General

How old are you? I’m 29 years old. I’ve been blogging all the way through my twenties now!

What do you do? I’m what one might like to call a career blogger. Weird since that wasn’t even a career when I was in college! I blog here at A Merry Life, for a Memphis wedding blog, and at my day job for a music recording technology company.

Where are you from? Where do you live now? I’m originally from Tennessee. I lived in Franklin, then Millington/Memphis, and also Jackson, TN. I’m a southern girl at heart and LOVE my home state. I currently live in Memphis, TN. Despite the bad rep it sometimes gets, I love this city.

Blogging

How do you start a blog? I’ve written up a whole tutorial about how to start a blog.

How do you grow your blog? Get to know other bloggers! This is huge for blogging. Comment on other blogs. Offer to guest post. Link to other bloggers often. The more people you know the faster your blog will grow. Also, be consistent! Post consistently. Read more blogging tips here.

What camera do you use? I use a Nikon D40.  I edit photos with Picasa and PicMonkey.

What blogs do you read? I read a lot of blogs! I used to keep a blogroll but it needed to much upkeep.

Will you read my blog/link to my blog? If you’ve ever posted a comment on my blog I’ve read yours at least once. I check out every new to me blog. Unfortunately I can’t read everyone’s blog all the time or I’d do nothing else! Since I don’t have a blogroll, please don’t ask me to link to your blog.

Do you get paid to talk about any products you mention? Very occasionally I do get paid or receive free products from companies. But this is rare. I find product reviews are better when I’m not paid – I feel free to give a positive or negative review.

Do you make any money from this blog? I do make money from this blog! It is now part of my income even though the amount of work put in does not equal the monetary return. I blogged for years without earning anything!

I love that it is possible for people to earn money blogging about topics they love so I’ve written about this a few times:

• How to make $40,000 your first year of blogging
• How to make money blogging
• Opportunities from blogging

Food & Diet

What diet are you on? I’m not on any particular diet. I use a mix between calorie counting and intuitive eating. I count calories sometimes but pay attention to internal hunger clues about when to eat and more importantly, when to stop. I’m experimenting with quitting sugar and have found it makes me feel better.

How many calories do you eat? I aim for 1800 to 2000 calories a day. This is a range based on the fact that I workout often. On rest days I try to eat under that range.

What do you eat? I like a variety of foods. I learned early on that eliminating something completely didn’t work for me so I continue to have my favorite things in smaller sizes. I like to get a lot of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meat into my diet. You can see what I occasionally eat on my food blog.

What are your favorite foods? I absolutely love Mexican food and anything spicy. My default meals tend to be Mexican-ish meals.

What things have you given up? I’ve stopped drinking all soft drinks and milk. I no longer eat cereal. These are things I ate multiple times a day, every day, the entire time I gained weight. Sometimes I miss them and will occasionally try a bite or sip, but I’ve long left them behind as diet staples.

Weight

What was your highest weight/current weight? My highest weight ever is unknown since I tried to avoid scales at all costs. In 2004 when I graduated high school I was somewhere around 260 but I never got on a scale so I’m not totally sure. I started weight loss the first time stepping on the scale at 255 and the second time in 2009 at 251.

What’s your current weight? I keep track of this on my goals & progress page.

What size are you? I’m currently wearing a 14 on bottom and 12 or 14 or L on top (silly body shape!). I started out wearing a size 22.

Gear

What heart rate monitor do you use? I use a Polar FT7 Heart Rate Monitor. Disclosure: It was provided by Polar as part of my past relationship with the company. I’ve been an ambassador for the company because I love Polar and I love my heart rate monitor! It changed the way I workout and made me workouts much more effective.

What other stuff do you use? I use a bunch of things in my life that help me. You can find my favorites listed here or in my shop that helps support the site.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions for me, send them over!