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A Year of Blogging

Guess what today is!

I’ll give you a hint…

It’s my blog’s one year birthday!!

I know that it’s not very original of me to stick a birthday candle in a bowl of oatmeal… but, um… have you read the title of my blog?

Happy Birthday, Oatmeal After Spinning!

I started blogging one year ago after thinking about it for months. I had created a blog when we first brought Jackson and Lance home as puppies back in January of 2010 in order to document our lives together and to have a place where family members could see what we were up to. It wasn’t until over a year after starting that blog that I stumbled across Lee’s blog one day. I was immediately drawn to her beautiful photographs and collection of recipes, and enjoyed reading about her fitness routine. And from there I found another healthy living blog, and another, and another…

Lee’s blog led me to Kath Eats, which led me to Live Laugh Eat, and then somehow I found Meals & Moves, which are the first three blogs that I really read religiously. I remember reading about each of the three women’s experiences at the Healthy Living Summit and just thought it was such a cool concept that all of these women from around the country came together (most without having ever met in person before) to celebrate fitness and healthy eating. I wanted in on the action, so I started a blog of my own.

I called it Oatmeal after Spinning, because I’ve always liked oatmeal, and I teach Spinning. And I like to eat oatmeal after Spinning- it’s simple as that.

I’ll be honest here: I actually really don’t like the name of my blog, and don’t think it really encompasses what I write about. It was only meant to be temporary, but it just kind of stuck. I’m still planning on changing it (whenever I think of something better).

I didn’t know if anyone would ever read my blog- but I really didn’t care. I immediately liked the “release” that it gave me just to “put my thoughts on paper” and share my ideas with the world (even if only a few people were reading). And then something really cool happened- I started to build friendships with other bloggers – and even a few readers! After reading Ashley’s blog for a few months, we decided to meet up in person for dinner one night- which has led to many more “dates” and an awesome friendship! I eventually met up with other local bloggers, and then attended my first big blogging function, the Blend Retreat last May!

Of everything that I’ve done in the last year related to this blog- I have to say the the Blend Retreat has had the biggest positive impact on my life. I know that I have gone on and on about how much I loved that weekend and how special it was many, many times… but it was just amazing- and the words “life changing” are 100% true. I even get a little emotional just thinking about that weekend and all of the memories that I keep from it- and I know that the other girls who attended feel the same way.I can’t wait for next year’s Blend!!

Over the last year, I’ve had some pretty significant things happen in my life. Shortly after starting this blog, I started going back to Bodypump classes after a nearly two year hiatus. Almost immediately, I fell back in love with the program, and decided to become an instructor myself! After becoming a Bodypump instructor, I started teaching more and more classes at the gym and realized that my love for my part-time job overpowered any good feelings about my full-time job. After lots of thinking, planning and support from my wonderful husband, I made the huge decision to end my teaching career after seven years. I have never really been in love with teaching, and have wanted to get my personal training certification for years and it was just the right time to finally focus on what’s really important- being happy in life! I am still 100% happy with my decision and don’t miss teaching- not a even single, tiny, itsy-bitsy, teenie-weenie little bit. :)

Greg and I both got to cross an item off of our life bucket lists this summer when we hiked not one, but TWO 14ers in Colorado to celebrate our one-year anniversary in July. I also got to re-connect with many of the fabulous Colorado bloggers that I met at Blend, which was wonderful! I’m hoping that my next “big” life announcement is that we’ll be moving out to Colorado… I guess we’ll see what happens!

And that brings us to today. I’m one year wiser, with a huge collection of great memories and a bunch of amazing friends- all thanks to this little blog. I’ll be taking the exam for my personal training certification within the next six weeks, and have no idea what life holds for me after that- but I have about a million ideas and am so excited to get started!

Thank YOU so much for reading – and coming back to read, post after post- through the good and bad. Here’s to another year of blogging!

PS- The celebration of my blog’s birthday will continue on Thursday with a nice little giveaway… stay tuned!

What are some major events that have happened in your life within the last year?

September 4th, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized

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