I am 23 y/o and needless to say the social scene at my age almost entirely revolves around alcohol. It's not that I am against drinking (in fact, I think it's great to have a glass of wine at dinner, go to happy hour, have margaritas on a friday night), but whenever I drink TOO much I feel HORRIBLE about myself. I don't just mean feeling hungover or stupid or anything like that, I mean I literally get totally down on myself and it really affects my eating.
I am recovering from an eating disorder right now (anorexia) and I am trying to find a good way to incorporate social drinking into my life without feeling awful. I always feel like I either a) have to restrict dinner and eat only a small amount or b) restrict my food intake the next day. I have not been drinking the past 2 or 3 weeks and I have been able to follow my meal plan and feel OK about things, but I don't want to miss out on drinking and going out. I just honestly don't know how to find a good balance. I think I'd do well with a solid plan like "eat a normal dinner and limit myself to 3 drinks" or "don't drink at all"....something like that.

Anyone else struggle with incorporating drinking into a healthy lifestyle without feeling disgusting? Please - any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!!

LS,
That's your anorexia taliking again.
It's the food value (calories) of the alcohol that makes you feel wretched.
It must be incorporated into your total caloric intake for the day thus if your doctor told you that you MUST eat 1500 calories a day, you merely make your alcohol choices fit into that framework.

Nobody ever died of not taking a drink so choosing to drink diet coke all night after eating a normal dinner is a fine choice. But anything approaching skipping dinner so that you can have 3 drinks is unhealthy, as you know.;)

LS, this is a topic that is very familiar to me personally so I hope my ..words (not necessarily advice) helps somewhat.

I too struggled for a long time about incorporating drinking into my diet without feeling completely guilty. For many months my routine consisted of heavy restriction when I knew I would be drinking that night. The thing I learned eventually was it was not worth the stress. When you drink, even if you drink and get drunk, you do not consume gross amounts of calories unless you are only drinking very kigh calorie cocktails and have several (such as cream based drinks, pina coladas, etc..martinis, straight liquor, even beer does NOT add up to that much). Finally, I learned to settle a balance. Because I know that if I try to be "normal" and have a regular dinner and such and just save room for drinks as "dessert" I know I'll end up being miserable because I still won't feel comfortable given my margin of error. So what I usually do is have a normal breakfast, normal lunch and then a SLIGHTLY (and i mean a difference of maybe 200 Calories- more than one drink's worth!) and then go out and have fun. Yes, realistically this means I have 2 large snacks and part of dinner's calories worth for alcohol and any munchies, which, also, is probably too much "room" in the end, but this is the amount it takes for me to be completely comfortable with drinking and snacking at night..because realistically, if Im truly honest, I wont physically be ABLE to drink enough calories to make up the difference, and if I have one or two and a few nibbles or snacks of fries or nachos, the calories still won't add up that much. Then, the next day, I feel like my day way basically like any other day and I don't feel the need to restrict or anythign because I had already made enough room for that day itself.

Hope that helps somewhat..but Lenin is on the right track as well..just make a little room on the day OF and forget about it the next day- forget completely! (Minus any morning afters that aren't so wonderful..in that case try to eat regularly but alter the food so it's stomach-able) :)

For each alcoholic drink you have, make the next one a non-alcoholic. Order a cranberry+club soda...that way no one else has to know you aren't drinking alcohol (well at least they won't question you since its pink)...and it doesn't have many calories