IWTL's Blogiversary: marking one year

On January 6, Intrigued With The Lean celebrated its first anniversary. It's been one full year, full of great change. Over the past twelve months, my career ambitions have evolved, I moved back to Texas from California, and, of course, I took on this blog. I never imagined that Intrigued With The Lean would impact my life as heavily as it has; what began as a casual project quickly became my continuous source of pride and my greatest ongoing challenge to date.

A year ago, I had no way of foreseeing the extensive amounts of research, editing, and brainstorming that would come to take over every ounce of my free time. In the early stages, my friends and family would question why I put myself through the strain and expend my energy to write the blog. Sometimes, I would question this myself, but my passion for helping others lead healthier lifestyles would always catch up with me. All of the nights spent in, the countless hours scouring the Internet for information, the scrutinizing over the tiniest adjustments in word choice—it's all worth it.

Intrigued With The Lean has resulted in many valuable outcomes, including an increase in the quality of my writing and giving me the motivation to use a kitchen appliance other than the microwave. While I highly value these new assets, the most cherished and least anticipated of them all is the incredible wealth of support I've received from the most unexpected people. All of those who have reached out to me, many being friends and acquaintances I haven't spoken to in years, are what have kept me going throughout the times of stress. I'll admit, there have been occasions when I've teared up (there may have even been an instance of outright bawling...) as a result of the unsolicited encouragement. I can't put into words how grateful I am for each one of you and the positivity you provide me with.

And of course, I couldn't go without thanking my good friends and family that have selflessly contributed their time to proof-reading my posts (especially my previous roommate, Casey, my brother, Sam, and my mom, all of whom have taken on the largest bulk) to help me produce what I hope to be clear and interesting content that, you, my readers, can truly benefit from and enjoy.

Writing this blog provides me with unrelenting sums of knowledge, pleasure, and experiences. I can't wait to see how Intrigued With The Lean continues to transform as we delve into year number two!

~A brief look into a few IWTL-induced moments from the past year~

At the park shooting my feature on trainer Nick Hassell.

The completely improvised tilapia fillets that turned out to be
a delicious success, thanks to my good friend Christian's
cooking instincts.

Meeting two of my biggest inspirations, Karena and Katrina
of Tone It Up, at their South Coast Plaza meet up this
past November.

The easiest (and healthiest) indulgent-tasting dessert I've
ever made: microwavable chocolate mug cake.
No question why this post was a hit.

Shooting one of my favorite posts with photographer
Artem Barinov: Valentine's Day: sweating with your sweetie.

And we mustn't forget the time I had to photograph the tacos
for my Tex-Mex post on paper towels...because us
college students ran out of plates.