One year!

A year ago today my blog was born! I still remember the day when I was jogging in the early morning along the canal when it suddenly occured to me that I could blog about my ongoing training and progress for my first long distance run.

I’ve come a long way since then. While I am about a stone heavier than I was a year ago, I consider myself fitter than I ever have been. I can run 10km non-stop in over an hour (my current record is 1 hour and 8 minutes!). I still eat sweet sugary snacks and desserts but I eat far more fruit, vegetables and salad than I used to. I aim to do intense exercise twice a week, something I never thought I’d do while I was a teen. I never ever thought I could be fit.

An important thing is I feel far more confident about myself. I believe I can accomplish greater things in terms of fitness. I will complete my first half marathon this year (in October). I have debunked the myth that you have to be thin to be fit, which I used to believe as a youngster, when my PE teachers would give me lower grades for ability just because I was overweight. That is definitely not the case.

I also feel much more informed about feminism. I was a bit worried at first about posting feminist blogs and issues concerning sex/gender, but all the ones I have done so far have been well received, and have even provoked discussion amongst readers and bloggers! I find the feminist blogs on WordPress so interesting and informative, and I’ve learnt so much from them as well, such as other people’s opinions of modern-day feminism and what it means to them. The blog I am still proud of to this day is the one about body hair– this one seems to have caused the most discussion.

My blog has come a long way since day one. I’ve blogged about all sorts of stuff, such as when I was writing about my dissertation for my Masters, reviews of gigs and even nostalgic activities, from making ironing bead patterns to colouring in!

Over the year though, I have aimed to become much more refined in what I blog about, hence why I changed my orginial colloquial tag line ‘Ey up’ to ‘Feminist Fitness Foodie’. This way bloggers will know what material I post. I used to post poems onto my blog but then I decided to set up a separate WordPress site called ‘Poclaretry’.

I’d like to say a big massive thank you to everyone who reads my blog and supports me by giving me ideas to write about and general encouragement. When I started blogging I thought it would be difficult to keep it going, especially while I was studying my Masters. However, I enjoy it so much and the topics I write about are always relevant to today in some shape or form. Blogging was actually a way for me to relax while I was studying (maybe procrastination too!) and many people seemed interested in my research when I blogged about it. I’m also grateful for the advice and comments I have received from bloggers and readers during my fitness journey.

I still can’t believe I’ve been blogging for a year- here’s to another year!

 

Happy reading and blogging!

Many thanks,

Clare Bear 🙂