My recommendation to dieters is to not do it halfheartedly. Go all in, read reddit fitness, geek out on dieting, count calories, come up with new recipes, set a complete routine around cooking the right food, etc. That way you won't be tempted to make exceptions and you will know with 100% certainty that you will get results.
Pulled pork Put a pork butt/shoulder in the slow cooker. Douse with a 16oz bottle of root beer. Cook on low for 8 hours. Pull apart. Mix in BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese to taste. This can end up tasting too good, so you might need to portion control when you eat it.
Roast beef (or roast lamb, or roast anything) Buy an oven roast and rub in salt and pepper. Cook according to the times laid out here http://www.thehealthybutcher.com/livetoeat/volume23/TheHealt... Very simple, yet amazingly delicious right out of the oven.
Baked Chicken Buy a mix of thighs and breasts. Slice the breasts in half so they are the same thickness as the thighs. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook at 400 degrees until they are 160degrees internal temp (37 minutes in my oven, when laid out on a rack, not on the baking pan directly). Once you have baked the chicken, you can eat straight up the first night. Then in succeeding nights you can mix with tomato sauce and do pasta, mix with cheese and make a quesadilla, mix with coconut milk, red curry paste, and peanut butter and do a thai chicken, etc. By doing the work of cooking the chicken all in one night, in following nights you can make a variety of healthy, delicious meals in under 10 minutes. Just reheat the chicken in a sauce and you have instant goodness.
Roast veggies But three 1pound bags of frozen veggies - brussel sprouts, "fiesta mix", brocoli, whatever you like. Put in strainer and run water over to thaw out a bit. Dry. Put on baking pans. Brush with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Put in oven at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. If using multiple pans, switch the racks half-way through. It is even better if you do fresh veggies, but it is more prep work in cutting them to the proper size.
There recently was a story in Norwegian media about a person that had gone down some X kgs (basically from overweight to more healthy) -- by eating a strict diet of ready-made meals (heat in the microwave type stuff). The reason behind this anecdote? They all list calorie content. No need to measure (again). Is it a healthy diet? Probably not (high salt, high fat, low vitamins, little variation... the list goes on).
But it's easy to then try and follow up on calorie count.
That said, those same people are probably dying inside from the quality perspective!!
Take, for instance, potato chips -- and not the low-fat Baked Lay's or Quest Chips kind. If you're on a "balanced diet", they're legal. But good luck measuring them and not eating the entire bag.
It sounds like your success was mainly in portion control. Eating standing up helps you get full faster too, as does focusing on chewing a lot (also prevents choking and other benefits).
The biggest problem I forgot to mention above, however, is that people will read all sorts of literature, but when it comes to actually weighing their food with a food scale (costs literally $20) and counting their calories and macros, they all fail. Yes, it's a pain in the arse, but you learn so much by recording everything you eat. But people simply don't want to do it, and it drives me nuts.
This also leads me to believe that there's a massive business opportunity somewhere in there to make it easier to do (I have ideas but am too busy).