I’ve gained about 20 pounds since I started studying in the MSOM program at NUHS. This does not make me happy at all, and I have decided to do something about it. Before I go into details, let me tell you I’m one of the women who has probably tried every diet on the planet: vegetarian, vegan, raw vegan, fruitarian, and so on.

My days in the corporate world were all spent in the office where I survived on coffee, energy drinks, chocolate, sodas, and sandwiches. Even if I loved veggies and greens, I never had them because that’s not the food that you could find in the cafeteria. Dinners in the evenings ended up to be something similar, because I would be too tired to cook, so I would just sit in front of the TV munching on chips, chocolate croissants, and God knows what else!

Fast forward to my relocation to the U.S. and my first—and hopefully last—kidney stones. Everything changed when the doctor told me those stones appeared, because of the coffee and sodas I drink. It took a lot of effort to give up soda cold turkey, and just drink nothing but still water. I wasn’t used to it. I hate it and I could barely take a couple of sips in the beginning.

Nevertheless, I stuck with it, because to avoid pain from kidney stones—trust me—you would give up soda, too! Besides sodas, I changed my diet completely and gave up any processed food; plus, I went vegetarian and felt amazing! I lost weight like crazy even without trying. My body would ask only for green things—I remember I couldn’t get enough asparagus and blueberries. Up to now, these are still two of my favorite things and never missing from my fridge.

The vegetarian diet worked really well—up to a point—when personal things in my life happened. People very close to me died, my stress level went sky-high and with it my weight, too. From that point, everything was a struggle and I jumped into a vegan diet, raw vegan and even fruitarian. The fruitarian diet damaged my blood sugar so much, that it almost put me into the hospital. At that point, I decided I should do more research and find what would work best for me. That’s the way I got into low-carb diets and biohacking.

Right before I started school, I was on a modified ketogenic diet, losing weight and feeling better than ever. The first trimester of school was so overwhelming that my cravings went through the roof! Then, an ND intern suggested the blood type diet. That experiment went horribly, but I don’t regret anything. Every struggle made me study and learn even more, and now I’m back on a modified ketogenic diet, losing weight and starting to feel like myself again.

Take a look at how my plate is looking these days! It even goes perfect with Easter that’s just around the corner! If you celebrate Easter on Sunday, I wish you a happy one; if not, happy spring!