What do you do for a living?
I’m lucky enough to draw for a living– I illustrate greeting cards for Recycled Paper Greetings. You can find my company’s Tomato Cards at large retailers like Target, Walmart, Cost Plus World Market, Kinko’s, Walgreens and Fresh and Easy. If you need a good laugh, you should buy a Tomato!
What do you see yourself doing in the next 5 years?
I would really like to get my certification as a personal trainer in the near future. I feel like it is a natural progression for me– I already read every fitness and health book I can get my hands on! I love the idea of helping others feel and look their best. My dad always told me my job should meet three criteria: 1) It should be something I’m good at. 2) It should be something I enjoy doing. 3) It should provide a service to others. Don’t get me wrong, I am completely satisfied with my current job and have NO intention of giving it up! But personal training would be a great addition to my life– it would provide me with the social interaction I crave during my days! Since I get off my “day job” at 3 pm, adding some training sessions later in the day is totally doable.
What got you interested in the Health & Fitness world?
Well, I’ve always been a pretty active person. And pretty competitive. I grew up playing a variety of sports, none of which I was very good at, so I quit. (told you I was competitive!) Then I took up dancing. I did all sorts of dance throughout junior high and high school, dancing up to 15 hours a week! Then I pretty much quit dancing cold-turkey when I started college. Determined NOT to gain the “freshman 15,” I tried to watch what I ate at the dorm cafeterias, but I developed a new habit that changed my college life– drinking! Do you know NO ONE told me that drinking alcohol is how you gain the “freshman 15?!” Seriously, NO ONE TOLD ME!! For an entire year, I had no idea that alcohol had calories. I was very naive… So in one year, I gained the “freshman 20.” Awesome.
I felt so uncomfortable in my body, but had no idea where to even begin with weight loss– that’s where my experimenting with fad diets began. I’ve tried them all: Atkins, The Zone, you name it– I even joined a “weight loss program” that I paid for. I bought all of their supplements, powders and shakes, attended weekly weigh-ins and weighed all my food on a little scale. I was pretty miserable, but I lost weight. Then I realized I wasn’t happy drinking liquid gelatin sweetened with fake sugar three times a day (and shelling out tons of money for these “magic” supplements)! I started to realize I wanted a more natural approach to weight loss.
Two Books that have highly influenced my idea of a “healthy” diet, are:
Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss
I highly recommend reading them if you haven’t. The more you know, the better decisions you can make for your health! I’m still figuring out which ideas work best for me and my body. I’m a firm believer that one diet doesn’t fit all. You need to do what’s best for you. The BEST diet is the one you can STICK to long term!! My goal is to be consistent with my healthy habits, and I’m hoping that this blog will hold me more accountable to do that!
*For more, check out my Eating Philosophy
How much weight have you lost?
To date, I’ve maintained a 15lb weight loss (not to mention the millions of pounds I have lost and then regained!). 
As I mentioned in my post about BMI, I am actually not as concerned with how many pounds I have to lose, I’m more concerned with losing body fat! While I am considered an “average weight” for my height, I am actually in the higher-range of body fat percentage. So I am tackling that with diet and exercise!!
What kind of exercise do you do and how often?
I try to exercise almost every day. My go-to exercise is the run/walk. I love Jeff Galloway’s method of running injury-free by taking brief walking breaks during your runs. Currently, I like to run for 5 minute intervals, with a one minute walking break, but when I’m out of shape I go back to 1 minute running, 1 minute walking intervals to build up my endurance again. You can seriously be at ANY fitness level and start running. Take it at your own pace to avoid injury or burn-out! For strength, I love Jillian Michael’s workouts from her book, Making the Cut. I’ll take her workouts with me to the gym, or take group classes at my gym when I some extra motivation. I also have exercise DVD’s at home (my two favorites: Jackie Warner’s Workout and Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred) The key to exercise is to keep it fresh, so you don’t get bored, and to keep your body guessing so that it will change!
