My suggestion:
I'm an atkins dieter but in any event you need to cut WAY back on the sugar. Kill the OJ, kill the pepsi, kill the ginger ale, kill the golden grahams. You're going to be diabetic when you're 40 with that kind of diet. Replace one meal a day with a big salad with lots of veggies and a vinegar-and-oil based dressing. Drink a big glass of water with every meal.
For running/walking since you're starting out slow I'd recommend just some cheap running/walking shoes from somewhere like Target (should be less than $25). Like clavus says, just start by doing SOMETHING.
If you JUST do that, cut out the sodas and sugar and add in 30 minutes of walking every day, you will:
- Cut out about 400 calories a day in sugar
- Add about 100 calories a day in exercise
A pound of fat is about 3,500 calories, so that's actually exactly a week of work on your new plan. So, if you keep it up, you can expect to lose up to a pound a week. Not bad, eh?
The death of any diet is in cheating. There will always be a night out with the guys, a special event, or some reason to eat junk food or skip exercising. Don't do it.
Just start out with that, stick to it for two months, and then once you're into the groove on that you can come back here and ask for help getting to the next level. The next step would be to take your diet more seriously and start doing some weightlifting to put on some muscle.
But first things first.
