Hi, and welcome
Congratulations on wanting to fix this, it's a big step.
First of all, have you worked out how many calories you currently eat a day, and whether that represents maintenance? If you haven't done that, then cutting 500 calories from a number that may be over maintenance may not be helpful (and starting a whole new regime based on numbers is probbaly a little extreme for most people). I'd recommend trying to calculate your calories on the healthy food you've been eating (that you'd want to make the basis of your diet)- use a calorie calculator (I use one called cron-o-meter, others recommend fitday. Both are free) and if you're not sure of quantities, overestimate (as most people underestimate). Then compare that to your maintenance calorie requirement (find a BMR calculator that has an additional feature which takes activity levels into account, like the Harris Benedict formula. You need to do that even if you're sedentary). Then take 500 calories off that number.
In terms of how to eat in a calorie controlled manner without feeling hungry or deprived, find foods that are filling and low calorie. Porridge/ oatmeal is a good one for me, as is rye bread (I don't know about where you are, but regular bread where I am is about 100-130 calories/ slice, and I need 4-6 slices to satisfy me, whereas the rye bread I now eat is 93 calories/ slice, and I never want more than two slices as it's much more filling). If you like fruit, get into fruit (as most of it is very low calorie and very tasty)- one of my replacements for ice cream is low fat Greek yoghurt, berries, and steamed apple and/ or plum- comes up to about 260 calories (given how I make it, your numbers may vary), and is really delicious. I also like to look on recipe websites for low calorie recipes so that I don't get bored with my cooking (on these two you can search either low kilojoule- which is low calorie, although divide the number by 4.2- or by calorie rating: and ). I also run most recipes (including ones I find on websites with calorie ratings, because I usually alter them) through a recipe calorie calculator, which you can find readily on a search engine. (Check out my diary- link's in my signature- for how it works out in practice. I'm rarely hungry and never bored with my food). Load up on steamed vegetables with your dinner- last night I had a small serving of beef stirfry (I have had to cut my serving sizes a little) and to make up the hunger difference I had about 300g of steamed vegetables, which came out at under 100 calories, but made me really full.
Another way of not depriving yourself and running a calorie deficit is by increasing your maintenance, getting more exercise in (which is a good idea for other reasons). I found this hard to start with, but it gives me (going from sedentary to moderately active) about 400 extra calories a day to play with (using the Harris Benedict formula- your numbers may vary). It's also helping me develop a shape I like rather than just get down to a number (although that being said, my original aim was to lose about 30lb, so your mileage may vary). This may also be something to ease your boredom/ emptiness- having a challenge to set yourself (for me it's "I will go to the gym 3-4 days a week, and I will push myself a little harder each time").
As to binging, different techniques work for different people. The easiest thing is to get your binge food out of your house (depends on who else you live with, though). It's much easier to go to the supermarket in a good frame of mind (which is something you should try to do anyway), and not buy the stuff, than it is to have to resist it when you're at home. Substitutes for binge food, like I've already discussed, are another. Depending on your calorie allowance and willpower, you may be able to fit small amounts of your "binge" food into your diet (chocolate is one for me- I had 2 squares of chocolate for dessert last night, within my calorie goal) which will stop you from being deprived (but if you need to cut it out entirely, then cut it). Also try to think about the calorie cost of certain foods- if I crave something, I try to think about it in terms of the food I get to eat for the day. If a bowl of ice cream is 600 calories, is it worth nearly 1/3 of my food for the day? Most of the time, my answer to that is no.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
