Let's start at the very beginning...

Welcome, readers! I am jumping on the blog bandwagon, and I am very excited to do so! This is my very first blog baby, and like any new parent, I am nervous, excited, and horribly confused. I have no idea this thing works, so please be patient as I delve into the wide world of blogging. "What to Expect When You're Expecting: The Blog Edition"?

I have started this blog with the intention of documenting my lifestyle while I'm on the road for work, although I'm cool with whatever it morphs into. My job as a consultant has taken me all over the US, to places such as Toledo, OH, Dallas, TX, and Salt Lake City, UT. People who don't travel often use airport time as an excuse to splurge a little. But when you visit airports twice a week, that splurge isn't a once-in-a-while treat anymore; it's a basic part of your diet. Noticing myself fall into a pattern of giant bags of "trail mix" (read: chocolate chips and peanuts), and grande soy lattes every time I flew, I realized that I needed to accept flying as a normal part of my life. That means eating on the road the same way I would want to eat if I were at home. Let me tell you, it's not always easy when you go from airport to office to hotel and back, starting Monday and ending Thursday. My job makes it hard to stay true to my roots as a healthy eater and a runner.

A little about my eating habits: I am a health nut, a foodie, and an adventurous eater. Growing up, my family was always centered around food. At breakfast we planned lunch, and at lunch we planned dinner. As soon as the words, "I'm hungry," were uttered by me or my brother, granola bars, apples, and pretzels appeared seemingly out of the woodwork. My brother and I were good eaters as kids, so I learned about a lot of different foods and styles of cooking early on. And, like any good Jewish family, we loved to eat. Correction: love to eat. We had healthy appetites, but we also had healthy palates. I grew up thinking fat free frozen yogurt was synonymous with ice cream, and I didn't even know people could or would put butter on pancakes until I went to IHOP for the first time in 6th grade.

I love food, and I love cooking, but at age 24, I do definitely struggle with striking a balance between food-love and body-love. Eating is great and fun and exciting, but I also need to feel good about the end result. So in day to day life I am a pretty healthy eater (nicknames have included VP Tofu and Fiber Queen). I am an oatmeal/salad/fruit/whole-grain/flaxseed eating machine. I like whole foods and real food. I also have a pretty serious sweet tooth, so I always have room for dessert, especially chocolate. I never pass on a glass of wine, and I'll usually try the signature dish at a new restaurant, even if we're talking about an artisanal bacon bar (more to come on that later this week).

That covers food (ha, well, it covers as much as I will talk about now). As for running... I started running during my junior year at Cornell after a few years of straight ellipticizing and StairMastering, mostly in preparation for my semester abroad in Sevilla, Spain. I knew that the chances of me joining a gym there would be slim (not a part of their culture), so I decided to bite the bullet and grudgingly get on a treadmill, because if I could get myself to be a runner, then I would always be able to exercise, no matter where I was in the world. And it worked. I ran all over Sevilla, and worked up to a good pace, fighting off the bread and olive oil calories, too. I am proud to call myself a runner now, after working my way up from that awful first mile on the treadmill at Helen Newman Fitness Center, through my first 5K, through my first HALF MARATHON this past May. It's been a great hobby for me, and a surefire challenge. And, of course, it gives me a little more leeway to indulge in my foodie habits, which are hard to put to rest living in a city like New York.

So there you go. PS I'm long-winded, if you didn't get that yet. :) My main goal here is to give a glimpse into the life of a foodie runner (who is also a smart, strong woman! right, Rachel?), who often doesn't have the luxury of access to my own kitchen during the week. Check out what I have to say about life "on the run", and pleeease give me some feedback! And tell me when I write too much. Seriously. May the journey begin!