Why I Love Blogging

Today I woke up at 4 am for no reason. I could not fall back to sleep. This used to happen to me a lot back in my more stressed out days (haha, maybe they are in the past?) but it has been happening less this year and I'd like if it would go away forever. I am one of those people who has a much harder time staying asleep than falling asleep (though this does not apply when I am away on trips, or stay out late, then I have trouble calming down to get to bed). So...needless to say I am tired today. Therefore I thought a fun post was in order:

Top 10 Reasons I Love Blogging

1. All the amazing blogging friends I have made. Everyone is so supportive and gives such great advice. How else am I going to know people who live in England, Germany, Ohio and Canada? (and so many other places). Having friends in all these places gives me such a broader perspective. Plus it's so fun to receive comments from people!

2. It has made me a more open person in general. I've always been a lot better at expressing myself in writing. I was probably the only person in the world that loved middle school notes, even if they were about fights, and is not against e-mail as a form of confrontation. Talking about having IBS has been particularly difficult for me. For years I've been calling it "problems with my stomach" because I didn't want people to think I was running to the bathroom after every meal- I've now learned that people seem to get that IBS comes in many forms and really, who cares if people think I'm running to the bathroom? hang out with me for a bit and you'll notice I'm not haha.

3. It has expanded my food choices a lot. I get so many great ideas from looking at other blogs AND I have more motivation to try new things to post on my own blog.

4. It has expanded my exercise routine a lot as well. I know I would've had to get a little creative even without the blog because of my knee injury, but I feel more motivated to change it up so I can show others with injuries that running is not the only exercise out there.

5. Blogging alone gives me motivation to exercise more (didn't need any extra motivation to eat haha). Reading about others and all that they are doing to stay healthy is motivating. Plus I often track my fitness goals on my blog, and I want to be able to report something!

6. Blogging forces me to reflect on how healthy I am being- from my food choices, to my exercise routine, to how stressed I am. I often measure a bad (extremely stressful) week by how often I had time to blog that week...haha

7. I love that I have a place to keep track of what is going on in my life. I was always a journal person when I was younger but I never "have enough time" (or dedicate enough time) to writing in one anymore. They are so fun to look back on though!

8. Blogging and reading blogs is one of the best ways ever to procrastinate...and they aren't blocked from my work computer like facebook is!

9. I have learned so many amazing things from reading blogs. I have learned things about healthy eating, new exercises/videos to try, injuries etc AND the best part is, I can simply blog about something I want to know more about and BAM suddenly I will know more about it because everyone in this wonderful community will tell me about it.

10. It has forced me to take risks I would not have taken otherwise, from something as simple as trying more new restaurants, to something a little bigger like meeting friends in person I only "know" from online. I think blogging constantly challenges me to stay out of the monotony that life can be (get up, work, come home, go to bed, repeat). I try to do at least one thing every day "worth" blogging about (does not always happen, but it's a goal). I have also been known to think to myself, "I really don't want to do _____, but at least I can blog about it!"

I've heard before that people who blog are way too into themselves that they think people will want to read about their lives that much. I understand that opinion, but I don't expect anyone to want to read my blog. I hope they do, but there is no expectation. I also assume some days readers will not think what I write about is all that interesting. But that's okay, we can't all be interesting every day :) The fact is, I enjoy reading everyone else's blogs probably more than writing my own. I think it's COMPLETELY interesting to read about what someone else is eating, doing for exercise, and what is going on in their life in general. Call me nosy, but I think we all have something to learn from each other...and so that is why I have a blog :) (as embarrassed as I may be about it at times).

Why do you love blogging? If you don't have a blog yourself, why do you love reading blogs?