Hello! Thank you for visiting my site! My name is Laura and I am a personal trainer, health coach, yoga instructor, group fitness instructor and mind-body nutrition coach. My goal is to share with everyone what I’m eating and other healthy tips on how to get the most out of life!

I am 39 and in June, 2013 I officially became the happiest person in the world because I married the man of my dreams. My husband (I love being able to say that) and I live in Salt Lake City, Utah and we absolutely love it here.

I love mountain biking, running, working people out, laughing, COOKING, eating, yoga, walking my dog Rocco, getting my hair done, anything involving being in the sun…you get the picture. 🙂

I have a fabulous full time job that allows me to help others find fun and enjoyment in fitness. I feel like the luckiest person in the world!

I started this little website so I could keep track of what I cook. Plus, people frequently ask me for recipes and workouts so I figured this would be like one stop (internet) shopping!

If you want to know more about my life story, read on…

I have always been active but I have also always really, really loved to eat and cook. I still really love to eat and cook. And up until a few years ago I really hated running. I couldn’t even run a mile without stopping several (dozen) times. I used to eat the Standard American Diet (SAD) so looking back I know exactly why I couldn’t run a mile. Since I started running just a few years ago I have completed two full marathons and several half marathons. So I always say if I can do it, YOU can do it.

Growing up I was very in to ballet, dance, biking and fitness in general. I started doing aerobics when I was about 13. I liked it because it was kind of like dancing.

When I went to college my eating habits went down the drain and I gained about 30 pounds. That might not sound like much, but I am only 5 feet, 0 inches tall so 30 pounds took me from a size 2 to a size 12-14. It would have been more but I continued to exercise like a mad-woman. I was in denial the whole time, convinced the dryer shrunk all my clothes. Here is what I looked like around that time. I was 18 years old.

Ugh that is painful for me to see! My wake-up call happened when I came home from my first year of college and tried to slip on a pair of men’s size 34 boxer shorts that I used to wear as pajamas and they didn’t fit. I remember looking in a full length mirror thinking, what happened? The next day I got my life back on track. I started eating like a champ and going to water aerobics with my grandma! Because I gained so much weight so fast I developed stress fractures in my lower legs so I couldn’t do weight bearing exercise. Water Aerobics was a great way for me to get exercising again. I worked really hard all summer and by the fall I had lost almost all the weight.

With my new found zest for fitness and nutrition I changed my major to Sport Science and earned a bachelors and masters degree in Sport Science and became a certified Group Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer. Eating right is still not easy. I will never be the kind of person who can eat just half a cookie or half a doughnut or 1 brownie.

Life has taken me from Idaho to Los Angeles and to Utah where I have lived for the last 14 years.

After I got into fitness I set a goal to compete in a figure competition as scary as that thought was. I knew it was something I wanted to do at least once in my life to get that experience.  The diet was such a struggle for me and it took the pleasure out of exercise for me. I was also the crankiest I have ever been in my life. After the competition I attempted to train for a couple more competitions but I kept getting sick from over-training and not eating enough. It just wasn’t fulfilling for me. Plus I’m really pretty shy when it comes to wearing a swimsuit…on a stage. Hello, what was I thinking?! I’ll try anything once I guess! Here is photo from that competition. I was 25 or 26 years old.

Now, I’m 39 and for the most part I eat a  plant based diet because I enjoy the way I feel and I enjoy the food I eat. I kicked my cookie, bread and cereal eating habit to the curb! I still love food just as much, I’ve just transferred my love for baked goods into a love for vegetables and I feel MUCH better!

So I hope you will join me as I write about what I’m eating and what I’m up to. It is simply my passion in life! Eat up my friends and live a radiant and bright life!

Disclaimer: I am a personal trainer, but I’m not YOUR personal trainer. In fact, I don’t know anything about you! The workouts I post are just what I am doing for the week. These workouts are not suitable for everyone. Do my workouts at your own risk and always consult a physician before beginning a new fitness program.

Regarding recipes: I am not a chef or a dietitian. Recipes on this websites are not intended as a diet plan, it’s just what I eat.