something that helped me....
 

when I first started and had to stick to eating 1200-1500 calories a day I thought the whole think was terrible and that I could never keep it up - what's the point of losing when eating is so unenjoyable....

But then after doing the math I realized that a sedentary 25 year old woman who is 5' and 150 pounds maintains that weight at 1948 calories....but the same woman weighing 120 pounds maintains that weight at 1800 calories - a mere difference of 148 calories or a cookie. So that while the calorie deficit is required for weight loss, afterwards you can go back to regular (although slightly downsized) calories. Such a difference - 30 pounds - by a mere cookie a day.