Happy New Year to you all on this 4th day of 2022.
I’ve spent the last few days cleaning, organizing, purging……dresser drawers, junk drawers, closets, the fridge/freezer and the pantry. Pretty much any space I encounter gets consideration of a good cleaning and purging for the next several days.
It happens every January in preparation for a fresh start to the new year. It’s always been therapeutic for me to physically toss out the old and welcome in the new, whether that means sorting through my sock drawer or cleaning out the freezer.
I like fresh starts. I like looking ahead. I like switching things up.
I like change.
I’ve always welcomed change. I enjoy day dreaming of what I see for myself, then making a plan of how I’ll make it happen. Sometimes I’m successful and sometimes I fail, but I always learn something about myself along the way. I hope I always keep the desire to learn and grow, to celebrate my successes and accept my failures as part of the process of learning.
May of 2021 was my 10 year anniversary of this blog. I didn’t celebrate it. I let it pass. I was feeling discouraged with myself at the time for not figuring out how to do some of the things that I had wanted to do with the blog to make it better, bigger. I let that anniversary go because I was more focused on what the blog wasn’t instead of focusing on what it was.
The blog has been exactly what I wanted it to be from the beginning and somehow I overlooked that.
I came up with the name The Weight of my Weight without much thought. My weight had always weighed heavy on my mind. I needed to talk about it.
The tagline also came quick to me….It’s a Heavy Subject, I’m Lightening it Up a Bit.
I wanted to address a heavy topic with humor.
My first post was May 9, 2011.
The Beginning
This is day one of my blog. It has taken me about six weeks to figure out how to do a blog………probably shouldn’t be admitting that? I hope by putting it all out there, I will be able to reach my weight loss goal with a little humor, and hopefully encourage others to do the same. I plan to blog about the food I eat, my excercise routine, my mood and how it affects my weight loss, and recipes I’ve found that make the weight loss journey and the lifestyle change a bit more enjoyable! I hope you’ll follow me!
While thinking about what it had not become, (visions of detailed recipes with videos and how to’s and millions and millions of followers that allowed me to hire a staff to run the blog and Mike and I to retire on an island) I failed to see that it was exactly what I intended it be. A place where I shared my food, my exercise, my mood and my weight loss and hopefully encouraged others in their own health journey.
I did that. I achieved what I set out to do. I reached my goal.
Beyond that?
I built relationships. I never even anticipated that. I developed Pen-Pals on the blog! Some of those relationships are now forever friends that I never would have met otherwise.
Not only have I shared my own health journey, I’ve been able to share our growing family, the excitement of being hired by WW, the silly projects I come up with around the house, the dream of buying Effie and making her my own and my cancer diagnosis and the journey that followed.
Now, “The Weight of my Weight” is no longer a “Heavy Subject” like it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. Now my weight is simply a number that gives me information. I’ve been able to learn that in the work that I’ve put into myself over the last 10 years.
Now my health journey is about….
How I choose to nourish my body, move my body, appreciate my body and show my body love.
It’s time to end this chapter and begin a new one.
Maybe I’ll start a new blog as I venture out in Effie and face my fears and learn new things and meet interesting people.
Who knows what this new chapter may bring.
Whether you’ve been here for support on your own health journey, or you felt a connection in your story and my story, or you’ve stuck around to see what shenanigans I’ve been up to, I so appreciate you. I know that taking the time to comment on the blog requires effort, and I can not express how grateful I am that so many of you took the time to do that and connect with me. I was always excited to read and reply to the comments you left over these 10 years.
My sweet friend Diane said to me…..”It is a gift to know when it’s time to move on”.
It is time to move on. This is my final post here as I begin a new chapter.
Thank you all so much for following!
“love the life you live, live the life you love”
Angela,
Thank you for getting me! 😊 This comment means a lot to me. Best of luck to you too!
Susan,
It did kind of feel like saying good bye to everyone when I hit that “submit” today, but I know good things are to come. It’s been such a great experience. Thank you for following along and happy 2022 to you!
Sue,
I was SO happy to have you in my Virtual Workshops and get to “meet” you and you even brought your friend along! ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for following the blog and interacting with me!
I wish you all the health and happiness 2022 can bring!!
😘
I have enjoyed your blog for several years. I appreciate the way you don’t try to paint a picture of a perfect life. The way you acknowledge, celebrate and appreciate the highs and lows, the good and bad, the tough and the easy, is inspiring. You seem to have a well rounded, balanced life, full of family time, couple’s time, girlfriend time, and alone time. I aspire to do the same. Best of luck in your future endeavors. I hope we hear from you again soon.
Feel like I’m saying good-bye to an old friend. I so enjoyed reading your blog. Wishing you the best of health and happiness in the days ahead. You will be missed!
I’m so sad this will be your last blog. I’ve enjoyed following your journey and your family, and, of course, the adventures of Effie. It also brought me to your WW Virtual calls which I thoroughly enjoyed and was able to connect with your fabulous WW family. Thank you. I wish you the very best in your new chapter, whatever that brings. I see lots of walks down the street to see that new grand baby, lots of fireplace chats and lots of happy, relaxing times. Enjoy! Sue, from Texas
Kathy, It’s readers like you that appreciated my honesty that kept me going. Thank you so much! Happy 2022!
I’ll find a new adventure to blog about. Maybe when I do I can come here and share it. Thank you so much Susan, for all of your support. I appreciate you so much! Happy 2022 to you!
Joan,
I have so appreciated your comments over the years and you sharing your journey with me as well. I hope to be as active as you are at 79. Or 59 at this point.🤣🤣
I wish you health and happiness in 2022!
Thank you for all of your support Renee. If you buy a travel trailer, email me and we can chat about our shared experiences! Happy 2022 to you and hopefully you have lots of adventures!
Many years. It’s always surprises me but I so appreciate it. Thank you Mandy! Happy 2022 to you!
Wow…I have been following you a long time and I will miss this blog. It was inspiring and you often said what I was feeling. Thank you for being open and honest and sharing your life with people that you don’t know. I know you will continue to do great things!
Does that mean we never hear from you again? I’ll miss reading your posts !😩😢☹️
Julie, You and your story will be so missed…..you shared yourself and helped so many in your journey. I am 79 and have experienced so many of the surgeries you have had and also I have the same enthusiasm for life. I play league tennis and golf plus take many exercise classes and walk daily………I’m only telling you this as I have often seen myself in young Julie Farmer and I just keep going. Be proud of yourself for making a decision to move on. You have so many adventures waiting for you. I wish you happy, healthy and blessed days. You are one of the special ones. 🙅Joan
Sounds like a great plan. I have really enjoyed all of your posts! Good luck with your plans would love to see you write about your camping life in your trailer. I’m trying to buy a trailer, I look forward to where the road takes me.
I have so enjoyed reading your posts for many years. I will miss you. Take care!
I adore you and you know that. 😘 so thankful for our friendship through this little blog. I promise to leave it here in its little corner of the world.
Needless to say we’ll ALL miss you! Julie, I’ve learned sooooo much from you and even more important, you’ve inspired me in a thousand different ways as you’ve shared your journey with all of us. I’ve always loved how transparent you’ve been, sharing both the good and the not-so-good bits of life along the way, and how they’ve all made you who you are. But fresh starts – especially in the early days of a new year – are always a good thing. So I wish you all the best as you close this door and open others. Just promise you’ll leave all these posts here online, okay? I found you just a few years ago (by one of your recipes I saw on Pinterest, of all things?!) So I would love to finally take the time to go back and read all your posts from the very beginning. Deal? God bless, my friend.
Thank you Nancy! I know you have followed and commented for a long time! I appreciate you very much and wish you the best health and happiness!!
❤️❤️❤️
Hope the days ahead bring you all the blessings a life can hold and many adventures with Effie!