Linda

So, you really want to know about me?

Ok, I'll enlighten you. My name is Linda. I was born and raised in the city of Derby in the UK. My better half, J and I relocated to Greater Seattle in 2006, where we now reside with our baby cat, P.

I'm a research scientist by trade with a B.Sc.(Hons) in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry, an M.Phil. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, where I specialized in developing solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy techniques, to probe the structural changes in the photoisomerization of Rhodopsin. However, despite many years of schooling, one of favorite places to be in is in the kitchen... creating!

I was a fat child, a very fat child. It wasn't that I didn't exercise, I did - I was in the school's netball team, and played table tennis like a nutter... I was just a fat child. I continued my fat childhood into an overweight adult. In my early twenties I slowly started to change my diet, I ate more fruit, vegetables, whole grains and eliminated all processed foods. The only form of exercise I could fit in was the 7-mile (11.25 km) walk to and from work every day. This was how I managed to lose 50+ lbs (22.75 kg or 3 stones 7 lb) and I've been stable for 8+ years. I now row, walk and do yoga on a daily basis.

I'm a firm believer that there's no quick fix pill that will make you lose weight, neither is there a diet that will work for you long-term. The only way that you can lose weight and keep it off is if you completely change your lifestyle, and educate yourself about nutrition. I cook (from scratch) almost every day of the year, planning our meals to ensure that we get a nutritionally balanced diet. I'd like to think that we had a-healthier-than-average diet, that's not to say that we deny ourselves of "treats" from time to time (as this blog will show).

I love food - cooking it, looking at it, smelling it and of course eating it! I've been involved with food, as soon as I was knee-high to a grasshopper. My family has busied themselves with family-run eateries, and as Po's dad said "...broth runs through our veins". I've been the deputy catering director at Whole Foods, owned a catering company and worked at allrecipes.com.

I have many influences on what I cook - being of Chinese descent, born in Europe and living with a Dutch guy gives me a huge canvas on which to paint on pot in which to cook in. I absolutely love Asian food (yes, that does include Southern Asian), but Mediterranean food is on the same par.

Unfortunately, we have developed numerous food allergies since moving to the US. Due to our allergies, I've taken an interest in vegan baking and buy almost everything organic. In Europe, buying organic was ludicrous - it was overpriced and made no sense. The Foods Standard Agency (FSA) and the European Union (EU) regulations appear to be pretty stringent in what foods they deem safe.

Putting my food obsession aside, I also love the theatre, World travel, hiking, cats, reading, photography, listening to music, playing badminton, table tennis, Scrabble, Xbox, working out and snorkeling.