I read your post, but didn't comment because I'm not sure I could really be helpful to you. Everyone takes a different approach, and mine is pretty much the opposite of yours.
If I'm confronted with a restrictive plan that tells me "NO!" to any food group, I already know I'm sunk; also, I find myself questioning whether I'm really eating healthily for my body if I'm cutting out entire essential food groups. People need fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, and although nutritionists may disagree about the proportions of each that are optimal, there's no doubt whatsoever that cutting any of them out entirely is not sustainable even though it might be effective in the short term. Low-carb or low-fat can work--but NO-carb or NO-fat? Nope, I just don't do "NO" well at all. Not for me.
Which brings me back around to your post--it's not for ME, but it might work for YOU. There are people who want the weight gone
right now, go on a very restrictive plan to lose it successfully, then develop a maintenance plan once they've lost the weight. More power to those who can do that, but I fall into the "slow and steady" camp of developing habits that I can sustain for a lifetime because I already know that the "lose it quickly by any means necessary" ways don't work for me.
I will happily cheer you along on your road, though; even if it's very different from mine, we're headed for the same svelte place.
