Hi everyone. Help for a newbie.

Just needing contact with anyone out there to share and receive encouragement. I'm home following knee surgery (meniscus tear) and have been told I need to lose 100+ pounds or face a knee replacement surgery in the future. As gardening and knee replacement don't jive, I'm in for the long haul. I've lost 12 pounds so far doing a low carb food plan and limiting calories to 1200 a day. So far I'm please with the results. I'm into the 3rd week doing this and know that at 1-2 months of consistency will help determine habit changes. I have been a single divorced mom of 5 chilldren for the past 20 years and the last of my 5 children just married last summer so I've decided to focus on me. I do have about 60 students that I provide speech therapy services for as well as supervising 3 SLPs in training, on top of my second job of teaching piano to currently 14 piano students so I stay very, very busy. But I'm taking control back of my life and am going to make more responsible choices so that I can retire in about 10-12 years and enjoy a more active, healthy lifestyle. So here goes 100 pounds and more to lose to get there. Any encouragement or advice is hugely appreciated. Especially from you over 50 women who have lost a large amount of weight.