Growing up in my family, it wasn't important that we always be the best; it was important that we were going to try to be our best and give it our all.

Growing up in my family, it wasn't important that we always be the best; it was important that we were going to try to be our best and give it our all.

I love to look at my life and look at what I can do better, how I can contribute more and where I can push myself.

Standards are what you hold for yourself, too. If I don't hold those standards with friends, colleagues, and lovers, I can't hold them to their relationships.

The only reason I write at all is because I am going through, and growing through, something in my life I want to share with others through my personal experiences.

I wanted to lose 30 pounds healthfully and still be able to enjoy my college experience. Having succeeded in doing just that, I wanted to share my experiences with others who could benefit from my direct knowledge of the difficulty of trying to balance college life with being healthy. It became a journey about healthy lifestyle choices, including tips and tricks for creating a new relationship with food where I was in control and could learn to love food healthfully again.

I didn't grow up eating meat - I was a vegetarian until I was 18.