Hey, I’m Rachel!

Welcome to my site! Thank you so much for dropping in.

I’m on the continuous journey of living a balanced lifestyle — complete with challenging workouts, good eats, positive motivation and lots of coffee & wine.

A little about me:

I’m a Chicago native living and working in Denver, CO. I work remotely as a full-time content marketer for a woman-led startup, and I’m an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor. My goal is to achieve additional Nutrition certifications. I’m a former D1 Cross Country and Track & Field athlete with a degree in Journalism & Mass Communications from the University of Iowa (Go Hawks!).

Why this blog?

Well, there are 2 reasons:

Reason 1: All my life, others have turned to me for health and fitness tips — whether it be for workout suggestions, training and racing tips, healthy recipes, tips on how I curb cravings, or, the most common one, how I can possibly stay lean when I have such a love for wine, eating out and just food in general (your girl can eat a lot). A lot of it is genetics, but most of it comes down to choices: I choose to live a healthy and fit lifestyle, and I also choose to live my life to the absolute fullest. Both are possible, and I truly believe living both lifestyles in balance leads to absolute happiness.

Reason 2: I started to notice that many “balanced lifestyle” blogs and social accounts focus solely on healthy eating and healthy recipes. Healthy eating is a part of a balanced lifestyle, but I believe balance means so much more. To me, it is a combination of mental, physical and emotional well-being that can only be reached by truly living — by experiencing all that life has to offer and finding true happiness in the process.

My goal in creating this platform is to provide you with lessons I’ve learned and things that have helped me find balance in my life. But, I am also hoping to create a community of shared ideas. At the end of the day, I’m not an expert in balanced living. No one truly is. So I want to hear from you as well! Let’s learn from each other, support each other and work together to achieve our goal of living a joyous, balanced lifestyle.

Join me as I strive to live a balanced lifestyle that includes ample amounts of my vices: running, coffee & wine. This life we have is SO worth living. Let’s make the most of it together :).

Feel free to leave a comment, provide your experiences living in balance and any blog topic requests you may have. You can also follow my balanced lifestyle on Instagram: @rachelmarie.ig and on Pinterest: @thebalancedpetite.

<3 xoxo, Rachel