The wonderful ladies over at 5 Minutes for Mom have added my blog to their Health listing, along with an interview of Yours Truly!  What an honor to be on such a cool website that is dedicated to doing so much to help mom bloggers out there.  I really enjoy their Tackle it Tuesdays and Wordless Wednesdays.  I hope you take a minute to check them out and also check out some of the other blogs they have listed! 

I’ve added another layer of accountability to my weight loss efforts.  I have decided to join the Healthy You Challenge (HYC).  HYC is a group of bloggers who are dedicated to blogging about their weight loss efforts and who support and are supported by other members.  I only joined this morning and I am already finding that support here on my blog.  How cool is that!? 

The HYC is described by it’s founder as the following:

The challenge is a support system to work on building a better you. No matter what your goals from losing weight, exercise or staying at goal, we all need the support of people who are going through the same things or have been there. It’s not about obsessing over a number on the scale; it’s not about exercising until you drop; it’s about challenging yourself and pushing yourself to stay focused on your goals as well as getting and giving support.

The idea of building a community with other people who are facing the same challenges, setbacks, and successes is a powerful thing.  The support and accountability gained from honestly “putting yourself out there” is amazing!  I’m very excited to a part of this group and I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone.

Something I am learning as a new blogger is that the many people that read blogs, actually have blogs of their own.  A pretty cool concept, really.  I suppose I have just become enthralled with the world of blogging this past weekend and I’m really seeing how it benefits people and their lives.  The community that is out there amongst the people is just an amazing thing to witness and to be a part of. 

Another thing I have learned is that blogging can be quite time consuming.  As most of you know, blogging takes on a life of it’s own and it can require some balancing to fit it into our already busy lives.  That’s why I found the guest article on Zen Habits to be so interesting this morning.  The guest blogger discusses how he finds balance in his life between maintaining his health, spends time with family, and still managing to blog.  Definitely some food for thought.

My husband and I attended this year’s South by Southwest interactive conference in Austin, TX and had an amazing time.  For those of you who don’t know, South by Southwest is the combination of an interactive conference, film festival, and music festival.  Prior to my attendance, I had only heard of the music festival and had no idea about the other two parts (which is the case with a lot of people, it seems.) My hubby works in the technology field and he was attending the conference for work.  I decided to join him and see what this conference was all about.  Plus, who wouldn’t want to see Austin, TX?!  If you don’t know what the interactive part of the festival is all about, this blurb from the website describes it brilliantly: 

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