You got this!! I am the same height and age as you and started at almost 200 lbs now down to 165 and maintaining for 4 months.

For me it was all about making small changes, realizing my portions were huge, and being comfortable with being a little bit hungry, while not cutting foods out completely.

Small changes included switching out candy for Coke Zero or sugar-free Jello, not keeping sugary foods (which send me into a feeding frenzy) around the house, only buying high calorie foods in one-portion amounts, and reducing my oil usage which was off the freaking charts.

Portion control was another massive thing I had to address because my portions were huge and I honestly didn't realize. I can eat and eat and eat but if I give myself a smaller portion and wait for a bit afterwards I'm usually full. I got used to smaller portions after about 2 weeks of it and found things like using smaller bowls/plates and smaller cutlery very useful! Trick the brain...

I grew up in a big family and I used to hide my favourite treats so my siblings wouldn't eat them! I think this led to an absolute aversion to feelings of hunger. That feeling has been hard to shake, sometimes when my partner has a bigger plate than me I get soooo worried that I'm going to be hungry sooner or think I should fill up my plate more so it's "fair". I've been trying to remind myself that he needs to eat more than me and that if I'm hungry later I can have a snack! It's no big deal if I'm a little hungry for a while. I actually find I have more energy when I let myself feel a bit hungry before eating, but I definitely still struggle with this. I also found when I ate less overall but more frequent small snacks I got way less hangry which was a concern for me at the start :p

Lastly I did not cut out foods because I knew that wouldn't work for me and I would end up binging it. This definitely depends on the person though! But I still eat the occasional McDonald's and when I do I make sure I try to only get chicken nuggets with no fries or small fries, and no pop. Every once in a while I go wild and just eat whatever I want. And then I feel sick the next day and remember why I made the change in the first place. I also tracked everything I ate even the high calorie days.

I hope this was somewhat helpful, I wish you all the best!!! It took me many months to lose the weight just going slow and trying to make sustainable changes which had helped me a ton during maintaining! Good luck!