Not new, but starting over.

Ashiieepuff

So, last year around this time I was a teeny tiny, fit 116-lb confident person. Cue in a bad breakup, an extremely stressful move, and a mega career change, and here I am now at 140 lbs. not my all time highest weight, but enough to make me extremely uncomfortable, and discouraged. I want to get back to my previous weight, and for some reason I'm just lost on how to start again. I remember this being easy, but things are a little different now.
I am an active duty soldier, and while some think that this lifestyle should automatically whip me into shape, it didn't. I went to basic training and gained 10 pounds... And no, not of muscle. The weather was so bad we could hardly physically train, the food is so packed with calories, and they DO NOT let you diet. I am just at the maximum weight limit for my height (5'3) and struggling with food. Here are my issues:
We've been deprived of indulgent foods, so everyone is constantly ordering pizza or having ice cream or buying soda, and hey, I miss all these things too so I find myself doing it as well.
During training days, we have set meal times and sometimes I will go over 6 hours without eating, so by the time our meal time comes around, I'm starved and will overeat accidentally, ruining my calorie count for the day, for consecutive days.
I succumb to food peer pressure easily.
I eat my stress.
My dining facility is set up buffet style, which screws up your portion perception.
We have 10 minutes to eat, so I'm more concentrated on eating all my food quickly rather than paying attention to how much I am eating.

We are now allowed to buy some of our own food, so I took it upon myself to buy some Quest bars, which I remember loving for their awesome macronutrient value, and because I can easily carry around meal bars in my pockets. I've also bought a few boxes of GNC's lean shakes (not the powder). I cannot cook, nor make smoothies, so I can really only stick to things I can grab and go.

Any tips on how I can make this whole process easier for myself?! I can't weigh myself as often as I'd like so the lack of seeing progress on the scale is also discouraging. How else can I see if I'm succeeding or not?


Also as a side note, my weight and body fat content are the only things I am unhappy with. I am fully capable of passing every PT requirement, which is equally as frustrating, because I FEEL fit and strong, but the mirror tells me otherwise.