Being a nutrition major and fitness addict, I enjoy coming across entertaining blogs about healthy meals and trendy new work outs. While I have never been the most skilled in the kitchen, I appreciate the art of cooking and I am always open to experimenting new and delicious recipes. I found myself searching for different healthy food options at the beginning of this semester because I was getting bored with my old eating habits, and since I am currently training for a half marathon, I knew that I needed to get serious and crack down on what I eat. After expressing this to a close friend of mine, she suggested that I start following one of her favorite blogs for more guidance.
The Petite Professional is a blog for young professional women, written by a Registered Dietitian named Claire Siegel. Claire began blogging as a college student with the hope of gaining the attention of other college students looking to improve their health and fitness. After spending a semester abroad studying in Spain, she noticed that she was ten pounds heavier than her normal weight. Being that she was a nutrition major, she found this to be unacceptable, and she made the immediate decision to change her lifestyle. This resulted in her blogging her efforts to maintain a healthy diet and routine. She has since graduated, completed her internship to become an RD, and obtained a full time job. Because of her recent transition from the college lifestyle to working full time, she has also shifted her blog focus from college students to young women with busy schedules.
Claire’s blog site is organized and simple, making it easy to navigate. Although the site layout is simple, I find it classic and enjoyable. She provides separate pages for fitness posts and food posts, usually categorized by date with the newer posts appearing first. She also provides drop down menus in order to categorize her recipes into what type of meal they belong to (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Along with her many recipes and ideas, she provides multiple pictures of meals that she prepared herself, enabling her readers to get a visual of what the final product will come out to look like. Additionally, she always includes ingredients and step-by-step instructions for preparing each recipe, which comes in handy for those who are less than skilled in the kitchen…me, for example. With many modern pop culture references and jokes, Claire’s humor keeps her readers engaged and entertained. She addresses the audience informally, which creates a personal and friendly tone, and she often incorporates the daily experiences of her twenty-something lifestyle into her posts, making it easy for young women to understand and relate to her.
With many years of blogging experience and her recently obtained RD title, I have no doubt that Claire knows what she’s talking about and provides accurate information to her readers. The majority of her recipes are her own original ideas, which I find to be unique and impressive. The thing that I like the most about Claire’s blog and would like to incorporate into my own is that she promotes health over dieting, and puts an emphasis on nutrient dense calories. So, while her meals may contain more calories, they also provide more of the essential nutrients that your body needs. This is something that I have always found to be important, because while a meal may be lower in calories making it seem healthier for you, this isn’t necessarily always the case. I would like to use Claire’s blog to focus more on eating healthy, nutrient dense calories and trying new creative recipes. Here’s to hoping my cooking skills improve along the way, as well!