10 years in the making

I have struggled with my weight all my life. Up until I was 18, I didn't really care how fat I was, just as long as I kept eating yummy food, which is how I got to be 280 pounds at the start of my weight loss journey. I love food, there's no denying that. I didn't get to be 280 pounds by telling myself "no, you can not go back for seconds." or "no, don't eat that cake.".  And I'm the type of person that can look at food & gain 5 pounds. 
After my freshman year of college, at the age of 19, I finally decided I wanted to start losing weight. But yet, here I sit, 29 years old and I'm still overweight!! For the last 10 years my weight has yo-yo'd up and down and I am sick of it!!  So here beings my weight loss (and gain) story....
When I was 19, I started losing weight by simply counting calories and making sure I did not eat more then I burned. Simple math, seemed easy enough, and it was. The weight practically fell off the first few months. When I got to around 210 pounds, I had some changes in my life - I started dating my now husband M.  M & I would go out to eat quite a bit so for a long time my weight hovered just over the 200 pound mark. I wasn't 100% happy with my weight yet, but I was basking in the new relationship (my first and only relationship mind you) and got lazy. 
M & I moved in together after a year of dating and Friday night pizza takeout became our weekly ritual and soon the old habits crept back into my life. By the time we got engaged (6 months later) I was packing on the pounds and back up to around 240.
I was determined not to be a fat bride, so for our year and a half long engagement, I started following the Atkin's diet. It worked well at first and I was able to get back to 200 pounds pretty quickly, which is where I stayed until my wedding day. 200 had become my biggest nemisis, I just couldn't seem to get past that number on the scale. I married M on a beautiful May day weighing 200 pounds.
When we returned from our honeymoon 10 days later, I decided I had to break out of the 200's. The Atkins was no longer working for me, nevermind the fact that I didn't want to look at another piece of meat for as long as I lived, so I started following the Weight Watchers plan.   I combined WW with exercise (walking, aerobics, elliptical) and within a year I was at my lowest weight ever - 160 pounds. I wasn't super skinny, but I looked good & I felt great and that is all that mattered.
Victory sure didn't last long because soon after reaching 160, I got pregnant with my first son R. I wasn't too worried about gaining back the weight because I made a vow to myself to continue to watch my diet & continue to exercise which is exactly what I did. So how did I manage to gain 40 pounds?!?!?! Apparently, my thyroid was on the verge of destruction and the pregnancy pushed it to it's doom, so to say. I was now hypothyroid which means that my thyroid did not work the way it was supposed to, which means that my metabolism slowed to a hault.
For a year after R's birth, I struggled to lose the baby weight only to be left fat, frustrated and exhausted. I finally found a doctor with the answers and I started meds to help rectify my hypothyroidism and I was once back on the losing end of the scale. But, I didn't get very far, 10 pounds at the most, because when R was 2, I got pregnant with baby #2. And oh boy, did that pregnancy wreck havoc on my body. I gained 40, 50, 60??? pounds? I don't even know for sure, and to be honest, after I passed the 40 pound gain mark, I stopped looking at the scale. It was too depressing and I just didn't want to know. The good news is, is that my entire body was swollen (or so it seemed) and therefore after I gave birth, and the water weight was gone, I instantly lost 40 pounds! Easiest diet I've ever been on, and yet, I still had weight hanging around from my first pregnancy and a little more from that pregnancy.
My husband and I really wanted a baby girl and we decided to try one more time. But at this point, I was done with the whole up & down weight game. So I told my  husband if we were going to try again, it would have to be soon because I wanted the fat chapter of my life to be over so I could finally lose the weight once & for all. Low and behold, when my second son was only 4 months old, I found out I was pregnant with baby #3.
No matter how much I ate (and boy, or should I say girl, did I eat this time around!)  I didn't seem to gain any weight. And actually, in the first trimester, I lost 5 pounds! Turns out this pregnancy revved up my thyroid kicking it into overdrive! If you're thinking that pregnancy sure does a number on my body, then you're right! Pregnancy hates me. Anyway, I gained the least amount of weight on my third and final pregnancy and within 2 months after the baby was born, I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight.
As I type this, my 3rd child, H, is only 3 months old, so now here we are, caught up to the present time frame.   And here I sit, still 40 pounds away from my 1st pregnancy's starting weight, determined beyond belief to lose this weight once and for all. 
I'm a busy mom of 3 young children, but I HAVE to find the time, even if it's only 30 minutes at a time, to exercise 3 times a week and I HAVE to follow a strict food program. I've joined Weight Watchers once again since that is the only 'diet' (they prefer to call it a lifestyle change) that has ever worked for me and I also started a running program called the couch to 5K. Yup, I'm going to be a runner! I'm currently on week 7 and running 25 minutes non-stop! Go me!!
This has been 10 years in the making. 10 years of juggling with the scale, 10 years of binge eating, 10 years of "I'll get back on track tomorrow", etc etc etc. No more excuses. I have to do this!