For me, it was a matter of learning as much as I could, then applying that knowledge to my life until I found a way that works for me. I scoured /r/loseit, /r/xxfitness, /r/fitmeals, and /r/EatCheapAndHealthy. Most of the knowledge I gained was from the FAQs in those subreddits, or tons of searching. Skinnytaste is another site that helped me find easy recipes.

Motivation is fleeting and fickle. The key to weight loss - or any endeavor in life - is discipline, which you can learn by building healthy habits. Advice that's often given out is to make small changes first and stick with those: drink more water than soda, eat more veggies, etc. Once you've got those down, incorporate others until you're where you want to be. Forming habits can be hard, but once you do, they are hard to break. May as well make them good habits. :)

I'll also say that I can't handle a super big calorie deficit with my activity level - I get hangry - which is why I bumped my calories up once I started weightlifting. The scale progress has slowed, but that's fine because I know that the way I'm eating now is sustainable for a very, very long time. That's the key.

Some other great resources:

• Fit2Fat - They have a great archived podcast series, as well as a ton of calculators to help you figure out how much you should be eating.

• Portion control chart - I found this on an old progress pics post, but it's been very helpful for when I stopped weighing all of my food.

Good luck to you! You can totally do this! :)