How does eating healthy look compared to just counting calories?

Not sure if OP is male or female... but I wanted to add, there is some evidence to suggest that fasting can negatively impact women's hormones and throw them out of balance. If you're female, somehing to Google and consider.

Healthy eating to me, is eating a diet high in whole grains and vegetables. Along with that, I like to eat healthy fats, lean proteins like beans, soy, seitan (I'm vegetarian). I base things on how the diet makes me feel overall (digestion/bloating, energy and vitality, skin condition, sleep quality, etc)

My version of healthy eating, and how I reduced my blood sugar number, was to reduce my carb intake to under 130g a day. I've mostly done it by making substitutions - cauliflower rice instead of rice (or half and half), fewer potatoes but more veg, courgetti instead of pasta (or half and half). If I do a stirfry, I pile loads of veg into the wok and don't bother with rice or noodles at all. In all cases, the volume of veg makes me feel that I've had a bigger meal but the carb intake (and calorie count) is lower than would have been on my plate a few years ago.

My current favourite is sauted cabbage - ~200g finely sliced white cabbage, 7-10g lighter butter and 7.5-10ml olive oil, sauted for about 20 mins. I sometimes add a 5ml splash of apple cyder vinegar. Aside from finding it very tasty, it's only 9g of carbs and also gives me 9g of fibre, so I use that instead of rice or potatoes with multiple dishes.

If you don't fancy counting calories, the only suggestion I can offer is to look at your typical meals and look at how many calories /carbs they contain - and either predominantly eat the lower cal / carb meals or come up with lower cal / carb alternatives and substitute them as much as possible. I used to add all sorts of fruit to my morning yoghurt and use different veg in cooking. I then made a list and looked up the nutritional info, per 100g, for all the things I ate regularly. After discovering that raspberries are lower carb than blueberries, I now only buy raspberries to add to my yoghurt. I now buy green beans and cauliflower more than I buy broccoli and carrots; I rarely eat peas or petit pois at home now. I like all of them but I may as well focus on eating the options that are lower carb. I rarely eat bread anyway, but I did a similar exercise to compare all the different bread options available to me at my local supermarket and now only have the lowest-carb option in my freezer.

Pick appropriate calorie and macros targets. Eat to them // MFP logging helps in this regard. Eat a good variety of nutrient-dense, healthful, fresh stuff. I highly recommend you do much of your own cooking, rather than eating out or taking in, except for occasions. I also bake - easy "no knead" methods - most of the family bread products, including rolls for summer grill sandwiches (much healthier than commercial bread). Get lots of colors on your plate (veggies, fruit). Don't go wild or constant with known "bad" stuff - deep fryer, highly-processed, highly-salted, high-sugar, etc. stuff - and don't fret too much if you indulge once in a while, we're all human. Don't drive yourself crazy or do big fad stuff. It takes time. As one doc told me, " ... it took all your life to get where you are, it's going to take a while to get someplace else."