Hi! I’m Julia.

I was born and raised in Texas and am currently living and working in NYC. When it comes to health and fitness, I can’t get enough. I love working out, being in a gym, teaching others about fitness, stalking new recipes, experimenting in the kitchen and, obviously, sharing my cooking successes with others.

However, I wasn’t always this nuts…

Gymnastics was my sport of choice growing up. As anyone who has done gymnastics knows, it can be pretty intense, and by the time I got to middle school I had grown tired of having to practice 3 -4 hours a day 5 days a week, and I decided to call it quits. I never really became passionate about another sport after that – dabbled in soccer, volleyball and cheerleading, but nothing too serious – and I officially ended my organized sports career at age 15.

Naturally, my metabolism was not pleased at this sudden lack of physical activity, so after gaining some weight, I decided to join my first-ever gym. It took a little while, but as I began getting stronger and seeing results, I began to love being in the gym. I also developed a love of running in college, and have completed 4 half-marathons to date with a PR of 1:44.

My mom and me after the 2012 Houston Half Marathon.

Over the past couple of years, my exercise of choice has evolved more towards crossfit and high intensity interval training. Once I started lifting heavier and began focusing on performance and specific goals in my workouts, the muscle definition and fat burn just came along with it. And the most important part, I actually look forward to my workouts! And let’s be honest, if something is going to get my ass to the gym at 6:30am every morning, I sure as hell better enjoy it!

Oh, and I should probably mention the guy who taught me everything I know.

Dennys is my good friend and personal trainer, and I definitely would not be where I am today without him.  He completely changed the way I work out. He has also inspired me to get certified so that I can make a difference in other people’s lives, just like he has done for me.

The latest lifestyle change that I’ve made has been “clean eating” (at least 80% of the time). We’ll go into more detail in later blog posts, but it essentially involves eating REAL food, and for me, eating fewer grains and other foods that I’ve found my body has trouble processing.  And, clean eating still lets me eat yummy things. Like these pancakes.

 Once I finally began thinking about food as fuel for my body, rather than thinking I had to work out all the time so that I could eat whatever I wanted, I really saw my body transform and all of the hard-earned muscle start to show.

A few other tidbits about me, so you don’t think I’m just a fitness-obsessed girl with no life. Athough, let’s be real, it’s not far from the truth…

1. This is Gracie, the love of my life. She lives in Houston with my parents and I miss her like whoa.

 

2. I also love any activity where there is the potential to get cut, scraped or bruised. 11 miles of climbing mountains, jumping off cliffs, crawling through mud, rolling under barbed wire, scaling walls and wading through swamp water? Yes, please!

 

Post-2012 Mount Vernon Super Spartan Race

3. Dressing up is one of my favorite pastimes. And my friends are pretty cool too.

Ok, enough about me. Hope you enjoy the blog!

Julia