First off, "all of my problems is directly or indirectly attributed to my weight problems" is problematic. Skinny people have problems too, as do healthy active muscular people, and everyone else. Your weight is just one problem. It might cause some other problems too, but it isn't everything.
Anyway, that aside:
Congrats on making a plan, and for doing it so early. The last two times I lost weight I had gained back all of it PLUS another half, so I think you've done great just by catching yourself earlier. If you do that (gain back only half of what you lose) every time, you'll get to your goal weight and stay close to it!
I like your plan about exercising. I'm personally not adding exercise to my plan at all yet (although I do commute to work on foot), but I think that sounds like a really good way to go about it, because you're setting a really realistic and easy goal that's also easy to surpass (because once you get out for a walk you're more likely to stay out longer... just as long as you get out there). In the past when I've set my goals too high (like "I must do a full workout three times a week!") it made me fall off the wagon entirely. So I might steal your idea when I start adding exercise in.
I don't think it's bad to binge sometimes. I calorie count, and I log everything, so it's easy for me to see when I've been eating too much recently, which in turn makes me want to eat less. My advice is to not let yourself feel guilty about it. Sometimes you need to eat more and that's fine. As long as you're not doing every day for an extended time you're doing fine.
Routine is overrated.
Mind you I do log everything every day so I guess that's routine. But it's not like I do it on a schedule, or immediately after eating. Sometimes I enter things before, sometimes after, sometimes not until the end of the day (or the next morning even). I just set myself a requirement that I can't miss any days. Mind you, if you think routine helps you, go for it.
I sleep well and I think it's because I let myself fall asleep when I'm tired, even if it's "too early." It annoys my husband when I sleep as early as 6pm some nights, but if I'm tired it means I need it. Usually it's a result of staying up too late for a few nights when I do that. In the short term it can cause problems because I'll wake up too early the next day for instance, but eventually things equalize again. Maybe I'm not the person to give advice on that because sleep is something that comes naturally to me... but then, maybe being good at it makes me an expert.
I'm really not sure.
Anyway welcome! and best wishes. I think your plan is good and I'm happy to have you here.
I need to be in control
