Been Struggling and Stressed Out need Support

My suggestion is to take the timeline out of the equation. Deadlines add stress for me. They also add a sense of, "oh, I can just eat whatever I want today because I still have 9 months to get where I want to be." That's just me though. It might be motivating for you, but at the very least, I would suggest being gentle with yourself and recognizing your progress even if you don't hit your goal by the time you'd planned.

Also, if you can find an activity you really like, it can do wonders for how you feel about yourself. It's harder to get down on your body when it's helping you do something awesome that you enjoy. And if you find something you really like that you want to get better at, it can be a motivating factor in making nutritious food choices because it starts to be about fueling your body for the activity just as much as - if not more than - it is about losing weight.

I say congrats for reaching out for help and not just going in the wrong direction. You are actively trying to control your situation and that's a great thing. That said we have to understand that there will always be things that come up in our lives that derail us. Many of those things we can't control. The one thing we can control is how we eat and how much we exercise. I have a rather large weight loss goal this year as well (67 lbs) and at times when I think of the number of pounds I need to lose it can be intimidating. I have loss over 50 lbs 4 other times in my life so I know I can do it, but keeping it off is what I worry most about. My solution to my problem is that I have committed to working out 4 x per week and I have a goal of burning 2500 calories each week. I agree with the what most people say "that weight loss is 75% what we eat and 25% exercise", however when all you do is try to control your eating it's very easy to slip back into bad eating habits and gain the weight you loss back. Just imagine if instead of eating when you get stressed you decided to exercise. For sure you will feel better about your situation because you are taking control of your situation and typically when you feel better you tend to make healthier dietary choices. Another thing that I have been doing is asking myself when I am at my ideal weight what will I have to eat to maintain that weight and how hard will I have to exercise? That motivates me to try to act the part now in preparation for when the time comes. Hopefully this helps.