Newbie still after 12 days ! Please help

The thing that makes calorie counting so great, superior to most other weightloss methods, is that you can eat anything you like in moderation. The most important thing you have to learn to permanently manage your weight, is to how to make better overall food decisions, because they're all ultimately yours.

I don't even think you will like what I eat, and I eat a lot of different things, it would be impossible to recreate a "typical" day for me with specific foods. But I can tell you how I plan and compose my meals, if you're interested.

OK, brace yourself, meal planning is almost an obsession for me

I have tried a few setups - many can work really well. Sometimes you just have to try some different things, and keep those that stick. Sometimes it's a learning process; I'm doing things now that I couldn't imagine I would ever have the skills, or patience or knowledge for. So pick and choose according to your schedule and learning style - try to get into a workflow, so that what you do, work together and for you.

I use principles from the food pyramid, I think "food groups", "healthy plate"; the "21 day fix" gave me the idea of color codes for fruit and vegetables; and the "No S Diet" promotes a 3 meal setup with no snacks, unless it's a special occasion (and that can be "Saturday", or "Birthday"; or "eating out" or even just "feeling p1ssed").

I have a spreadsheet, or really just a table in an Open Ofiice document, with meals and dates. Each meal has a column, each day gets a new row. I don't delete anything, so it becomes a log, and I can go back and look for ideas and reminders. Sometimes I fill in many days in advance, sometimes I have just a rough idea for the next day; sometimes I fill in one component for two weeks ahead. I read through flyers for the various chains, and decide which offers I'll go for, and adjust menu accordingly, if necessary. I write it down and keep, so I know which prices are good and which are really good.

Breakfast is some kind of bread w/filling/spread, milk, fruit and raw veg.
Lunch is either the same as breakfast (only different spread(s), fruit and veg), or replacing one or more components with smoothie, salad, noodles, porridge, cereal, unplanned leftovers, omelette, boiled egg, or just whatever.
Dinner is, most days, protein+starch+veg. I rotate "themes" through the week, so that I go through: Soup/casserole, white meat, leftovers, fish, whatever/readymeal/new recipe, breakfast for dinner, red meat. I like to alternate "heavy" and "light" dinners. I aim to vary the components, so that I never eat any main component two days in a row, and to match flavors and colors to make it appealing (to me). Whenever the main meal lacks something, I add on - for lean meat/fish, I add oil/butter; for vegetable soup, I add dessert; for pancakes, I add raw veg.

I have a grocery shopping routine with one main goal: to get what I need and want and nothing else. I am easily tempted to buy too much too soon, and/or regret it if I see the same perishables cheaper/better/fresher while I still have some left (a bit neurotic, I don't think most people worry about this). So I stay away from grocery stores unless it's shopping day, and I plan to just buy what I can eat up of perishables before the next trip, and decide (right there, or when I get home) how many days it will last (and thus, how much to eat of each thing per day). This means that shopping day(s) is no longer the same from week to week. I plan "backwards", to some extent, unless I have a certain recipe in mind - I have a rough idea of what I'm going to cook, take out meat/fish to thaw overnight in the fridge, and grains to soak, if necessary - and then I can buy whatever suitable vegetables that are cheap and look delicious. I look for what's in season, which means it's not only at its best and at its cheapest, it also means natural variation through the year. I fill up with frozen/canned as needed.

I portion and freeze anything that can be portioned and freezed, and I keep a running inventory of fridge, freezer and pantry.
I make sure equpiment is washed and ready in time. I couldn't have made it without a diswasher.

This may seem overwhelming and chaotic in writing, but it's really easy and intuitive in practice. I feel totally flexible and free to eat anything I want - any meal that is not already in preparation, can be exchanged if I find something else, but I plan to eat what I like, so I don't change my mind just because I didn't want what I had planned. I aim to buy/cook/prepare just what I need, and eat it up; avoiding waste makes me feel really good, just like when I get a good bargain, or having made just another killer meal.