This cycle continued and by the time I turned 16 I was over weight, anemic, my skin was even worse, I developed severe psoriasis, insomnia, was sick ALL THE TIME, and I started feeling WORSE than ever, both physically and mentally.

I was extremely tired ALL THE TIME, I could not leave the house and dropped out of High School, I became depressed and had thoughts of suicide constantly. My cystic acne became worse and spread to my arms, back and all over my chest AND I had now discovered that I developed vertigo! I would become dizzy out of nowhere and need to lie down for fear of passing out. I did infect faint a few times. I went to multiple doctors and tried more than a dozen medications but nothing helped. 

Finally at age 18, after trying EVERYTHING, I went to my local health food store and asked the owner named John for help! I was at ROCK BOTTOM and a friend had said she got some good advice from this store owner. I had nothing to lose! I told him about my constant dizziness and how I felt terrible. He asked what my typical diet was. I lied and said that I ate very healthy (which I did during the day) but I was too embarrassed to tell him that I binged on junk food all night! 

The man was very kind and recommended I start taking probiotics and that I eliminate gluten from my diet. The was in 2003 and the first time I EVER heard the word gluten. I did what he said and that morning was the last time I ever had anything with gluten in it (I remember it was a blueberry muffin from Au Bon Pain! : ) 

I started the probiotics the very same day while researching what the hell gluten was! This was the first step in my journey back to health. I was still sick, depressed, extremely tired and over weight 

After about two weeks I started seeing some improvement in my constant dizziness! But I was still extremely tired! ALL THE TIME! As soon as I woke up in the morning I wanted to go back to sleep!

But after this encounter with John I started reading every book I could find on gluten, health and diet! I read in one book that red meat was extremely bad for us so I stuck to eating chicken and fish. I read in another book that fruit had too much sugar so I stuck to eating as many vegetables as possible. I read that Organic food was the best food to eat so I only ate organic meat, dairy, cereal, bread and vegetables. I read that all carbohydrates caused weight gain so I tried to eat mostly meat, dairy and veggies. 

I started experimenting! I followed The Zone Diet (mostly because supposedly Jennifer Aniston did too!), Weight Watchers, The Atkins diet, The Grapefruit Diet, The Baby Food Diet, and most disgustingly The Celebrity Diet (which consisted of drinking this light brown liquid ONLY for 3 days!) Honestly, all of these diets would've probably helped me if I could stick to them but I never could. After a few days or a week off being perfect, I would get hungry and binge on everything and anything I could find. 

This cycle of dieting and then falling off and binging went on for 7 Years!!!!

Yes, for 7 years this is all I did! 

I was miserable almost every second of every day! 

I was either starving myself on a new crazy diet, or miserable because I had just broken it and I was back to being depressed and lost all hope! All the while I was still over weight, had acne EVERYWHERE and still suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome! I did however, cure my vertigo and constant dizziness. And this made me so happy! I was finally able to leave my house and work! 

I focused on work, dieting and binging 

- binging, dieting, and work. That's ALL I had energy for!   

From the age of 16 to 26 I was EXHAUSTED! It seemed no matter what I did I could. not shake this incredibly tired feeling. No matter how much I slept I was always tired : (  

And no matter how much discipline and motivation I had, I could never stick to any diet long enough to see results. 

I was staying home from work because I was extremely tired AND my acne was very very bad that day! I had a break out near my eye and it was so large that it was hard to see out of that eye. I was home watching The Oprah show! It was about health and Oprah was talking with the director of the movie Food Inc! It was a documentary about health and food choices and I was ALWAYS on the look out for the next diet to try (to end my life along struggle with my weight, depression, acne and health) 

At the end of the episode, as a gift to her viewers Oprah said that she would offer the documentary for $1.00 on Amazon. I immediately went on Amazon (for the first time EVER!), bought the documentary, and started watching! I was excited! A new diet was always an exciting time for me! This was it this was the one that was going to help me get my dream body and feel incredible and finally clear my skin! I HAD NO IDEA what was coming next! 

Food Inc is to a documentary about animal cruelty. Not at all, but there is one scene in the film that changed my entire life! While discussing the meat and dairy industry there is a scene in which a cow is sick and injured. This cow was crying loudly and unable to walk into the slaughter house. Since she was unable to walk, someone in a fork lift was pushing her into the slaughter house in which she would be killed and cut up for human consumption. This was THE VERY FIRST time I had EVER sen an animal being hurt like this. This was the first time I had ever seen a cow struggling and crying and so sick she was unable to walk. And the reason she was not being helped was because she was only alive to be killed and turned into hamburgers! What! Was this where my food was coming from?! This is where my food comes from? Extreme cruelty and suffering? I was in shock. I am from Brooklyn, New York, Born and raised. We do not have farms or farm animals in New York City. We are completely disconnected from nature and the animal cruelty that comes with meat and dairy industry. Immediately I was disgusted, sad, angry, confused and shocked!

For the next few hours, I cried and then and there decided I was never going to support the animal cruelly I had just witnessed! Now, this was 2010 and the word vegan was not very popular. There was no Impossible Burger, no Beyond Meat, no Daiya Cheese and no vegan substitutes (or maybe there were but I had never heard of them!) I never even know one vegan in my life! I had no idea what I was going to do or what I was going to eat but I decided there was NO WAY I was paying [preope to hurt animals for my meals! Never again! Once you know better, you do better. And I was going to do better. For the animals. I think the reason I was able to stick to a vegan lifestyle, for over 10 year now is not just because it has healed me of all my health issues, but because I went vegan for the animals! It was not about me!  

Fast forward a few months and I was doing MUCH better - I had cleared out of my acne, my weight was much lower, and I felt better - but I was STILL tired!!! It was not until the summer of 2010 that I discovered the secrets to vibrant health and started feeling INCREDIBLE!!!! 

After struggling with my weight my entire life, struggling with depression my entire life, severe cystic acne and chronic fatigue my entire life.. I was finally FREE! FINALLY! I cannot tell you how much my life has changed since then! I have lost all my excess weight, completely cleared my skin (it now GLOWS EVERYDAY effortlessly), am positive and in a great mood everyday no matter what is going on in my life, and MOST IMPORTANTLY: I HAVE AN ABUNDANCE OF ENERGY ALL DAY EVERYDAY that has allowed me to go after my goal sand achieve my dream life! I still can not believe how easy it was to feel better. I just did not know the secrets to true health! Once I did, I tried them and NEVER looked back! I felt so good that I would do anything to maintain this level of health, happiness and incredible energy!