Live from La Quinta

I am Debbie and I am Live from La Quinta. When I first started blogging several years ago, I had no idea what or where I was going with it. One of my girlfriends started a blog to write about her bicycling adventures and I thought, “Well that sounds like fun.” The term “Healthy Living Blog” had no place in my world, and I had no idea that there was this huge community of bloggers out there.

During the first year I wrote about many random things. I was doing a lot of cycling at the time, and I posted ride reports of the century bike rides in which I participated. I was running, of course, so I wrote about races. I had given up meat in 2007, so I wrote my reasons for becoming, first a vegetarian, then a vegan. I wrote about my dogs, and a little about my family and my health.

I had no focus, no plan, no intention. I was a personal trainer and a running coach, but it never occurred to me to create workouts or training plans. I was a vegan who loved to cook, but never posted recipes. I was a 50 year old woman going through some life changes that I just skimmed over.

In the fall of 2010, a few things happened. First, I decided to participate in Vegan MoFo, the Vegan Month of Food. The idea is to write about vegan food every day for the whole month. For the first time, I wrote up recipes for the food I was making. I also found that readers wanted advice on becoming vegan or more information about living a vegan lifestyle.

The second thing that happened was that I wrote about my breasts. You laugh, but I had such a great response to that post (which was about being called back for a second mammogram), that I realized that people are interested in hearing about health issues from a personal point of view. I wrote again about my breasts the following year when my mammogram showed a small spot. I’ve also written about my colonoscopy, migraines, and even my visits to the dentist.

The third and most important thing that happened that fall was that I posted my first workout. I realized that I could help people this way. Most workouts that I create can be done at home and in June I started filming videos to demonstrate the workout moves. I also designed a 12 week “Run a 5k” program designed to get people off the couch and moving, and I wrote a series on running a faster marathon.

Since that time, Live from La Quinta has become a great resource for workouts, training programs, vegan/vegetarian information and recipes, and living a healthy life. I hope you will stop by and say hi.

You can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest.