Hey there,
Thank you to the readers, friends, blog supporters who want to continue to see me blog…err or just see pics of Bean. Either way, all the comments did make me smile and the support is one of the reasons to continue blogging.
Mila had the idea of just blogging 1x per week on average. I like that and may be something I’ll stick to. My guess is, per month, there will be one random ‘here’s what I’ve been up to’ post, 1 post on Bean’s latest news, 1 post on shoes (since I’ve yet to show you about 3 or 4 new pairs I’ve bought), and 1 post may be on a new recipe I’ve tried. How does that sound?
In the last post, I alluded to not fitting in the HLB community. First let me say, I actually do believe myself to live healthfully: I sleep 8-9 hours a night, I work out regularly, I eat well, I indulge for special occasions (or for Tuesdays 
), I try to take me time, I spend time with family and friends, I travel, I challenge my brain. All of those things, to me, make up a healthy lifestyle.
And there a good number of other HLBers who also live and believe similarly (from what I can tell).
But that’s just it, it’s only from what I can tell. What is portrayed, whether true or not, is not what I can relate to. So as to not be cryptic, I’m going to list them, but please know that this is not a personal attack by any means. It’s just me noting we may not subscribe to the same approach to healthy living.
Why I don’t fit in:
- I hate working out in the AM’s and would never (unless for some spectacular reason) sacrifice my sleep to go workout. Instead I work out after work (late afternoons) when I can burn off energy.
- I think almond butter is not all its hyped up to be. Give me PB. In fact, place a container of JIF in front of me, and I’ll be pretty damn happy.
- I won’t preach about HFCS and then eat a massive amount of froyo topped with candy toppings that include HFCS. Instead, I’ll just do the latter…and enjoy it
- I won’t overlink to my old pages for hits. For awhile I got way to caught up in the reader traffic. What does it all mean? Nada. I don’t blog for my job so it’s not like I’m dependent on hits for money.
- I won’t overlink to products. I will link to the few products that I truly love (e.g. Nugo before Nugos were popular) to give you easy access to the site or to a restaurant menu that I don’t want to recap.
- I will not market myself for tons of free stuff. I admit, it’s awesome to be sent items to review especially when the retailer sought you out. But whether direct or indirect, there is an amount of work that goes into getting that free stuff: links to their site, commenting on other people’s blogs about how much you love that product, soliciting them directly, tweeting them day in and day out, etc. I could spend that time with my baby or doing extra work at my job, that pays me, and then just buy those things the companies are sending. Right?
- I don’t subscribe to the crazy toppings trend. That is, when I eat oatmeal, it’s just water, oats, and some cinn (maybe some stevia), but no muffin crumbles or granola or PB or AB. Just oats. Same for my toast — it’s just PB on it, not PB with nectarine slices and granola on top. A few posts back I wrote about my sugar intake…well all those toppings are a sure fire way to have the sugar intake explode!
- I won’t ever post all my food. I eat oatmeal every morning with brewed coffee. I eat a relatively boring lunch and dinners aren’t that extravagant either. If anything is worthy noting, sure I may mention it. I assure you, my oats are not worth noting.
- I drink wine, usually a glass a night. I am surprised by how many HLBers rarely if ever drink/have a glass of vino with dinner, etc.
- I’m not always happy. I get down. I get frustrated. I get cranky. You get the point. I tell you that I’m in a funk and don’t or won’t put on a happy face. I think readers are getting a skewed perception of what bloggers’ lives are like based on what they portray. I’m glad others are happy, but I find it hard to believe that there is never a bad day worth a few sentences of ranting.
- I don’t run. That’s a biggie. Okay, it’s also somewhat of a lie. I run to get in a workout now and then (maybe 2-3x per month tops). And my run is maybe 3 miles. And it’s at a 9 min pace. And I feel like death afterwards. And that’s a-ok by me. I feel mighty left out at blog events that focus solely on running.
- I cannot devote even up to an hour of working out a day. I have a job. I have a baby. And sadly I require at least 8 hours of sleep so using more than about 45 minutes of my day to workout is not really negotiable to me (minus my weekly Spin class or an occasional Bikram, etc). Frankly, I like to get my workout done, then grab my glass of vino and watch bad reality tv.
Phew…okay that list got too long.
So the blogs I do relate too are the ones that share real aspects of their life, don’t call a 60min workout an easy day, generally have a job of some sort, are mommies (hey what can I say, I can relate), don’t use the same words as every other blogger, and aren’t caught up in all of the above. Caveat: some bloggers I follow, and truly like, do some of the things above, but also have shared so much more that I can relate to.
So there it is.
See ya in a week or so maybe
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