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 more mature, happy, and balanced. I will be living in beautiful weather and enjoying the next step in my career. I will be organized and in control of my life! It starts today!
Happy Birthday OSG and Congrats Angela. I’ve loved the A Year Can Change a Lot series, and your blog in general. You are so inspiring.
One of my biggest dreams has simply been to move away from Oklahoma, where I’ve lived my entire life and experience life in another place. I hope that I’ve either achieved that goal, or made considerable progress in doing so by next Halloween. It may seem vague, but I’ve always felt a pull to leave this place I’ve been in my whole life and I believe that once I get there great things will happen :)
Hey! Great post, amazing topic to think about! I will definitely be back home in Colorado, attending grad school, hopefully working at my old elementary school, running, about to hop on a plane to run the ING New York Marathon! Thanks Again!
One year from now, I hope to be 1/2 done with my AA, have my son in college, and be well on my way to moving out of this house that I do not enjoy coming home to. Most of all, I hope to be happy and healthy and for my family to be as well.
Happy OSG Birthday! One year from now I want to be a homeowner and also have a clear direction on my future – whether I want to stay in my current field or change entirely!
One year from now I hope to be finished school, moved out of my parents house, and still have the same wonderful friends… but more of them!
I hope to have run my first half marathon and be in the best shape of my life.
I want to feel loved, give love, and go to sleep each night feeling proud of myself for how I spent the day.
First, Angela a super congratulations on the one year birthday/anniversary of Oh She Glows. An amazing accomplishment.
I strive for simplicity everyday. Not that I don’t challenge myself, but to really enjoy each and everyday. So in one year from now, my ideal will to know myself that much more and to ensure that I’m doing something everyday to respect myself and those around me (those I love and know and those I don’t know and don’t know I love yet!)
just closer to being happier and whole. back to balance in eating, not binging and hating my body as a result. loving and being ok with myself, in or out of a relationship. being strong enough to change the decisions, relationships, and habits that bring me down and further away from achieving peace and self-acceptance. knowing that, yeah, its great to be in a relationship, but that i can be whole and happy on my own – knowing i am a strong person, seeing what everyone else sees in me. yeah, i’d like that.
Thanks for being so inspiring Angela! From living my dreams to eating healthy…finding your blog has helped me on my path to a healthy lifestyle…while dragging my poor (soon to be former) meat-eating family along whether they like it or not!
One year from now I hope to be completed with the 54 pound weight loss goal I am currently working on. I am going slow as I believe that helps the body adjust and maintain, and not gain it back, so I am at about 3-5 pounds a month. So far, after three months I am down 18 pounds so far (hmmm…I guess that averages 6 pounds!)
I also hope that my blog that I started in July to chronicle my weight loss journey ( http://fit-and-fabulous-jewel.blogspot.com/ ) and my camping website that I have worked on for a little over two and a half years ( http://your-camping-guidebook.com ) are successful enough that I can let go of my current job.
Finally, I have a goal of at least walking a marathon, or finishing a local scout event which is a 2-day 32-mile walk. I have a mild form of muscular dystrophy so I can’t run….and at this weight I know I cannot finish either of those. But I have been walking 1-2 miles at a time, a couple of times a week (okay…maybe I have been lazy the last couple of weeks and need to get back to it!) but I do have a goal of training and increasing my miles as my weight goes down and strength and energy levels go up.
So for now….that is where I see myself in one year! I better write these down!!!
Thanks Angela!
Angela,
I have been reading your blog since November 2008. I have read about your transition, your struggle to leave the job you hated, and your relief when you did. I have also witnessed the incredible energy unleashed by your decision to live the life you imagined for yourself, and I want to say that I really admire your courage. It is giving me hope during a dark time.
You see, this fall I am where you were last fall. I feel stuck-in my disordered eating pattern,my career and personal life. At night I am conscious of the need to make a decision about what to do next-and paralysed by the idea that I might make the wrong choice. So your challenge gave me something to think about…
By October 31, 2010, I will have returned to graduate school to study something I love (maybe even related to healthy living). I will have completed my Yoga Teacher Training, and will be teaching part-time while I go to school. I will have spent time in Portugal, Spain and Italy, and done some volunteer work abroad. My relationships will be healed, and I will be moving into a new home in a city I love by 2011.
I hope to spread around me the positive energy that comes from living the life you were meant to live
Congratulations on 1 year, Ange!
What a fantastic giveaway. I can’t wait to try out one of your bars.
In one year, I see my husband and I enjoying time with our first child!!!
in 1 year I hope to have a fantastic nutrition related job that I love to go to every day and live in a place that I truly enjoy.
One year from now I hope to be fully recovered from my eating disorder, living in my own place again and happily working toward my goal of becoming a writer.
Happy one year anniversary!
One year from now I wish to continue the healthy journey that I began at the beginning of this year. (I’ve lost 30 lbs and donated a kidney to my bro.) I also hope to LIVE my life and not just survive in a job that makes me unhappy. And, I hope to grow my jewelry design business into a full time job so I don’t have to answer to others.
Cheers to making hopes into realities!
In October 2010, I will be in my final year of pharmacy school, just completing my courses and beginning my practicum placement. I know you talk on your blog a lot about balance and loving what you do – I am happy with my career choice, but a huge key for me is balance. I have been working so hard on finding that and next year I see myself happy and content because I am living in balance. Happy, healthy, and content!
Congrats on a year of blogging! I really enjoy reading it and wish you many more years of finding happiness. In one year, I hope to travel (for work) less and be more balanced. My boyfriend of almost 5 years moved to my area recently so I hope that we move forward in our relationship and get to know each other well enough to decide whether to get married.
Congrats on your 1 year of blogging! I always find your posts to be so uplifting and informational.
In the coming year, I hope to finally finish renovations on our house and put it on the market. We would love to be out of suburbia and living in a small city. My other goal is to be able to quit my job and start working out of my home. This is a long shot in a year, but maybe if the stars align, it will happen:)
in one year i’d like to be a mommy. :)
in a year from now…ahhhhh… i’ll be a semester away from graduating… I want to be able to manage stress more and to love/ accept myself at least a little more
In one year, I will be a healthy, active 30 year old. I will know “myself” better, have maninted an excersize program of cardio, weights and yoga, along with regularly meditating. I will have also have completed my BA and have enrolled or plan to enroll within the next 6 months in a MBA program. I will be promted to a Representative or higher position. And I will reserach job opportunitys ouside of my company.
I am not waiting to start these changes….These changes will start today.