The subject of Parkour reminded me:
Martial Arts. Do them. There's basically nobody in the world I would not suggest this to, except I guess extreme anemics or people in convalescence. Or pussies I guess.
Doing martial arts automatically gives you the following:
* Membership to a regular workout class.
* Many, many, many people willing to act as your personal trainer.
* A practical use for all this body training.
* A permanent level of raised self-confidence based on the knowledge that you will never be completely defenseless.
* Actual, regular, tangible rewards for self improvement ("I earned a new belt" is a much more solid statement than "I lost x pounds.")
* A room full of people with a very vested interest in making sure you don't seriously injure yourself, and know exactly what to do if it should happen.
In the interest of fairness, the cons are:
* It's pretty damned expensive, especially once you start having to buy equipment, and double-especially if your instructor becomes interested in having you participate in tournaments.
* It requires a certain level of dedication, although this is a pro too. Guaranteed you will have more than enough encouragement in this regard.
* And of course the obvious: People are going to hit you a lot. There is a very real risk of injury. I'll note that I made it to black belt (in Tae Kwon Do) without ever being seriously hurt, but you have to accept that you're going to experience a lot of fucking pain and a large part of your training is just learning how to *shades* deal with it. Honestly, though, although it's immensely uncomfortable at times you're actually probably safer doing this than free-weights or whatever. A lot of martial arts training is just about how to go about doing it without hurting yourself or anyone else, as opposed to going to the gym and doing something wrong and whoops I tore something, uhhh can someone take me to a hospital?
* And the last thing, and this is key: You have to have some idea who is and isn't a good instructor (or more likely group of instructors). If you fuck up and go with someone who doesn't actually know what he or she is doing, you're pretty much going to negate all those benefits I listed and screw yourself up big time. Most dojos (I hate that word but okay) let you take a trial class or even a trial week - DO THIS before you even think about signing up. Don't just watch, actually participate and see if it's something you'll actually be able to stand doing.
* One more minor consideration: These schools come and go all the time, and it SUCKS when they close on you. Make sure the one you join has been around a while and is likely to stay around for a while.
Honestly in my case it's just the time and money considerations that are keeping me out at the moment. If you're actually serious about going beyond just "Oh I gotta lose this little bit of weight" though, that is the direction I would say you should go in. Unless you just can't stand the idea of having a foot driven through your face, you weenie.