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I think it's a great idea to track what you're eating and drinking before you officially start to reduce your caloric intake (i.e., diet!). That way you can evaluate what's good, bad, or ugly, and plan ahead once you start. Best of luck to you!

I think it's a great idea to simply log what you normally eat for a few days to get an idea of where you're maintenance calorie level is. That lets you set a more appropriate calorie goal. What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to make good progress towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, eat so you drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~1600 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for 2 weeks. If you lose 1-2 lbs/week, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few cycles, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.

It's certainly a process. Don't be hard on yourself if you mess up a bit. We all do. When you do, get right back up and try to do better the next day. It's the people that persist through the hard times and struggles that really do well.

I'm happy to help out if you need anything, so hit me up if you have questions