About

Some general information about me:

I am 22 years old and graduated in May from Emory University. I was in the business school and graduated as a Finance major. I had a job lined up with an investment bank in NYC but because of everything that happened with our economy, my contract was rescinded before I even began! So I had to come home to Connecticut and look for a new job. I was lucky enough to find one, a job that I believe will be even better for me than my original job. I will be a financial consultant in NYC, but the job doesn’t begin until June. So that has left me at home in CT until then. I am trying to make the best of it by volunteering, taking a class, and really trying to get in shape. So the title of this blog, The Next Six Months, refers to my next six months before my job starts and my journey to become a healthier woman before I move into NYC. 

My “health history”:

I went into college very fit. I played sports in high school, had always been active, loved working out and eating healthy. College was harder than I expected in terms of maintaining my healthy attitude. I was really into my work and getting good grades, that I let my stress take over my priority to stay healthy. I struggled with the new concept of creating my own schedule for myself everyday, instead of having the rigid schedule I lived in during high school. There were a lot of late nights, partying, being tired all the time, not really having an area to cook my own meals, etc. I had my ups and downs during college when I would really focus on getting in shape, lose weight, but then gain in back when I got bored with my routine or let other things in my life take over. Needless to say, I ended college about 20-25 pounds more than when I came in. 

The purpose of this blog:

I have always had a deep interest in nutrition and fitness and this is a way for me to play with that. I also want to focus on what I am eating and how my body feels as a response. I have tried doing food journals before, but this is much more exciting than a food journal! I have time now to create my meals, make them look nice both for the blog and for myself. My goal is to find a balance in nutrition and fitness that I can live with for the rest of my life. I have gone to the extremes in the past when I have said I will workout everyday or restrict my calories, and yes, they have worked in losing weight, but I just felt unhealthier as a person. So I am using this blog to strive to be the healthiest person that I can be. 

My food/exercise philosophy:

Over the years, I have experimented with various eating styles and through the help of various blogs I have been reading, and the past few months at home, I think I have definitely figured out my food preference. I have found that I am someone who thankfully, naturally loves healthy food. I hardly ever crave meat, but I always crave vegetables. You will see me eating basically a vegetarian diet, but I do have meat (turkey/chicken) and fish every now and then. I love love love salad, fruits, vegetables, tofu and beans, and I know that I feel best on a plant-based diet. I hate the feeling of being hungry, so I eat large amounts of healthy food and try to never deprive myself of fuel. I do, however, have a sweet tooth, and my stomach has no problem holding large portions of ice cream, my favorite. But you will see that I am going to try to work with that and allow myself dessert every night. 

In terms of exercise, I can’t say I have found what I love  yet. I played field hockey, ran track, and did crew in high school, and for the first two years of college I played Ultimate Frisbee (funny, I know, but it’s a big deal in the south!). Since stopping sports, I have done everything from yoga (various types, including Bikram), short 2-3 mile runs when its nice out, elliptical, classes at the gym, kickboxing, you name it. I am still experimenting to figure out what I like the most, when I like to exercise, and how often. My goal is to figure out workouts and forms of exercise that I look forward to, because this is the only way I will be able to keep it up in the long-run.

So that’s my story. I hope you enjoy this blog- I am new to this so am definitely still learning about how to make it interesting and entertaining. Please feel free to comment, ask questions, or email me at Next6months@gmail.com.  Thanks for reading!!