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

A gluten-free diet still allows you access to almost every fruit and vegetable, a variety of grains and legumes, your pick of dairy products, fresh meats and fish and a whole slew of special gluten-free delights to satisfy your pretzel-bagel-muffin-doughnut craving.

When I was young and growing up overweight, I believed the "eaten" was more powerful than the "eater," meaning the food was more powerful than I was.

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.

Make sure you eat whole foods that are good for your entire body. This doesn't mean that you can't enjoy your food or make room for plenty of indulgences. But your conscious goal has to be to eat for long term health and what you do most of the time is what really counts.

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.

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.