Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

My new goal in life is to become a fitness model!
I'm a 20yo woman, 5'6" currently weighing in at 167lbs. I'm not sure what my body fat % is due being in an area where such devices are not available.
I'm wanting to lose 42lb of fat and get down to my previous weight ( I was 125lbs in high school, 18% body fat ) I've definitely let myself go since then and it's killing me! literally!
I would like to get my body fat a little lower than 18% and get competitive in fitness modeling, but i'll worry about that when I get closer to my goal. For now I'm looking for expert advice on how to lose the mass of my jiggles.
Thank you kindly!

work on both simultaneously....set up a good weight lifting routine and also cardio...if it was me I'd do 45 minutes weights and 30 minutes cardio a day. It'll take a while to see the muscle results from the weightlifting becasue its hidden under fat for probably several months but when it does show it'll be amazing. Diet also important....watch the calories, protein, fat intake because no amount of gym work will help if you sabotage it with too much of the wrong foods. And...make sure you're working hard enough at the gym , tonnes of people go to the gym everyday but they fail to work hard enough for noticeable results (walking on a treadmill is useless in my opinion)...if you're not sweating, breathing hard and pushing yourself to a mild state of discomfort then its not enough effort for good results.

Thanks for the great info! I definitely agree that diet is oh-so important when it comes to seeing results!
Thank you so much!