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!
One year from today I hope to be employed as well as financially stable enough to adopt a cat from the local animal shelter. I have wanted a cat for so long but being a student, I haven’t had the funds to properly care for one.
As I will be having a baby in early June 2010, my hope is that by October 31 I will be back to a regular fitness routine and well on my way to the absence of baby jiggle. As I failed in my goal to have the best body of my life before getting pregnant, I’m still hoping to achieve that goal after.
I want to become one of those people that exercises everyday because they WANT to, not because its just another thing on the to-do list.
My ideal life one year from now would look like this:
– Success for my husband’s company
– I will be pregnant with our first child
– I will have done my first international-distance triathlon
– I will have become a solid age group-placing athlete
– My blog will be successful or I will have found a professional niche for my strengths and interests
Thank you!
Well, I know I will be back at school, finishing up my science classes. I want to be focused, scheduled… and, of course, happy! I want to be settled into NYC and my life here in every way and doing the things that I love.
These days things are so unscheduled and disorganized… I don’t feel at home in my new home yet, and I hope in a year that I feel right at home.
I see myself still in school, but hopefully traveling abroad someplace fabulous–perhaps France?!!
I want to move my career into the travel industry –
I am in the process of working out the details and classes if necessary. I want to help people travel and see the world!
What a great post! And Happy 1 year!
By next Halloween I hope to be secure in my job, running with my puppy, having one more half marathon under my belt and possible contemplating adding a non-furry addition to our family. :)
On October 31, 2010 I will truly be myself. I will be thirty years old and I will have gotten through the divorce I am going through right now. I will be strong and resilient. I will be blessed. I will be healthy. I will be amazing. As each day passes, I become more and more like ME and less and less of what everyone else thinks I should be.
Congrats!!
In one year I hope to find more enjoyment & satisfaction with my job. Most likely this means finding what I want to be when I grow up. ;-)
I love my life my job just brings me down…..
Best wishes for another fabulous year!!
Living in CO with my fiance and our two dogs. Right now we’re long distance but we have a deadline set for us both to be living in the same time zone!
The only thing I really want for myself a year from now is to be healthy and happy. I know it doesnt sound like much, but really, what else is there? I think everything else will fall into place from there.
WITHIN NEXT YEAR YOU HAVE INSPIRED ME TO START A BLOG, POST THE PICTURES OF MY FOOD AND LOSE 15 POUNDS ONLY BY EXERCISE AND HEALTHY EATING..AND I WILL CELEBRATE MY BLOGS FIRST BITHDAY WITH A GIVE AWAY..GOOD LUCK .THANKS FOR BEING A GOOD SOURCE OF INSPIRATION.KEEP GLOWING…
Happy Birthday OSG!! You’re so awesome :)
Next year, I hope be enjoying my career as a US Navy Nurse in a hospital has an enjoyable working environment. Thanks so much– Love your blog btw.
My goals are to be the healthiest I can be, loving where we live and what we do for a living prosperously. Finding purpose!
Great giveaway Ange!
Happy halloween!
Enjoy!
i hope with the next year to be truly happy with myself. To love myself and feel beautiful just like you as well as my parents, preach to me everyday. Im only 17 right now and want to feel as strong as ever and filled with hope of what is to come with years to come, which includes more than just college. thankyou so much!
Well this time next year I will have a brand new baby, so I’m hoping to be on the track of losing all of that baby weight!! And enjoying me 8 year old boy, 2 year old boy and newborn baby!! Being a mommy is awesome!
1 Year from today, I will have a 6-month old baby boy! I realize all my time will be spent taking care of him, but I hope that it will be a joyful time for my husband and I. I also hope I can still devote a tiny amount of time to making myself feel special and pretty!
at this time next year..i hope to be finishing up school, and moving myself to santa monica california. it’s where i want to be :)
October 31, 2010 – that sounds like farther away than I know it will be!
By that time, I’ll have finished my masters degree and I hope to be teaching somewhere in the hills of Washington or Oregon. I also want to find my exercise/healthy living niche! Whether it’s running, yoga, or something else entirely, I want to be well on my way to being my healthiest ever by next Halloween.
Your story is inspiring, Angela – thanks for sharing it!
Congrats and Happy Halloween! I have been out of the blog world for the past week because my grandpa just passed away, but it is good to be back!
Next year on this day my life will be very different! I am looking forward to being a strong and beautiful mom of a 6 month old baby that will be born in April! I hope to be a great role model, parent and wife. I can’t wait for my family to start!