Joyfulgirl, I'm so in the same shoes as you, except the smoking part. I'm also 26 years old, I weigh a bit more than you, 135, and this is the heaviest I've ever been! I used to be the super skinny girl that would eat pizza at at 2am and go through a 12 pack of coke in 3 days. The first weight gain came in college, like everyone else. Then after I graduated, I found out I had graves disease, aka hyperactive thyroid, and had to go on meds to control it and in the process gained another 15lbs! That's how I got to the size I am today.

But I've def. noticed that my body has started to react differently to food, as in when I eat crap it stays with me where as I used to be able to eat whatever. It's been a really long process, but I've started to eat better, it's taken me a while to get here, like two years of transition. But like I said on another board, I was at the grocery store the other day and looked at what I was buying...seltzer water, high fiber english muffins, grape tomatoes, fat free popcorn and thought to myself..."when did my diet change from frozen pizza and 2L bottles of coke to this?"

It's hard, but you will feel so much better, physically and mentally once you transition to a better diet.

I'm with ya!

Cheers,
Emily

PS- I need to reccomend Coke Zero, as I hate Diet Coke and am a huge regular coke drinker, this stuff is good if you need that coke fix.