Wow, thanks everyone for all the responses!


I appreciate the positive, supportive encouragement!
Since I had more than a few people ask my method of loss, I'll go ahead and say it...hehe
I started out by first cleaning up my diet pretty hardcore - cut out all fast food, all soda, all sugary beverages in general, cut down my alcohol consumption *drastically* to where I almost never drink, very limited consumption of sweets or any other junk foods. I pretty much fill my grocery cart with only real food - fruits, veggies, lean meats, lean dairy, beans, rice, flour, cooking oil, eggs etc. I feel like the first year was mostly devoted to me re-learning how to eat like a human being, learning what a portion was, etc. Mostly walked the first year - I was so big and had a lot of body pain from my weight, mainly in my back.
The second year (2008) I got more into the fitness aspect of things. This year, though, it seems like diet and fitness are coexisting peacefully and I'm making a lot of gains in strength, stamina, and muscle composition. It was a lot of steps for me. I felt frustrated many times because it didn't happen fast, and it's still slow going...

and I love food and I did cheat enough times that I feel like I sabotaged my progress a little at times (especially holidays)

But my persistence has paid off.
Recently I decided I needed more structure in my food plan, because I was "falling off the wagon" too much. So I designed my own, little program. I found a food and exercise journal template on a site called balancedweightloss.com, edited it to make it more fine-tuned to my needs and preferences, and then I printed it out, laminated it, and had it bound into a book at Kinko's. I use wet-erase markers to tally how much/what kinds of food I eat, using a serving-size guide (I like this better than counting calories), and I also tally my exercise. It's basically like little check-boxes. I used the food pyramid as my guide for how to categorize food and how many servings per day of each food group I should go for. I also have checkboxes for 10-minute increments of exercise since I often have to break my exercise up into segments due to my schedule. I feel like the structure of the book helps me keep my food intake under control since I've always suffered compulsive eating...it helps me stay in check. The exercise checkboxes challenge me to go for more and shoot for longer times spent exercising.
More recently I've also added more calisthenics and strength training to my routine, which I do every morning before work. It doesn't take too long, and I can feel a huge difference.
So that's what I've been doing. Disciplined and mostly clean eating (I leave a little room for tiny cheats these days, but the book makes me control it more), dedication to daily exercise, and a positive attitude about myself as a whole is what my "secret" is. It's not been easy, sometimes downright frustrating. It's hard to face temptations, as well as have the patience to realize that for it to be healthy, it has to be somewhat slow.
Thanks again for the positive feedback, everyone! Especially to the one who said I look like a different person, because I really do *feel* like a different person, too, and not just physically.

I love how this feels, I will never let myself be overweight (by more than a few pounds anyway - hehe) again!
So those who are in the beginning of their journey, take it from me...keep with it. It takes a long time, but the patience will pay off
I still have about 30 more lbs. I'd like to lose, but lately I've been getting thinner without the scale moving much. I think that's a sign I'm gaining muscle because I look thinner, and all my pants are way too big and my shirts mostly fit like tents now. Time to hit up the thrift stores

lol