Any advice on how to shake things up?

When you set up your goals here I am assuming that you set your goal to lose 2 lbs a week. Your calorie plan is thusly built to hold back 1,000 calories a day from your basic caloric needs in order to facilitate that loss. I recommend that you try to eat your calories closer to your goal number (minus the additional calories that you get for exercise) to ensure that your body is getting what it needs. Another thing that you can do is to customize your tracker. I have mine tracking fiber and calcium as well. Fiber to ensure that I am eating enough fruits, veges, and whole grains that my body needs but also higher fiber = feeling fuller longer and healthier choices. I also am tracking calcium because I am lactose intolerant and know that when I am not getting enough calcium, I am usually then not getting enough potassium and magnesium. These nutrients are essential for my nervous system and muscular system functions and have a huge effect on water retention (which has a huge effect on the scale).

Plateaus happen to everyone. A shock to the system can sometimes shake it up. Changing the type of exercise that you do, cardio vs. strength training, different muscle groups, swimming instead of walking or spinning, is a good shake up. You can also shake it up by having a higher calorie day or two but be careful...we all know that it isn't always easy to come back from that.

I also have struggled my whole life with this and several years ago had myself on a great run with weight loss, exercise, etc. I let a promotion to a high stress job and a miscarriage carry me into the emotional waste land and chose food and a sedentary lifestyle to be my comforts. But what is past is past. I can't change it, only learn from it. I can't change tomorrow either. The only time I can effect is right now and it takes a certain mindset to do it. Set your mind to choose you...your best this moment. I am so proud of the changes that you have made. Keep going step by step. You will get where you want to go.

Change your workout completely. If you walk do yoga. If you weight train do body resistance. Also change your food to primarliy veggies and protein with complex carbs. But you should definitely up your caloric intake. I was at a standstill and was going to the gym everyday burning almost 1000 cal. I stopped for a week and did nothing but yoga. I dropped 3 lbs. Now I have started to slow. I'm going to the gym this week and not do any yoga. Maybe some circuit training and that will jumpstart me again.

bump

I'm new here; just been on this board a couple of weeks, so I don't have the wisdom of some of the other posters. But I've been struggling with my weight most of my life, too. I wonder if you just need to change your eating patterns a bit? Before I was tracking calories with MFP, I was eating very little, but what I was eating was the wrong stuff. I just started eating the Mediterranean way a couple of weeks ago and it has really helped to think not as much about the calories, but the types of food I'm filling up with. I'm trying to make sure that my diet consists mostly of vegetables; meats are used as a "garnishment." I'm staying away from processed foods as much as possible (really hard because my schedule is so hectic!) But I'm discovering that salads really taste good again. And I'm finding that I don't crave the processed foods, but when I'm hungry, I prefer to fill up with a salad. It's really strange for me because I wasn't that crazy for salads before! I don't know if this will be helpful for you but it's just a thought.