Welcome back!
Congrats on making big changes.. sounds like you've got a plan and lots of motivation, which is great!
It turned out hormonal BC made me really lethargic, which obviously makes it hard to exercise enough, not to mention how difficult it was to do well in school, spend quality time with my husband, etc. I ended up depressed just because life was so hard! Since I got the copper IUD I feel soo much better. It didn't lead to weight loss, but that was my own fault.
And, hey, 10 years of better-than-the-pill protection?? You can't beat that.
Allow me a little rant here... Doctors and pharmaceutical companies like to deny that nasty side effects from BC are possible. While I understand not wanting to freak people out about it unnecessarily, since most women do have perfectly lovely experiences, it sometimes belittles the very real side effects that a minority of us experience.