About Me

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Marci, and I am 28 years old living in Houston, Texas. Originally from Dallas, I went to The University of Texas at Austin for college, moved back to Dallas for two years, and then came to Houston. Why would a Dallas person move to Houston? For a boy! I got married in August 2008 and we now live happily in Houston. We have a special new addition arriving in March 2012. See my Pregnancy page for details. In my free time, I enjoy cooking and baking, playing with my puppy Lily (you’ll see her pictures featured regularly), exercising, reading, Tweeting, and traveling. I love to read about food and fitness, and experiment with both.

To view my published work not on the blog, click here.

Why do I blog?

I decided to start a blog to share my thoughts and adventures in food and fitness. I started to read food and fitness blogs in the Winter of 2010, and I want to be part of their community of sharing ideas and learning more. I started my blog at the end of April 2010. This blog also helps me keep myself accountable for trying new things, challenging myself, and writing about it all for my readers. I also like sharing stories, and starting a blog was a great way to do so.

To see some posts about how I blog, see my Behind the Blog series here, here and here.

What is my blog about?

I consider the blog a healthy living blog, but it’s not just carrot sticks and tofu. I write about my daily life, lists of what I eat, baking experiments, reviews of products, thoughts on different kind of exercise and what I am doing each week. From reading and educating myself, I care more about where my food comes from and how it makes me feel, and I write about that often.

I also write race reviews when I train for something and run it. In 2010, I completed one 5K race, two 10K races and a Splash and Dash Aquathlon (swim + run). I also ran my first half marathon, the Dallas Run the Rock Half Marathon, at the beginning of December 2010.

In 2011, I ran a 5K and 4 mile run, and then races were halted for pregnancy the rest of the year. Click on my “How I Exercise/Race Recaps” page to read about previous races and read more of my exercise related posts. Follow my blog as I test my limits and train for what’s to come in fitness and in life.

Who is Jeffrey? How did we meet?

Jeffrey and I met when I was 20 years old and he was 21. We both went to The University of Texas for college and met there. He stayed for law school and we got married after he graduated. He’s a lawyer in Houston. To see some of our engagement pictures or wedding pictures, click here and here. Jeffrey does not eat tofu, Greek yogurt, or bananas, and despises ketchup. We do not own many condiments. He secretly likes playing with my camera and bossing me around the kitchen.

He guest posted one time!

How did you learn to cook?

Learning to cook for me is an ongoing process. I am not formally trained in nutrition or being a chef. When I was in college, I lived in communal housing (dorm, sorority house) for three years. For my fourth year, I lived in an apartment and needed to learn how to cook or else I’d be eating out too much. I watched two episodes of Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals everyday and printed her recipes and started a binder. I still have my original binder with recipes from 2005 and 2006. I really did learn a lot of basics from her show that I could expand upon. I also used to buy cookbooks and would flag recipes to try, but now I read a lot of food and healthy living blogs and get ideas from there. I still read Everyday with Rachael Ray, her magazine, but don’t watch her television shows anymore. More for time than because I didn’t like it.

I also grew up where we ate dinner together most nights, so preparing dinner is important to me. I did grow up on white bread, pasta, and mac & cheese, leading to a lot of new foods I’ve started eating in the last six years.

Currently, I read recipes from cookbooks, magazines, and other healthy living blogs.

What are your food staples?

To see a list of things I am never without, click this post about my refrigerator, this one for my freezer, this page about What I Eat, and one more to come about my pantry.

What are your must haves for cooking?

I was pretty lucky to get married pretty young (age 24) at the same time that we bought a house when I didn’t have many quality appliances or cookware. We have a great set of Calphalon pots and pans that we use all the time. For big appliances, I have a stand mixer, hand mixer and food processor. Those get used the most. I decided that I did not want appliances that only had one use, like a juicer. We also have a blender and Griddler (Panini press), that don’t get used as frequently.

For spoons, spatulas, etc., I like OXO brand. And our everyday plates are white. Food looks best on white in my opinion.

What kind of dog is Lily?

Lily is a shih-tzu. We got her in April 2010 when she was about three months old. I grew up with a shih tzu in her same color and wanted the same dog. I even tried to track down the original breeder from 20 years ago, but she has retired. I found a wonderful breeder in Houston and we got Lily. She is a perfect dog and rules the roost at our house.

What kind of camera do you use?

I have always liked taking pictures, and on family trips, I am usually the photographer. I used to like to scrapbook trips or events and loved taking pictures. I always liked Canon Point and Shoot cameras, and used that one until early December when my parents surprised me with a DSLR. Now I use both cameras, but mostly the DSLR for shooting food and the point and shoot for races or going out with friends.

Until I started blogging, I had never heard of DSLR cameras. They are very powerful with fast shutter speeds and crystal clear lenses. However, they take a lot of time to learn how to use to make it worth using a very strong camera. Whereas a point and shoot basically chooses your settings for you, a DSLR in Manual mode is all up to you to adjust for light and clarity. My DSLR is a Canon Rebel T2i with a 50 mm 18/55 lens. A few months after getting the camera, I purchased a 50 mm lens with 1.8 aperture and a 55-250 lens. I am by no means an expert at these cameras, but I enjoy learning more about them all the time.

See a post about my camera here.

Talk to me.

I welcome your comments and look forward to building my own blog community. I enjoy connecting with readers and hearing your stories or answering questions. Email me at marci1684 at gmail dot com.

On Twitter: @marcigilbert

Have another question? Leave it in the comments or email me!