About

Hi, my name is Liesl, and I’m excited that you’ve come to read Fitness in the Kitchen.

On this blog you will find quick home workouts, healthy and simple recipes, nutritional tips that I’ve learned over the years that have worked for me, and occasional musings of daily life, our ministry, and family.

I chose to begin writing Fitness in the Kitchen because I wanted to document my adventures in working out at home, and cooking healthy meals for myself and my husband all with a busy ministry/work schedule. My hope is that this blog will become a place where you can come for inspiration, motivation, and fresh ideas for living a healthy lifestyle.

Visiting Arches National Park.

Where we live and work – Mexico. Yes, that’s right in the Sierra Madre Mountains about 5 hours from the nearest place resembling civilization. Why? We work with an indigenous people group called the Nahuatl. They are descendants of the ancient Aztecs, and still speak primarily their native language. We are in the process of learning their language, and working with them to better their community through literacy projects, community development, clean water projects, health initiatives, Bible translation, etc. Do we love it? YES! Is it challenging…more than I ever thought it would be. Would I choose this life path over again…in a heart beat.

Making fresh corn tortillas in a Nahuatl friend’s kitchen.

Beautiful Nahuatl ladies.

Because of our remote location it makes working out and eating healthy a daily challenge. It is my hope that some of the things I’ve learned and am still learning will help you with your formation of a healthy lifestyle. It truly can be done anywhere.

Why the name, Fitness in the Kitchen – I chose this name because it means several things. Our fitness truly does start in the kitchen with making healthy choices with what we put into our bodies as fuel. But, to me it also means a place to workout. Our home in the mountain village has a large kitchen and I often do my workouts right there in the kitchen.

Our rustic, and spacious kitchen where I get my sweat on.

Our family – I married my best friend, and one true love, Pete, in October of 2006. Since then we have welcomed Radley, our two year old German Shepherd and Quito our little Mexican street cat into our lives.

My man and I.

The spoiled fur babies.

Fitness background – As a young girl I did gymnastics competitively, and played four years of High School Basketball. These sports gave me my love for fitness, and my initial knowledge of how to work hard, strength train, and have self discipline. In college I took up running, loved it, and never looked back. I also spent 4 years coaching gymnastics in the competitive circuit and loved training the athletes.

I also enjoy training myself, incorporating weight training, plyometrics, and some yoga with my running. I enjoy spending time reading about new fitness tips, ideas, and trends,  the human body and how we work, diet, and strength training. From this reading and experimentation stems many of my ideas.

**Because I have no formal fitness training or nutritional training all nutrition and fitness information that I provide on this blog are things that have worked for me personally and may not be suitable for someone else depending on your fitness level, age, etc.

My food philosophy – I am a firm believer that each person must experiment with food, and eat in such a way that works best for their body. In the past I have experimented with vegetarianism, and pescatarianism, but since then my body’s needs have changed. Today I focus on lots of veggies, fruit, lean meats (excluding red meat), legumes, dairy in moderation, whole grains, coffee (that’s a food group right?), and the occasional bitter dark chocolate. I try to stay away from refined sugars, artificial sweetners, and red meat as I do not do well when I eat them.

Because of our remote location we buy groceries for months at a time, and have a small garden so we can have fresh vegetables as long as possible. I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen, and making recipes work with what we have on hand.

Our pantry and small fridge where we keep our food supply for several months.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to contact me via the comments any time. I will try my best to respond to all emails and comments I receive on the blog. If I miss you, please comment again on a more recent post and I will do all I can to respond to you in a timely manner.

If you’d like to reach me by email you can do so at this address:
lmcm_4@yahoo.com

Happy reading!