food addiction, exercise routine: making it PERMANENT

Hello,

I'm looking for advice that I might need in a few months from now.

For an introduction.
I was 250# 2 years ago. Finally got serious at 240# late last spring.
The time was right:
the job I wanted, to enlist in the Navy, depended on it.
I found employment part time at a garden center, working outside, 1.5mi (walkable!) from work
its part time nature meant I had time to seriously focus on exercise.
the gym became my priority, over and above my temp job, and since especially at first the gym really drained me, it was good that I had time to sleep extra long, relax extra long.
finally, I didn't (and still do not) have the ability to drive myself to exercise, so the particular gym was run with crossfit classes. I went to the same time slot, usually, met some friends who kept me obvious.

It was a perfect combination and by mid July I was 220#, 215# by August when I finally enlisted. I did it

Now at that time, my last lease had run out, and my temporary garden center job was over, AND my two cars both needed some major repairs (which I was to do myself).
So I'm living with my sister for the month of August, looking for the next apartment, looking for the next job, and frantically doing brakes, brake lines, fuel lines, a heater core... some major work to actually get one, then two cars running (I had to sell one once it was repaired).
AND my main goal, to enlist, was accomplished.

Well, stressed and focused on other things entirely, I reverted to old habits.
I didn't have access to a car, so there went the gym. When I could borrow a car, I was using it to get to the parts store, not to the gym.
Yes, I could have run on my own. But I didn't, I never did-- the class structure really helps keep me honest. No 5min job and a single bead of sweat and calling it a day, in a 45min group class.
I like sugar: I like it in peanut m&ms, and I like it in granola. I also like frappuccinos and milkshakes. I had a few celebratory meals, then I began snacking on those peanut m&ms. I went to subway once a day. You can make the right choices and end up with a highly nutritious subway sandwich, but one that's still 700 calories in a 6". Add 450 calories in 2 cookies and...
you get the picture.

I was back to 230+ by mid October.

My recruiters set me straight and, settled into my apartment, new job, and my fully functional car, I've resumed the habits that got me to 215. I'm back to 223 as of yesterday, and I'll be at least by 220 if not 215 by the time I leave for boot camp, keeping this up.
Happily I was most definitely NOT at square one again: my weight was up, but I hadn't lost the cardio or the muscle, and was back to doing lunges and burpees and v-ups with much greater ease than the last time I was 230-something#
Disaster averted.

But I need to be 175 in the long run.
If I'm going to be officer material, I need to be fit. Not just toeing the 'unfit for service' line.
This needs to be a PERMANENT lifestyle.
Times are at this moment, generally, good. I can make proper diet and making it to the gym for 45minutes the focus of my day and the largest expenditure of my willpower. Last monday when I had some extra burdens, I called in 'sick' to work and made it to the gym and got the other obligation done instead. Because I'm working an hourly temp job, and no one minds. But I won't be able to do that in my career in the Navy.

What happens, maybe next spring, and I'm once again faced with some extra stress passing my exams for my Navy training, and I'm tempted to skip on the workout, indulge in some cathartic candy?

It occurs to me that some chores ritual. I shower, brush my teeth, do my laundry so often that going a day unwashed, with teeth unbrushed, or wearing yesterday's sweaty socks is unpleasant, and arriving to work in the opposite state, clean and well groomed, is a good feeling.
I need clean eating and exercise to play the same part in my life. I need to get to the point where I rely on the gym to feel right and energized, and sleep at night; and build a Pavlovian response to broccoli and not peanut m&ms.
When I'm at that point, it will no longer be a willpower expenditure to keep it up. It will be a routine way of life, and indeed, require willpower to NOT go to the gym.

...how do I get to that point?
Because right now life is easy, and I'm back on top of it. But there will come crises again, like this past August. I'll have major exams, relationship issues, financial stresses: there are bumps in life. And I can't go back to food addiction (and then fight to cut it again) every time that I am stressed.