Hit a PR at Pull For Pride! This is my first competition and I’ve been lifting for almost a year. I have POTS and hEDS so it’s been a slow powerlifting journey. Vegan for 19 years! Happy Pride! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

PART 3 As hard as it was for me I did it.. 😐 I put my pride aside, mustered up courage and begged my family to help me get a phone 🤦🏽‍♀️ What? 😳 That worked? 😟 YES! That worked! 😃 My family came through for me and I got me a phone and I'm perked up again OUT of that horrific darkness called depression 📛🚶🏽‍♀️‍➡️ and straight into sunshine ☀️ 🙌🏽 wow like that’s all it took. So I learned a hard lesson that it pays to be humble when you seriously need help. If I would’ve been humble from the start and swallowed my pride and asked my family to help me from the jump I would not have revisited that darkness that real enemy called depression So if you fall because of a mishap you may have to be humble, swallow your pride like I had to do just for that moment. Think of a solution that may work even if you have to beg your family or friends to help just work on getting out of whatever that is that is causing the depression and get yourself back up when you good and ready. Is truly refreshing like another new chapter like coming out of a horrific tormenting cave and into sunshine Yea so that's my story lol took me a while to wake up but I’m super proud of myself that I did so much sooner than later; and glad to be back and it feels like home yeeeaaay 🙌🏽 I’m soooo happy now🥲🥲 🥰

PART 2 I started questioning.. What are we doing? Like how is this happening that A THING like a phone can become such a great necessity that if it’s gone you’re gone.. it may spiral you into a deep depression like it did me 😢 I know l needed to get a new phone that would’ve been the answer but I was too poor I couldn’t afford a new phone my life is done even though I was still breathing like woe is me hit rock bottom hard 🤦🏽‍♀️ Ugh when I tell you my depression got worse 😓 all of a sudden I started beating myself up again focusing ONLY on negativity and started abusing myself… 🤦🏽‍♀️ emotionally I started to hate myself.. verbally I started calling myself a loser a good for nothing, a terrible person, a crumb on this earth even a tree is better than me providing oxygen for us, being a home for so many animals, giving us shade when we need it, some even offers us good food.. but me what the hell am I existing for im too poor to do anything, I'm a nothing because I’m so poor 😩 and NO WAY will I beg my family for money that will make me look even MORE pitiful 😡😤🤦🏽‍♀️ But then... I all ofa sudden seeing my cat how protection my cat looked woke me up 😳 "wait" I told myself "no no no no no 🤦🏽‍♀️ I can't do this moping around like this not good for my cat he looks depressed too 😞" I looked around.. not only did I let myself go but my home too it was in a disarray what am I doing 😱 depression means I gave up ON EVERYTHING means I’m not living im just existing. Is that really what I want? 🥺 UGH 😩 I Can’t believe I revisited this horrific dark place and it’s affecting my cat 😭" I bounced back and told myself "I have to do something! I can’t be like this forever NO" 😤 something has got to give 🤦🏽‍♀️ So I decided to muster up courage to do what I did not want to do and it was to humbly beg my family for money to help me get a new phone 😰 [This concludes Part 2; please stay tune for Part 3]

Hi everyone, just wanted to re-introduce myself. I’m Jon and I live in Asheville nc and my wife and I have a food business called Compassionste Kitchen (we manufacture vegan, organic baking mixes). I started this program in November 2025 and have continued to stick with it since then. I have had the most amazing results- and not just in how I look. My energy is up, my confidence is up, I am significantly stronger all around, and I’m getting more and more people asking me abt my diet. I work in construction and so many guys have been asking me how i can be strong and vegan. It’s been amazing; this journey has changed my life. And most importantly, it’s made me a more effective vegan advocate. I know my journey is still continuing, but hopefully you can see by the videos (first is before I started and other is a few weeks ago) that significant change has happened. I hope to engage more and am so happy this place exists. Vegan for the animals😀😀

Is there a good app you all use for tracking meals, calories, nutrients; etc? Last time I was doing it we used MyFitnessPal, but that’s been a while. Bonus pics of me and the wife in Columbus, OH this weekend, eating at 4th & State Diner, a super delicious vegan restaurant downtown.