Who are We and Why are We Blogging?

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I am not a patient person.  AT ALL.  The moment I have an idea, I want to immediately dive in head first and get started; thus, when Lexy and I decided to start a blog in the beginning of February, I wanted to quickly create a blog on a simple template, post the link on our facebook pages, and be off and running- preferably all on the same day.  However, since Lexy and I are both not web design saavy (the very mention of html coding gives me an instant headache) I knew that the immediate launching of a blog was not necessarily the wisest course of action- instead I needed to reign in my tendency towards impulsiveness and instead channel that passion into doing the necessary legwork to make sure that we were creating something meaningful and something that I would be proud of.  I spent the past two months choosing a blog hosting site, buying a domain name (it only took me two attempts to actually buy the right one!), choosing a color scheme, designing page elements, emailing back and forth with Lexy, coming up with ideas for topics we wanted to cover, scrapping the previously mentioned color scheme, swearing at the computer as I tried to correct the pagination and spacing on the blog, etc..; and all the while I have been chomping at the bit to just actually LAUNCH the blog!

Yet now that the time has come to actually launch the blog, I am paralyzed  by one thing- namely, how do you write the first blog post? In my mind, I have visions of the "perfect" first blog post- it is clever, informative, interesting, sassy, and unique enough to entice people to come back and read future posts (or heaven forbid actually subscribe to the blog!).  While I have lists in my head of topics I want to discuss on the blog (like why the heck is it okay for beaver anal gland juice permitted to be included in products for human consumption and allowed to be labeled under the generic title of 'natural ingredient' or 'how the longer I am a runner the more humble I become'), none of these topics seemed right for the first blog topic.  Just as I was about to turn to my favorite research tool and type "what do you write about for your first blog post?" in the google search box, I realized that while the google search might result in hundreds of pages of step by step tutorials or lists of what to do/not to do when starting a blog, those generic answers would not answer the heart of the question: who are Lexy and I and why are we blogging? Lexy and I are not experts about fitness or nutrition or weight loss and the fact remains that we both have full time careers that have nothing to do with the subject matter of this blog (Lexy is a director of development for a non-profit organization and I am an attorney).  I realized that I needed to let go of any visions of a "perfect" first blog post and instead go back to the basics of why Lexy and I even decided to start a blog in the first place- to have a place where we could express our passion and excitement over the new healthier lives that we have created for ourselves over the past year, to give practical and non-sugar coated advice about what we have learned and continue to learn in our journeys, to have a forum where we can discuss questions and struggles that we or our friends/family are having, to keep ourselves accountable and to share motivation and celebrate successes along the way.  This blog started for two main reasons: first, both Lexy and I kept getting questions about how and why we were doing what we were doing from our friends and family and we realized it would be a lot easier to answer them all at one location instead of sending individual emails to everyone and secondly,  right now I am so passionate about nutrition/running/eating organic etc...that I can hardly go fifteen minutes without talking about it and I am hoping that this blog will become a place where I can enthusiastically share that passion without annoying my family and co-workers by discussing it incessantly.

So this is not the perfect first blog post.  The truth is that I cannot promise that this will be a perfect blog- in fact it is still very much a work in promise. What I can promise is that it will be funny, authentic, compassionate, and sassy- because those are the qualities that Lexy and I value and embody.  So I hope you will raise a glass with us and toast to the beginnings of a new adventure!