You can do it! Am similar height and similarly was shocked that my weight had crept up so much without me noticing. I decided I needed to lose a stone. I've been at it for about 5 or 6 weeks now, and have so far lost almost half a stone and it's not felt too difficult.
I've been using the My Fitness Pal ap to monitor what I've been eating, and I soon realised why I'd gained - I must have been eating WELL over 2000 cals per day for quite a long time. Now I track what I eat and aim for 1600 cals per day max, and as much exercise as possible.
I don't know about advice, because I think everyone is different and there isn't one solution that fits all. But what's worked for me is: focus on having TONS of vegetables and salad, as the basis of all meals and also as snacks. I've really cut down on carbs, and try to have bread or pasta or rice or potatoes as part of no more than one meal per day. I've also been eating meat and fish but obviously you can't do that.
I must say I've cut back quite a bit on cheese - I think a large reason for my weight gain was moving to France and really getting into the habit of eating cheese after every meal - BUT I haven't cut it out completely. I've looked into which types of cheese are less calorific than others, and I've been having more goats cheese, feta, emmental etc and less of things like cheddar. I've been actually weighing my portions of cheese so I can understand what is a reasonable portion and what isn't.
I love wine, but have started serving myself 75-100mls of white wine and top up with fizzy water to make a spritzer.
I love chocolate, and usually have two or three squares of dark chocolate per day.
I don't restrict myself much at social events or dinner parties (representing about one meal a week) because I think it's too depressing and unsustainable in the long term.
I have never been hungry in the morning until I've been up for a while, meaning the first point I start feeling hungry is usually around 10 /10.30 when I'm at work. In the past I would either skip breakfast or nip out ot buy a muffin or pastry. Now I just consistently skip breakfast and wait for lunch at around 12.30. But again, I don't think this is a solution for everyone.
Don't know if any of this is useful to you, but just wanted to say that you CAN do this. A month and a bit ago I honestly couldn't have imagined I'd be feeling so positive and good about making changes to my body, but here I am! Good luck! Take it slow and steady!