I've been doing this at home since January and I would suggest the following:
As someone else mentioned above read over your material a good few days so you can get your head around it. There are 3 plans to choose from, pick one and do only that one for a week. Then the next week do the next one and the following the last. You can then compare your weight loss on each plan. This is one thing I wish I had of known at the beginning as after 4 months I had only lost 4lbs due to the plan I was following not agreeing with my body rather than me doing something wrong.
EE works best for me, you might find red works best for you, your friend might suggest green as that works best for her, but our bodies are different and each one prefers one plan to the others, try to find out which one that is for you at the beginning rather than like me 4 months in. Follow the plan that works best and add the odd second best plan to change it up a bit if you are getting bored or your body has hit a plateau. That usually rectifies things in the long run.
Keep a food diary, either on here on in a notebook. When you choose your weigh in day you can see how much you've lost and if you haven't or gained you can go back to the diary and take a look to see where that issue might have arisen from. If you post your diary on here people can give you advice and suggestions that you might not see. On a positive note you can also see where you went right and add those things into the following weeks.
A lot of people plan their meals in advance, I can't do that. I do however have all the necessities in the cupboards/fridge to have proper meals every day so I don't worry about binging on the wrong things. When I first started following the plan I didn't have any junk in the house because that was a habit I was trying to get out of, which then a month or so later led to being in the mood to eat everything that is not good. So I decided to have low syn treats in the house and I plan those into my day such as a packet of french fries (4) and meringue (2.5). I usually have very low syn meals and find that I have to use my syns on 'junk' in the evening.
Always start off with using as close to the 15 syns as possible, this will change over time. Again if you hit a plateau you can then decrease a few syns until you are losing again. If you start off with using very few syns you can't go much further and that will affect your weight loss in the long run.
Be prepared to have a 'bad' day. I had one yesterday as I was out on a date and was expecting a few drinks which I had calculated. Ended up 3 drinks over what I was expecting and a meal out. So no, that wasn't planned, but I still have the rest of the week to get some of those syns back and up my exercise to help out. We all have times where a day here and there is fine it's called life and we're here to enjoy it. If you have a 'bad' day start back on plan the next don't keep sliding as you'll take longer to come back on plan.
Don't be surprised if you are a slow loser and someone else on here is losing 5lbs a week to your 1lb. I find it personally really tough to lose as I'm a slow loser, and then have someone else say 'I've only lost 4lbs this week.' I know it's not an affront to me personally they are used to losing say 6lbs a week and 4 to them seems meager whereas to me I'd die for a 4lbs week! Just get used to the fact that your body loses the way it loses and just go with it. As long as it's coming off be happy!
Also weigh yourself once a week only. It is temping to continuously jump on the scales. Our bodies fluctuate multiple times a day every day. Weighing yourself once a week will give a more stable picture. You might find you have gained 6lbs mid week and are fretting about it, but then at WI you've lost that 6lbs and another 2lbs. Trust the plan as it works. Take your measurements, you might not find it on the scale but you might find it off somewhere else. Plus you can then compare beginning, middle and end which is also a nice feeling when things are shrinking.
Phew that was a lot longer than I was anticipating! Hope some of that helps.
