Like I've said in another thread, any exercise which increase your heart rate into the the CV zone is a good exersice, in the CV zone you are burning off fat. I have going to the gym for many years and I see them same people do the same low-intensity workouts and in 2 or more years they haven't changed. Trust me, you have get your heart going!
The best thing you can do is try out different exercises and find which raises your heart rate enough, and you can do for at least 20 minutes a day without stopping. I'd say your target heart rate would be somewhere between 80-100 beats per minute. To check your heart rate you can either buy a heart monitor, or feel for your pulse, or if you join a gym, most modern gym cardio equipment has build in heart monitors.
Some of the best cardio exercises are: Rowing, Running or jogging, walking uphill, jump rope, boxercise (or other similar gym classes). Another thing to bear in mind is that you don't HAVE to join a gym if you really don't feel comfortable about it, you can do most of those exercises for free (seriously, don't go out and pay $1000 for some equipment). However on the upside a gym is a fantastic for motivation.. it feels more like a solid commitment.
You can have fun exercising too, don't be put off by thinking it's going to be a lot of hard work for little gain. You will feel better for activly doing something and begin to reval as exercise becomes easier as you get fitter, and you find you are able to do more, and in the long run the benefits will be plentiful.
As for your diet, you probably know the basics, take in less total calories, around 1600-2000 is OK. Those caolries should also come from healthy sources, eat vedgetables, fruit, beans, fish, chicken, things like that, which are natural and wholesome. It's OK to eat carbs just make sure they're slow digesting complex carbs, wuch as wholemeal bread, brown rice, oatmeal etc.
One thing I would like to warn you against is the advertisment trickery, scams and bullshit that's out there. Don't fooled into thinking eating something that says 'reduced fat' is healthy. Most food that say that are high in fat to begin with, and therefore even though the fat is reduced, some products, like reduced fat peanut butter, is still 70% fat!! Another thing to be weary of is companies who make wild claims, like "gain 50lb of muscle in 8 weeks" or "loose 100lb of fat in 3 months!!" OK, short of a leathal dose of steroids or dangerous surgery no one will ever have results like that.
I think this joke advert from Scooby sums how rediculous some of these ads are:
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