Losing weight for my health

welcome!

My number 1 suggestion is to not start off with so many changes and extremes that you set yourself up to fail. Find physical activity you ENJOY and are likely to keep doing for physical health but weight loss is mostly all done in the kitchen (or rather, what you put in your mouth).

on the same line of thought, don't try to go to extreme with eating too little and not eating any of the foods you like opting only for what you consider "diet food". again this can set up for binges and failure over time. set a reasonable rate of loss you can maintain and don't feel starving on.

Lastly - eating healthy isn't an all or nothing thing and try to avoid labeling food good VS bad. I like the 80-20 rules where 80% (ish) of hte time you eat good solid "healthy" foods but it's also totally ok for 20% (ish) to be total useful but yummy food.

Here are some great posts to read to get you started:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1399829/step-by-step-guide-to-losing-weight-with-myfitnesspal


and get a FOOD SCALE, crucial tool for most of us here
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

Nice to see another southern guy around.

I think the threads listed above are a good place to start.

My general tips:

1) Be kind to yourself.
2) Change only what you need to get started then make other small changes over time.
3) Understand yourself and what you need to be happy(ish) each day/week/month. If you are unhappy all the time you will struggle to stick with it.