About

Hello, my name is Madison and this is my blog I'd Rather Be Eating. The blog name is a spoof of those Sport Chalet license plate frames. You know the ones that say things like...I'd Rather be Skiing or Golfing. Anyhow, I started running casually during my college years, probably from all the eating I was doing, which eventually lead to me signing up for my first 10K. After I did a couple of those, I thought that I was hot stuff and signed up for my first marathon. That experience humbled me as a runner. My motto since then is to always respect the distance. I've always been a tomboy and loved to play sports as a kid. Nowadays, I guess you can say that I am somewhat of a gym-rat. Some people find it hard to get to the gym, I find it hard to stay away. I am mostly into running, body weight workouts, Bikram and I recently became a spinning instructor.







This blog is essentially about my passion for running and fitness but I also post a lot of restaurant reviews because I am also passionate about food but I don't cook very well...at least not yet! Let's face it, as much as I love running and working out, at the end of the day I'd rather be eating!

I love fresh seasonal produce and shopping at the Farmers Market. I have a mean sweet tooth, seriously that beast is fierce!

I am not sure why I am hugging a large ice cream cone here...I am lactose intolerant. In 2004, while vacationing in Italy, I was on a walking tour when I suddenly doubled over in pain and was rushed to the hospital where I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. It had been building up for quite some time but I didn't know what I had at the time. I thought it was just a stomach ache. Needless to say colitis doesn't always make running easy for me. Oddly enough, I didn't start running long distance until 2006, a couple of years after being diagnosed. I didn't talk about this on the blog for a long time because I was embarrassed about it. I realize now that it is just something I have to deal with and even though it is a part of my life, it doesn't define who I am.

I was born in Vietnam and came to the US when I was fairly young...on a boat and it wasn't a pleasure cruise...if you get my drift. I've lived in Southern California practically my entire life. Nowadays you can probably find me running and eating around the OC. I am the eldest and these are my four younger sisters.

Aside from running, I also like to bake, cook, scrapbook, knit/crochet, read, have afternoon tea, travel, blog, shop, surf the web, spend time with my sisters/family, but my favorite is when my Yorkie takes me for walks. You will see a little bit of all that on my blog. 

A Yorkie owns me...no wait...I mean...I own a Yorkie! Okay, who am I kidding, he pretty much has me wrapped around his little paw. This is Teddy...Yorkie extraordinaire!

This is Sister K! I "borrow" a lot of her photographs so I thought she deserved her own spot on my roll call sheet. Sister K loves photography, is an amazing artist, tech savvy, loves Apple products and works with numbers. Plus, she is an even bigger foodie than me.