I am thin, largely because I am a grazer and don't have much of an appetite. I get very cranky if I get hungry, so I try not to find myself in that situation. I eat anything and everything, except okra (can't get over the texture), but not much of it. If you handed me an oversized portion of even my favorite food (lasagna), I'd feel daunted and overwhelmed because its just too much food.
If you can get yourself to a place where you can listen to your stomach, and be wary of the discomfort that comes with overindulgence, you'll find yourself in a thinner and more comfortable place.
I naturally love vegetables, fruit, and eater. Soda, and sugary treats, or salty treats don't sit well with me.
Also, I get agitated if I haven't gotten some exercise in. I need to move to get my head in the right place and to get some pent up energy out.
If you put some routines in place, and stick with them long enough, you might find your inclinations changing too, then when you find you don't just want to eat better, but you need to eat better, and when you need to get to the gym, the weight will shift. You will no longer be in diet and exercise more, you will just be eating better and exercising more, not with a sense of dread or obligation, but because they are pleasurable parts of the day.
An eating plan that can help you accomplish this is to "EAT MORE". Don't deviate from your normal diet at all. Assume you have a bacon egg and cheese and hashbrowns for breakfast, a tuna melt and fries for lunch, and steak and roast sprouts for dinner. You split the same foods into 6 meals, you add a portion of something healtful, and a cup of water with each.
i.e. half a grapefruit, and a cup of water, and half the bacon egg and cheese and half the hasbrowns for at 7. now a handful of almonds, a cup of water, and as much of the rest of breakfast as you can eat. at lunch, a cup of spinach with balsamic vinegar, hald the tuna melt and half the fries, and a cup of water. at two a mandarin orange, and as much of the rest of the tuna melt and fries as you can manage, and a cup of water. similar protocol for dinner.
No special diet, no special food, no sense of deprivation because you are actually eating more. All the while, you are training yourself to eat less. You don't get hungry because you are eating so often. You are getting used to getting more healthy foods in your life. At first, you will be desperate for that second half of the meal. If you stick with this, by the third week, with a positive attitude, you will be struggling to actually eat the second half of the meal, and eating less and less of it.
just remember, the "eat more" strategy doesn't give you carte blanche to supplement with junky snacks. Also, at teh end of the day a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. If you eat unreasonable amounts of even healthy foods, you'll see yourself putting on.
Good luck to you and yours.
F. B.