Looking for a review of my diet and exercise program

MissRibena

I’m a longtime lurker and have picked up lots of tips from here. I’m looking for a review of my current regime if any of you have time. I'm 31 year old female.

Diet
Although my basic diet is usually not atrocious, I struggle to keep my weight down at the best of times and believe it is a combination of my very sedentary job (8-10 hours stuck at a desk each day, 1.5 hour round-trip drive) and fooling myself on portion sizes. After a year of really intensive studying after work, things had got out of hand so I’ve been on a mission for the last couple months to sort myself out. I’ve been following a low calorie, low fat (generally low fat, not lots of ‘low-fat’ processed stuff) diet that is semi-GI aware. So far, I have lost 23lbs and got my BMI to 26.0 I intend to lose another 16lb over the next couple of months.

Breakfast: Porridge & Nuts / Muesli (my own homemade & measured) / Weetabix
(I know this would be better as eggs but I can’t cope with pots and pans in the morning)

Snack :Fruit

Lunch: Soup & small pitta / left overs from dinner / philadelphia portion sandwich (once a week max) / chickpeas / cottage cheese / tuna
Usually have a salad with balsamic vinegar only every day (tomato, pepper, cucumber, scallions and either baby spinach, rocket or iceberg lettuce)
Yoghurt pretty much every day (Glenisk natural – sometimes I add seeds)

Snack: Fruit

Dinner: Grilled Salmon / Chicken Fillet with veg, Stirfrys, Omlettes, Tuna and pasta for emergencies
I make up chicken curries, turkey burgers, chilli con carne and freeze measured portions (red meat once a week only usually)

Snack: I don’t usually have anything here but say twice a week I’ll have on of the Alpen Light Cereal Bars (59 calories and zero nutrients – I know!)

All carbs are brown / wholemeal and I weigh all carb portions. I don't eat bread if possible and a wholemeal half-loaf lasts about a month in my freezer.
I drink about 5 cups of tea/coffee a day (no sugar, low fat milk)
I drink one bottle of white wine at the weekend most weeks (over 2 nights).
I keep a food diary and don’t cheat but with the exception of potatoes, carrots and parsnips, I don’t really bother weighing or counting the calories in salads or veg. such as broccoli. I do round meals upwards all the time to compensate for this though.
I know the coffee and the odd cereal bar are not good but I think they save me from going for a yorkie or something disastrous.

Exercise
Never a ‘sporty’ kid, a few years ago I joined a gym and got (what I now know are) various fairly standard programs of about 40 mins cardio on various machines and about another 30 mins at ‘weights’/abs for 3 times a week. I kept it up pretty well and lost weight but money got tight and then I started studying so I stopped well over a year ago. I started using exercise DVDs on and off so as not to be a total couch potato (don’t laugh!). I know these will come in for some derision on this forum but they have really grown on me and I have made them the main part of my exercise program. I can bounce out of bed in any state and start or do it while I’m cooking a dinner or whatever – it gives me zero excuse to skip a session and I find I’m WAY better if I stick to a routine constantly. If I get fed up, I buy a new one or juggle them around to change my program. I try to do something every day and the weekly program goes like this:

Monday: 1hr / 1hr10min DVD (usually Davina McCall which is interval training and ‘weights’ (what I think would be ‘girlie weights’ in this forum lots of reps and 2 x 3KG dumbbells ), pressups, tricep dips, squats & lunges (no weights), ab/core work incl. planks. At least as good as what I got in the gym.
Tuesday: Tae-Bo or Boxercise DVD for 30 minutes
Wednesday: Sames as Monday but sometimes I’ll substitute a slightly different DVD like Karen Voigt or Biggest Loser or something.
Thursday: Pilates DVD for 30 minutes
Friday: See Monday and Weds
Saturday: Try and do 1hr 30 minutes between Tae-Bo / Salsa / Walking and Pilates.
Sunday: Same as Saturday.
I don’t have any scheduled rest days except maybe once a fortnight take a (Tues/Thurs) day off and I don’t do the same thing two days in a row ever.


My goals:
I fell in love with skiing a few years ago so I want to have as good stamina as possible and also flexibility and a bit of core strength to get the most from my few weeks of the year I get to do this and not get injured (obviously there is a limit to this given that I sit down for most of the year and then want to bounce around mountains from dawn til dusk).
I want to continue my weight loss as above. I measure myself every couple of weeks and I’m getting impatient that my top half has slimmed down loads but my bum and thighs are not really moving. I know you can’t spot reduce but I would be happy if it all slimmed off together – at the moment I’m actually more disproportionate than when I started! Any advice here or is it just a case of sticking with it?
I don’t want to look like Madonna. I actually think Davina looks really well and has an achievable look for me. I can feel lots of new/bigger muscle in my arms, tum, legs and bum but most are still hidden.
I don’t want to join a gym but prefer to stay exercising at home. I’m willing to spend some money on equipment if necessary.

All of the above has been working well for me up until now but is this the right course for me to continue? A lot of what I'm doing is based on stuff I've gleaned from all kinds of sources of the years and I'm not really sure if I'm getting the best value for my efforts. I get the impression from this and other websites that I should be doing more ‘man weights’ but I’m confused about whether I’m at that stage yet and worried I’ll do something wrong and get hurt and not really sure who to trust because you see so much conflicting info.

Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated - thanks!