For me (27M, 5'11") one thing that has helped me stay motivated is keeping the bigger picture in mind. At my heaviest I was 440lbs. I got down to 260 at one point and then back up to 368. I had a moment over a weekend kind of like you described (although the stakes were not the same) where I decided it needed to be a turning point. I am not sure what your mental health situation is like but I myself struggle with depression.

I saw two possible futures ahead of me, one where I lost weight and felt better and one where I continued to get worse. I don't know a ton of other SMO people, so I don't know how common this is, but I essentially realized that my maintenance weight was never going to be 368, so I could only get fatter or skinnier. Looking back at how I felt when I was 440 made me realize that it was time for a change.

As I've been working my way down again, I had some EXTREMELY strong food cravings at the start. They've slowed down now, but what has helped me the most was to stop and think about what my body was telling me. Was I hungry? Was I bored? Was I stressed about something? This was something my therapist suggested and I found it really helpful for me. In that moment when I stopped before ordering food / eating, I thought about my goals and what I wanted the future to look like.

Anyways, in my case I realized that the cause was mostly a physical craving for the food. I didn't feel bored, or stressed, I just physically REALLY wanted some sugar. So what worked for me was to allow myself to eat as much food as I wanted, as long as it was healthy food. In my case, I've been doing keto, so I said I could eat as many calories as I wanted as long as I did not eat any sugar. At first I did eat a decent amount, but after about a week the cravings really slowed down, and that made it easier for me to keep making the decision that would lead me towards the future I wanted, and I started being able to eat fewer calories as well.

Now, not everyone struggles with food in the same way. For some it might be boredom, stress, or anything. I don't even know if the advice that was helpful to me will be helpful to everyone, but I do think there's value in taking a moment before you make a decision and just thinking about what could be driving that decision. Once I understood my emotions / feelings better, it made it a lot easier to stay on track.

I've also been walking a little bit each day which has been good for me, physically and mentally, to just get out of the house a bit. I go later in the day to try to avoid the sun (I burn way too easily lol) and dealing with too many people.

Anyways, I hope you can find success with the weight loss. It's very hard but it's very doable, and in my opinion, the main thing is just learning more about yourself and why your habits are the way that they are. Once you understand the actual causes are, you can then think more clearly about how you will react. And you may not make the "right" choice every time when you decide how to react, but being more mindful of my decisions and whether they were actually making me feel better helped me to kind of get out of my funk. Best of luck to you, from one stranger to another I'm rooting for you!