My First Award!

I was so honored yesterday to be mentioned in Anonymousfatgirl’s blog when she accepted an award and then in turn gave the award to ten bloggers of her choice. Including me!

The Happy 101 award hits me right where I live because I try to be positive. It does not come naturally though it has become easier over time. I made a conscious decision several years ago to be positive and I work on it every day. Why? I would rather be happy than not. And I believe it’s catching. I would rather spread felicity than discontent. My life is what I make of it, and I want it to be happy! And I want that for you, as well, so I try to keep my posts positive even when I’m struggling. Which seems to help me be more positive, myself, so win-win!

The rules of the award are to copy the award image and display it on your blog, list 10 things that make you happy, try to do one of those things today and then pass the award along to 10 bloggers who brighten your day.

Many things make me happy. I believe in finding joy in the small things; they are all around us and each one is a gift. Here are a few that came to mind right away:

• My special honey and our little menagerie;
• Family and friends;
• The sunrise. I may not be happy to be up when the sun is coming up, but the sunrise always turns that around;
• Spring! I am so excited about trees budding, flowers blooming, and planning this year’s garden!
• Good movies;
• Good books;
• Pedicures, yeah baby;
• The beach;
• Long, hot baths; and
• Lazy days.

I’m always finding new blogs to read; there is lots of good stuff out there! Here are some of the blogs I enjoy, in no particular order, and to whom I'm passing on the Happy 101 award:

• Anonymousfatgirl of course. She is upbeat and no b.s. at the same time, and boy is she hard core about getting fit. She is on a mission to lose weight and build muscle and she is not messing around! And her blog is the same color as my neglected snowboard;
• Roni’s Weigh. This was the first weight loss blog I ever read. Roni reached her goal weight and continues to blog about maintaining it. There is a wealth of information on her site, or should I say sites. She has two other blogs: Green Lite Bites for recipes and Skinny Minny Media for techie info, and she also has the Blog to Lose website and is organizing the Fitbloggin' 10 conference. She is one busy lady and has a lot of good information crammed in that noggin. Lucky for us she shares!
• TippyToeDiet. Cammy reached her goal as well. She is encouraging and supportive and pretty darn funny, too. She shares what she has learned on her weight loss journey, and she continues to seek out new information about health and fitness. She and Roni show us the commitment needed to maintain a goal weight. You have to continue the effort even after you reach that goal because it takes work to stay there!
• Bitch Cakes overhauled her lifestyle, determined to become healthy. Her photo gallery shows the amazing progress she has made. Her blog is full of fabulous photography and recipes and her style is second to none.  She has two other blogs, Musings of an Irate Commuter and The World According to Bitch Cakes, both also full of great photography and definitely worth a read;
• Chocolate Covered Katie. I just found her blog through a mention on Cammy’s site, and it is full of amazing vegan recipes that have this omnivore heading to the grocery store for the ingredients;
• Tiny Glow. Hillary is working hard and making great progress. I love seeing her updates;
• Mizfit is hard core and hilarious!
• She Wears a Red Sox Cap. Kelly’s elliptical challenge for January is the only reason I hauled my hiney to the gym some recent days. Thanks Kelly!  She also just started a teaching blog, She Teaches.  Check it out!
• Endurance Isn’t Only Physical is another inspiring lady who made it to goal.
• Chubby Girl Diaries is great. She is honest about her journey and motivated to make it happen.

One thing these bloggers all have in common is a genuine voice that comes through loud and clear. They share what they care about, how they are working on their goals and give information so their readers can do the same. I look forward to every one of their posts. See “Blogs I Read” on my side bar for more blogs that inspire me.

What blogs do you read?  Share your inspirations in the comments!  And thank you again, Anonymousfatgirl, for the award!

Edit: Cammy at The Tippy Toe Diet asked me to pass her award on to another blogger since she had already received it.  And I loved that idea!  What isn't great about spreading Happy around a little more?  So I would also like to give the award to Mary at A Merry Life.  She is moving right along in her weight loss journey and she embraces life whole-heartedly.  And I will mention again, many of the other blogs I read are on my sidebar; please check them out!  There are more I need to add; I'm bad about updating that list...