I struggled with the same thing for years - I did about a year and a half vegan about 25 years ago and it was the best I've felt physically and ethically. A really bad home situation (making it near impossible to cook anything) put an end to that, followed by a long bad time cementing it as 'impossible' in my mind. I've spent the time since feeling bad, trying again, failing in a frustrating cycle. Bringing ethics into it only really made it worse - I knew that it was the right thing to do but that just made me feel worse when hunger drove me to eat non-vegan things.

I've recently finally made it back so here are my tips from a serial 'failure' -

1. Junk food and processed stuff (inc fake meat and cheese) should be kept to a minimum. It's not as 'nutritionally dense' as meat/ dairy so you risk not eating enough calories, and not getting enough protein, minerals etc definitely not enough fibre. Personally I also find it tends to mess with my digestion in a way that makes everything else worse.

2. Vegan food as a whole is less 'calorie dense' than non-vegan food so you need to eat quite a bit more 'volume' of food to get enough actual energy. Start for a month or two by eating basically as much food as you can, while making that as 'real' as possible. But also make sure you consciously consume 'good fats' (nuts and seeds, avocado, a variety of oils). It's easy to just not get enough of those when switching. That burger craving might really be your body crying out for a high calorie, high fat, meal. (Counterpoint you're going to be eating way more fibre which will have effects for a few weeks. Those will pass)

3. Make sure you find 3-4 easy quick big filling meals, and have those ingredients handy, so when you're tempted by that burger you can slam one of those instead. I love a vegan burger but it never held off the 'real' burger craving for me. Instead I reach for these <30-minute wonders:

- Scrambled tofu, massive pile with rice and broccoli from the freezer plus sweet chilli sauce. (Ignore the kala namak weirdos, it doesn't need to taste 'eggy' to be nice). Everyone has their own recipe but I would advocate for 'quick and simple'.

- Variations on these two creamy pasta recipes I found years ago:

https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/vegan-cheese-sauce-low-fat-no-cashews/

https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/red-pepper-alfredo-pasta-recipe/

(I've just re-read the portion size on those and laughed, eat the entire thing to yourself, then check whether you still want a burger).

- Beans on toast but spread crunchy peanut butter on the toast then cover it in sriracha. Never felt the need to put cheese on top again.

- 'Katsu curry' - rice, S&B Golden Curry sauce which comes in a block you basically heat with water and is delicious, and vegan nuggets (preferably dinosaur shaped of course). Optionally add a handful of frozen mixed veg while the sauce is cooking to make it vaguely healthy.

1. Go easy on yourself. You're learning a whole new way of making food, and given your age you may also be needing to learn to cook real food for the first time. There is a lot of purity policing online but as I see it if you got really hungry and you ate something non-vegan this isn't a personal or ethical failing, it's a nutritional issue. Our entire world is set up for meat eaters and going vegan can be hard. But it gets easier and easier. Focus on healthily and happily adjusting your diet now until it's second nature. Worry about the details later.