Here's a little trick that worked for me: I weigh myself every day. I have things set up so I weigh myself exactly the same way, every day, first thing after I get up.
When I started dieting I was told not to weigh myself every day because I wouldn't see progress every day. And I don't. Sometimes I have days where I'm up a pound or two, even though I've been really good. That's fine. It's important to recognize that some days you have more water, or you ate late the day before and you still have more food in you or whatever. Doesn't matter. There's a randomness of about a quarter pound every day that just seems to be noise.
But, by weighing myself every day I'm measuring my weight every day, and that keeps me focused on my weight- at least for a moment every day. And that keeps me aware of the impact of whatever I did the day before.
That focus is really useful. The other day I used an old gift card to buy some food that should have been on my diet, but my weight went up over the days I was eating it and I figured out that it had too much salt. So I cut it from my diet. Without paying this close to what was going on, I wouldn't have known to make that change.
Plus, I put my wight into the health app on my iPhone. Record your weight, every day, somewhere that makes sense for you. This will give you a graph and you can see your progress. I set goals every 10 pounds and then bigger goals every 25 and 50 pounds. Whatever my weight, if it's xx8.2 pounds, I focus on getting to xx0.0 pounds. Of if its a tough time, I work for that xx5.0 pound wieght! Fight for every five pounds, then every ten pounds and every 25, and so on.
I find that seeng progress, even when its slow, helps keep me focused. And if it's not what I would like it makes me double down on my efforts.
Plus, when I go off my diet, and I see the impact of a week of gaining-- and then a couple weeks to lose it all again, I realize I lost three weeks of progress!
And then I say "was it really worth it?" This makes me think about every meal. Imagine if I hadn't lost those three weeks of progress-- and had stayed on the diet, I would be 3 weeks closer to my goal!
For me, my bad eating comes from carelessness. Not paying atention, taking a little indulgence and not thinking about carrying it around for the next 10 years.
Weighing every day is a habit that drives my focus on my weight and keeps me optimizing and on the straight and narrow.
Try it!
Oh, and no, doctors don't hate me, I just think clickbait headlines are funny. (Well, doctors may hate me, but not for THIS!)