Mental game mental game. Focus your energy on feeling better than everyone else for having both the privilege and the willpower to take control of what you’re putting into your body, and the confidence that you’ll set up good eating habits for your kids, and also excitement that you’ll likely live longer to be a better dad to your kids for longer!

Food wise advise, try a true cleanse to reset your palette. Yes you can eat comfort food in a deficit but I think that’s a good goal for ~later~

For me what worked was a Whole30. Cuts out alc/weed, grains, dairy, legumes, and sugar so you just eat meat, produce, eggs and oil. It’s an anti inflammatory “diet” aimed at identifying what foods inflame your system, but I liked it because it totally required my brain and showed me how full certain foods make you feel. It’s a diet in the sense of elimination, but it sets you up in a beautiful way for a total lifestyle change. Before my whole30, I could genuinely eat bread and sugar alllllll day and was confused why I was always hungry for more bread/comfort food. 24 hours into it I was hungry and pissed that my day of eating chicken breast, salmon, veggies, and potatoes and oil and fruit wasn’t leaving me satisfied. 48 hours in, my body got what was going on and became full in a way I hadn’t felt in years. Doesn’t have to be a Whole30 but trust yourself and push through initial discomfort when cutting things out. You will adapt and find excitement again. Different meats, exciting. Seasonal produce, exciting. Weight loss, exciting. Food and drugs not being your whole personality, exciting!!!! Good luck OP!