Planning ahead I think is important for the future success and the turning of a diet into a life style. I really hate that terminology, but I really believe that diets don't work but life style changes do, and for most of us that means that diets as temporary measures do not work and ultimately do more harm than good.
Don't set yourself up to fail. Clear out the house of stuff you shouldn't have, we offered open packages of rice and such on Next Door/Craig's List since the food bank would take them (we had pounds of several types of rice). Even if you go off-script, if you are "allowed" to eat what you have on hand, it's not going to hurt you near as much scarfing through your allowed snacks as going through a drive in. I found pickles (salt is not an issue for me) to be a very good snack food due to the low calorie/low carb nature of it and that the tang of the vinegar helped change my mouth when I was wanting something sweat. When I went out in the car, I made sure that I had a bottle of water or other beverage was with me.
The learning of portion sizing is huge. If you can visit with a nutritionist, I think that is super helpful. We both believe that using the accountability of logging our foods is also important. You forget what you eat, particularly standing or while multi-tasking. One of the concepts I used early on was "everything on a plate" it's part of the overall ideas of mindfulness. You can have whatever it is you want, but you measure it, weigh it, put it on a plate and record it. It is preferred that you sit at a table and don't distract yourself by tv or computer, but hey... we got to start somewhere. Some people advise then washing the plate, I like leaving them in the sink -- sort of like dim sum, I ate something there even if I don't remember it 6 hours from then but I could look in the sink and see that while I didn't remember eating anything, apparently I had done 2-3 plates already.
And yes, even if you are eating the same old foods, they can be very different on how you serve them. You can have salad, or you can have vegetables and dip, same basic thing but very different eating with hands or forks. You can stir fry those vegies. Gravy (and sauces in general) can be done with very little flour, it can go a long way in those transition days of switching from rice to cauliflower or whatever you may be doing.
Find some things that are treats to you -- hubby who 10 years ago would not touch dark chocolate with a 10 foot pole and found ads of people enjoying one piece to be unrealistic, now eats a single square of ultra dark chocolate each day.
My treat/cheat was getting a hot dog at Costco each week or two as we got our healthy choices. That bun was the only carbs I'd have for about 2 years... I admit I haven't been so rigorous the last couple of months. But even around 100-120 carbs a day, that's still lower than most. 60-85 is my sweet spot.