Where to start?

So............. I thought since this has been such a interesting long journey and many of you have no idea I have even been on it, I will write about it. Especially since it has been a major focus of my life for several years now.
 I apologize that I am unclear about dates and time lines but that is not really important. So.... I begin , well at the beginning for me. A Picture! Yep, it all started with seeing a picture of myself and realizing I had somewhere lost track of myself. I had NO idea I had gotten So very large. I think because I had a life, friends and never completely let my weight get in my way of doing what I wanted to, I just had no idea how much weight I was carrying. I will scan and post the picture when I find it but I have yet to find it. Anyway, I saw this picture and thought "DAMN" ! I knew I was in trouble and it was time to do something about it. So I started thinking about the things (habits) I had and what I could change. I really did not have much information about being healthy so I had to start with the most simple and basic of steps...... Drink Water. So I started to make a effort to drink more water. Now for those of you who do not know, I am a drinker. (not alcohol) I always like to have a drink, and usually it was a Super Big gulp of Mountain Dew.... So that had to change. Knowing myself I knew I better take baby steps and not try to make drastic changes quickly so I started drinking water and also made the switch from regular soda to Diet soda. I remember thinking about my friend Tim saying to me "You might as well have a piece of cake" every time I had a regular soda because he had been a diet soda drinker. Anyway so I added these two things to my new goal of getting healthy. I also was job searching after getting "laid off" from my nannying job, so part of my focus became finding employment with good health benefits and low stress. (I had heard stress adds to peoples weight gain) Not too much longer I was working for a non profit (not the benefits or $ I wanted but I had been unemployed 6months!) and found myself in and out of my car doing home visits and such which of course meant a lot of time in the car and a lot of fast food. I knew this had to stop but it was hard while I was in this job, I would try and fail only to end up going all day with no nutrition at all, not even fast food. (not that fastfood is nutrition!) So I struggled with this back and forth but was able to keep my diet soda and water habits in place. The next thing that happened was a call from the county offering me a interview for a job I had applied for about a year earlier..... Hmmmmm, O.K. So I did and well short story, I got it. This was a good move for me as my health benefits were going to be excellent and my work schedule was going to be easier, more structured and less stressful. So at this new job I saw a opportunity to make some changes and thus the next phase began......................