Okay. So it's day 12 for me of vegetarianism.
I'd by lying if I said I didn't have a minor, and a major slip up.
On night 8 a friend of mine and I had two pretty good sized cocktails. I'm (almost) positive I still stayed under my calories for the day, and still pushed through and stayed strong! Then... There was night 10.
Oy... I had two straw-ber-Rita's, one Seagrams wine cooler, and MAYBE three shots, and I was obliterated. My tolerance is absolutely negative since I've been eating so healthy, and trust me, I'm not complaining, it made me proud to know I was doing my body so much good. But it's what that amount of alcohol caused me to EAT that is the embarassing and depressing part of the story...
Swear not to fat-shame or judge me here, as I was inebriated...
3 pizza hot pockets
A ham/cheese/diablo mustard sandwich (on wheat)
And a sausage and gravy pot pie....
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I just sought out every type of meat in my house and ate it. And the next morning I just wanted to cry! Sodium on sodium on processed garbage on carbs...
Since then I've bounced back stronger than ever, silently cursing my negligence and swearing there won't be another "cheat" or poor decision for at least 20 days this time...
But in a nutshell. I knew I had to face those things, and I was hoping for a little pep talk too
ALSO I've been using MFP to track and count my calories, but my scale refuses to say anything is even happening, so my biggest concern was, could I be forcing my body into starvation mode with 1500 calories?
My stats are as follows
Age:22
Gender:female
Height:~5'8"
Weight:~237
I swear I'm eating and doing the right things, I'm not just a "vegetarian" that lives on processed freezer meals or hostess snacks. I've done my best to entirely eliminate processed foods, refined carbs, sugar, most meats (except fish/shellfish) and most dairy products as well.
Clue me in, folks, I'm feeling kindof blue...

I can't speak for you but going vegetarian would be setting myself up for failure. I have to have protein..and red meat or I would snap. I don't know your personal reasons for going vegetarian but if it's purely about weight loss you'd be better off cutting way down on carbs over meat.

1,500 cals is probably not going to put you into starvation mode...matter of fact that is a subject around here that is usually a debate. Most feel there's no such thing and that you would have to not eat any food for days for that to even happen.

I personally don't restrict myself of anything, I just eat everything in moderation, exercise, and make better choices.

Hang in there! This is a learning process!

I do the same thing after getting into to much Budlight!

I have kids older than you, I have grandkids, and I still have a few days a month when, I'm like, bring on the beer!

Bad, I know. But practice makes better.

A few things I have found helpful are belonging to groups with similar goals in mind.

I am a lifetime, maintaining Weight Watcher member, and I do have a membership to our local gym, and yes, I do go workout.

While I have not left my beer friends behind, being old, we have a lot of cooking and gardening, community and family interests,(small community) I have made a choice to spend a bit of less time with them and more time, with the people, I want to be like.

Positive peer pressure!?

Anywho! Hang in there, practice will make it better! Keeping in mind, no one is perfect.

As long as you make more positive choices than negative, it will be ok!

You can't be perfect 100% of the time. Don't beat yourself up over it. You said you bounced back stronger than ever, so good for you! Many people - myself included - would be totally derailed by one night of going off plan. You weren't, so that's great.

Hopefully, you can use this experience to learn more about what triggers you to eat certain foods. Maybe the sugar in the drinks caused you to crave the highly processed, meat-filled foods.

ITA with novangel. If you're going veg for ethical reasons, I think that's awesome and if you get your calories low enough, I'm sure you can lose, but if you're doing it for health/weight loss, I'd steer clear of it. When I was at my height of weight loss success, losing 10 pounds a month, I was eating nothing but bacon, 4-6 slices for lunch every day, and 2 kirkland hamburger patties and 2 slices of cheddar for dinner. And *all* of my labs have improved a ton.

Well, it could be worse. You could've taken in a different kind of sausage that you deeply regretted in the morning.

We all have slip ups! It's normal. We learn and do better, then rinse and repeat.

Also, about the veggie thing...Everyone's different. I was a pescetarian for about 4 years. Some of that time I was slim; other times I was chubby. And the same with when I've also eaten meat. Neither way is a magic bullet for me.

Thanks for the advice guys!
I'm DEFINATELY going Vegetarian for health reasons. A multitude of them.
I love meat. I do. But truthfully. I've been far more satiated, and a lot better FEELING without it. Same with the elimination of the dairy.
Here's another embarassing tidbit. I'm super lucky, and somehow, my genetics probably coupled with my obese-ness, had blessed me with a skin condition called Hidradenitis suppurtiva. Also called HS, dont look it up on google unless you have a strong stomach, its not pretty. It's no less than awful, and generally affects the apocrine (sweat) glands with really undesirable symptoms. My particular flare ups occur under my arms, and under my fat belly, and occasionally, in my fat thighs. It's awful. I'm absolutely humiliated by it. And to top it off. All delicious food that I love (Sugars, Common cooking oils, Trans fats, Dairy products, Feedlot- raised meats, Red meat, Processed meats, Alcohol, Refined grains, andArtificial food additives) (<--list from a few trusted sites I use when researching said condition) can absolutely send it through the roof. S that's the main reason I'm doing what I'm doing. It's not ethical. I was raised a farm girl, I love fishing and hunting, and I realize it's importance in conservation. (In fact, a real dream of mine is to get my MS in Biology and work in conservation!) but. It's not to try and be a super Tina-tough-tits and show up people with poorer eating habits than I as of late... So I'm hoping people aren't seeing it like that! It's just a really crappy condition that during flare-ups can be absolutely debilitating... Not to mention, the removal of these foods can only benefit me long term in the sense that my family history is RIDDLED with heart problems and diabetes. So I don't need to add fuel to the genetic fire on that front either.

So, that's where I stand, I'm trying my hardest, and as aforementioned, could really use some support sticking to this change of lifestyle!

HAHAHAHA as a married woman, I have to agree with you that it could've been far, far worse!

I just really really need someone to tell me slip ups are okay. I'm my harshest critic, and it's true, I came back strong, but perhaps too strong. I have to figure out my happy medium in the pushing-myself department. Because I want to do this correctly, and effectively! With lasting results! (Don't we all?!) also, if you could clarify, what EXACTLY is a Pescetarian?

Never mind. My friend Wikipedia told me that I am, in fact, Pescetarian. Hah.

How long ago was your binge? I find when I drink a lot of alcohol it takes me weeks to get the scale to go down again…and I'm sure the sodium isn't helping. Make sure you're drinking plenty of water to flush everything out.

So, last January I did a vegan eating experiment. I ate pretty much strictly vegan (with a little cheese at a family gathering) with tons of vegetables and pretty much no processed foods. I did it for about three months…the meat cravings in the first few weeks were really intense and I could've totally seen myself binging if I'd had a few drinks…

I think it was too much all at once and at the end of the three months I didn't feel great at all, I felt like crap and started to incorporate fish (pescatarian) initially. Veganism was not for me. However, I did find some really great vegetarian dishes and ate a lot of veggies I never would have otherwise…I still eat meat now and source the best quality I can, but it was very hard. I think taking baby steps - maybe trying to aim for 2 vegetarian meals a day initially - might help you adjust more naturally and help stop your desires to "cheat". If you think of your program as more of a process than you won't feel like you're slipping up and maybe not binge as intensely. A process suggests you're working towards something…a "plan" or "diet" seems to demanding 100% compliance. I think starting slowly may give you slower results but you'll feel a lot more in control and the all-or-nothing attitude will fade away. You didn't do anything wrong by binging - everyone does - it's a process, you're learning, you'll be better prepared next time.

Honestly, so fresh into a new way of eating is probably not the best time to be getting inebrieted. I see that a lot on these boards. They avoid the booze when they realize that it makes them eaaaaaaaaaaaaat. When I lost my first 80 pounds, I was mostly pestcatarian. Have you tried that? Then you can slide over into veg way after that. Baby steps! Have one day that is completely veggie. Increase the days every week. Maybe try to aim for 10/21 meals to be veggie only and snacks all veg. And increase.

Also, how active are you? At 237 for 1 lb a week, moderately active I was eating 2000 cals a day on MFP. Try going up 100 or so cals and see what happens

If vegetarianism is a choice you are committed to then not drinking to a point where you lose control over what you eat should also be a choice you're committed to. All of us have 'slip ups', days where we could/should have done better, and it's important to remember that the fact that we didn't do better is down to us. Not to put too fine a point on it...you put the drinks in your mouth. I'm sympathetic to how you feel now but ultimately, you made the choice. Just like a lot of us make the choice to have that soda/candy/whatever our 'thing' is!

So choose better.

I am 21, so like you - I want to go out and have a good time (a reeeeally good time). But unfortunately, I've got to say I'd recommend not drinking for about 6-8 weeks into the process, when the habits are firmer. Even then, go with caution. I know the second that I've had a few too many, I instantly go for carby/heavy/high calorie food. IE eating an entire pizza by myself. Even though I'm lactose intolerant :|. Additionally now that I've cut boozing out except once a week to once every two weeks, I've noticed my sugar cravings going down immensely and I've had a much easier time staying in my calorie zone over the weekends. Again, totally a personal choice but that's just what I've found! I plan on incorporating more alcohol into my diet eeeeventually, but for now once a week is where I'm at.

if you fall off the bike just jump back on, re-starvation there are 2 sides to this it is more about the balance nutrition in my opinion our body will need the full regimen of vitamins and essential amino acids among other things on a daily basis, so the balance has to be keeping below that 1500calorie mark u set and still have the full nutrition.
other wise you will crave everything you shouldn't.

and for safe measure dont keep those foods available so when if you fall off the bike again you dont fall onto concrete

Shawk- though that's literally the best option I have (keeping them unavailable) I have a non-vegetarian husband. A it's literally just not an option. He needs easy foods around, and though he still supports my process and decision, I feel it's only fair to him to let him have what he wants! He works hard and doesn't deserve to battle cravings when he's perfectly fit! (He's a coal miner, so I do everything in my power to give him a relaxing home life, cause the work world is stress and manual labor that few could handle!) guess I just have to hone my willpower!