Day 2: The Beginning

Thank you so much for visiting my site. I have been so encouraged by all of the emails I've received about this Daily Blog journey. I really think it's going to be a successful one. I just have to make sure I'm diligent and I can stay on track, and that will be much easier for me to do if I know there are people counting on me who are wanting to keep up with how I'm doing every single day.

I am going to set the initial goal of writing a blog entry every day, for 6 months straight. After that, we'll see what happens. Six months seems a little cumbersome to me, but I think that is a good amount of time for me to expect to get some tangible results. After the 6 months, maybe I'll decide I don't need to blog every single day. Or maybe I'll decide that writing is a major factor in my success and I'll decide to keep going. Either way, I can promise that you will see a blog post here, every day, at least until September 2, 2010.

Initially, I'm wanting to start out with a more structured approach to help me sort of get into the habit of writing every day. Here is what you will find when you come to the blog each day:

Tuesday - Weekly Weigh-In Results. No, I'm not going to broadcast my weight on here, but I will definitely share my progress. My Weight Watchers meetings are Monday evenings, so I will be sure to post how much I've lost (or gained...but hopefully not) in the past week when I write on Tuesdays.

Wednesday - On Wednesdays I will post a discussion topic so that everyone can join in and share some ideas, suggestions, or thoughts on whatever the topic is.

Thursday - I think on Thursdays I would like to talk about fitness and what I'm doing as far as exercise, as well as maybe some fitness goals I would like to accomplish. I found a strategical guide to train yourself to walk a half-marathon. That is really tempting me. I'm going to look into it some more. But Thursdays will be a day to talk about exercise regimen; what's working, what's not working, etc.

Friday - Friday is the beginning of the weekend and, if you're like me, the "It's The Weekend" excuse tends to show up on Thursday and doesn't leave until Tuesday. On Fridays each week, I want to write about some Survival Strategies to help us enjoy our weekend without going overboard and starting out the week feeling discouraged.

Sunday - On Sundays I would like to share a healthy recipe (that I've already tasted and approved). I love cooking and I have plenty of really tasty and healthful recipes in my millions of cookbooks.

For Mondays and Saturdays I really haven't figured out exactly what I want to talk about. I would love if you guys could suggest a few different ideas of things we could discuss and maybe come up with a theme for those days.

So that's the plan, at least for now. I might get sick of being so structured later on, and if I do, then I'll change it up....but for now, just to get myself into the swing of things, I'll follow my prescribed plan for each day.

Now, a few notes on the blog itself.

Commenting
This is a community and we're here to encourage each other and share our own struggles and triumphs along the way. Since we're all in this together (you can thank me later for getting that High School Musical song stuck in your head), it's important for everyone who comes here to have a voice as well. Commenting is really easy, and when you want to you just follow these steps:

1. Type your comment in the comment box at the bottom of the post.
2. In the box that says Select Profile, Highlight the choice that says Name/URL.
3. In the box that pops up, type your Name, but leave the URL blank (unless you have a personal website, in which case, feel free to share it). Then click Continue.
4. Click Preview if you want to see your comment first, or click Post Comment if you're happy with it.

That's all there is to it! And I really do hope everyone will have fun with this and enjoy sharing.

Additionally, if you have a Google, Yahoo, Twitter, OpenID, AIM, NetLog account, you can follow me by clicking the link to the right that says "Follow Me, Please!" My picture is under there. That way you never have to worry about forgetting to read the blog. You'll get a reminder each day when a new post is made.

If you don't have one of those accounts and you still want to receive a reminder, I can subscribe up to 10 people to receive emails directly from this site when I make a new post. If I end up with more than 10 people who are interested, I will personally send an email to anyone else who wants a reminder. Just send me your email address (either in the comments section, or email me directly at nicole_rena06@yahoo.com).

I think that's about all of the how-to stuff that I can think of. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. I'm really excited about this!