Hey Kingboob,
The trick is really in eating just the right amount you need for the day and no extra. The way i used to think of it was my body is similar to a car and needed fuel (petrol) to get from A -2-B and its all about eating just enough so you have no surplus fuel slopping around the tank.
The motivation to get lean just came as I wanted to really try and see if i could get rid of my moobs once and for all, so i mentally prepared myself for a 6 month long haul of strict diet and gym 5x a week and the weight literally fell off. i would step on the scales every week and write down my weight. buy one of the muscle and fitness magazines, they give you weekly diets to stick too. I did just that, copied their diets until I leart which were the right foods to eat and when to eat them and then started making my own meal plans.
Rough idea is something like this
8.30am Breakfast would be couple of slices of toast with low fat spread and marmite
snack around 11am would be sardines or mackrel on toast
hit the gym at 12.30 (mixture of cardio and weights, keeping my heart rate high, bought a heart rate monitor)
come back from the gym and hit a protein shake with water (1.30)
I would shower and make a turkey breast / chicken breast & salad sandwich - cut it in half, have half now around 2pm
4pm the other half of my sandwich and a piece of fruit
5.30pm i would walk my dogs for 45 mins on top of the gym
7pm chicken breast either stir fried, or cooked with peppers and put in a wrap (fajita style), or with broccolli and veg
10pm protein shake with water and maybe some cottage cheese to snack on if my belly was rumbling like mad
I would try and curb all carbs from about 4pm unless my body was telling me i needed to eat some, then it would be sweet potato or brown rice and only a small amount
every saturday i would have a "cheat meal", something like a small pizza and chips, or chicken kiev & chips, anything really, i never went stupid, but i was pretty liberal
It's all about mindset if im honest (for me anyway), if you dont want to do it, you will find reasons not to do it, but if you are determined, then nothing really stops you