5 months and 78lbs lighter.. I'm getting there!

The mirror has only become useful recently as I was too wide for it before!

Thank you all for your kind words xx

My plan has been to try and stick as close to possible to the MFP calories without going over. What has worked so well on this diet is that I can eat anything I like as long as I stick to the limit. Saying that I can't touch chocolate or potato chips and they are real all or nothing foods for me.
In the past 5 months I have become intimately familiar with Subway's turkey breast and ham sub (with cheese!) (and south west sauce!) (they're allowed as long as you count em!) and also my local supermarket's chilli chicken noodle salad. Finding foodstuffs that you enjoy and can replace the likes of Big Macs and fried chicken seems to me to be the most important jumping off point. I also rarely ate breakfast before but have often started the day with a nutrigrain bar to get me going and reduce my hunger when it comes to lunch. I prefer to try and save more calories for later in the day as I tend to stay up late a lot and the hours of 9pm-midnight are a real danger zone for me for fast food and snacks.
Exercise! One of the first things I did was go out and buy myself a second hand bicycle. This summer's Tour de France was one of my main inspirations for embarking on this journey. I've also dabbled in sports I haven't taken part in since I was a teenager.. badminton, football (soccer). If it's within walking distance I walk. Long walks and bike rides have been key to my success so far. When I go and see the greatest football team in the world (Manchester City!) I walk the 45 mins to the stadium and after the game I walk back. When the weather was better I tried to cycle further and harder ever time I went out.
I was a little over zealous at one point for a few weeks and came in well under my calories. Progress slowed and I corrected back up to my set amount. It was amazing to see that eating a little more can actually speed up the loss.. I couldn't believe it.
Happy to answer if anyone has any more questions.. I'm just so happy to report that I finally found something that works for me and I plan to continue with MFP once I reach my goals.. the last thing I want to do is undo all the hard work.

Thanks again for the kind words people, the community here has really been crucial to picking me up on the bad days and inspiring me to keep going. You can all be proud of yourselves for helping inspire your friends on here.. trust me it makes all the difference!