So, I've mostly lurked here, and posted to a few support groups, which have been great and a reason to keep coming back. I love this forum. So supportive and friendly and non-judgmental.
I'm female, 42 years old, 5'2 1/2" and I've reached 150 pounds and I would rather go in the OTHER direction. If I were to capture what my weight has been like during the last 10 years, it would be that about 10 years ago, I was about 125 pounds and I looked great. I wore sizes 2-4 in petites and I felt good in pictures. I looked awesome in my sister's wedding, one of the best, despite being about 10 years older than the other bridesmaids. So in the coming years after that my weight crept up to about 133, but still people considered me "tiny" and I looked good in pictures. I have a mostly small frame, but very muscular "larger" legs and a tiny waist (pear shaped).
Five years ago, my weight entered the 140s. I'd had a major life crisis happen at the time (violent crime victim) and yes, I did some stress eating and drinking for awhile. Ever since then, it's been a STRUGGLE to keep my weight under 140, but for several years I managed to keep it between 135-139.
Last summer, I got divorced, and while it was a very amicable and non-stressful divorce as far as those go (we don't have kids, no property, very clean and simple, and we're still very good friends), I ballooned up to 147-148 and ALL this past year I've been struggling to even get down under 145 again (a few years ago, 145 would have seemed horrifying to me, now I'd love to touch it again).
This summer, despite all my declarations to eat clean, start fresh, etc., it hasn't always worked out, and now my weight is 150, and I've even seen 151-152 a few times. Apparently being half-***ed about weight loss and making promises I don't keep doesn't work, go figure!
So basically, what I'm asking all you experts, especially but not necessarily only people around my height and age, how did you lose your weight? Calorie counting? I tend to get very frustrated and obsessive while calorie counting so it probably won't work well for me, but I'm willing to try if I see that the vast majority of people have lost their weight this way. I like the idea of doing something like Paleo with veggies, lower carb, protein, fruit, healthy fat, but I haven't been consistent at it. I also like the idea of doing just one meal a day (although again, just haven't been able to get my head in the game to do that).
What probably won't work for me is anything that involves day in and day out of bland diet-y food like chicken breast and broccoli for every meal, even though I bet that works, so if that's what you've done, I still want to hear about it.
Another thing that has worked for me in the past is to eat VERY clean six days a week and then let myself eat whatever one day a week. But that hasn't worked so well lately because I have a lot of social things going on on days I can't control.
Anyway, I would love to hear anything that has been working for you.
(Also, I do enjoy a glass of wine every evening, but I rarely drink any other alcohol or drink excessively. And I've found in the past that the wine does not seem to affect whether or not I lose, maintain, or gain weight (I've experimented with taking it out of the mix sometimes).)