Ryan, I know what you mean when you say it's so hard to change ways. But, it can be done. My diet for most of my life consisted mainly of junk foods. I never ate ANYTHING healthy. That is, however, until just a few weeks ago.
Cutting fat isn't as difficult as most people think it is. The _BEST_ and _ONLY_ good way to cut fat, is _GOOD DIET_. If you're going to the gym and lifting weights, or doing cardio, DO NOT starve yourself. You will just end up spinning your wheels. While the weight lifting, or running will increase your metabolism, the lack of calorie intake will do nothing but slow down your metabolism. And then your body will begin to burn muscle, rather than fat, because you haven't supplied sufficient calories to burn. So then it turns to muscle, because your body thinks that you're starving. And if you're trying to cut fat, losing muscle is not ideal. Muscle burns more calories than fat. Building muscle will increase your metabolism, and then the more muscle you build, the more calories you will burn.
The trick is to figure out how many calories you should be eating per day. Visit this site, do a bit of reading, and use the calculators they provide. You will then find out how many calories you should be eating while you're trying to cut fat.
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
Another big part of the trick is knowing how and what to eat. I assume we all know what foods are good for us, and which ones are not. Forget about low carbs and ab machines. Your body needs good carbs, good fat, calories, and protein and EXERCISE if you're trying to cut fat.
Rather than eating 3 meals per day, split your meals into 2, and eat 5 or 6 small meals per day. HEALTHY meals, mind you. When you wake up, have a small healthy breakfast. A few hours later, make half a sandwich and an apple. A bit later, maybe some lean chicken breast, etc, etc. You get the idea. 6 small healthy meals a day will keep your body going, and the constant food supply will keep your body in fat burning mode. DRINK WATER, and lots of it. Water helps to increase metabolism. The cells in your body need to be hydrated to perform at their best. I dry to drink at least 100oz per day. And, if you can, drink ICE COLD water. Your body will have to heat up the water before it can digest it, and this extra 'processing' will burn at least 100 calories per day.
It's possible, and you can do it. You just gotta make a plan. Start by planning your 5 or 6 small meals. Plan when you will eat, and what you will eat. AND STICK TO IT. Make no excuses for straying from your plan. It might take a couple weeks to adjust, but that's half of the battle. Once your lifestyle changes, your body will change. You don't necessary have to take pictures. Just keep track of your weight. Measure your biceps, belly, thighs, and calves to monitor any growth or shrinking.
Here's a brief overview of my schedule:
(I try to swim wherever possible)
Monday:
30 minutes on elliptical treadmill. Level 4 resistance. 75-80 RPM, 470 calories burned.
5-10 minutes of rowing machine, to keep my heart going, and work out my arms/back/shoulders.
Then various leg work outs.
Tuesday:
Same cardio routine.
And maybe some weight lifting, depending on schedule.
Wednesday:
Same cardio routine.
Arms.
Chest.
Back.
Abs.
Thursday:
Same cardio routine.
Assorted weights that I may not have been able to do this week.
Friday:
Same cardio routine.
Assorted weights.
And of course, some days I mix it up. Some days I'll do 10 minutes of bike before I get started on the elliptical. All depends on which machines are available.
My meals are pretty much the same every day, all week. My food schedule still needs some tuning, as other days I wake up later than others.
Meal one:
2 bowls of Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with soy milk. This nets me about 300 calories.
Meal two:
Tuna or ham sandwich on oval wheat bread. I ballpark this at about 300 more calories.
Meal three:
Nutrigrain bar and strawberry sauce. 200 calories.
Meal four:
Another tuna/ham sandwich on oval wheat bread. 300 more calories.
Meal five: More Kashi Heart to Heart with soy milk. 300 more calories.
And then I might have a late night snack (but not too late. It's not a good idea to eat if you're going to bed within 3 or 4 hours). This can be any number of healthy things lying around my closet. I need to find a healthier substitute for the Nutrigrain bars. Those have more sugar than I'd rather be eating. Somehow I overlooked that when I was reading the nutritional facts before I bought them.
I need to increase my calorie intake, because with my work out, I should be consuming about 2,300 to 2,500 calories per day. But I eat enough to keep my body burning the fat, and not muscle.
There. Now you can see how I've setup my diet and work out routine. If you want to cut fat, I recommend a good diet, meal plan, and some sort of exercise. You need patience and motivation.
And if you doubt any of the validity of anything I posted, feel free to do some googling. I've spent a lot of time researching fat loss, and what I posted above is agreed on by lots of weight loss sites and bodybuilders. Some of it may be inaccurate, as I posted it from memory. But I'm pretty sure it's quite accurate for the most part. There may be some minute details I left out, but, the biggest guidelines are there.
Best of luck to you guys.
Edit: I figured I should include a picture of my bicep. The quality kinda sucks, cause it's dark in here. But I've been noticing an increase of definition in my arms, neck and shoulders in the last 2 weeks. I'm definitely seeing a lot less body fat.
Tomorrow when there's better lighting, I will get some better pictures of my shoulders.