weighted jump rope!!

i just found my weighted jump rope i thought i lost! lol so i want to start an excercise program at home for myself and i figured id include the jump roping of course, crunches, using my 10lb medicine ball in there somewhere, and watching what i eat(ugh although i just had taco bell tonight...sooo starting now lol) so my question is, has any of you used a jump rope for losing weight and did it work well? ill tell you i only jumped for like 3 minutes(kept tripping lol) and my heart was beating like crazy and i was sweating a lil already haha...i want to lose 20 pounds and im hoping this will be a good and successful cardio workout...at least i weigh a few pounds less then before i became pregnant so thats a lil motivation right there to keep at it  i want to lose in my gut area the most...i had a c-section and i have a small "shelf" lol that i'm hoping can be flattened at least a decent amount!!