and Happy Halloween to all!!!!!
It is hard to believe it has been 1 YEAR since I started Oh She Glows! A year really CAN change a lot.
Missed Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, or Part 7??
If anyone is looking for a last minute Halloween costume- you could go as an Operation Beautiful note! ;)
Here is the one I wrote today on my big ‘post-it’…
It’s going by the door!
One thing blogging has taught me over the past year is that being true to myself has dramatically changed my life for the better.
I realized that the ‘real me’ WAS good enough! In fact, the real me is what everyone wanted to see all along, but I didn’t know that.
I always thought I had to hide who I really was- a goofy, silly, shy, yet fun-loving and IMPERFECT woman.
Once I took my wall down and was true to myself I realized that good things started happening to me.
I was happier, less anxious, motivated, and peaceful. I fell asleep quickly at night. I woke up eager. I dreamed big.
People around me seemed to like me more, probably because I wasn’t walking around stressed out and counting every calorie in my head over and over again or thinking about how unhappy I was.
Oh She Glows got me through one of the most difficult times of my life. It is what made me realize that I could do something that I loved to do. I could touch people with my words. I could help other women overcome their disordered eating, obsession, and negative self-image. I could be silly, and weird, and goofy, and basically do whatever I wanted on this blog. I could take a picture of a beautiful flower and post it. I could vent about a problem or talk about ideas, goals, motivations, aspirations, and visions…
Oh She Glows made me finally feel in control of my happiness.
I started to think outside the box. I dreamed big. I knew that I deserved to be happy.
Things inside me started to click.
I had spent the better part of my graduate program miserable and now I was miserable in my career. What would have to change until I decided enough was enough? When would my life be a HAPPY life?
Well, something happened along my blogging journey. I realized that nothing was ever going to change unless I did something about it.
Opportunities don’t just happen to people, you have to MAKE them happen.
When I realized this, my whole perspective changed.
I knew that unless I took action, I would be miserable my whole life. I pictured myself in the same job until I was 50. Is that what I wanted, to be a passive recipient of what life gives me?
Absolutely not!
None of us know what cards will be dealt to us. I don’t know if I will be around next week, next year or for my 50th birthday. It would surely suck to piss away these amazing years being unhappy. Where is the fun in being miserable all the time? It was the same sort of realization I had when I decided to give up obsessing over my weight, exercise, and food. Was it working for me? Hardly- I was stressed out and unhappy day in and day out. I was hungry all the time. Eric broke up with me for a few months in 2003 because things got so bad. Being miserable did NOT work for me with my eating disorder or in my career.
Each positive step that I took, I felt like I jumped a mile. Positive things breed more positive things. As soon as I broke the cycle of negativity in my life, I was a changed women.
It just takes a series of small actions and then one BIG action (think- KABOOM!) to finally break away from the chains that you have in your life.
My KABOOM! moment was when I decided to tell my boss, in a heated moment, that I was done. I felt like a bomb went off inside me. Suddenly everything was changed.
I thank my lucky stars that I started Oh She Glows exactly 1 year ago. I was a very unhappy and guarded person. I felt like a drone. Some days I didn’t feel anything except nothingness and a void. This blog didn’t just turn a light bulb on in my head, it turned on an entire football stadium of lights. Everything started to click. I had these amazing women who read my blog and believed in me. After a while I started to believe in me too.
After a bad day I logged on and just wrote. Sometimes light topics like fashion or make-up and sometimes more serious ones. It was sort of like cheap therapy for me. I was on the couch indeed typing my heart out.
This isn’t just a healthy living blog to me.
It represents HOPE for change.
Hope that each and every one of us can find our own personal definition of happiness. To be true to ourselves, and to believe in our own authentic power.
I still feel like I have a lot to learn, but the only difference now is that I feel like I am slowly on my way, and better yet, I am excited about it. I am no longer stalled or going in reverse like I was for so long.
I truly think that all of us have the same basic goals…to feel loved and to feel like we have a purpose on the earth. To feel like our true self is in harmony with what we do day in and day out.
The power within all of us is so great. If we only touched on it briefly each day we could all do amazing things.
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And now it is time for Oh She Glows birthday giveaway!
HOW TO ENTER:
Close your eyes. Picture yourself on October 31, 2010. Now leave a comment and tell me how you picture your ideal life 1 year from today. Maybe you have goals or hopes. Tell me what you want to be doing, living, breathing…The first step is writing it down.
The giveaway is for one lucky US or Canadian reader to win everything below! (Click to enlarge).
All of this is from the Health food trade show I went to. Tons of teas, bars, beauty healthy products, etc! I’m not naming it all, but you get the idea. :)
I also added some of my favourite products to share: Glo bars, Mary’s Crackers, Organic raw Cacao nibs, and PC Sun-dried tomato no salt added seasoning (the LBD of seasonings!)
YUM!
Contest closes: Tuesday Nov. 3, 2009 at 8am.
Bonne chance!
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Thank you to each and everyone of you for your amazing support over the past year! If there are any of you out there who have followed my journey since the beginning- well, that is quite awesome.
ONWARD and UPWARD!!!!!!!
Now, BED TIME at 1:20am. Tomorrow AM: Finish making up the fake house, costume + party planning, and baking!
PS- There is also a giveaway for GLO BARs over here! Leave a comment to enter!
I picture my husband and I finally having a place of our own again. I also picture myself finishing my first 10K, and eating a cleaner diet!
Congrats on the 1 year mark, it’s such an inspiring story to read!
One year from now I want to be with new roommates in a new apartment continuing with all of my goals and being happy, healthy, and encouraged while doing so :)
I would like be actively engaged in making a difference in my community through volunteer work. there are so many people in need of basic life essentials like food and shelter and health care and agencies that provide this are so strapped for resources. I am lucky to have what I need and want to honor that by helping others.
Amen sister!! Your blog, as usual, is amazing and inspiring! We make excuses and compromise our own happiness all too often. I know I am guilty of doing this and am taking steps to change!
On October 31, 2010, I will be in a graduate program that I LOVE, doing interesting research, learning (which I love and miss!), surrounded by wonderful new friends, and making my own way into the future! I’ll be living a healthy lifestyle and won’t settle for anything when it comes to life, love, or my health! Life is too short :)
In one year I hope to love myself enough to then be able to love someone else.
I want to be a happier version of me! Have a job I love and WANT to go to everyday and to be my healthiest:)
Happy OSG Birthday/Halloween!
I hope to have 1 more full year of healthy living behind me. I have about 1.5 years of recovery already after a 6 year long eating disorder that devastated my body and my mind, and the more distance I get from it, the more proud I am, the more faith I have in myself and my ability to love myself and be happy. I’ve realized that you can change your life and I hope that in the next year I just get more and more proof of that. I hope to worry less about my health and image and just be more at peace than I ever was before. I hope I have really internalized all the good that I’ve done for myself and how much more important and fulfilling that is and always will be than looking like a model.
In one year I plan applying to graduate school and deciding exactly what I want to do with my life.
once again, THANK YOU for sharing your thoughts in such an inspiring post, angela.
On October 31, 2010 I hope to be comfortable in my own skin and at peace with my decisions. I hope I’m loving myself and trusting that everyone around me will love the ‘real me’ too. I truly want to have found my purpose (whether that’s staying in grad school to become an SLP or something completely different) on this earth and want to be helping others and making their days brighter. I still want to be exercising and yoga-ing (?) on a regular basis because I LOVE it and not because I feel like it’s something I should do. Oh, and I KNOW that on October 31, 2010 I’ll still be reading OSG every day… :)
I see myself healthier because I will have been vegetarian for over a year and possibly vegan by that point. I will have learned how to incorporate other forms of exercise into my routine of running and be a more well rounded athlete. I will continue to enjoy and appreicate everything that I have.
Happy Anniversary!
In one year from now, I know I will be completely free from disordered thinking about food and my body. This will enable me to be a better wife and friend!
In one year I see myself going to school for something I actually want to do… Education! This year has been a super crazy one. I moved far far far away from home to go to school majoring in Nutrition. I’ve come to realize that I hate being this far away from my family and that Nutrition is not for me. I’ve lost too many years of my life worrying about my weight and calories and fat and what to eat/what not to eat that I DO NOT want to make that my career. I am SO happy with my decision and can not wait until next year when I can start that new chapter.
Angela, I just wanted to thank you so much for OSG. You have changed my life in the way I think about food, exercise and my own self image. Everyday I feel like I can glow just a little bit more and am becoming a little more comfortable in my own skin and I owe so much of that to being inspired by your journey.
Much Love and Happy Blogaversary!
In one year from today I want to be HAPPY! I want to go back to school so I can do something I LOVE. You are such an inspiration to so many of us Angela!!
Well I am hoping that this time next year I will be halfway through culinary school!
It took me almost a year from when I decided I wanted to go to do the research, start getting my application together, and finally last week I told my boss I wanted a leave of absence. Scariest thing ever. I don’t know where it will leave but it is exciting and what I want to do.
congratulations!!! You are my inspiration. I am where you where one year ago. Counting calories, upset about my body and job choice, and ready for a CHANGE! You have certainly given me HOPE that I can turn it all around.
I hope to post on your blog in 1 year and say that I found my TRUE self as well! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you do <3
Happy Blogiversary!!! Your happiness shines though in every post… thanks for being such an inspiration :)
In one year, I see myself married (our wedding is planned in May 2010!!!), owning a house, and starting my own counseling business!
I see myself stepping away from transcription and finally getting a job working with food. I want a job that focuses on supporting and promote local food. Eat and support local! :)
Happy Anniversary! Love OSG…and what a fabulous question and contest! Let’s see…in a year I hope to still be working at my job, but hopefully I’ll have moved up. I would like to be taking classes part-time – whether for a Master’s Program or just for fun. I would like to be making great progress on paying off all of my school debt. And I would like to be a runner – I exercise now, but it’s a dream of mine to be able to run. Oh! And maybe being a personal trainer fits in there somewhere too? Although I guess I’ll just have to wait and see :)
i picture myself not having to worry constantly about what i eat. i see myself aa in love with my current boyfriend, having lots of friends i have made in the last little while of my life, which has been fantastic except for some health problems. i picture myself FREE from all health problems and free of stress, loving every moment of life.
Happy Blog Birthday!
One year from now, I see myself still working hard in school, and looking forward to graduation in the summer. Hopefully by then I’ll have an internship lined up for me somewhere in a cool city (New York, San Fran?!) Most of all, a year from now, I see myself being happy!
Meg