Screw the fad diet crap. You need to lower your caloric intake to a reasonable level (don't trigger starvation mode) while still getting lots of vitamins and minerals... burn more than you eat.
As for food... attack it as a project, plan meals, calculate colories, et cetera. If you are having trouble with this, consider something like weight watchers to help you structure the intake or maybe a nutritionist if you can afford it.
Excercise... a bit of weight lifting to increase muscle mass and reduce fat, and then long aerobic activity to burn calories. I'm a huge fan of cycling... low impact, big toy factor
