even worth trying anymore - since 95% of dieting fails.
I guess my biggest motivation right now is to avoid humiliation at amusement parks, swimming pools, beaches. I just want to be at a physical point in which I am not ashamed of my body and I can enjoy doing the things I love.
I've tried so many things: The SouthBeach Diet, The 17 Day Diet, Hydroxycut MAX, exercise videos, cycling, running, not eating late, fasting intermittently, 1000 cal per day limit, Weight Watchers, Wheat Belly and now Green Coffee Bean Extract (along with low carb limitations). I find of all these things the 17 Day Diet has been most effective for me - but I can usually last on this diet for no longer than a few days at a time. That is why I think carb-cycling might be the answer for me.
That said, the two times in my life when I experienced the most dramatic weight gain was at puberty (age 12) and when I was pregnant with my two children - and I feel that once you gain weight and your body reaches a certain high weight, it will always fight with you to get back up there (like a newly established 'high' set point). Like they say, once you develop fat cells they never really go away, they just shrink, waiting to be filled up again. So, that is why I feel that hormones are a root cause of my weight struggles, as well as this crazy environment we have here in western society that is conducive to weight gain (video games, TVs, computers, packaged foods packed with sugar, fat and sodium designed for 'cravability' aka 'addictiveness' all in the name of profit. 63% of Canadians or overweight or obese and nearly 70% of Americans - so don't tell me it is all on individual will power - there is definitely something environmentally wrong here.
Recently (in the last month) I lost about 15 lbs doing this low-carb cycling and supplement taking - that is because I have been very determined to slim down for an upcoming trip with the family to visit some theme parks. I find fear of humiliation to be a strong motivator for me, because for the last year I was pretty much stuck with no motivation to do anything. So, anyway, there is my long and sorted story. I have some very strong opinions about this issue that I plan on sharing around (and already shared a bit on), but I do hope to gain some lasting support from this forum and hopefully one day find a lasting solution to this problem I share with most other North Americans like me.
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I would like to welcome you to this wonderful forum. 
