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!
In one year I see myself free from my current, unhealthy obsession, and instead, able to make decisions about what foods I put in my body and not feel guilty after I have! I also see myself with more solid plans on being with my love who’s across the ocean right now!
Congrats on your one year! With my future looking the way it is, I can’t wait for MY one year!
Today happens to be mine and my boyfriend’s 1st anniversary. A year ago I would have never guessed things would turn out so wonderfully. Though we did go through some very rough spots losing a beloved pet, our house started falling apart literally, and our jobs security was iffy. But it’s still been the most incredible year of my life. If anything could change I’d bring our dog back.
Hopefully a year from now, while celebrating our 2nd anniversary, we will be handing out candy in a safe neighborhood, in a house that isn’t broken, while planning our future together AKA engaged.
For now, I’ll just keep smiling!
Happy Birthday Oh She Glows!
One year from now I hope:
* To have reached a healthy weight and to feel more confident about my body
* To have come to peace with food and to end my disordered eating
* To feel stronger and more physically fit
Congrats on the blogiversary Angela!
One year from now I hope to look at myself and see a stronger and healthier me. I hope to also prepare to possibly buy a home and have run a half marathon and possibly even a full marathon.
On October 31, 2010 (my favorite holiday of the year, btw) I want to be free from disordered eating, binge eating, restriction eating and dieting. I want to eat and exercise as a way to fuel myself instead of with the goal of being thin. I want to be a happy graduate (I graduate in May 2010), working on my career, saving money for the future and living my best life!
Thanks for the inspiration, Angela! :)
A year from now, I hope I will be: (a) living in a major city I’m in love with; (b) married to my fiance FINALLY; (c) working at a nonprofit where I can really contribute to my fullest potential; (d) the fittest I’ve ever been in my life!
I will FINALLY be finished w/ my nursing prereqs! I will be on the list for nursing school, we will have a lovely apartment, most of our debt paid off, and we will be super relaxed. Finally.
Happy blog-iversary! Most importantly I just want to be healthy and happy.
Happy Birthday! A year from now I want to be doing things that not only make me happy, but others too!
I just started reading your blog, and I’m SO absolutely inspired! I was really impressed by your decision to leave your job and start your healthy bakery- it really takes a lot of courage and drive to make such a powerful decision. I honestly hope that within the next year I will have similar stength, and will have fulfilled some of my dreams and aspirations that I have always reached for. This coming year, I will be completing my undergrad, so I hope that this school year will bring me a lot of new knowledge, experience, and growth. Mostly, though, I just want to be happy and healthy!
Thank you again for all of your inspiring posts!
Happy birthday, Ange! Can’t believe OSG is only 1 year old – you’re such a pro!
In one year, I hope to have a couple races under my belt – maybe even a 10k. I hope to have made new friends here in my new city, and I hope that some people out there will have discovered my blog. :-)
<3 Jul
Firstly, I want to say.. Angela… you inspire me in so many ways. You had the courage to overcome your struggles and although it may not have been easy, you found your joy. You found what makes you happy. Your passion for food, fitness, and fun makes it a lot easier for me to see clearly into how someone that has succeeded thinks. Thanks so much!
Ok…. So.
One year from now… I will be 21 (birthday April 22) and I hope to just love myself.
Over the past years I have struggled with loving myself, being who I am, and embracing it.
About 4 or 5 months ago, I was diagnosed with an eating disorder (anorexia). I was depressed. Being ultimately stressed out led to my depression, which led my life down the wrong road.
I am a college student that has a lot on her plate. I go to school full time (and when I say full time, I mean FULL TIME, try 26 credits!!!) I am on the tennis team at my school and I have job that I keep up with.
Before I was diagnosed, I always knew I had a problem. My confidence wasn’t always so great; I always felt I could be better. I hated the way I looked, the way I felt, and what I saw. I felt I had no control over my own life. But then I thought I found a way. Controlling what I ate made me feel a little bit better. It gave me the feeling that I could do better. Unfortunately it just led to more hurt within myself. Anytime I did try to eat, I felt guilty, horrible! All I thought about were the negative effects.
I want the guilt to go away. I want to have a good relationship with food. I want to become healthier in everyway!!
Since being diagnosed, I have had plenty of help in leading my life into a better happier place. I still definitely struggle but I am constantly working on loving myself and becoming a better person.
So one year from now, I would love to be able to just look in the mirror, tell myself: I am who I am, you are an amazing beautiful confident person who will succeed. No one can put you down and no one will stand in your way.
It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into JOY, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything BRIGHT and beautiful that he has for us. Colossians 1:12
—- Bri
next year, i hope to have the realizations that you have experienced, Angela!
Your most recent post really hit home for me Angela. I AM that guarded, miserable person. My husband, many times, had questioned his decision to marry me. I’ve had an eating disorder for years. Or some sort of body dismorphic disorder. I read your blog every everyday. You make so much sense and really are an amazing person. I work at a hospital but have always wanted to open up my own bakery/bistro. I have the name the decor and everything picked out. I guess it’s just a matter of courage at this point. Anyway…by Oct 31st 2010 I just want to be happy and at peace. I think that’s enough for now! :)
In a year I’d like to be in remission from Crohns disease and in school full time!
I’ve been at college for almost two years now and while I enjoy it for the most part, I’m very shy and still hang around with friends from high school. In one year I hope to break out of my comfort zone and meet new people. I want to feel more confident and happy.
Your post is such an inspiration. I have been toying with a total life change. I feel like I go to work, come home, go to the gym, and then do it all over again the next day. I spend most of my week days wishing that it was the weekend.
I would like to become a personal trainer. This is something that I have wanted to do for some time now. I think that I should just bite the bullet and do it. I think that it would make me feel some satisfaction that I have done something that I wanted to do not because I should but because I wanted to.
I see this as a gateway to open other doors that I may not have opened otherwise. Maybe this would unlock what I really want to do with my life to feel fulfilled.
Thanks for the wonderful blog and daily dose of encouragement.
Ohh I have so many goals and dreams that I hope to achieve within a year. I would like to have run a half marathon and I really hope to have a good hold on my career. My goal is to have a few different jobs, one being a make up effects artist and another being some kind of food writer. I really do wonder what life will be like in one year!
Happy Birthday, OSG!
In one year, I picture myself happily married, in a job that I love where I make enough money that I don’t stress out every single day about making my bills.
I hope in one year i will happier, healthier and my student loans will be paid off! :)