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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 love the redesign (and that you’re on WP now!!!) and I LOVE LOVE LOVE this post! Your self-reflection always hits so close to home for me. I know exactly what you mean about doing so much and never feeling like it’s enough, like you can just enjoy the moment you’re in instead of trying to make things even better, a little more perfect. When I look at things, including/especially my own life/personality/career/body/etc, I tend to see what can be improved. I struggle to just step back and congratulate myself, or appreciate what I have, or recognize the positive… but I’m getting better. From what I see from your own posts, you’re doing a fabulous job of embracing change and evolving. Thanks for inspiring me as always. I’m excited to see what’s in store for Davida 2.0 🙂
listen to me biatch, you are awesome; no ifs ands or buts about it. why do you think you’re part of #bbm2014? only the best of the best are invited so if all goes to hell – which let’s face it, sometimes life hands you a pack of shitty lemons – remember #bbm2014! when my project was going to the shits and i was busy as hell last week, all i kept on saying to myself was #BBM2014!!!!!
now that we got that straight, i LOVE the new layout. and on a more serious note, change – while scary! – can sometimes be good if not great. because if we don’t experience change, how can we grow, right? and if the change doesn’t kill you, it’ll only add to the experiences of your life OR it can be a lesson that we take and move on.
rage on for #bbm2014!
I love the site! Isn’t it so annoying to not understand anything and also have the sizing and images be all off from past posts? I made the switch to self-hosted a few months ago and I swear it is a learning process everyday. I can’t center my ads and can’t adjust the old images and sometimes I just have to let it be before I go insane and throw my pretty pink laptop across the room.
Love the new format, it looks beautiful! I’m sure it was a stressful weekend, but hopefully well worth it for you! Happy Monday!
Blog looks amazing as I said in yesterday’s comment it was definitely well worth all the effort you put into it.
I am so happy as well to hear how you have changed for the better just in your own self happiness. It is funny as blogging for me has helped make me happier too but I think as it made me discover a great hobby and passion and being able to make new friends and share that passion is just such an amazing thing.
Usually I’ve felt the need to change after a break up. That was usually because I thought that if I changed this or that finally I would be happy. It took me a while to realize that you just need to be happy with exactly what you have and where you are at – which it sounds like you have figured out too.
Can’t wait to hear what all the exciting news and changes are going to be for you when the time is right to share.
The new design is beautiful, I love it!! And thanks for moving to Wordpress, selfishly it makes commenting so much easier for me and you know I love virtually chatting with you every day!
Love our daily “chats”!
Great post! Wish you the best of luck! I have to remind myself when I look at others that what sounds good on paper isn’t always that amazing.
Loving the new look. If you don’t mind me asking, I hear about people switching to word press all the time, but just curious what the main reasons are for it? Also when you switch to word press, does it not carry over to bloglovin?
I think it’s supposed to carry over but it takes some time. Right now mine doesn’t seem to be working, but hopefully I’ll get it sorted out. I think in the long run my goals with the blog require a lot of individual changes that blogger doesn’t allow. You’re pretty confined to the template which ended up being a problem for me. It’s a huge hassle to carry everything over but I know once I’ve done it all I’ll be happy!
I absolutely loved Davida 1.0, so does this mean I’ll love Davida 2.0 twice as much? 😀 Congrats on all the changes, lovely lady! I’ve definitely faced a few big changes recently, and the only thing you can really do is trust yourself, jump in, and hope for the best. That and remember that “everything will be okay in the end — and if it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”
The new design looks great! It has such a nice simple and clean look. Congratulations on taking the leap into the unknown for this new change. You’ll catch on to wordpress really quickly. If you need any help navigating the platform i’d be more than happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability.
The suspense is already killing me for these exciting new changes in your life. I’m loving your perspective.
In terms of change in my life, o, I could tell you some stories about that. I’ve definitely had a few bouts of pretty big change. But change is good! It’s how we grow. If you’ve never hoped on to the blog “The Daily Love” or listened to any pod cast or lectures by Gabrielle Bernstein I highly recommend checking them out. Such beautiful and inspiring people that have had amazing journeys. When I’m going through a big step in my life I always find it helpful to grab advice and wisdom from inspiring people like those two.