Avoid food! dont keep crap food around the house!
Log your food. it may be annoying sometimes but its far, far easier to stick to a Kcal limit if you have a food diary.
Eat similar things every day – its makes the food diary a lot easier. Some people need a lot of variety, but consistency makes life, or dieting, a lot more simple.
Stick to the 3 shake timetable. One at 10am, one at 1pm and one at 4pm. Gym early evening and then main dinner straight after.
Sometimes I have had my first of 2nd shake later and its got to 5pm and i have though i didnt need the final shake. i could save a few calories etc. but it just made me tired at the gym and then more likely to eat too much at dinner.
Choice of restaurant; if eating out (cant hide away forever), pick a restaurant that suits. For me its been either a meat orientated restaurant like a Brazilian where its all meat and salad bar. easy to avoid chips, bread, pasta and potatoes. Or my top choice which is Japanese (not everyones cup of tea I know!). But it is all pretty healthy, you have to eat slowly and even if you eat a lot the Kcal dont add up to that much. The only thing outside of my normal diet there is a limited bit of rice.
Measure something every day. Whether its Kcal in vs Kcal out, body fat, weight, muscle circumference, how many push ups or chin ups you can do. You have to see those results somehow or at some stage you think “why the hell am i doing this?” and there is no solid answer in front of you. Seeing those body fat % drop and the muscle % increase on my results table is satisfying. before, during and after photos may help too. I have taken some but it takes months before you really see a difference so at the start it can backfire and look like not much has changed and de-motivate you.
You cant be perfect, somethings give occasionally, i am doing so well but i have slipped in one way and thats diet soda, I have been drinking diet caffeine free coke and tonic etc with the evil sweeteners in it. i hate that i have had to resort to it but it has really helped keep me on track as its a sweet taste. Hopefully i can give it up again once i have changed my diet for gaining rather than cutting.
im sure i will think of more but thats what i have so far……
agitated seabass 