I remember you and I talking about how fat we had gotten, and the navy dangling a pension in front of me was one heck of an incentive too btw.
For me it is all, and I mean ALL, about resolve. Morning regret is one dewzy of a motivator. I weigh my self 3 times a day now. The only thing that it does is keep me congizant of the process. Sometimes I'm up, sometimes down, but the trend is undeniable.
I want to target 170, so will stop my diet at 165, that way I can find my way just a little.
My bad ankle is much better since i lost the 30+ pounds. Of course I have been adding glucosamine/condroiten <sp> to my supplement routine as well as omega3. These are good joint as well as blood helpers. For me it has worked AMAZINGLY! I didn't even do the 3 times a day thing, just 2 of the gluc/cond in the morning and 1 omega3 (and now flax oil too). for the omega3 get springvalley from WallyWorld (enteric coated) so no fishy burps during the day (of course it gave me good sushi like flashbacks with each fishy burp

).
Let us know how it goes, and as you are aware, fight through the times your body doesn't want to let go of the pounds.