This is my workout regimen: I do 30 minutes of cardio 4 days a week. I do 60 minutes of cardio 1-2 days a week, and the remaining day I usually weight train, rest or just do another day of 30 minutes. When I do 30 minutes, it's not exactly mild, I'm usually pouring sweat and pushing myself as hard as I can.
Most days I am at a 300-500 calorie deficit. I add calories burned in my exercise plan on myfitnesspal and it bumps up my daily goal. I'm never usually hungry enough to eat all of the recommended 1500+ calories. Some days I meet the goal, but it's very rare.
When I first started working out, I was in the 180s. After the first week and a half I went down to 175. After the next two weeks I went down to 170. And now, I've been stuck at 170 for a really long time. I'm guessing it's a plateau. I've tried varying my diet, doing new cardio routines (specifically HIIT exercises), lifting weights more, and just trying to change certain things I do. I realize the scale is not the most accurate form of progress, but I also have progress pictures and I measure myself and I'm just not seeing a difference.
The only thing I can think of that I can't control is eating processed foods. I eat prepared meals a lot, like Lean Cuisine, or things like granola bars and stuff. I would LOVE to switch to an organic or vegan diet but I just can't afford it. My family is on food stamps and I already use a lot of the money I get from my business on buying food. If I switched to solely organic stuff, I'd eat even less than I do now.
Could it be the calorie deficit holding me back? I kind of don't even think twice about that because whenever I use a machine at the gym, I enter the exact amount of calories burned into myfitnesspal and I know that those numbers are usually overestimated anyway. Is it the processed foods thing?
When I compare how I am eating and exercising now, to how I did at the beginning of this year or most of last year, there is a HUGE improvement. I did no exercise during the day and I ate disgusting amounts of food. I'm not going to give up anytime soon, but seeing progress is a HUGE motivator for me. Does anyone have any suggestions?

My first weigh in!

I don't know if it's because I was bloated, on my period and weighing myself midday last Thursday (it's probably all three) but it appears I've lost 10 lbs in a week! (Definitely not all fat though. Probably mostly water!)

This is a HUGE motivator. I am really psyched. I really hope this is working and my scale isn't just being gay. I am seriously feeling some changes, mostly being sore, but eh.

breakfast
1 bowl of cheerios w/ 1% milk and strawberries and bananas:  260
1/2 a banana: 50 

lunch
homemade strawberry banana smoothie w/ honey:  220

snack
1 tbsp of peanut butter: 95 

dinner

chicken alfredo w/ pasta: 290

snack

3 celery stalks: 60
1/4 cucumber: 15
spinach dip: 90 

total so far: 1030

snack

mixed fresh fruits (kiwi, watermelon, grapes, pineapple): 80 calories

lunch

strawberry, banana and peanut butter wrap:  365

snack

half a cucumber and some parmesean spinach dip: 120

dinner

pasta w spinach meal: 280

total: 1065

Went to the gym and did a higher level on the elliptical! It was definitely harder to get through it today. I worked out again for 30 minutes, this time doing 1.28 miles  and 292 calories. Afterward, I went on the treadmill for a little while and just messed around.

After the gym, I went to the farmer's market and bought fresh celery, cucumbers, strawberries, bananas, blackberries, spinach wraps and some pepper rings all for about $15. Then, I picked up some fat free plain yogurt and some spinach dip from the supermarket. I'm going to try to make smoothies!

breakfast

egg in a basket: 170
can of fruit: 50 

total so far: 220

Today I feel sore, yay! It's probably a combination of weight training and yoga that I did yesterday. I'm not too sore to work out, though! So I'll definitely be hitting up the gym today as usual. One of the hardest parts about adopting a healthy lifestyle is my sleeping schedule. I live with my mom and she doesn't go to bed until around 3AM which usually means I don't either. But I'm trying really hard to get us back on a normal schedule! I don't feel as tired as I imagined I would, since I went to bed last night at around 4 and woke up at around 11AM to three kittens clawing the shit out of my comforter, haha. I really hope the tiredness doesn't kick in later. I'm also still just adjusting to the hunger pangs that come with shrinking my portions to a "normal" size and I realize that in these first two weeks my cravings are gonna be  out of control! I just need willpower. :)

lunch and dinner:

lunch

mcdonald's fruit & yogurt parfait - 160

dinner

egg salad sandwich on wheat - 380
can of fruit - 50 

total: 930

I ate at McDonalds because my mom and I were out like the whole day doing stuff, and I'd just come out of the gym so I was really hungry. I actually bought two but one ended up filling me up so I'm saving the other for later.

And then, since my mom gets Meals on Wheels since she's disabled, we got a couple of them and one of them was an egg salad sandwich on wheat. I just ate that now and mistakenly looked up the nutritional info after eating it. I had no idea it was so heavy! So I guess that's the last one of that I'll have for a while.

I'm trying to get on a better sleeping schedule lately. I'm used to sleeping at like 2 or 4 in the morning so yeah... it makes me hungry being up that long. I'm trying not to eat past 7 or 8 pm.

Anyway, today was good!

I went on the elliptical for 30 mins and ran 1.75 miles and burned 350 calories, not bad! And then I did a little bit of weight training, but not much because the elliptical really took it out of me.