New User - Lose Weight/Half Marathon in October

Hi,
I'm Jordan I'm 33 years old and 216lbs. In my teens and early 20's I was about 30-40 lbs overweight, started running and dropped it all (and more, but also lost a lot of muscle). Bounced back up to 30lbs over until recently when I got on a scale and realized I was 5 '10 and 240lbs. Have started running again, down to 216lb currently and want to get back to 165-170.

I really want to be sensible about what I do this time around, rather than spending 3+ hours on the road everyday and logging over 150 miles a month, I want to approach my weight loss from a more holistic perspective. Which means dropping pounds slower, weight training in the gym more often (so I don't lose all my natural muscle mass) rather than just abusing my knees and ankles on the road and getting skinny.

My mum and mother in law passed away last year and my partner and I started drinking heavily and eating junk, this is what pushed me up above my normal overweight-ness into more obese territory (although I wear my weight fairly well).

I want to cut back on my drinking and start eating in a way that will bring joy to my life, rather than just shoving garbage in my mouth at the end of the day.

I'm a social worker/therapist and I see how trauma can affect people, either with substance use and/or food abuse. I'm pretty sure this is what's going on for me. I also want to inspire my partner to feel better, whether that means getting on the road with me, or just doing things that make her feel healthier and happier.

I know I'm at my happiest when I'm running. A couple days ago I finally hit 5 miles for the first time in years, and the feeling was incredible, other runners know what I mean, the hair stands up on the back of your neck, and you feel like you want to cry. I love that feeling.

So my running goal is to finish a half-marathon at the end of October and get back to my ideal weight of 165-170lbs by the end of the summer. I want to do it without losing too much muscle mass, and stay injury free. Most of all I want to learn to have a better relationship with food and alcohol, so that when I do get injured, or have to take some time off from intense cardio, I don't just slam the weight back on... this is something I didn't change last time I lost weight, and I paid for it by quickly putting the pounds back on when I stopped running after injury.

I'm also a heavy smoker, which, contrary to popular belief does not make running impossible (hear that other smokers?). But I also want/need to change that in my life. My entire family has died from smoking related illness (mostly heart disease and stroke, no cancer thankfully) and I don't want to carry that legacy on for my kids.

Anyways,
Cool to see such a big and helpful community here, I'm hoping that I can use this site to SENSIBLY lose weight and get back to doing what I love well (which is running!)

Cheers,
Jordan