New Here! Need some Motivation from Friends!

Hey y'all! I'm Elizabeth. I'm 24 years old, married, and have 2 kids! Well, one is "ours," and the other is "his,"...but they're both ours I guess. My daughter is going to be 3 in October. I've had problems with my weight my whole life...well since I was 5. I actually have pictures of me when I was 4, and then my kindergarten picture looks completely different. It doesn't even look like the same girl.

Anyways, this is my mindset now..."I wish I was as fat as I was the first time I thought I was fat."

I met my husband in 2008 and we started dating a year later. He was in the Army at the time and deployed a few months after we started dating. I hated my body at the time, but looking back at pictures, I was crazy. I've never been skinny, and I really don't want to be. I love curves, but I also want to be fit. I'm 5'6" and weighed about 175 at the time. I played soccer for 14 years, and a lot of that was muscle, especially in my legs. My husbands deployment messed with me pretty bad. We had only been together for a few months, but we had both fallen HARD! I would go whole days without eating, but when I did eat it was junk food. That didn't happen very often tho, so I didn't gain any weight. The summer before he came home, I moved in with a friend (who's husband was in the Army with mine) and we partied a lot. Surprisingly I didn't gain too much weight then either. He came home in October of 2010, and I got pregnant in January.

I gained 30 pounds overnight...actually over about a month, but that is still a lot obviously!
By the time I was 9 months pregnant, I was about 260. I had my daughter and dropped about 30 lbs., but that still put me at 230...not good!
There was A LOT going on in our lives at that time, and we were still together, but I ended up living with my family 6 hours away from my husband for a few months. I guess it was such an emotional time that I didn't have any interest in losing weight. My husband actually prefers bigger women, so he never said anything about it. He got out of the Army in May of 2012, and our life settled down quite a bit compared to what it was like.....except for my emotions and hormones. I used to be an extremely laid back person...I was super sweet and just happy all of the time. For a little over a year, I was someone that I didn't even recognize. I was super moody and emotional all of the time. I gained about 20 lbs, so I weighed in at about 245-250. I feel like I'm getting more control over everything now, but I can't lose weight for anything.

As mentioned, I played soccer growing up and was even the captain of our high school team. The thing that stands out to me, is that all the time we spent running and doing different exercises during practice and games, 5 days a week, I didn't lose weight. I ate vegetables all of the time. My mom is all about health, so I wouldn't get anything that was too bad for me when I was home, and I didn't go out to eat ( with the exception of our Mexican dinners once a week).

Now, here is what I need help with!!
I am currently taking classes online and working on my Bachelor's in Criminal Justice. When I graduate in 2016, I want to already be on the waiting list for Air Force BMT (Basic Military Training). The only problem is that I HAVE to drop AT LEAST 80 lbs. It gives be about 2 years to do that, but I know it is not going to be easy. I need friends that are going through the same thing: not necessarily the military aspect, but that is always welcome!!

Thank you!!

Sorry for the life story, but I feel like there has been a lot to contribute to my weight!!