Blogger Spotlight: Andrea @ Thin Thighs & Sweet Potato Fries [Part 1]

If your a Glowicious reader you'll know that I'm on a serious fitness journey! Walking is my main mode of exercise and I've started eating healthy! I feel more determined than ever to live a healthy active lifestyle not only for myself, but for my daughter as well.

So today I'd like to put the spotlight on a fantastic blog I found called Thin Thighs & Sweet Potato Fries! When I saw the blog name, I for one started drooling, I love love love sweet potato fries! I knew I had to check it out, and I'm glad I did. The woman behind the sweet potato fries is Andrea, a talented writer who is also on a fitness journey. She's already lost a considerable amount of weight, but still practices a healthy active lifestyle, so I wanted to ask her some questions about her experience and see if I could get some tips to incorporate into my life. 

Meet Andrea!!

 

Q. Who is Andrea? Where are you from?

I’m a 25 year old Midwest-bred girl (Rockford, IL) who moved to the South (Charlotte) 3 years ago on a complete whim –and never looked back! If I had to sum myself up, I would say I’m a complete girly-girl (in fact, you should’ve seen the reaction I  got from my co-workers when I first started exercising and was spotted – Gasp!—wearing tennis shoes! Lol!) I’m definitely a total foodie if that hasn’t been made clear by my blog (I like cooking it, eating it, researching it, and talking about…a lot); And of course I love health and fitness (some might call it borderline obsessive; I prefer passionate).

Q. Do you have a background in fitness/health?

As of right now, I don’t have a background in health/fitness. I studied Communications in college and currently work full-time in a Corporate Communications role. All my health and fitness knowledge is completely trial and error from my own experiences or from research…and then trial and error. I did recently become a Fit Coach with the NC Fit Club and it’s definitely my hope to become certified in a health and fitness related area in the next year.

Q.When did you start blogging?

I started blogging in June 2010, although in hindsight I wish I’d started a lot sooner. I would have loved to chronicle my entire weight loss journey from the beginning as opposed to the tail end of it. I still share tips and tricks that I learned from the early days though so it still works out.

Q.Why did you create your blog?

Well, to answer that, I guess I should start by referring back to how my weight loss journey began in the first place. To give you the short version, I became reacquainted with a friend I met when I first moved to Charlotte after a long period of not seeing her. Being the (brutally) honest person that she is, she told me that I’d put on weight. I totally didn’t see it coming and felt bewildered by the comment. So I cried, didn’t speak to that friend for 6 months and chalked it up as the worst thing that had ever been said to me. Instead, it ended up being the one of the best! In those 6 months, I got an incredible fire under me to get fit.  I decided to set a goal called “25 by 25” which was a push to lose 25 lbs in the 6 months leading up to my 25^th birthday. I began exercising regularly for the first time in my life and researching ways to eat healthy. It was during that research that I first discovered other healthy living blogs. Since I’ve always loved writing, I became inspired to start my own blog and share with others what I was learning in my process to potentially help them the way some of these blogs had helped me.

Q. What is the story behind the title?

Haha! To be honest, there’s not too much of a story behind the title. It’s simply a fun name that popped into my head randomly one day, and I thought it would be perfect to represent the relationship between food and fitness on my blog. Side note: I had never had or even heard of a sweet potato fry prior to moving to the South and now I am in love!

Q. Who do you hope reads your blog?

While, I am always grateful for anyone who cares to read what I have to say about healthy eating and fitness, deep down, I would say I write my blog with the non-healthy eater, and non-exerciser in mind because that was me; a year ago to be exact. I hope that my posts can inspire someone who wants to get fit and doesn’t know where to begin. Or someone who wants tips on incorporating healthy eating into their lives and just needs a few tips and tricks on how to make healthy swaps. Or even someone who already eats well and exercises, but wants ideas for something new to try. I also write for the person who just needs to see that this girl, who several months ago couldn’t run 6 minutes, now runs 6 miles and counting…and loves it…and they can do it too.

Q. What can readers expect from your blog?

A little bit of everything! It’s basically health and fitness through my eyes, which might look a little different from one day to the next. You’ll find healthy recipes, food or fitness finds that I discover, local food or fitness events/classes I attend, tips for grocery shopping, my daily eats from time to time, something I did in my day as it relates to health and fitness, or most often just my random ramblings about food and/or fitness-related topics, whether it’s sharing a personal struggle I’m having with maintaining my weight or something I heard in the news. I try to be as transparent as possible and share a little of who I am mixed in with the food and fitness content. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow of my interview with Andrea where she'll share some healthy eating and exercise tips!

Be sure to check out Andrea at Thin Thighs & Sweet Potato Fries and/or email her at andrea at thin-and-sweet dot com.