advice/motivation/support please?

Well, diet first -- way to go on spreading things out! That is something a lot of people have a hard time doing, so if you're doing it that way Kudos! And I sincerely mean that. Here's what I would try in the diet department:

At least for the next couple weeks, make sure not only are you spreading out your eating, but you are giving yourself as equal caloric intake at each of those meals as possible -- and you may be doing this already, but there's another spin on this as well, so hang with me -- don't think of them as "meals" and "snacks" -- they're all meals -- so if you regularly consume say 1800 calories a day including exercise calories, you want to split that up into 6 meals of 300 calories each (as close as you can); secondly, to give your metabolism a little different "jolt", so to speak, alternate your meals so you don't eat fat and carbs in the same meal. so 1st meal should be high protein, low or no carb; 2nd meal should be as close to fat free as possible, but carbs are ok (whole grain breads, fruit, salad, whatever) and alternate like that all day long. Lastly, make sure you eat something 30-40 minutes before working out and within 30 minutes after your workout -- I would do carbs before and protein after.

As far as workouts go -- 2 hours??? yikes!! LOL -- shorter, harder, more dedicated workouts will always trump long, extended workouts. if you look at the science of the body, muscles, etc, longer workouts are not necessarily more beneficial. Trust me when I tell you that it took me YEARS to finally buy into this, try it, and see better results than all the years I wasted putting 2 hours in at the gym on a daily basis.

If you wish to keep working out 6 days a week, alternate your workouts, make them NO MORE THAN 30-45 minutes, and make them intense if you wanna tone up and slim down. Do cardio on day one, and when you do cardio -- one "endurance" cardio session a week is more than enough -- going the whole time at pretty much the same pace. Make the other two interval workouts -- it can be treadmill, elliptical, bike, whatever, but do a good 5 minute warmup, then do 3 minutes at a moderate pace, then all out as fast/hard as you can for 1 minute, 3 min slow pace, 1 min all out, back to 3 min moderate and repeat that sequence up to 30 minutes and a good 5 - 10 minute cooldown. If we're looking at a 6 day workout schedule, I would do this day 1 and 5 with day 3 being an "endurance" cardio session.

On days 2, 4, and 6 do your lifting. Circuit training (working the whole body in succession with little or no rest between sets) will benefit you in slimming and toning. Use light/moderate weights with high reps (12-15).

You definitely want 48 hours of rest between lifting sessions to allow adequate recovery time. And make sure you take day 7 off COMPLETELY. Allow your body and your mind to rest and recover.

Don't be too discouraged, about anything you've done, because from what you're telling me you are making killer progress already... you should be very proud of how far you've come and now that your body is adjusted to what you were doing, shaking things up should definitely give you a jolt in the right direction.

These are, of course, my suggestions based on all the "knowledge" and personal experience I've gained through research and trial and error in my own life. I'm not a Certified Trainer or Nutritionist, but I have the results I want from doing things right in my own life, and I certainly hope this helps you.

Matt

you got it!!

definitely keep me posted -- give this a good two weeks (dedicate a month to it more like it ) and let me know how it goes.

good luck!! :drinker: