When I first started making this transition, I was really hesitant. I had been vegetarian for a few years, slowly cutting things out of my diet; I wasn’t sure if this change would be permanent. Slowly but surely, I cut items out of my diet.

Three years later, I cannot believe the difference in how I feel, and how I look. My skin glows, my hair is so soft; for the first time in my life, my stomach wasn’t hurting between meals. I’ve never been able to eat whatever I wanted to, guilt free, and stay looking the way I wanted to. My clothes fit. I have the energy to do whatever I want, and then some. The biggest challenge seems to be finding ways to tire myself out. In short, I love this life.

Rewind to a few years ago. I was eating less than 1,000 calories per day, 800 ideally. I was taking laxatives every day to make myself pass everything I had regrettable food choices. I had horrible self-image. I was hiding my meals from everyone I knew and eating protein bars instead of full meals. It was horrible. I was overweight, unhappy, lethargic; I felt like I didn’t deserve to live a life full of joy and food.

In the present day, I feel like I am overflowing with happiness. I am able to do more in a day than I used to do in multiple days. Everyday feels like a beautiful beginning.

I never thought, three years ago, that I would be feeling this way. I had no idea that simply changing the foods that I ate would impact my life in such a meaningful way. It has affected more aspects of my day-to-day life that I could articulate, and it has truly given me more of an appreciation for my life and our world than I could ever describe.

It’s so much more than just ordering something without cheese. It’s more than eating a veggie burger when your friends are having wings. I went from feeling unworthy and unable to appreciate myself, to recognizing that I can truly accomplish all that I want out of life.

You can say that this isn’t a good time. You can say that it’s difficult, that it’s changing your life in a way that you don’t know how to articulate. But at the end of the day, if you want it — and I mean truly want it — than nothing can get in your way. Sure, it can be difficult. But anything you can possibly want is going to take effort: and anything worth having, comes at a cost.

I’m not trying to convert you. I’m trying to suggest that all you can manage to do, is to go for something that’s truly unattainable. The best part about this is that, if you truly want to live this way, you actually can. It’s entirely simple. In fact, one of the things I love is that it is so entirely simple.

I say all of this because, regardless of how you want to live, I want you to know that you need to do whatever it is that’s going to make you the most happy. Whatever it is that makes you feel the way that I feel, do that. You only have one life to live. Live it well.