My weight has been a topic of frustration for me since the day I became vegan and discontinued the Jenny Craig program. My intention was to be strictly vegan because, frankly, the idea of eating any animal products sickens me after I became educated with what happens during the pre-packaging process. For years, I had been in my own ignorant bliss and actually liked not knowing what happened to the animals. In my head, as long as I wasn’t educated about it, I wasn’t actually doing anything wrong by eating meat and dairy products. That was my story and I stuck to it. Well… until around December. That’s when I became vegan. Up until that point, I had lost a ridiculous amount of weight (100 pounds) with the help of hypnosis, Jenny Craig, and proper exercise. The problem for me then became… how can I lose the weight without Jenny Craig (who mostly offers meat in their lunches and dinners)? Sure, hypnosis can take people pretty damn far. I’m living proof. But Everyone knows you need the MIND + THE RIGHT FOOD + EXERCISE. I already have the mind + exercise down. It’s the “right food” that’s killing me.

I haven’t lost any pounds since September. In fact, I had plateaued for almost 6 months. Then in this month (April), I actually gained 15 pounds (and no, it wasn’t muscle). Can you believe it? I gained. And this was all while I was consciously watching my eating portions, went for semi-daily walks, and had lots of mind motivation. So instead of losing 100 pounds… it’s as if I’ve only lost 85 pounds.

This frustrated me, and lit a fire under my ass quicker than you can say, “cheese.”

After much self-conflict, I decided to try Nutri-System because they have a vegetarian program that I can follow. Becoming vegetarian, essentially, would mean eating dairy products again. A huge part of me does NOT want to do this (for my love of animals). But the other part of me is begging to do this (because I love myself). My love for myself won. Today, my Nutri-System food came in… enough for a full month. Today is my first day on the program. Officially I’m a vegetarian, not a vegan. Mark my words: once I get to my goal weight and am able to maintain it, I have every intention of becoming vegan again. I enjoyed that eating lifestyle very much and felt sooo good doing it.

So now that I’m on NS, I am confident that this will be the much-needed push to get me over the roller-coaster hump and push me downhill. I have about 115 pounds to lose. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted over time for those that have been following my weight reduction over the past year and a half. I can just *FEEL* that this program is going to catapult me right where I should be. This is the exact same feeling I got when I walked into Jenny Craig for the first time and just *knew* they could help. And they did. They helped save my life.

In the meantime, here is a photo of my back. Someone requested I show a zoomed in shot of my tattoos so they could see more detail work. Here you go!

P.S. I’m considering getting a scorpion (or other scorpio symbol) tattooed underneath Marilyn.