“Weight was definitely an issue for me, from the time I was a little girl. It was definitely a struggle. My parents were thin, everybody else that was around me was thin, and I didn’t know why I struggled with weight. It was a mystery to me, and it was really heartbreaking.

I joined a gym when I was 18 and started working out two, three hours a day, just killing myself, and I was gaining weight! It was just so frustrating. I would come home from the gym and I would just cry because I just felt like it was hopeless, just completely hopeless.

When I started the Food Lovers System, it was just mind-blowing. It was all about the eating. I was not eating enough, which this is the amazing part – I wasn’t eating enough and I was working out too much because I was straining my body and I wasn’t giving it what it needed, so it was holding on to all the fat because that’s what happens.

In the first 21 days, I believe I lost 13 pounds, I think. My clothes were falling off of me, and I just kept tightening the belt because I was like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ you know? I kept thinking I’d wake up one day and then it’d be back to the way I had been. It was just amazing. It really was.

That was a big thing for me because I lived with people who ate whatever they wanted. And I thought, ‘Okay, this is going to be difficult because I’m going to be around people that are eating things that are tempting to me. If I’m eating tofu and they’re eating pizza, this is not going to work.’ But it wasn’t like that at all. I was eating great stuff. I mean, pancakes, French toast. I love the Power Pancakes. That’s one of my favorites because it’s really, really easy to do, and it tastes amazing, and then you feel full, so you’re not feeling deprived of anything.

There’s not a single thing you could tell me that you wanted to eat that I couldn’t make you on this program – not a single thing. I was eating better and enjoying the food more than I was before. The food was actually exciting and fun and tasted good. And I felt better.

Before I lost the weight, shopping for clothes was all about covering up. Now, you feel this sense of pride. You’re very happy with yourself and you want to show off in a really good way. You’re feeling feminine and you want to wear the little tops. And when it’s summertime, you’re excited about it rather than thinking, ‘Oh, gosh, how am I going to cover all that up?’ So, it’s definitely like night and day.

I’m definitely a much happier and healthier and loving being a smaller size.”