Gym stuff

I've been going to the gym for a while now. I just feel that since I am posting a lot of other stuff, I might as well post this as well. Maybe give me more motivation to work harder. Maybe get some advice from other people who happen to stumble onto this.

I need to eat more though. I am trying to gain weight but I am probably only getting 2000 calories or less a day. The problem is that the last time I tried to bulk up (I was drinking a lot of Isopure Mass which was amazing) I hit 175 and was big, but also kinda fattish. I guess I am going to try again to hit 180 (I am normally 165 and am presently 170) but I think this time should work better. I am changing up my routine; I has a weekly routine that I kept for about 8+ months. I hvave been taking fish/flax oils. I am doing everything I can to do things right. I just need to hope for the best and keep trying.

I think what I'll do is take a picture of myself every week so I can monitor my humiliation or progress. Post it here so that if I fail, anyone who cares can know it. So here's the first one. This is from about 2 weeks ago.

The real difficulty is figuring out how to go about it. I read about two or three articles a day and they almost ALL CONTRADICT each other on every aspect. I got my personal trainer certification last January and haven't started looking for a job yet because I am still horribly unsure of how to go about things. If I can't even get myself to where I want to be, how can I in good conscience try to teach someone else?
Which is better: Full-Body workouts or Split Routines?
Strict low-carb diet or not?
Is cardio necessary?

There are so many aspects of training with which I get such horribly mixed advice. The thing is that I started weight lifting so that I might actually have control over some aspect of my life and it really doesn't feel as though I can accurately control this