Diet/exercise to lose weight fast (and how to dress)?

(This post ended up longer than I thought, but I think some background is in order.) I'm obese and I want to lose weight. (Ironically, my main motivation is not the fact that staying fit increases one's health and brain function, but that I want to dress nicer ) I was extremely skinny most of my life. I was always very physically active due to extreme sports and I barely ever ate. I was also very social, so I would eat fast-food often when out with friends. But when I hit the age of about 14-15, while facing some health issues, I lost all interest in physical activities, and shifted my attention to the computer (web-design, games) and more intellectual activities (reading, writing, etc.). However, since I got into the habit earlier on, I'd still eat ate fast food too often, whenever I'd be out of the house and cooking was inconvenient. I never ate that much, but I didn't eat healthy. (A lot of my friends still do this, but they're still active so they keep the weight off.) The combination of all this lead me to progressively (but slowly) gain weight. Now I'm 20 and I want to change my lifestyle. I started going to the gym this summer. Since I was very out of shape, I started slow (about 15-20 minutes on an elliptical machine about 3-4 times a day). As it got easier, I increased a little, for about a month (30-40 minutes on an elliptical machine about 5-6 times a week, and some weightlifting). But with a death in the family, I fell away for about a week or two, so I probably haven't done anything consistently enough to notice a difference. Anyway, I'm going to start back up with the gym, but I want to make sure I'm doing things right, and I want to fix my diet. The main problem is I'm constantly tempted to eat unhealthy because I can never think of anything to eat at home, or I eat the same thing so often I get utterly sick of it. Another huge problem is my sleep schedule is all over the place. Somehow I'll stay up slightly later one night, or take a nap one day, then everything goes to hell. For example, the other night I went to sleep at 11 P.M., woke up at 2:30 A.M. thinking it was morning, stayed up until noon, then fell asleep. This results in an uneven eating schedule, and I often eat a lot at one meal while only eating twice a day. I've eliminated all sugary drinks from my diet (no soda) and I've been drinking water, but as far as food goes, I'm not really sure. So do you guys have any recommendations for working out and diet to help me lose weight, preferably quickly? (I have trouble sticking at things unless I see results.) I'd really appreciate some help with coming up with a general weekly food schedule, because as I said, I often have trouble figuring out what to eat on a daily basis. I think if I had to spend less time thinking about what to do than just doing it things would be much easier. Now I realize there might not be that much I can do right now, but is there anything I can do to improve my wardrobe/style in the meantime until I do lose weight? I'm looking into getting some decent new glasses (since my current ones are shit), a better hair cut, and shoes, since these don't have anything to do with my weight, but what should I do in terms of cloths? I recently bought a couple polos and these seem to look better than regular t-shirts, but do you guys have any other advice? I'm really looking for help, and since a lot of you seem to know a lot about dieting and exercise I thought I'd give this forum a try (even though I'm well aware of the tendency for SF forum posters to flame people who are looking for honest advice), so please skip the trolling. Oh, and one more thing. I absolutely cannot stand to workout without an MP3 player. I get so bored just doing one thing for over 15 minutes, and my mind starts racing. But the gym I go to blares the radio, so I often have to turn my volume up. However, I've read that prolonged loud noises can lead to hearing damage, and since I've probably already fucked my eyes up from using the computer too much, I want to avoid this. Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this situation?

I basically already do this. Most of the food I eat at home, when I do eat at home, is fresh. However, for a while there I was eating white toast and bacon in the morning for breakfast (traditional but deadly? lol), and drinking a lot of soda. I never really eat cookies, chips, and stuff like that. When I want a snack, I usually eat sunflower seeds - maybe too many.

I wrote a long post for a reason. If any of you had read what I wrote, you'd notice that I said I don't over eat. In fact, much of my life I barely ate at all - because I was too busy being active. I'd skateboard all day, and when it was "dinner time," I wanted to keep skateboarding. The main cause of my weight gain was inactivity and eating the wrong kinds of food - not necessarily too much of it. I might be lazy when it comes to some things, but I'm not a lazy person in general. When I put my mind to something, I stick to it. I've gone from skateboarding, to rollerblading, to surfing, to martial arts, and I excelled in all of them. I just happened to switch my attention to hobbies that involve no physical activity. Instead of skateboarding, I worked extremely hard in school (4.0 GPA, AP classes). Instead of martial arts, I studied theology and philosophy. So, I think "lazy" is a poor characterization. My interests switched and I always viewed physical activity as another hobby. Now I realize how important exercise is. Maybe if I had realized this earlier on and I still didn't exercise because I just didn't "feel like it," that'd be another story, but that's not what happened. I didn't make this post looking to get responses like "get off your lazy ass and you'll lose weight." I'm already getting off my ass. I know I need to. I made this post looking for advice on how to diet/exercise effectively from people more experienced than me.

I'm not totally sure. I think some of it depends on metabolism and/or the foods you eat. I know people who don't eat a lot but unless they exercise they gain weight. In my case, I was very physically inactive, and I ate poorly. Maybe I did eat a little too much, but I think the former two things contributed more.