“My first semester of college I was stressed out and really struggling. I had gained the “Freshman 15” and I knew I needed to change something because I felt so unhealthy. Over winter break, My mom was reading the book Eat to Live and told me it’s a really good read. It introduced a lot of plant based options. It made a lot of sense, so I started doing it. I stayed super dedicated second semester. With that, I started running. I would go to the track, and do one minute of running, and then five minutes of walking. I would do that for an hour. Slowly, I would increase the running and decrease the walking until I could run the whole time. By the end of that semester, I had lost 50 pounds and had so much energy. Even though I felt great, I was still not experiencing the emotional health that I needed. I was questioning my affection/sexual orientation and had a really hard time opening up to people about my life. I’ve been very lucky to get a lot of support from family, friends, coworkers, and counselors since sharing with them that I am gay and I feel so much happier about myself and who I am. Without eating healthy and exercising, I wouldn’t be able to thrive in the way that I’ve been able to with my relationships, my friendships, my academics, and going into my future profession as a teacher. Health is something that’s going to carry me through. It’s something that gets me through difficult times. I think just having that time to go out and hit the trails and clear my mind, has really helped me be better at living in the moment and just appreciating everything that’s around us. I’m in a really good place in my life right now, and it feels great to say that. I’m competing in marathons and triathlons, and I exercise regularly with friends. I want to be running until I’m like 80. I want to be that old guy chugging along.”