Greetings, Ben! As you can see, there is plenty of wonderful support and help here. Just to add my 2 cents, I personally started my McDougall journey by going "cold no-turkey"
with almost 100% unprocessed foods--straight from a very SAD diet. It worked for me...so I wouldn't say it can't be done...guess it just depends. I can confirm what others in the unprocessed foods thread are saying, too---I marvel every single day now, at my relative lack of hunger, compared to the old days. I feel that in my case it is a downright miracle! Never, never, never, would I have thought that this could happen to me--with a lifetime history of obesity and yo-yo dieting.
Although, it did take me awhile to get to my current state of relative no-hunger. But I just ate and ate all the McD foods (unprocessed) I needed to get through, until the need slacked off. Lots of beans helped me too.
Anyway, we are all very excited to have you aboard, and hoping to hear more from you! And no matter how you choose to launch your McDougall adventure, just get started---don't waste another day. You can make adjustments along the way.