Try gardening at night – fresh veggies and exercise, without sweating in the hot sun.
Since you feel socially uncomfortable in a bikini, nightswimming could be just the exercise for you.
As for my wife and I, we walk – about 4 miles a day.
I believe you’ll lose that weight. Sometimes it might seem you can’t get there from here, but you can.
And one of them owns me. I’ve been asked if she just gave birth to a litter of kittens, because she has so much floppy skin on her belly. Nope, spayed at 2 months of age.
I’m feeling gravity’s pull more now than ever. 
My job - Social Security disability - has totally warped my perception of what constitutes fat. 5’7" 200#? You’re positively svelte compared to SO MANY of the folk I encounter. AND, you have some awareness of your ability to affect that. Unheard of!
Seriously, just finished a file with a 42 year old 5’2" 300 pound woman, who had undergone 6 knee surgeries including 3 total replacements. Drinks a 6 pack of soda a day and eats nothing but junkfood. Reports watching 60+ hours of TV per week. Never worked. Now she wants bariatric surgery. And her case is not at all out of the ordinary of what I encounter. 3 decades of doing this sort of work, and I still can’t get my mind around folk like that.
Congrats on having an awareness of your body habitus. Like you said, increase the exercise and/or decrease the intake. Or get comfortable with your habitus and find clothing you feel sufficiently comfortable and attractive. The main thing, I suggest, tho, is to decide whether you are going to accept an extra 5-10 pound gain year after year. Because unless you draw a line in the sand somewhere, the future is going to get less and less pleasant.
I don’t believe much can help you unless you first understand what made you fat.
There seems to be a particular problem in US society with sugar awareness - you basically have 2 counters, one calories, one suger; you get about 30g a day of sugar before your body turns the rest to fat regardless of calorie intake - that is, entirely independent of calories.
That’s a standard can of soda. Anything above that turns straight to fat.
You have the additional problem in te US of intentionally unhelpful labelling:
Eating in America has become a social activity. You eat what somebody else wants, when somebody else want to, where somebody else wants to. Take control of your own eating. When eating smaller portions of less fattening food become an everyday habit, you have won. Stop carrying car batteries up the stairs.
I came to the same conclusion a while ago and started using Weight Watchers’ app, which I like because it focuses on the quantity of sugar and saturated fat that goes into your food and doesn’t force you to count calories; and, you can eat unlimited fruits & veggies generally with a few exceptions (like avocado). There are a TON of other great (and FREE) fitness and food tracking apps you can install on your phone to help you get healthy.
One thing to be aware of, the weight doesn’t always come off quickly, so don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t just fall off - when I was in my 20s, I’d easily lose 5 pounds in a week if I made a few little tweaks. In my 40s, losing weight means losing .5 to 1 pound a week unless I starve myself and punish myself with exercise, which is sort of opposite what I want to do, which is find a routine that’s sustainable and makes me feel good.
Best of luck to you!
I didn’t get this way overnight, and I won’t un-get this way overnight either. Slow weight loss is the ONLY way to do it that works.
I finally decided that I don’t want to wear the same 3 or 4 shirts all the time, and did indeed buy some bigger clothes today. 
They look nice, but man, I sure hated putting on those bigger sizes.
I had this exact same realization last weekend.
I said to myself, I said “this is supposed to be the second best hike in the state, surely it can’t be THAT BAD!” as I passed the sign that said “4 hours minimum from this point, you MUST have boots, water, and a map”. I had all those things!
Eight hours later I had come to the realization that holy shit I am WAY fatter than I thought I was, in a way that buying size 16 jeans had not made clear. In my brain I was, like, as out of shape as I was after I had my son, when I could still run a 5K.
And then we got to the end of the hard part and there was still five fucking miles to go.
So I’m going to sign back up at the city gym and start doing water aerobics with the fat ladies. They always look like they’re having a great time and that way a foot/ankle injury won’t sideline me like it always does when I run.