Introducing myself and asking for help

Hi Kaz,
My name is Catrina, and i can really relate to what you are saying.
Will you be logging all that you eat in your MFP diary?

I don't think you mentioned how long you have been pursuing this lifestyle change (actively working out and monitoring your food). Sometimes what seems like a really long time (when I track my food for 2 weeks it feels like I have been doing it for a year! ). It could be your body is simply adjusting to the change and is not ready to release any fat yet-- it may be getting warmed up. This is about reaching a healthy weight but it's also about leading a healthy life. Incorporating movement into your day and exercising is a life thing and so is increasing healthy food-- quality protein and vegetables so focus on how good you feel and the non-scale victories and the rest will come with time.

The thing I do that you might want to consider in the beginning of your journey is to micromanage. I've only been really dieting for about a month, so I'm no expert, but this is what's working for me: I used the Mayo Clinic calculator (http://www.mayoclinic.org/calorie-calculator/itt-20084939) to figure out my BMR at my goal weight. That number is 1550 calories. I subtracted 350 calories from that, which is a little more than 20%, but I work better with even numbers, so I rounded. The calories I burn in exercise are not factored into my allowed consumption at all, because I'm too lazy to put that much effort into figuring out how many calories I can eat on a given day.

Every morning, I plan what I'm going to eat for the day, and I try to stick to that as closely as possible. For example, today's menu is scrambled eggs and tea for breakfast, salad with grilled chicken for lunch, chicken tikka masala with broccoli instead of rice for dinner, and a little no-sugar-added ice cream for a snack. Since my BMR is 1550 and my planned exercise is going to be around 500 calories, I'm going to burn around 2050 calories today That means that I will burn 850 calories in excess of what I've eaten. I do this six days a week, resting and 'feasting' on Sundays. ('Feasting' means I allow myself to eat up to 1,700 calories, which is my current BMR.) Theoretically, that should mean I lose around 1.4 lbs a week. In actuality, though, I struggle to reach 1,200 calories. If I get busy and forget to have my snack, which does happen quite often, I have an even bigger calorie deficit.

I'll be 43 next month, so I'm more concerned with being healthy than being skinny at this point in my life, but I have managed to drop around 9 pounds in the past 4 weeks. My methodology seems a bit obsessive and time-consuming to begin with, but it became pretty simple and effortless once I made the start. My methods may need to change as I get closer to my goal, and they will definitely need to change when I transition to normalcy, once the diet part if finished.