Hello, Kathy!
For me it was important to select a way that I knew I'd get used to living with for the rest of my life -- as opposed to getting the weight off in one way and then struggling to maintain the loss afterwards because that means of loss was unsustainable over the longterm. I also considered my overall goals of improving all facets of my health: I wanted to avoid diabetes, heart problems, hypertension, etc. So I just really took the high road. I count calories, fat, and fiber, eating mostly whole foods. I spread out my calories throughout the day as opposed to loading in one or two meals, and I make sure to cover ALL nutritional bases. I also knew that exercise was non-negotiable, so I incorporated that, and increased it as I grew more physically able (and motivated!) As a result, my blood pressure is down, my bad cholesterol is down, my blood sugar is down, my cardiovascular health is increased, my energy is up, my skin is great, and I'm down 72 pounds since March.......and counting.
I understand your difficulty in deciding an approach. My advice is to listen to Stephen Covey, and "begin with the end in mind." That is, establish all of your ultimate goals more clearly than just, "I Want to Lose Weight." Then decide, based on those larger goals, which approach is going to ensure you reach them. For instance, if heart health is a concern, then it's likely you're not going to do Atkins -- but South Beach might still be a good one.
Or you can just do what a lot of us do, and make the changes that you KNOW are healthy, and not follow a commercial plan. The important thing is that you're not paralyzed by indecision because you're afraid of starting the "wrong" plan, getting disappointed or demotivated, and then falling off entirely. Just make up your mind that failure is simply NOT an option, and that you're going to succeed in sticking to your plan. THen give it a chance to work for you. But right now, NOTHING is working for you, because you haven't committed to an actual start. I suspect that you know in your heart what the appropriate changes are. Now it's time to act. If you have to switch plans after a month, so be it. But start. Make an educated decision with your ultimate goals in mind, and then stick with it for at least a month before assessing it's efficacy and longterm sustainability.
You can do this Kathy.......the key is in the doing, though.