Congrats! Agreed counting cals works and as you said it forces you to choose better foods.
1500 cals doesnt seem like much tho for a guy and you will def lose weight at that cals.
Best way is to reduce portion sizes a bit while counting cals and giving yourself time (they say 20 mins) to not feel hungry after eating.
I find the hardest part of counting cals is just doing the actual counting all the time. Kind of a pain.
Good Calorie Calculator
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm