Wish me luck, and pass along your tips and motivation.
Second, and this is by far the harder one, EXERCISE. Anyone will benefit greatly from all sorts of exercise. And I mean resistance workouts, not running, biking or cardio machines. Doing as many pushups and situps as you can in a single session once or twice per day will change the way your whole body functions, because muscles control a lot of your sugar metabolism. So as you build muscle, you will store less of what you eat as fat.
It takes a long time to do things this way (months, I mean, not years), but it is the better way, the right way, IMO. Good luck, no matter how you go about things!
EDIT: I'm not disparaging cardio. Its important, too. But it gets too much love, as people always think its the fastest way to lose weight, and then are disappointed why they aren't shedding the pounds like they should.
Good news, you're tied for FIRST PLACE! in the Hubski NHL playoffs pool!