Having battled with my weight since having my first son (prior to that I was always a size 10 and loved it!) I have tried pretty much every diet out there. I went to Weight Watchers after my first child and lost most of my baby weight, only to put all four stone of it back on during my second pregnancy. After that baby I tried many different diets, mainly fad diets, and then of course during my third pregnancy I put all of the weight straight back on again!

Since having my daughter I have tried the Dukan diet and cutting down on food and the weight just didn't shift. So I decided to try Slimming World.

Well I must say it is a very easy regime to follow and it seems to be working! I won't call it a diet because as my leader says it's food optimising, not dieting.

The main idea is to eat all of the right foods, and have the "bad" foods in moderation. Common sense? Of course it is but when you actually see it written down I was susprised to see how many of the "bad" foods I thought were "good". So that's where I've been going wrong!

Each day you have free and superfree foods that you can fill up on. There's no point eating too much becuase you should only ever eat until you are full, but put simply these are the foods that won't make you put on weight. You have a healty a and a healthy b choice and these are your fibres and calcium foods. They are essential. Then there are the Syns. You're allowed 15 syns a day and these are to be used on the treats and fatty foods. I tend to try and get through my days having no syns so that at the weekend I can enjoy a few glasses of wine. Other people may want to eat chocolate every day, or crisps - that is what the syns are for and as long as you don't go over your weekly syn count then you should lose weight.

I have been doing the plan for 2 weeks now and have nearly lost half a stone already, and considering I only have two stone to lose that's great. I feel fit, healthy and like this is something that not only can I stick to but that will help me live a better life in the future without the weight piling back on.

The classes you go to each week give you the opportunity not only to get weighed but also to discuss how the plan is working for you with other likeminded people. They are there to help you and advise, and support you along your journey.

The classes do cost £4.95 per week and there is a joining fee of £5 (or free if you get the voucher in the newspaper) but it is worth it.