Love yourself. This regret is very useful but don't let it drown you. Look after the whole man here. Get some hobbies that involve meeting and working with other people (hard for quiet men to do but also really beneficial for them). Be kind to yourself. Build yourself up in small steps. Female interest will almost come by itself when you are ready.

There are thresholds in attractiveness and once you cross them you are sought. To get yourself up there you need income, health, presentation, property and affability. That will do it easily. You don't need to be strong on all of these but a super weakness in one is hard to compensate for and needs the others to be a lot more. So build them all gradually. The women really do just come.

I was a virgin till late 20's. So I am not talking out of my arse here. Be good to yourself. Talk to yourself like a loving father when it comes to sorting out your life but do sort it out in all aspects.

Game is the last thing to go to not the first. Imagine the game worked and you pulled the girl. What then? Take her to your parents where you live and fumble through her underwear? Introduce her to your hobby of reading books alone? take her out on the town when you have no money? Wow her with your great conversation and companionability when you are used to life alone? You don't need game now. Game is salesmanship. You need a great product to sell first. And you can get one, so don't worry, just small steps, without many relapses.

I see a lot of myself in you bro. When I started my journey I was 35, divorced, had one kid, I was homeless and jobless with no support system. The thought that made me happy is that I could start over instead of being trapped in hell. The funny thing about getting out of an oppressive situation is that once your in the other side you focus on yourself. This in turn, is noticed by women and makes you attractive.

I also used my anger as motivation and beat myself up at the gym.

As I read your last paragraph I don't like your mindset. It's not right. You're not thinking clearly. Here's the truth: A lot of the younger guys on here are fucking sperg morons. You go to clubs to.pick up pass around hoes. They will tell you to "cold approach" that's retard talk that spilled over from the PUA days. All your doing is talking. Having conversations. Now as to where. A great place to start would be online. Start there and you don't need to leave the house. Then, supplement it with just having conversations when you see a cute girl or something interesting.

Second is read what I wrote again. I was 380 pounds and homeless when I started doing this. I didn't have a place. Most women did and I would go to theirs if fuck late night in a park or something. It made things fun. What you have is a bunch of excuses. Get started right now and continue grinding.

You'll forget that time you've lost when you start taking action. The more you move forward the more success you'll have. Soon you won't be stuck in the past but wondering how to make more time for all of your women?

One is how to overcome the regret of missing out on my 20s

They're gone, and regret won't bring them back. Regret is just a waste of time and energy.

I don't remember the exact origin, but a great quote I saw at MRP was "the best time to plant a fruit tree was ten years ago. The second best time is now".

and the second is how to start approaching.

You pretty much just fucking do it. You're going to bomb out, more often than not. Just power through it. Getting rejected is just part of being a man.

I haven't approached in 10 years and am sober now, so I don't know where to go and when to approach. It may be in the sidebar and I haven't read it yet, but a lot of the stuff I've seen so far talk about nightlife, and I don't feel comfortable picking up drunk chicks while sober. I realize day approaches are a thing

OK, this is what I used to do back before I got married, and I still do occasionally when playing catch-and-release in order to maintain my abundance mentality.

anywhere you go, such as Walmart, grocery store, airport, anywhere, you keep your good posture and scan the crowd. If you catch a woman making eye contact with you and smiling, preening, etc you immediately greet her. "Hi there, I'm [so-and-so]." There's no magic formula, and saying anything, no matter how basic or retarded or nerdy is better than saying nothing at all. Learn from rejections and recalibrate. Learn from successes and recalibrate.

but I freeze up and can't get my autistic ass to talk to women.

stop that.

I tell myself I'll do it when I lose more weight, but I think I'm using it as an excuse.

You are. You should start now.

A) more experience is better

B) you'll get to see for yourself over the months of your weight-loss journey how people's treatment of you changes

C) just like a lot of dudes who say shit like "I'll start talking to women once I hit [insert financial milestone here]", if you wait, now you'll just be a more attractive guy with little to no experience. If you manage to get any action at all, it will most likely be from manipulative users who will chew you up and spit you out (or gold diggers in the case of the dudes waiting on career/financial goals to start trying).

;I just lost my job and had to move back home with my parents, so even if I do get a girl interested enough to meet with me, I wouldn't have anywhere to take them.

That sucks.

Go to their place.

If they can't host either, at least you got some practice in.