I've always battled with my weight, with me always losing lol, I sit around 71kg give or take a few kgs but I'm really short a whole of 5"1 and that's way too heavy. I can't help with the gaining of the weight problem 'coz I tend to sniff food and put on weight but for those concerned about eating too much processed food, I'm hearing you! Over the last few weeks, in particular, I have been very wary about how much processed food I have been consuming and have really worked to cut it right back. I'm cutting right back on 'mock meats', swapping Nuttlex for avocado, white bread to wholegrain, making my own pasta, lots of fruit instead of crackers or chips, fruit juice or water instead of diet soft drinks or Lipton Ice Tea (it's my kryptonite
). I know that's a lot of fructose but I'd rather be consuming that instead of refined sugars. I've really upped my veggies and just try to eat as many as I possibly can in a day, after all there are next to no kilojoules in veggies!
I got concerned when I really began to think about going vegan and was looking at things like Toffutti, which have several different ingredients, a lot that are processed heavily before even making it into it. I'm not happy about it and I think the best bet for me is to eat as much basic, natural and organic foods as I can.
In Italy my host dad used to give us pasta or rice and pour minestrone over it. For a healthier, more filling option, you could do the same thing with quinoa. 
