Okay so here goes, My name is Julie I'm a 23yr old mother of 2 amazing little boys, Sage 2 and Xander 8wks. I also weigh 288lbs currently and I hate myself. I want to be able to keep up with my boys, my sons father loves outdoors things like hiking and I miss out because I physicality cannot keep up... I recently quit smoking 2mths smoke free but now when I would normally smoke I eat... I need help and support for this. I have no idea where to start. I breast feed so I have to take that into consideration.

First off, congrats on taking the steps to quitting smoking, I can only imagine how difficult that would be! Secondly, I can't help much on the nursing front, but I think a great first step would be to get your diet under control, once you have a steady grip on that you'll be able to add more exercise into your days. I'm not sure if you have a plan in mind, I calorie count and that works for me, and I think it may be a good start for you so you can make sure you're getting the right amount of calories to sustain the little one. I would talk to your doctor and see if they can recommend a good starting number for you - but in all honesty, I think it would just be best to try to cut down the processed and high sugary items from your diet and make the bigger changes once you're done breast feeding... But I'm sure there are more ladies on here that can give you some better advice... Sorry, I guess I'm not much help, haha.

I second EricAnn's advice.
Congratulations on quitting smoking.

Stop hating yourself! Knock that sh*t off.

You quit smoking. That is AMAZEBALLS!

I'm still nursing, and for the longest time, could not lose weight while nursing. Time to toughen up, sister chick. Your baby needs YOU for nourishment. He does not need your *** to be a size 6 and look fabulous in jeans. He needs nourishment.
If you know your eating isn't healthful, maybe sit down, write down what you do right, and then every week, add one more thing you're doing right to that list.
So, for example, maybe you eat mainly whole grains and always have fruit with breakfast. So next week, add a vegetable to lunch. Then the week after that, cut out the after-lunch chips attack. And so on.

You can do this. We're all here to help. We like you, and we're never, never wrong!