Well, you've put us in a bit of a quandary by posting this in the MWL forum, now haven't you?
I feel a bit guilty using the dedicated MWL forum for critiquing the merits of MWL -- but it'll have to do!
Probably the most important thing about establishing a way of eating that's sustainable for your personally, is that you devise something that you feel genuinely comfortable with and happy with. You think of the way you've decided to eat, and you think, "Those are choices I feel good about; that includes foods that I will get a lot of pleasure out of; this way of eating helps my body and mind feel at ease."
So, it may be worth sitting down and writing down the boundaries and guidelines by which you personally have decided to eat and then follow that for this week, and any part of your plan that seems "off" in any way, make a written adjustment to your eating plan starting tomorrow. And "food plan" is a little bit of an OA concept, but it definitely has its use. It's not not not a McDougall idea at all -- neither Dr M nor Jeff Novick mention the idea, as far as I know.
But I think the point of a written food plan is that you are not thrown into the chaos of having to make decisions on the fly and trying to exercise good judgment while hungry or agitated. "Guidelines" is a great word, isn't it? What are the simple principles that you need to embrace in order to guide you away from behaviors that will snowball into unwanted outcomes?
Personally, my eating plan (which is now mostly in my head, but used to be on paper, because I'd get confused as to what I had decided) *does* include the things that make my eating choices pleasurable and satisfying. I do allow myself to drink coffee while out and about -- at a starbucks, or when offered to me at the salon, for example -- but I do not have any coffee in the house, so it never turns into a daily thing. Also, I do buy and eat the occasional avocado, just for variety. Sure, it's like eating light green margarine (I can feel the calorie density!), but it doesn't spark any out of control behaviors in me at all. My eating plan also allows very, very large quantities of food at each meal time -- I prepare a pretty-damn-big volume of steamed vegetables at each meal time, along with a (far less generous!) portion of starch. I also allow myself more-or-less free access to fruit, because this doesn't really seem to get out of hand. Earlier this week, I ate four pieces of fruit in the course of one day. Other days, I don't buy or eat fruit at all.
So, what I'm saying is, be sure that your chosen style of eating gives you room to live life, opportunities to eat in ways that feel most natural to you, and leeway to experience the pleasures that food can offer. Choose lots of allowances that feel good to you and *are* good for you: buy expensive produce if that's your thing (out of season berries, designer fingerling potatoes), eat three potatoes at a sitting, even if you feel you could get by on two; get some pretty bowls, plates and napkins to use at mealtimes -- try to craft a way of eating that feels good, and keep adjusting till you arrive at same.
You also do need to put boundaries on your eating, is my guess. Humans, living in a toxic food environment, given round-the-clock access to foods way more calorie dense than what exists in nature -- we'll eat ourselves into compromised health and reduced well-being.
Are the MWL boundaries really the very ones that you personally need? Probably not. But maybe they are a good starting point if you're not sure!
I will note that MWL restricts certain foods that I don't personally need to banish from my diet, like avocado. MWL guidelines restrict certain foods that I *do* personally need to banish from my diet, like bread (binge trigger). MWL guidelines fail to restrict two patterns of eating that are most destructive for me -- round-the-clock eating and binge-level volume eating. So, I *do* have a strict guideline that I eat at mealtimes and don't deviate or improvise, for my own sanity's sake. I also have a strict rule that I don't keep ready-to-eat food around (I don't bake off a week's worth of potatoes, for example) nor do I buy eight pieces of fruit at the store (it's too easy to eat all those simple sugars at one go), nor am I allowed to rummage around in the fridge for more to eat once a meal is finished.
So -- that was a ridiculously long-winded way of saying that by-the-letter MWL probably doesn't address the exact restrictions you need to keep from falling down your own personal slippery slopes, and doesn't address the exact freedoms you need and want to keep things natural, light and fun for you.
Hope you can use some of those concepts for your own awesome path forward!