Hi Rach

I have 5 kids, ages 17, 14, 12, 6 and 4. I was lucky enough to have 5 'normal' births, although some of htem were a bit too fast so pretty traumatic and nasty.

I'm no expert but here's a couple of thoughts I had, looking at your meal diary.

There's a lot of stuff there like bread, pasta, chips - a lot of the sort of carbs that would hit your bloodstream superfast, and make you feel hungry again (and have cravings) once the insulin gets to work. If you check out the Glycemic Index of foods (and you can do it online) you can avoid too many of these high GI ones.

When I lost most of my weight, I'd not stop eating things like that entirely - but limit myself to once a day. So one slice of bread with one meal. If I had pasta, I didn't have bread. If I have a potato, I didn't have pasta, etc. Tesco Low Fat oven chips often kept me going! And I swapped white pasta for wholemeal, same with bread.

I FitDay everything I eat here:

www.Fitday.com

And my general rule is nothing over 5% fat (except one treat a day). I try to eat organic (expensive I know) and wholefoods (amazingly cheap as they last ages). And I grow some of my own food, when I can.

I found I was saving money on my food budget as I was no longer buying cakes, biscuits, sweeties, all the crap that got me fat in the first place.

Cereal bars I'd avoid. Check out the sugar - you might as well have a Mars bar! I found some recipes for homemade bars in a Low G.I cook book, so you can make healthier alternatives, if you have the time. A good snack is one where you balance out carbs (eg: fruit) with 'good' fats and protein (eg: nuts or seeds).

You can also save yourself a lot of trouble by weighing food once or twice at the start of your diet to check portion sizes. I have 40g museli for breakfast and sort of knew it was creeping up, portion size wise. After 2 years I finally got round to weighing the amount I normally use, this morning - 100g! Blimey! So watch yer portions!

Well that's my advice for what it's worth!

thank you phatpheonix

Hi

I've got a naturally skinny husband as well. Mine was 8 and a half stone (at 5ft 10) when I met him - I managed to get him up to 12 and a half stone but as soon as I started on this diet (20 months ago) he started losing weight and is now down to just over 10st. Its really hard to keep the weight on him - I've given up trying to put some weight on him, just want him to keep the weight he's got. His family have got a hereditary high cholesterol problem so although I want him to eat extra calories I have to make sure they are healthy calories and its quite difficult to overeat healthy calories. I make sure he eats three proper meals a day plus three snacks. At the moment he is going through a phase of snacking on lots of nuts and seeds (good fats with high calories) and I use a lot of olive oil in cooking for him and avocado or walnut oil in the dressings on his salads - that kind of thing. I find I have to do the planning/remembering for him - left to his own devices he either 'forgets' to eat or raids the vending machine at work which is full of absolutely rubbish. Men!!!

About your menu plan... have you thought about microwaving yourself some porridge for brekkie - very low GI (so its satisfying) and its INCREDIBLY cheap and healthy - for a bit of variety you can chuck in some fruit, cinnamon and/or crushed nuts and seeds.

Tread carefully around the cereal bars... a lot of overweight women (me included) suffer with blood sugar problems and cereal bars or sugary treats can trip you in to a hypoglycemic episode which can bring on uncontrollable bingeing. I find it helps to stick with low GI fruit and/or a protein snack (cold boiled eggs are good and only 80 cals).

If you find the answer to the jelly belly problem PLEASE let me know - I haven't had a C section but I did have a hysterectomy a few years ago and I don't think I've got any tummy muscles left at all. My tummy so out of proportion to the rest of me that I look about 6 months pregnant.