New Year new Fittness

Hi all,

first off i want to say that i am not new to exercise and diet. i am actually usually quite good with exercise, given my job where i sit in front of a computer all day long.
i have been in and out of gyms for the past 7 years or so very regularly, more in a gym than out of one, and when i pay for membership i use it.

my problem comes with the diet side of things, which i am currently trying to rectify. i am in the middle of a nutrition and sports nutrition course which i am doing for myself, but sure if it helps others as well then all the better (but im the gunipig)

so where am i? well as i said, im in the middle of thos course, but im not in the gym or exercising. i think im trying to reset myself still. before Christmas, i was getting very stressed with work and as such i let my diet totally slip and lost all time and interest for the gym. i was eating wrong and drinking heavily. with Christmas and the usual food i didnt put on a massive amount, about 1.5 stone in total which didn't do me very well, but my fitness levels went right downhill.
so since the new year, i have a new outlook with this course and i am finding a few things out that i didnt know before and the weight has started to come down. i started at about 225lbs im currently sitting about 220lbs. i want 165lbs in a year or by Christmas which means im looking at 50-60 lbs in total, which is about 1 lbs per week which is generally a considered a good rate of weight loss. now i want to combine the loss with muscle gain. so about 3 weeks im down 5 lbs. long may it live.

the problem im facing at the moment is the motivation for the gym. im really happy sitting on my *kitten* after work, and i know thats a bad thing if i want to get back into the gym. so what do others do to motivate themselves to get moving again? like i said im in a very very sedentary job, and as such my life generally is as well, though im getting out walking during lunch for half hour so at least thats something.

Food is both a problem and not a problem. I like food and i like eating and making food. and i can cook and cook well so im able to make things right and not go mad, but i do from time to time. need to stay away from bread which is my big problem. want to try cloud bread.

i have done lots of diets and such from the no "carb" high-intensity exercise (which got me down to my target weight, but went back up once i came off it) to the joe wicks one, which is good, but my god. cycle 3 i was expected to eat up to 4kilo of food a day which i cant do at the best of times. i would have prefered they teach you how to eat not just eat this much. how much carbs fats and proteins (which i am now learning) so i can figure it out myself. that didnt last i couldn't manage cycle 3, but i got a lot of good information from it and learned about HIT training. hate working out at home though, dont have the room.

so anyway, i hope that has explained a bit about me and what i am trying to do and such.

my biggest goal from here, is meet people in the same or similar positions to me and try to get my motivation back again which is really really hard at the moment.