Have you ever ended a long relationship and then a few days later felt like you had been blind the entire time ? What was I thinking ? How did I not know ? etc. etc. etc. 

That is how I feel right now but not about a relationship I have ended with another person. I feel this way about my relationship with food. We hear it every day on T.V. and in books and magazines. Eat this or don't eat this, secrets to getting skinny, Dietary guidelines and recommendations. Pretty much all of it is bullshit and marketed that way to make consumers buy their magazines or products.
Let me start at the beginning. My name is Jessica, I am 26 years old and have never been really skinny but I have also never been really fat either. Until now. Even when I was pregnant with my daughter I never got one stretch mark and never had the baby pooch left over afterward. 7 years later and here I am 5'1" weighing in at an overwhelming 180 pounds and NOW I have stretch marks. Depressing. 
I didn't make any huge changes that would warrant this size increase. I was at 143 pounds before I got to where I am now and my weight gain happened very suddenly and rapidly. I was on the Depo shot at the time which has been known to cause weight gain and I promptly ended my relationship with that birth control and went back to the pill. Since I have been off of the Depo I haven't gained any more weight but I am also not losing it like I would expect. 
A lot has changed in me since I have become a larger person. I feel less attractive, I hate how everything fits me, I feel like I am constantly being judged and looked at as a lazy person who doesn't know how to take care of herself. I have lost almost all of my self confidence in the area of looks and that is very sad for a woman. 
I wanted to start eating healthy but I just did not know how or where to even begin. I have a million different diet books but none ever seem to be realistic in the long run. I found a book called 'Skinny Bitch' and right away I was hooked. It is easy to read and they explain things so that you don't have to be a scientist to figure it out. Through reading this book I feel like I came awake from a long, sad dream that I had been living in my entire life. I realized that I had been poisoning my body and my daughter's body and the whole time I didn't even realize it. 
I feel like we as consumers do not ask enough questions. We grew up with an abundance and were not raised to think about where our food comes from or what is put in it. We just go to the grocery store, stock up, go home and poison our bodies even further.
I learned that we do not need to eat meat and that our demand for meat is the number one source for global warming. All of the energy that it takes to store those animals and slaughter them, transport them, and house them has had such a terrible impact on the environment. The sheer amount of animals on the planet is producing mass amounts of methane gas. Not only that but these animals are NEVER allowed a normal life. They are born and raised as food or food making machines or if they have no use they are killed or left to die. I don't see how anyone could see this as humane. There is nothing humane about the way that these animals are treated. They do not need to be born and yet we allow it and say that it is okay because that is what they are raised for. I just don't understand this logic. It is born and raised to be tortured, abused, in pain, branded, beaks torn off, babies ripped away from them, miserable and never knowing what life is all so it can be slaughtered and eaten ? 
Animals are living creatures as well and they have their own personalities. No living creature should ever be subject to such cruelty.
If none of this bothers you there is plenty of other stuff that should. Do you have children ? Do you care about their health and futures ? Do you know what you are filling their bodies full of ? Most likely not. The meat that you love is pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones. Fruits and vegetables are as big as they are because of these growth hormones, not to mention all of the pesticides used in growing them and in turn you eat them. Our food is full of things that our bodies do not need and we wonder why we are so big or why we have the health issues that we do. 
That is barely the tip of the iceberg and I could go on about this all day but I won't. We are all adults and we are all capable of making our own decisions in life. I have made mine. I choose to eat Organic and I will no longer eat meat. Veganism is a little tougher than vegetarianism but I will work my way to a full vegan diet. Not only will I look and feel better but I will not feel like I have murder on my hands. I will not judge you if you continue to eat meat and I only wrote this so that someone else out there who is as confused as I was might open their eyes to the horrors of the food industry and find the key to a happier, healthier life. Let's educate ourselves.