Exercise is great, that's a given, both for calorie consumption and building muscles that will help keep the weight off later.
But as I dislike dieting, I have food tricks: pile up the veggies, broccoli, greens, carrots. I bought a fryer that operates on hot air and little to no oil, great for broccoli and eggplants. That tastes much better than steamed, and requires no further dressing if you mix your vegetables with good tasty spices. It is also very easy and quick to cook.
Have always in your fridge celery, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumber if you like it, that you can snack on with impunity.
Have some bread in the morning, but wholemeal. If you want sugar, go for one nice expensive dessert once a week, or 1 or 2 squares of dark chocolate every day.
Lean meats as a basis, you need a lot of proteins, but focus on turkey, chicken, and pork loins.
Like for dessert, treat yourself sometimes, because you will not be miserable and this gets you on the long term overhaul of your diet.
Avoid processed food as much as possible, find easy recipe, stews, roasted vegetables, that actually require less time that we think to prepare. Once you have cut up the vegetables and started the cooking time, you can do something else.
My last advice (that was long!!) is to do only a weekly shopping. I do it online for convenience sake, and I make sure to buy only what I need, with a clear idea of what is going to be cooked. This helps me avoid the tempting processed food, and get me a very clear picture of the balance of my diet.