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Well that was fun. By “that” I mean this weekend, and by “fun” I mean just kidding. Want to know what I did this weekend? Look around! Looks kind of different right?
If you’re new here, I’ve made some massive changes to the blog. First, the whole blog has been redesigned and second, I transferred it to Wordpress. Word to the wise, if you ever decide to start a blog make it in Wordpress off the bat! The next few months will be spent going through each post and fixing the alignment, pictures, recipes etc… and attempting to figure out what the hell a plugin/widget/theme is. Unless you’re as neurotic as I am you probably won’t notice these issues, but forgive me if you’re not able to access anything or a post is illegible.
So why the change? I’m not certain I can cover all the reasons in one post but I’ll start with the biggest. I’ve changed. In hindsight, starting the blog was in some way the first step in my self-growth and discovery.
I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I have always tried to do a lot of things “right”. I got into a good college, did well in school, got a great job, lived in the greatest city in the world and repeated the process over in Toronto. Despite all of these things I can’t say I’ve ever felt truly content with my life. Objectively I knew I had all of the means to be happy, but I just couldn’t accept it as enough. Just because I was doing everything “right” doesn’t mean that it was right for me. Writing about my life has forced me to think a lot more about myself and the path I’ve chosen. And truth-be-told, both of these needed and continue to need a lot of work.
I’ve always been one to shy away from change. I like my routine, the predictability of it, the comfort of it, but it got to a point where my reliance on my routine was preventing me from growth. I was scared to break away from it and accept that it’s okay to make mistakes, be inconsistent and not do the “right” thing all the time. Starting the blog was a huge step for me in getting over this fear. I put my life up for display and therefore public scrutiny on an almost daily basis. The important thing here is not the response I get, but the fact that I’ve chosen to accept your responses, whatever they may be.
Knowing that I can handle both criticism and praise has given me the confidence to make massive leaps in my life that I otherwise would not have had the courage to do. I know I’m being elusive with the details of these changes, but I will share them when the time is right. What I am trying to say is that in more ways than one the blog has been the catalyst to immense growth in who I am as a person and how I want to live my life. Moving forward I want my blog to reflect these changes and I’m sure as I continue to evolve the blog will too.
To cap things off I need to give Julie from Deluxe Designs a HUGE thank you for transferring my blog and designing it from scratch. But mostly for responding to my incessant emails and not hating me for making you change something 3 times (or at least not telling me that you hate me!). And also to Lee who kept me calm through the transfer process and for doing god-knows-what to my dashboard. You now have the ability to hijack my blog and post all the horrible selfies I send you daily. But please don’t.
Instead of shying away from it, I’m embracing the change. Let’s consider this Davida/The Healthy Maven 2.o 😉
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Have you ever felt like you needed to change yourself/your life? What steps did you take to make those changes?
I think moving to New York was a huge change for me. I know most people stick around their college friends and even college town once they graduate, but I felt this need to get away and start something new. I think I’ve been able to reevaluate some things about myself and my life and it’s a continuous process for sure. Love your new design! Is it self-hosted?
Being open to change is really the first step to being able to grow. I know it’s not always easy, especially for someone who embraces routine and structure (believe me; I get it!), so kudos to you for being open to it in the first place. I can’t wait to see what changes you bring, in addition to the new blog layout. It looks great.