About Diary of a Semi-Health Nut + Amanda

Hello there! I’m Amanda aka Semi-Health Nut. Welcome to my blog slash obsession. I’m the founder, recipe creator and writer behind this semi-healthy living blog.

The goal of Diary of a Semi-Health Nut is to give you my “semi-healthy” perspective on nutrition, fitness and life.

What this means to me:

1. I promote eating a wide variety of foods. You will find no extreme restrictions or dieting fads here.

2. I believe in “gentle nutrition” where I try to get my veggies and fruits in each day, but also realize there will be occasional days when I only eat cereal and dessert–and that’s okay!

3. I believe that fitness should be fun!

4. I believe in giving yourself a break. Although I have natural perfectionist tendencies, I work on loving myself despite my successes and failures I have in any given arena.

(Color Run fun!)

Why “semi-healthy”?

In my early twenties I worked in an office in Nebraska (my home state) where I was called a “health nut” for doing things like eating broccoli and going to the gym after work. I knew I wasn’t truly a health nut with my love for baking and eating pizza, so “semi-health nut” seemed to fit better.

[ ^^ I’m a huge dork. ]

In fact, I grew up as a picky eater on a diet of macaroni, poptarts, ravioli and PB&J. This is possibly why I am so fascinated as an adult with trying new foods and learning to cook. I love sharing those adventures here!

I also grew up baking with my mom and I am always after creating the next best cookie recipe. I enjoy finding ways to add nutrients to my baked goods to call them “semi-healthy.”

[Check out my cookies recipes and posts here.]

Topics to Get You Started:

If you’re ready to get reading, check out some of these topics. Or you can scroll down to read more about Amanda + the blog!

• “Best of” posts
• Recent recipes
• Workouts
• Did You Know posts (all about health and wellness topics)
• Running posts (race recaps, half marathon training)
• Blogging posts (how tos, blogging mentality)
• Work with me page
• As seen on page

History of Diary of a Semi-Health Nut:

I created this blog to share my semi-healthy adventures in 2010.

Truth be told, I was strongly influenced by the movie and book Julie and Julia.

BUT, I hardly wrote the first few months and didn’t even share my full name or a picture of myself for the first year! (I might have had some stranger-danger issues.) This definitely slowed down the growth of the blog.

Over time (and with a ton of work), the blog has grown in popularity to the point where I’ve gotten to work with some awesome brands and even make some money blogging!

One awesome part about blogging is the friends I’ve made along the way. I had no idea I would find so many other bloggers and that I would make some of my very best friends just by creating this little blog on the internet.

I’ve attended many blogger meet ups, both formal and informal including Blend Retreat in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and the Healthy Living Summit in September 2013. It was at HLS that I decided I wanted to take my blog to the next level by having my own “self-hosted” site using WordPress which was quite the feat, but it was well worth it!

I very much enjoy sharing my life via food, fitness and random ramblings with all of you! 

Look over the years:

About once a year, as the blog grows and changes (and I get bored with the look), I decide to update it! It’s fun for me to look at the changes I’ve made over the years…here are some of the looks over the years!

2012

2013

2014

2015

More About Amanda:

-I’m a 28 year old gal who recently moved back to her hometown in Omaha, Nebraska after living in the twin cities (in Minnesota) for two years with my longtime boyfriend, Dave.

Oh yeah, we are now engaged. 😉

-My biggest fitness achievement to date is running two half-marathons. Very slowly–I won’t be winning any medals, but it’s a fun goal to work towards! I go through phases where I’m SUPER into running and then a couple of months where I don’t run at all. (You can read the recaps here and here.)

-I just obtained my NASM personal training certification (more updates about that soon!).

-I am currently working at a gym cafe where I get to make delicious and nutritious food for people.

-I am also a paid writer (!!) for Lifehack. (<-check out my posts!).

-One food I get super excited about is nut butters. I actually have it for breakfast pretty much every day.

Goals:

My ultimate goal is to help women learn to feed themselves without feeling guilty and to exercise in a way that makes them happy, not obsessive.

I plan on doing this through this lovely blog, Diary of a Semi-Health Nut, becoming a health coach/personal trainer and in writing a book (or two) in the future. 

[Tweet “Learn more about Amanda at Diary of a Semi-Health Nut!”]

Please feel free to leave a comment, or contact me via any of the many social media outlets found on the sidebar. I would love to learn more about you and your story! Thank you so much for reading!

Here’s my e-mail: semihealthnut at yahoo dot com!

Last updated: September 2015