3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community - Done lurking, ready to post!

After visiting this site dozens of times in the past few months, I decided to finally share my story and hopefully gain more support. So here it is:
I was an overweight kid and teen, graduating high school at about 180 lbs. This was despite being active in sports, walking (and sometimes running), and biking. I got married at the end of my freshman year of college at age 19 and 200 lbs (thanks, all-you-can-eat dining halls!).
As a married woman and a science major, I didn't feel compelled to make much time for exercise or making the right food choices. My weight increased regularly. When I graduated from college at 23, I weighed 245. I lost 15 lbs that year to go down to 230, where I stayed until I became pregnant. I gained 35 lb while pregnant and lost it almost immediately after my son was born.
Over the next three years my weight increased steadily, until I became fed up with it at 250 lbs approaching my 28th birthday. I started working out 6 times a week with some kickass Jillian Michaels DVDs but was unable to change my diet because we were saving money for a move and wanted to “eat our pantry.” This was just over 2 months ago. All that exercising did gain me some muscle tone but I only lost about 6 lbs. (Bonus: I have PCOS and my cycle returned to normal after about 6 months of irregularity!).
Now I am down another 8 lbs due to the South Beach Diet - I am on Day 5 of Phase 1, modified as a “clean” diet. I feel like this really underscores how important insulin resistance is in weight loss for women with PCOS. I am hopeful, but soon I will be out of town for a few days and I could use some travel advice for Phase 1. I am also interested in others’ experiences transitioning to Phase 2.
I'm a pretty private person, so this was hard!