I started this blog while living in Australia to share my day-to-day life as an expat abroad, but you will also see that I talk about all of my passions. These include (and are not limited to) health and fitness, cute animals such as dogs and kangaroos, my wedding, and of course the people I love in my life.  

For those of you who do not know me, you must be wondering why I moved Australia. After all, I lived in or near Chicago for 22 years of my life! In 2009, I moved there to be with my amazing Australian fiance (now husband- we married in August 2012), Alastair. We met in December 2007, started dating six months later, and the rest is history. We didn't always intend to live in Australia, however. He moved to Chicago in 2008 to try to start a life there, but he wasn't able to get a job with the economic crisis.  

I was in graduate school at the time, embarking on a 5-year clinical Psy.D program. Unfortunately, I was miserable in school and realized after a short while that 1) I was not ready for graduate school and 2) I did not want to be a psychologist. I figured that moving to Australia with Al would give me the time I needed to figure out what I want to do. Plus, how many opportunities do you get to live in another country?  

My idea to write a blog came over a year after moving there. I was terrible about updating my Facebook page, but I still wanted my friends and family to know what I was doing. If I got more readers than my circle of friends and family, GREAT!  

After two wonderful years in Australia, I moved back home to start the schooling process to become a registered dietitian. I took one full year of prerequisite courses to fulfill requirements for a nutrition masters program since I never took biology or chemistry classes as a psychology major. I was accepted into University of Illinois' masters in nutrition program for Fall 2012. It will take all of three years, but I could not possibly be more excited about it. 

As for the name of my blog, I am 5 feet and three quarters of an inch (I like those three quarters!) tall, and I like to jog!

Here are some more facts about me:  

Full name: Jennifer Rachel Cooke
Age: 26
Alastair's age: 26
College: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
College major: Psychology
Intended career path: Nutrition
Currently employed?: I stopped working full-time in Adelaide in May 2011, and now I am going to the University of Illinois at Chicago for my masters in nutrition.
Dream job: A novelist OR get paid for playing with dogs all day. I also wouldn't mind being a travel writer. Not at all.
Siblings?: Two older brothers   

Blogging about Food
I NEVER blog everything that I eat in a day. I will show you meals or snacks that I think are healthy or interesting (NOT necessarily healthy). If I only blogged about the food that I ate, I would be malnourished and would have no right whatsoever to discuss a healthy lifestyle with all of you! Please keep that in mind when reading The Little Jogger.



If you ever have questions about me or anything relevant to my blog, ask me! I love questions.