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!
This time next year I envision myself in a newly bought house with my bf. I envision myself having a job in a large law firm downtown and being content with my place in my life. Wishful thinking but it could/should happen :)
In 1 year I want to have made significant headway into planning my wedding (which will be sometime in the Spring of 2011), I want to have gotten a raise (since my company did a salary freeze this year thanks to the economy), I want to be continuing on my path of good health and fitness, and I want to still be running!
in one year I want to be able to balance a school and a part time job. To be fit and healthy and not longer bother by disordered eating, learn kick boxing and belly dancing and to be with the boy still and have great friends.
In one year I will still be at my current job teaching preschool… which fortunately I LOVE! I will also be hopefully planning my wedding and increasing my fitness level.
Happy Birthday Oh She Glows!!
On October 31, 2010 I want to be:
*At my healthiest self – always a challenge
*In a job that I love – currently transitioning by going back to school
*Still as in love with the boy as I am today – and hopefully on our way to wedded bliss!
*Surrounded by great family and friends!
Happy Blog Birthday!
In one year I hope to grow to be a better wife, daughter, sister, aunt and friend. I’d also like to be on my way to starting a family!
By Oct 2010, I want to be in a better frame of mind. I want to be set on what I’m going to do with my life (i.e. dietetics or not?), be at a much healthier weight and not be taken by disordered eating, learn how to ride a bike (!!!), and balance school, work, blogging and volunteering.
I see myself with my wonderful husband and my two boys which will be 1 and 3 by then… ;) Hopefully I am in shape and still running. I also would love to have a finished backyard by then (it only been almost 3 years, hehe) so I can play with my lil guys outside.
Happy Blogiversary OSG! Love this site!
You are an amazing, inspiring person Angela!! :) Thanks for all you do!
A year from now, I will be happily in costume. I will have run my first half marathon with the love of my life, who will have completed a graduate degree. I’ll be near paying off a major debt and I will be in shape enough to dunk a basketball. Thanks for this contest, you’re right, it really does help to write it down. It’s inspiring. I feel happy just thinking about it.
Happy blog birthday! I hope in one year to be recovered from the physical ailments of this year, and maybe having a baby…
I want to be:
-growing closer to my Lord and Savior every passing day
-happy
-continuing to live a healthy life, and loving it
-running! right now I can run 3 miles max, but by this time next year I want to be running half marathons :] and you know what, I will! because I CAN do it.
-still listening to my body and know what it needs and understanding it
-the best daughter, friend and sister that I can be
Happy Blog Anniversary! and hope you have a Happy Halloween :]
One year from today, I want to be holding my daughter and telling her absolutely beautiful she is and how lucky I am that I was chosen to be her mother. I will be celebrating my body and the amazing thing it did in growing and birthing my child. I will still be working in the health care field helping other to be healthy…. And of course, I will be sharing this journey with my amazing husband. Other goals for the next year of my life include completing another 5K – hopefully with both my hubby and baby girl, earning a personal training certification, and branching out to try new things (yoga, spinning etc.)
Happy Birthday Oh She Glows! I recently began reading your blog, and I love it!
In one year from today I will be working part time at an interesting, fun job while attending graduate school for Transpersonal Counseling! My husband and I will have purchased our new home and working on it to make it our very own. My family and friends will be close and healthy and we will continue to support and love one another.
I also want to express gratitude for what I have today. We are all so truly blessed to be alive!
In one, year, I hope to be out of my current administrative job and back to pursuing a biology career! I should be working on graduate school applications right around then, too.
Happy Bloggy Birthday!
In one year I hope to be in the same shape I am now or better, and enjoying being married to my now fiance.
Happy birthday, OSG! Thanks for all your wonderful contributions to the blogworld, Angela. :)
A year from now I’ll be ~11 months in to my first *real* job. I hope I’m feeling comfortable and happy there!
I want so many things to happen in the next year.
I want to be happy and healthy and at my healthy weight, I think I have about 30 lbs to go. I want to be happy with my job and the direction of my life. I also want to be enjoying life with my new Husband, well have been married a little over a month in a year.
It should be an exciting year!
Jaclyn
In one year, my main goal is to be more healthy. Over the last few weeks, I have began running and watching my diet closely. I have learned so much about my body and how to make myself feel beautiful just by believing that I CAN run that extra few steps! Along with being healthy, I would picture myself finding my purpose in this wonderful life. I have been a college student for a few years but lately have been struggling with my chosen career path. A year from now my husband will be deployed again (this will be our third), so I picture myself finding new ways to keep the bonds of love and happiness as strong as it is now through letters and thoughtful packages. Because I’ll be a “single” mom again, I would like to find new things to do with the kids to help them deal with another deployment. Overrall, I would like to be more healthy and continue my journey of happiness in one year :)
Congratulations Angela! You truly are AMAZING!
I’m SO glad that I stubbled upon your blog months and months ago and have been able to follow your journey since then- you have been an inspiration of sorts…its so wonderful to see people just follow thier BIG dreams and go out on a limb to do what they feel is the RIGHT thing for them.
Thinking about one year from today…my biggest dream is to be a mother, so I would hope that I’m either preggers or starting a new chapter in my life as a parent to a beautiul, healthy baby! Until I get there, I will continue to learn about healthy living, nutrition and wellness and I will keep making the small changes necessary for my Husband and I to lead healthier, happier lives. I hope to be the best ME I can be when I bring another person into this crazy, beautiful world!
Happy Birthday OSG!! <3
Happy Birthday to OSG! I’ve been reading your blog since day 1 and LOVE it!
I am graduating in December, so 1 year from now, I want to have finished my dietetic internship, taken my boards and find a job as an RD here in the Twin Cities. I am also hoping to get married by next fall (no date set yet). I would love to get another triathlon under my belt, and continue improving my eating habits.