I did pure calorie counting a while back and although I did lose quite a bit, (just under two stone) relatively quickly, I found it such a bind having to weigh and count absolutely everything. Some days I found that rather than mess around counting I'd not bother eating half of what I should! The other days, I'd not bother weighing and guesstimate it and then in my head feel that I'd failed, so I'd give up for the day/days following.
Now that I've found slimming world I really do think its a much healthier way of eating, even though you still need to be strict with yourself over what you use your syns on. Although I do have chocolate (three squares of dairy milk or dark chocolate) most evenings, with my cuppa and look forward to that, I tend to use my syns more as meal additives, so they are more often savoury than sweet. For me personally, the more sugar I have, the more I want, so it's easier to avoid it mostly. By having my chocolate at the end of the day, I've got those syns left and if I've gone over earlier, I don't have it.
Works for me but obviously not for everyone.
How about sitting down and going over the slimming world basics again, thinking how you used to do it when you very first started and were all fired up and determined. We all start off sticking to it properly and then let little bad habits slip in over time, and its those things that undermine the rest of our eating and stop the lbs coming off. We're only kidding ourselves though and then feel like we've failed.
If you still feel that calorie counting is the way forward for you, I do think 1200 is overly strict, especially when you seem to be very active and always running around with your family, plus the exercise you do and not sure 1200 would be enough.
Keep posting, whatever you decide as I'm sure everyone is willing you to succeed. Hugs to you hun, you sound so fed up :bighug: