About Me

I am finally going to start my blog.  I'm still learning to set up the pages and how it works. My plan is to add and share recipes and notes on my life's journey to better health through fitness, nutrition and food information that I've learned along the way. In a nutshell, here's my story on why I'm interested in food and health and what brought me to want to blog about these topics.

While a college freshman at University of Wisconsin at Platteville, studying Criminal Justice, my plans to be a police detective were derailed when I met and I married an Army officer, my husband, Scott. We met because I joined the ROTC classes at the urging of my brother and for the adventure activities such as river rafting and rappelling. Scott was just beginning his career and had yet to leave for Fort Knox when we met. Our first conversation was on the side of cliff while I was learning to rappel and he was an instructor, so my fun answer to "how did you meet?" is to say that we met on the side of a cliff. After a whirlwind courtship we were married in March and headed to Fort Knox for a short honeymoon before I headed back to Platteville, Wisconsin to finish out my last semester there.

Back to Fort Knox for a few short months while Scott finished his Armor training and we were on our way to our first duty station at Fort Riley, Kansas.

It was here that my journey with food science and nutrition became serious. I'd always been interested in baking and cooking, coming from a big Italian family (my dads side) as well as Russian/Romanian (my mom's side). My first high school course was cooking the summer before I was a freshman at Nicolet in Glendale, Wisconsin. It was also in high school as a senior, that I participated in a work/study program and was assigned to a local food company that made mainly salad dressings and I helped in the research/test kitchens.

Upon arrival in Kansas, I checked into continuing in ROTC training and what Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS, would have to offer me. To my disappointment, they did not have any programs in Criminal Justice. So what did I choose instead? Food Science and Nutrition. Hmmm, I guess I thought I could use that while traveling around as a military spouse. However, I was not in the dietetics program to become a registered dietitian. Most food science jobs were available where there were food companies (not usually near Army posts) and the nutrition degree wasn't enough to be a dietitian at a hospital. Oh well, I found I was busy as a young mom and volunteer activities while an Army spouse. The years flew by, my own Army career in the Reserves finished at my required commitment of 6 years and our family grew. Along the way, I attained a high school teaching certificate in Biology and Math and was able to have a few job opportunities in the education field. Two daughters and over 12 moves in 22 years brought us to settle in Phoenix, AZ to begin our post military careers.

Teaching, however, was not in my future and I reinvented myself again. First as a Semi-conductor package design engineer and now as a project/implementation consultant for a national bank.
During these years, I continued to gain weight, despite exercising regularly and using my nutrition background to eat a balanced, low fat diet. And that is where the background for this blog begins.