About Me

Born and raised in Massachusetts, I hold New England very dear to my heart. While I love to travel, I always knew this is where I would end up. I attended college at Northeastern University in Boston; I graduated with my B.S. in Biochemistry in the winter of 2008, and I hopped right into the industry at an R&D company in February 2009. Little did I know, this is where I would meet my future husband.

Thirteen years my senior, Brent and I are the epitome of opposites attract. He's the shy, quiet, laid back mid-Western type, and I am - well - I'm Italian, and I don't shut up. We balance each other very well. Lucky for me, he found my energy endearing, and blah blah blah, we lived happily ever after. 

Before having kids, we did what every couple does. We traveled, lounged in bed until noon on Sunday mornings, we frequented classy restaurants and sipped expensive drinks in the city. We got a dog: a crazy goldendoodle named Jasper - who we probably should have named Kramer. He keeps us on our feet, that's for sure. We eventually decided to settle down in Central Mass, where we bought our house in 2013. My home is my happy place, and we are never moving. Ever. 

Approximately 3 seconds after we bought our house, we created the most amazing human being on this planet, and we named him Wyatt Allen Morse. He is the best of every part of us, and he will be a leading star of this blog for the foreseeable future. 

So here I am now, a wife, working mom, and continuously trying to find time to fulfill my passion: running. I began the blog, FitterSelf, back in 2012 as an outlet for my fitness-fueled lifestyle. I began my transition to a healthier lifestyle back in 2010, after maxing out the scale at 150 pounds - I'm 5'1" by the way, so that number was quite high for me. I can't recall the exact epiphany (though I touched on it here), but shortly after, I began viewing 'healthy' as a lifestyle change, not a temporary fad diet. It wasn't until I changed my mindset that I began seeing lasting results. For me, it was all about fueling my body with better foods, maintaining an 80/20 diet (eating healthy 80% of the time, reserving the remaining 20% for splurges), and staying active. 

My activity of choice has always been running. It's free, easily accessible, and doesn't require a gym membership. I also throw some weight training in there a few days a week along with pilates, yoga, kickboxing, and HIIT to keep things exciting. But mainly, I run. I enjoy running. I live for the runner's high. I get giddy when I set foot on a track. I use it as my escape. 

Running has taken a different form for me as a new mom. I don't get very much time to myself these days with an infant, so my days of high mileage running are temporarily on hold. Staying active is still very important to me, so I had to get creative. We invested in a really good jogging stroller (I actually bought mine off Craigslist for an amazing deal), and this is how I manage to get my miles in. Wyatt naps, I run, bing, bang, boom - happy baby, happy mom. Some day, he'll be running alongside me, I'm sure. But in the mean time, I plan to enjoy every moment and blog about as much of it as I can here. Thanks for reading!

.Jen.