Kind of a newbie...

Good morning everyone! This is my first post on MFP! I've had the iphone app for a long time and have used it off and on for keeping track of caloric intake, because without the visual aid of the food diary, I tend to over-consume. But it wasn't until a couple days ago that I finally came here to the site to check out what goes on on here. I'm really impressed! This seems like such a great, supportive community, and I've seen a lot of incredible changes for a lot of people! Congrats to everyone on their past, current, and future successes!

I'm posting in the "General Help" category because I'm pretty new to all this and am looking for some tips from people who have been successful. I actually know quite a bit about nutrition, and it's not my first time getting fit, but I've never had such lofty goals as i do now, and I know I need to work harder this time. I'm 27, female, 5'4", and now about 146lbs. I've never ever been "thin" in my life. I have been as low as about 130 a couple years ago, and I was pretty happy with that at the time. My highest was 152, back in 2006, and it worries me that I'm approaching that again. Anyway, I'm not obese, just kind of hanging out at the border between normal and overweight, and I'm trying to convince myself that I have the potential to be REALLY fit. I've seen some peoples' before and after pictures, where the before looks kind of like me... kind of average, slightly thick in the middle and soft around the edges...and then their after is like BAM! Super fit and hot! So I got thinking, I don't have any disabilities or anything holding me back, and at the moment I don't even have a job to get in the way, and I live in an apartment building with a free gym. There is no reason I can't do it too, right?

I don't exactly have a weight goal, but I think it should be somewhere in the 120's for my height. I just want to fit into all my clothes that fit when I was 130, and I want to be able to wear a bikini this summer and feel awesome in it! The thing is, I don't want to get the body that I see on a lot of women in fitness videos, which is very fit and muscular, but not curvy or feminine looking. I want to have CURVES. My waist is smaller than my bust and hips right now, but I want it to be much smaller. Its about 32" right now, and I would love for it to be 27" or 28". I don't want a six pack or anything crazy, I just want to look feminine and sexy. If any of you who read this have achieved this, can you please tell me what kind of exercises you did to get there? I know I need to work on my butt and hips a lot to get a better waist to hip ratio, because I don't have much of a booty right now. But does that just mean lots of squats and lunges? Or is there something else I should be doing? Right now I'm focusing on daily cardio because it's something I can do that's simple. Just getting my heart rate up to that high intensity range and keeping it there for 20-30 minutes, trying to burn some calories and keep up that deficit to just drop some lbs from this belly. I know I need to lift weights to get really fit, but I don't want to just do it haphazardly and then end up disproportionate. Any advice?

Thanks!!!