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!
Congrats on 1 year of OSG!
I’m a lurker, I haven’t commented on your blog before, but I’ve been reading it for several months. I really love how open and honest you are with your postings and I truly appreciate all the wisdom you share with your readers!
One year from now, I WILL be married, I WILL have run my first 5K race, I WILL have changed my eating habits for the better! :)
Thanks for all that you do!!
I see myself 15 pounds lighter (my goal weight) and running on a consistent basis. As of right now, I can only run about a mile, but I’m working on it and know I’ll be able to run a few miles soon! :) I also hope to be able to let go of doubt and my tendency to try to be “perfect” – I’m perfectly ok just as I am!!!
I hope to have completed my first marathon by this time next year, and I hope to keep growing spiritually as well as keep getting more physically fit! Happy Birthday OSG!
I hope to lose 15 pounds, so I can have a healthier start when we try to have children. I’d also love to start up my own business to get out of my miserable day job. You are such an inspiration to me! Happy 1st Birthday, OSG!
Happy Happy Blogiversary!!! This is my ‘go-to’ blog for great food ideas and inspiration to follow my dreams…as far as where I’ll be next year? I hope to buy our first house and be happily employed as a manager. I hope to be even fitter and stronger than I am today. I also want to run the Times Colonist 10k in Victoria, BC with my friends and brother (and keep up with him!). Thanks Angela for all your inspiration and fearless writing over this past year. It has been a great outlet for me and so educational without being boring. You are a true talent!
I see myself being healthier, happier, and trying to explore more of my own interests outside of my (boring) job! I want to be certified as a spinning instructor and work on my 5k time :-)
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday OSG!
In one year I hope to be completely pain-free from my back injury and living more healthfully.
Happy Birthday OSG! I have been truly inspired by all your posts and fun stories!
In one year, I hope to continue on my path to healthy living. I joined a gym last December and I have dedicated myself to keep my membership and I have! I also go to the gym about 3 – 5 days of the week and while I have only lost about 5 lbs, I know I am feeling better and looking better. The way I feel is most important!
One year from now, I hope to be still teaching but in a different school and a different grade level! I also hope to be settled in a new house with my hubby as we are in the market soooon! :)
I see myself at a healthy weight, enjoying my senior year of high school to the best of my ability! I see myself going to the high school dances, and having a boyfriend:) I see myself happier and living life to the fullest.
In one year, ideally I would be pregnant :) haha that remains to be seen though. I would also like to be continuing my blog and hopefully be a better cook/baker. I would like to be a better and more supportive wife, and still be fit and healthy!
One year from now I’d like to (1) be two semesters from finishing my degree (2)have completed my current fitness goals and completed my first 10K (3) Have an idea of what I want to do after college (4) be more comfortable in my own shoes (5) just continue being happy.
Happy Birthday OSG! Every day your blog continues to be a source of inspiration for me. In a year, I hope that the “football stadium of lights” turns on for me. I really want to dig deep within myself to find my happy place. Thanks to you, I know that an ordinary lil’ girl from New Brunswick can certainly find it and in finding it realize that she is rather EXTRAORDINARY!!
In one year, I see myself slimmer and better able to control my portions. I see myself and my son continuing to lead fun and active lives. I see myself in grad school.
In one year, i hope to have applied, went, and finished school at the Natural Gourmet Institute and working in a catering company getting all the experience I can to prepare myself for starting my own catering business.
Your story has been so inspiring for me. I am in a job now that I feel miserable in. I feel like I am at my wits end and school is a far off dream. I am trying to hang in there and make it through till next year when I can start school. Thank you for your story, as it has shown me that your dreams are possible.
A year from now I’d like to be at my goal weight (65 lbs down, 40 to go) and be healthier than ever. I would like to learn how to run with asthma so that one day a year from now I can run a half marathon myself! I’d also like to be proficient in yoga by then too.
Congrats to you Angela on all you’ve accomplished in just a year! You Rock!
wow, what an awesome giveaway! I just graduated from college this past May. i am now working a semi-temporary job so i hope one year from now i havea full time job as an assistant media planner, and hopefully be moved into my own place in the city (I live in NY)!
I have never been one for setting lofty goals, so in one year, I see myself feeling healthy, happy and confident, having fun with loved ones in a fully-furnished new apartment.
It took alot of hard work and dedication, but after a very rough patch and roller coaster relationship with food, I am finally happy where I am today. Eating unprocessed foods has changed my body…and my running! I have really been working on myself, which is what I needed to do to get here. Working on myself has left little time for someone else though…so my “goal” for October 2010, is that I will have met someone who I can share this journey with! Now that I am positive minded and feel clarity and happiness, I would love to share it with someone.
One year from now I hope to have three things:
1. I hope to be enrolled in school working hard towards a degreein nutrition
2. To be debt free and pay for those college classes out of pocket ( NO LOANS)
3. And to have finished my very first marathon that will be in October 2010
HAPPY BLOG BIRTHDAY ANGELA!