Recovering from backsliding

At the beginning of the year, I made a promise to myself that this was going to be the year that I stopped taking my good health for granted and made more of an effort to take care of my body. I joined the gym and was going 2-3 times a week, as well as going out for lunchtime walks whenever I could. I was really proud of myself that I kept this going, but I have a confession to make.

Since breaking up with my ex in August, I have surprised myself with my emotional resilience, but for some reason I haven’t been able to get any enthusiasm for keeping in shape. I’ve also resisted going for walks at lunchtime and spent my breaks sitting in the staff lounge, which is hardly inspiring. Actually, it depends who is in there, but you know what I mean, fresh air is much better for you. Today it was sunny, so I hooked up to my iPod and went for a walk in the park.

While I was still feeling enthusiastic, I booked myself onto the bums and tums class at the gym. I can’t believe I have been so lazy, I can even see the gym out of my office window, that is how little effort is needed on my part to go. The class was good fun, but challenging too. There are only so many squats and lunges you can do before you want to run away and then realise you can’t because your legs have actually turned to jelly.

It was only when I was in the shower afterwards that I realised why I had been resisting the gym. For a split second while I was under the water, I started to plan my evening in my head, which included going “home” to my ex. Then I had to stop myself and put a new picture there. Sure I will have an association with the gym and my old routine for a while, but now I need to build a new one. It’s just a matter of replacing the old pictures with new ones.

Who knows what they may look like?

Make money blogging?

My intention was always to blog first, think about money later. That “how much is your blog worth” widget was a bit of a joke to start with. Over a year into my blog, I can say with confidence that my interest in blogging has definitely kept on going, through many ups and downs. But recently I’ve been thinking about how to make some money from my blog.

Let me be clear, I don’t want to get involved with those sleazy sales letters and mail lists that turn out to be a load of spam. I’ve signed up to enough of them to realise that the majority are a load of rubbish, and are just there to hook you in to buying something. But I would like to be able to get more readers for my blog, and hopefully offer something that is of value to them. If I make some money out of providing people with something they value, then I don’t have a problem with that.

There seem to be many ways of monetizing your blog: adsense, promoting affiliate products, sponsorship and loads of others. However, I came upon this report by a cute guy with big hair called Yaro Starak who is a professional blogger and provides online training for aspiring bloggers. It’s called the Blog Profits Blueprint, and sure, he promotes a paid product within it, but unlike some “free” reports it actually offers valuable information that you can use. Plus I quite like cute guys with big hair There is even an audio version which is the version I downloaded, and there is about an hour of useful stuff.

Whether you decide to buy his course or not, I’d still say this report was worth downloading, it costs you nothing and there are plenty of good ideas in to help you improve your blog whether you wish to monetize it or not.

Vegan Month of Food

Just a quick post to say that Vegan Month of Food is almost upon us. Throughout October, there will be yummy vegan foodie posts taking over blogland, it will be like a mini-revolution!

If you want to see who else is participating, or would like to have a go yourself, get yourself on over to the Post-Punk Kitchen now!

I have just completed my first vegan cake – adapted from one of my mother’s omni cookbooks. But you will have to wait until October to see the results!

Sh*t happens

I wish the local pony club wouldn’t use our front path…

Enjoy Wordless and check out my favourite wordless post of today.

Tao te ching: chapter 79

I was looking for something else and the book fell open at this page. Rather appropriate, given what I wrote in the previous post.

Failure is an opportunity.

If you blame someone else there is no end to the blame.

Therefore, the Master fulfills her own obligations, and corrects her own mistakes.

She does what she needs to do and demands nothing of others.

Yep, the universe know what it’s doing all right!