Hello! I have a plan in mind for what I want to be doing, and I was hoping to run it by all of you and get some feedback.

What I've been doing:
Calorie counting, 1200-1500 cals/day, <25% cals from fat (not too hard for me)
64 oz water/day (easy for me)
Lots of little meals during the day.
20-minute pilates/day with about 75% success
30-minute cardio/day with about 25% success
I've lot 15 lbs, and that's halfway to my goal.

In three weeks: I'm moving on the 7th of January to Lousville where I will have free 24 hour access to the apartment fitness center -- some cardio machines and weight lifting things. Where I'm at now I can't afford membership to a gym, plus I don't like them, plus I'm lazy.

My plan:
When I get to Louisville, I want to really switch my fitness focus. My plan is to stop counting calories and switch over to just eating healthy foods and focusing on portion control -- I don't think that this will be too hard for me.
I -will- replace this calorie control with some weight lifting and more regular cardio. I want to build muscle and to really track it and become physically fit, not just thinner. I would like to get into a nice routine with lifting and cardio so that it's a habit for me.
I think that with building muscle, the weight will stay the same probably, but then when I go back to counting calories and continue the exercise, the weight will drop but I'll look and feel better.

Why the Change?: Actually, I think that I'm one of few people who is starting to feel worse as I lose weight. I had a pretty good self image before I started, but with this counting and tracking every day and I'm not really seeing a difference in my clothes at all, I'm starting to feel bad about where I'm at. I think that the exercising will help me get excited about my body condition, and that will be more important than weight 'loss'.

Ok, that's the plan! Comments/ideas/questions/anything?
Please help!

I think it's great that your goal is to feel good about yourself. Exercise should go a long way toward that goal. The only thing I could see being a problem is that you may end up eating more calories than you think you are. If you're happy with how you're looking and feeling, that's NOT a problem. But you might want to just check yourself once in a while to see how your doing -- but don't just think of calories, but whether you're eating healthy food. SO, don't calorie count every day, but use what you've been learning to make sure you stay focused on the eating side too -- especially if it's hard for you to get into that exercise habit! (that would be my concern for myself).

I like wyllen's advice. I think if you just continue with at least a weekly hop on to the scale and make a deal with yourself that if you GAIN, then you start counting again (at least for a week) to get your control back on the portion size.

Maybe you're expecting too much on the clothing side too...were your clothes at your high weight tight? Maybe you're just getting comfortable in the wardrobe you have. You know, I think we all learn over time (whenever we get more weight than we should) that there are some brands that are bigger but still have the "right" size on the label, right? I'm thinking that maybe you should take a little jaunt to the department store and have some fun just trying on stuff. You might find that even if your SIZE is the same, that the RANGE and types of clothes in that size that fit you (and maybe flatter you???) are different now. If you can afford it, perhaps this is the time to think about treating yourself to a new outfit if you find something fun and funky, (or sexy) that you like to help you get some of those positive feelings back. And even if you don't buy anything, maybe just the fun of trying some new stuff on will help you think differently.

You're doing great!

Wow, thank you both. That's definately a good idea to just keep myself in check with the food after a week or so to make sure I haven't upped my calories a lot (or back to where they were before, yikes!)

As for the clothes... I actually decided to just 'try on' one pair of pants that were in the back of my closet to see how close I was... and they slid right on. I wore them to work. (Funny, though, the exact same pair in a different color is skin tight...) So that helped.