New Beginnings!

Hello all! My name is Ashley. I would like to introduce myself because I am new to the site. I joined a month or two ago but didn't really get started but now that it is 2014, I have no time to lose. I'll share my journey to where I am now and where I want to go. Today I am 5'6 and just weighed in at 306. I can't believe it. I never thought I would weight this much. I remember I started gaining weight when I was around 9 or 10. My parents broke up and I moved to another state with my mom and siblings. All the changes and sadness from the loss caused me a great deal of stress and I dealt with it by emotional eating. That became my coping mechanism for the rest of my life. We lived with my grandmother and that was hard because she was not always a kind person. By the time I was 16 I was around the 220s. By the time I graduated High School, I was 230 something and when I went to college I gained even more. Throughout college I hovered around 250. After graduation from college, I was really heavy. Maybe close to 270 but I worked at watching calories and exercised. I began to lose weight and I felt incredible. But just as I started to really get a hold on the weight loss lifestyle I went through a break up, my mother suffered a stroke and my grandmother passed away. All of this basically derailed my efforts towards weight loss. A while later, things were looking up and I met my wonderful husband. We got married and before we knew it we had a daughter and a son back to back. I didnt gain too much weight from the pregnancies and lost it rather quickly because of breast feeding. I was around 250 again after I had my youngest. He is 20 months old now and in the last 20 months, I've gained 50 lbs. I've been dealing with the stress in my life through eating... over eating and bingeing on sweets. My husband and I used to love to go hiking in the outdoors but now I don't get much exercise. But that is the end of this. I want to start by losing 2 lbs per week until I lose 150 lbs. It will be a tough task but I'm ready for it. I wake up sore. I have no flexibility. I dont like the way that I feel or look. My husband and I are going to join the gym at our local recreation center and start there. I am decided that I only have this one chance in life to live and I don't want to live this way anymore. Any advice or encouragement on this journey is welcomed and thank you for taking the time to read about me! Have a great day!