A Merry Life - The Pursuit of Healthy & Happy » Blogging

Wedding Recaps & More Links

Mary — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:24:42 +0000

No exercise today. Just work and lots of it. But lucky for me… it’s FRIDAY! :)

That means the weekends starts…. tonight! We are headed to the Auckland Lantern Festival tonight with a couple friends (remember last year’s festival?). I’m super excited because all the fun outdoor festivals during the summer here are one of my favorite things about living in Auckland. It should be a fun start to a great weekend.

In blogging news, this week I finally started writing my wedding recaps! It’s taken forever to get started but I’m finally putting them up over on my wedding blog in case you are interesting to read them.

Wedding Recap: Engagement Photo Session

Wedding Recap: Getting Ready

Eventually I’ll work my way through the whole wedding! :)

Other thoughts and links:

I’m supporting Planned Parenthood who recently lost their funding from Susan G Komen for the Cure Foundation. I’m not overly political but I think it’s sad that the Komen Foundation did this and essentially stopped supported women seeking care at Planned Parenthood health centers. Cancer prevention and detection saves lives and for some people PP provides that. I know personally I looked into Planned Parenthood services when I didn’t have healthcare and hardly had an income. I know a lot of people get stuck on the issue of abortions but they do more than that related to health.
Another project worth supporting: ‘Support All Kids Billboard Project by Support All Kids Bilboard Project’ They are collecting money to help counteract a negative billboard campaign in Georgia from Strong4Life, a campaign by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which is shaming and humiliating fat kids under the guise of making them healthier. Being called fat as a child doesn’t magically make you healthier… it just makes you feel bad about yourself. Been there done that don’t want to see kids being shamed into feeling bad about themselves.
Michelle Obama and Ellen Degeneres having a pushup contest.
Yay strong role models! Yay pushups!

Have a great Friday & weekend! :)

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How To Blog Real Good

Mary — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:27:21 +0000

Nothing very exciting happened today. It’s been a restful day of work and blogging…. I didn’t even make it to the gym because I was too sore from Sunday Sports. Luckily that at least gives me an idea on which body parts I need to work on the most for future rounds of play!

Just a heads up for other bloggers…

I’ve got a whole section of helpful content on the site now that was previously stuff in the e-book I sold about better blogging. I decided to simplify my blog “stuff” earlier this year and stopped selling products (so I didn’t have to worry as much with all the admin stuff) when I was busy with life and wedding planning. I realized after the wedding instead of putting the e-book back up for sale I should just share all the information and more with everyone out there who wants to learn more about blogging and create a better health or weight loss blog.

I know a lot of bloggers are always looking for how-to blog info when they first start so the health blog guide section will be helpful. You can send newbies there or if you are new you can check it out too. It’s got a lot of quotes and tips from other bloggers in the health niche too so it’s not just my opinions.

Hopefully it helps you other bloggers out with blogging. :)

ps – In case someone doesn’t get it, the title is a Zoolander-ish joke.

Other than sharing that awesomeness I haven’t got much to say. I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving and spent lots of quality time with friends and family!

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Identity

Mary — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:00:52 +0000

I haven’t had the desire to blog every day in the past two weeks while getting married and moving. Instead I’ve been adjusting to a new life and perhaps more importantly, to a new identity.

It seems like when you get married not much changes. But in my case, almost everything changed. It has been a time of so many changes and a shift in my very identity. It feels more important to figure this sort of stuff out first before blogging.

So what all has changed? A lot, really…

I’ve gotten married.
I became a wife.
I’ve changed my name.
I’ve started going by my new last name.
I got a haircut (it’s short and cute).
I got a tattoo.
I moved across the world to New Zealand.
I became the primary breadwinner for my little family.
I began looking for a new place to live.
I started reaching out to make new friends.

It seems that a lot has changed in a short period of time and that is something that takes some adjusting. I know that my new life in New Zealand will be awesome but it is something that I will need to get used to. The last time I lived here things didn’t go that well so I’m attempting to make sure my life as an expat goes more smoothly this time around.

I’ve learned recently that though this blog is important and something that I really value and hold a place for in my life that it is also not the most important thing in my life. I have a family to look out for and create (hehe) and a full time job to excel at and advance in. I have new friends to make and old friends to keep in touch with.

I have a real life that feels full and busy and that is something that for a while I didn’t really have when I started this blog. I started when I was in college and after I graduated I wasn’t totally sure who I was or where I was going.

Well, I’m here now.

I’m not at my goal weight and I still have a million fitness challenges I want to do. But for now I’m figuring out the here and now of my life that is super exciting in other ways. With all the changes in my life it felt like a good time to also change my blogging up on this blog. Because why not change everything once in a while? So my posts might be sporadic for a while and I might blog a lot about adjusting to this new life adventure instead of what I ate for dinner, but I hope as always this blog continues to be the record of my totally rad life that is always changing in exciting ways.

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Side Note About RSS Feeds

Mary — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:53:37 +0000

Earlier I changed my rss feeds to summary instead of full text because it’s been bothering me that scammers use my content from the rss feed to sell diet pills and other crap. Unfortunately this didn’t fly to well with readers (20 or so of you jumped ship immediately…thanks). So I’m changing it back. Please don’t leave? I love yall, I just got tired of seeing my personal life and photos on awful websites. But yeah, I’d rather do what makes you guys happy. So back to full text.

Side note over. :)

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Blogging Embarrassment

Mary — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:14:23 +0000

Sometimes, I’m embarrassed by this blog.

Like this morning during a work meeting when my boss pulled it up. He did that to show a client I know what I’m talking about regarding blogging. And I do. I understand the ins and outs of blogging and linking and SEO and building traffic. It’s just… awkward when the first words he saw were Operation Wedding Sexy.

Awkward!

But despite the momentary embarrassment, I’m really not embarrassed. I’m glad my blog isn’t anonymous and I’m glad it’s a part of me. I’m glad that I post photos of myself and my life. I’m proud that people can see me and recognize me and know me because of this blog.

(And I’m glad I can talk about makeup. It’s my second day wearing Bare Minerals and I’m seriously in looooove.)

I’m glad I’m open about my struggles with binge eating, and overcoming verbal/mental abuse, therapy and making my life better. I’m glad I am honest about being healthier and share so much of myself with people who relate.

I just needed to say that and sort out my own feelings on the matter. It was an embarrassing moment, but I’m not embarrassed. Not by a long shot.

-

This morning’s workout was great! I spent 45 minutes at the gym doing cardio and some upper body strength training. I realized this morning while checking myself out in the mirror that my legs are definitely smaller. I need to take my measurements at some point, but I’m pretty sure I am finally shrinking again.

I have a therapy session this afternoon. I’m excited because I’ve actually been doing amazing in the past three weeks. Something clicked in my head and I realized I’m stronger than the crap in my life. I’m resilient and strong. Since things have been going well with eating and exercise and standing up for myself I’m thinking we might touch on the subject of my anxiety. With the wedding coming up in a couple months I really would like to get it under control.

Today is a good day. I feel good. It’s a great start to the week. Hope you all are having just as great a day!

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If you are a blogger have you ever been embarrassed by your blog? Do you keep it anonymous or not share the URL? As a blog reader would you ever be embarrassed to meet a blogger?

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Social Media Sabbatical

Mary — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:42:18 +0000

For the past 7 years of my life I’ve updated one website or another with stauses. (Yep, I’ve been on Facebook way too long… back when it was college students only.)

Seven years of random thoughts and observations and useless info documenting my days. I’ve updating tens of thousands times, if not hundreds of thousands.

I wonder how much time of my life those statuses account for. I wonder how much of my time I’ve wasted not only thinking up those statuses but typing them out, replying to responses, and reading other statuses.

Way too much time, that’s how much.

I recently decided to take a break from social media unless it is for my job or clients. I’m eliminating personal use for a while to see what it feels like to go back to living a normal life where I don’t update statuses constantly. I want to see what it’s like to do amazing things and think amazing things without worrying about sharing those thoughts with my closest thousand friends/fans/followers.

I want to get my time back. I want to save myself from myself – the girl who wastes too much time getting sucked into social media when I’m bored or trying to procrastinate. I want to eliminate the insecurity and anxiety that social media sometimes causes me.

I wonder how much more I’ll be able to get done without social media. I wonder how strong the urge will be to share these statuses that I’m used to sharing. Seven years is a long time to be so involved with social media. I sometimes even think in status form or at least plan my future statuses as things are happening in real time. I wonder how long it will take to eliminate that from my mind.

I honestly don’t know how this will go nor do I know how long it will last or when it will end. It’s an indefinite sabbatical for now and I’m planning to try it out for a month at least. I’ll still be blogging so I’m not leaving, I’m just not promoting and I’m not following social media.

Last night I was feeling weird and scared without access to social media. I was missing the connections and knowing what’s going on in the world. I was missing that nightly habit of reading through everyone’se statuses before going to bed. So I already gave in to Facebook the first day just because I felt so alone. The fact that it happened makes me even more convinced that I need to take a break from social media and reset myself.

If you need me or want to chat I’ll be around in the comments on my blogs or via e-mail. :)

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Not Blogging

Mary — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 22:00:42 +0000

Yesterday I biked 6.5 miles and walked 1 mile. I’m going to make my walking and biking goals for the month, but 25 additional workouts? Not happening. Life got in the way and I’ve been too busy. I’ve also been slightly too busy to keep up with blogging.

I might have been playing a friendly family game of Monopoly (my birthday present) during my blogging time instead… :)

Katy’s post about what her readers have taught her about blogging provided me a very reassuring message today.

You, my readers, have taught me that life is for LIVING. Not blogging. And you’ve told me that you want quality over quantity. That it’s OK to take a day or two off. And most importantly, that you’ll stick around even through absences.

So true and a great reminder for me this week. Yesterday I just didn’t feel like blogging. Instead I folded more flowers for the wedding, wrote a bunch of to-do lists to get organized, played a game of Monopoly, and spent 1.5 hours working out. I even started packing. I was productive, I had fun with Kepa, I exercised and ate well. I just didn’t blog about it. And that’s okay.

For the longest time I felt so bad about taking a day off blogging. I got into the habit of blogging daily even if I didn’t have much to say. Over the last few months I’ve moved away from that process. I’ve started taking weekends off for the most part and even skipping a day or two during the week if I don’t have anything to say. Sometimes breaking that daily blogging habit causes me a lot of anxiety – which means it is even more important that I remember living wins over blogging, especially when I’m busy and life is changing drastically again like it is in just one week.

So, dear readers, thank you for teaching me the same thing. A lot of you have been with me for years and you haven’t abandoned me yet. Clearly skipping a day or two or even more of blogging isn’t the end of the world.

I suppose this is partly to say thanks for sticking around and partly to say I have no idea how much I’ll be blogging over the next two weeks. I have one week left in NZ and then a full day traveling and then a week of getting over jet-lag/catching up with friends/settling in/getting ready for work. I supposed life will settle into a routine soon after I start working and I’ll be back to blogging regularly then. Until then it’s time for living (er, surviving?).

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Check out Jen’s cool challenge sponsored by Polar!

Happy 27th birthday to Caitlin!

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