Hello.

Hi, my name is Morgan and I'm a Mac. Just kidding, this isn't an Apple promotion. Well, it is, kinda, but the fruit apples. And tomatoes. And avocados. All wholesome foods, really.
Ok, let me try this again. I'm Morgan. I'm a southern girl living in New York City (yes, food mecca of the world). I was born in Alabama, lived in Florida for a few years, moved to Tennessee, then to Arkansas for college, then back to Tennessee, then to New York. Whew! I've always 1. been super active/athletic (I did taekwondo from the time I was 8 until 24-that's a long time. I was also the 1997 World Champion) 2. surrounded by awesome, wholesome foods.
My grandmothers, Meme and Mimi Looch, were born and raised in the heart of the south, with access to "home grown" vegetables and fruits. I guess that carried over to me, because I love fruits and veggies. Everything they cooked contained something from the garden, my aunt even had a corn field, okra (my most favorite veggie, ever), green beans, and a dairy farm (more on that later.)
Fast forward to now, and here I am, all healthy from all the fruits and veggies! I think about food all the time and what I will eat at my next meal. I like to watcha few shows on the Food Network and try and make their recipes healthier. I love to create dishes, cook, and eat. I'm like Monica from Friends. But first and foremost, comes nutrition and training.

My food philosophy:

• I don't eat or cook beef or pork. I will allow the live-in (my bf), to cook a steak, but I require the beef be raised by a free range farmer and be grass fed and obviously, chemical free. Plus, he says it tastes better. Pork, is just gross, to me and it's not healthy, so it stays outta my kitchen!!
• I do eat chicken and fish and sometimes (like once a week) turkey
• I don't drink cow's milk (ew) but I do LOVE cheese. However, I buy hormone free cheese and greek yogurt-the health benefits are too good to pass up
• I always buy free range chicken, etc. You get the point.
• I will ask a million questions in a restaurant about a dish. If they get pissed, I don't care. I want to know what I am eating. Normally I do a ton of research on a restaurant before I go out anyway. One day, I will write about my favorite restaurants in NYC.
• I love coffee
• I love coconut milk ice cream (where has it been all my life!)I love a baked potato with greek yogurt
• I get cranky if I go 3 hours without foods and I tend to make bad decisions when I'm hungry
• I love food
• I love shopping. Anthropologie is my favorite store.I also love handbags but I have a hard time finding a cool, stylish one that holds all my crap I lug around with me. Thus, I carry 2 bags, sometimes 2.5 bags. Yeah, I need a cart or wheelbarrow or something.
• I love wine-red wine. Somewhere down the road I developed a taste for semi-expensive red wine. Oopst. Anyway, I have a glass of red wine per night. Can't help it, it's how I relax at night.
• I love my baby, Joey, a Boston Terrier. I adopted her from a rescue group. She loves her Anna too!

I think you get the point. Whole foods without chemicals. Got it. Sometimes I think I annoy people with my healthy foods, but if I'm eating it, it's gonna be 1. good and 2. good for you.

Anna, my most athletic friend, true story, is my running buddy budz. We share 1. the same ideals about food and most other things 2. the same size clothes 3. the same brain. We met through mutual friends and she played on our co-ed softball team, The Ligers. We got hooked on running after our first 5k, Harbortown 2006, and decided to run a marathon that year. St. Jude Marathon was our first marathon (time is not to be disclosed) but it was so damn hard. I had an injury but, nonetheless, we crossed the finish line. Once, we recovered, all we could think about was when is the next marathon?! The next one was Philadelphia in 2007, which we did not train very well for. 2008 was a rebuilding year. We made PRs in 10k's and half marathons by changing our running mentality, and on 11/1/2009, we will be running in the ING New York Marathon!!! This year, we have a goal time of 4:50, and a really good plan to get there.

We will also chronicle our running adventures and training plans and what we eat to fuel our bodies. Plus, how can anyone not write about mental health (shopping, have 1 or 4 glasses of wine, etc!).

Anna and I will write daily entries of what we eat, the recipes (if we can include them), daily running adventures and any other adventure we happen to, um, venture across.

We are also available for questions by sending an email to buttlookfast@gmail.com!

I look forward to hearing from each of you!

Happy eating and training!

xoxo
M