I had a lot more to lose than you, but i set myself 1lb a week to lose because it is much more achievable than what people wont to lose at. Obviously, you could lose half that a week and still see results. Have you thought about not going by weight? and maybe go by bodyfat? so that what you are doing in actually just improving your health and physic, rather than concentrating on weight loss?
If you do want to go by lbs lost, the the way in which you did it before is very good. If you haven't already got My fitness Pal, then I would suggest to download it. Then spend a week eating what you would usually eat, and look at where the main chunk of your calories are coming from. Simple things can really bring your calories down, but like you said, its about learning how to make better choices without making yourself feeling like you are either on a diet or restricting certain foods.
Do you have kitchen scales? if not, I would advise that you should invest, maybe grab a pair of digital ones in the xmas sales. I weigh everything that needs to be... veggies, potatoes, meat, fish, anything that doesn't have an absolute weight on it. You start to learn roughly how much 100g is and after a few months when you are away from the scales, you make much better choices.
People say that counting calories is confusing and time consuimg, but if you really want to lose weight, learn from it, and not gain it back, why not invest in learning about it. It then means that after a few months it feels like second nature and you just do it automatically.
I hope it works out well for you