lose Weight/Getting Married/Herniated Disc

I know exactly what you are going through. At 23, I'm now 26, I was diagnosed with herniations to L4, L5, S1 area. In addition, they are degenerating, and torn apart. After a few weeks in physical therapy, sciatica developed. I've been on a crazy roller coaster these last few years, and if there's one thing that I can stress, is that weightlifting saved my back. I was getting epidurals every other week to the point where I went from 140 to 180 almost over night. I exploded from the steroids, which then made me more depressed. Eventually stated working out, yeah it hurt, it sucked, I felt disgusting, but I couldn't look at myself anymore and I knew over time, my back would just get worse. Eventually over time, I started doing more and more and more and lost weight. But I find it with us, that we can slip away from our patterns very easily. I'll get upset, binge eat, skip the gym for 2 weeks, and put on weight and then it's basically starting over again with my diet/gym routine. The best thing for people like us, who have an everyday battle, is to force ourselves to stick to a routine and diet, no matter how hard it is or how much we hate it. I have no one motivating me, or pushing myself, it all comes from me. Sometimes I give up on myself, but there needs to come a day where we say screw it, and we get after it. I almost had back surgery, a microdisectimny to be exact, and I'm glad I cancelled because lifting weights really helped. Granted, it took me almost a year of strengthening my back until I was able to squat and deadlift, but you will get there, and when you do, you will see how much better your back feels.