Hi, welcome to the forum!

Thanks for this great first post.
Your suggestion for limiting your spending money for sweets
in the store is a good idea. Just take a quarter.. Yes!
I'm also very happy to hear that you have stopped drinking
cokes, and are limiting your sweets a lot, as well as fried
foods and other high in saturated fat.
You're doing great so far. How much do you exercise?
Are you able to eat many plant foods like lettuce, spinach,
celery, cabbage, broccoli, etc?