I'm kinda obsessed with my weight. In High School, I was super super tiny...and then I had kids, lol. But after having two kids, I gained 20 pounds and lost it all on the Atkins diet. I would not, however, recommend Atkins. It does what it's suppose to do, but not in a healthy way I don't think. It made me so sick. And from eating the eggs and fish all the time, now I can't even stand to smell either without throwing up. It's WAY too limited. And when your body goes into that ketosis (sp?) thing, it freaks it out and makes you super tired and moody. And when I went off the diet, I gained 10 pounds. But I also stopped working out because I was burned out, so that could have been the reason for the gain too.

I'm the same way in that, as long as I exercise, I can eat whatever and not gain weight. But if I don't work out, then I gain weight. If you're going to do any diet at all, I would just recommend a calorie diet. I think you can google to find out how many you're suppose to restict them to based on your age, height and current weight. I just know you're not suppose to go under 1300 a day no matter what. Because then at that point, your body just starts to deplete your muscle. There is a good site for counting calories:  http://www.calorie-count.com/ It has everything in it, even fast food. When I did it after Atkins to lose that 10 pounds, I just didn't go over 1400 calories a day. A typical day would be like oatmeal for breakfast, yogart and apple for a snack, chicken noodle soup for lunch, and then whatever I was making for the family for dinner, but I would count every single calorie in the ingredients and portion mine out so I wouldn't go over my daily calories. I would also only drink water throughout the day and drink one cup of green tea everyday (green tea speeds up your metabolism). But I just would make sure I ate healthy foods like fruits, veggies, wheat breads, etc and just counted the calories on all of them. 

As for exercise, it's pretty old (you may be able to find it on ebay) but I do the Kathy Ireland Total Fitness Workout video. She did it after she had kids, and I think that it is the best way to tone muscles (especially the mid part of your body and upper thighs). I personally think it works even better than Winsor Pilates and such. But the thing with her video, is you HAVE to do it exactly how she says or you won't feel a thing. The thing she says about squeezing your bum and having your shoulders back and stomach tucked in REALLY makes a difference in the workout. The first time I did the workout, it didn't do a thing for me. But when I really listened to what she was saying, and it was soooooooo hard, lol. But I alternate doing that one day, and then riding my exercise bike for half an hour the next day and just keep switching off.

Another thing that might help kickstart your metabolism before you start a diet is a fruit fast. You do it for just 3 days. But all you can have is fruit and veggies for 3 days. You can have fruit juice, but it has to say 100% juice on the label. You can't have canned food. But the nice thing is that you can have as much as you want. Whenever you feel hungry, eat a fruit or veggie. So you're not limited on how much you can have. It gets old, but I noticed that it really helped me and it cleans out your system. I try to do a fruit fast once a year. Sorry this is so long!