Am I on the right track?

I just discovered myfitnesspal one week ago and am trying to get rid of a bit of my belly and become more fit. While my ultimate goal is to get down to a good weight and maintain it, I have a trip coming up in six weeks which provided an incentive to get my butt in gear. I am a 5'11" male, 43 years old and started at around 201 lbs. one week ago today. I am now down to around 195 lbs and my optimistic goal is to get down to 180 before our trip, and then get down to and maintain 170-175 thereafter. I am sure my initial weight loss was the "low hanging fruit" and my progress going forward is going to be slower, but it was nice to burn a few pounds off quickly to give me some motivation.

Anyway, my activity level is sedentary as I work a desk job. With a goal of 2 lbs per week it said my intake should be 1280 calories per day. However, I have a difficult time staying under that number so I am exercising to "earn" additional calories. I am doing cardio 4-5 times per week and burning 500-600 calories in each workout. If I add my calories from exercising to the 1280 calories I generally have no trouble staying below the new number. My biggest challenge is that I'm a bit of a foodie and can't see myself becoming a "health food" junkie. However, I have been more conscious lately about what I am eating, and I'm generally staying away from the really bad stuff. Admittedly though I probably should be eating more fruits and veggies and less starchy foods.

Does this sound like an effective overall strategy? Anything I should change? Is my goal of 15 additional pounds in the next 6 weeks realistic? I am pretty goal oriented and as long as I see movement in the right direction and make reasonable progress, I tend to push harder and harder until I get there.

Thanks for any input!