For some reason I’m finding it harder and harder to work out immediately upon awakening at my parents’ house.
Maybe it’s because Ryan is usually my gym buddy and we’re both typically on autopilot when the alarm goes off at 5 a.m. and head straight to the gym as part of our daily routine? (I miss him!)
For the past few days, I’ve been waking up between 6 and 7 a.m., working for a few hours and then taking a one-hour break to exercise around 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. I’m sure I’ll go back to my old “wake up before the sun rises to workout” routine when Ryan and I move into our new house (in NINE days!), but for now, I’m just going to roll with it.
I think my routine shifted a bit because my mom works out in the late morning and I like having her company when I drive to and from the gym. I’m going to soak up all the family time I can while I’m in St. Pete. This morning I think my mom and I are going to Jazzercise at 9:30 a.m.!
Breakfast
Here’s the other thing: I’ve been hungry immediately upon awakening at my parents’ house. Usually my stomach isn’t growling and I head to the gym on an empty stomach since I get really crampy if I eat within an hour of working out (and I’m not about to wake up in the 4 a.m. hour just to eat a snack).
My stomach never really craves food at 5 a.m., but when I wake up around 6:30 a.m. my belly wants food!
It got what it asked for this morning in the form of a yogurt bowl.
I topped a cup of Oikos blueberry Greek yogurt with fresh blueberries, Multigrain Cheerios and chia seeds and ate a peach on the side.
A spoonful of peanut butter rounded out this meal.
How Did You Discover Healthy Living Blogs?
I have been blogging for just shy of two years. One of the craziest things in the world to me is that less than three years ago, I didn’t even know healthy living blogs existed.
Now blogging is my passion. It’s part of my livelihood. It’s something that consumes my life in the best possible way.
I remember when I stumbled upon my first healthy living blog. I was browsing around Health magazine’s website and read an article written by Tina. At the bottom of the article, there was a link directing readers to Tina’s personal blog, Carrots ‘n’ Cake.
Before checking out Tina’s blog, I thought blogs were like personal journals. I assumed they were maintained by techy people and contained posts that vented about various things that annoyed them. Clearly I was mistaken.
When I clicked the link on the Health Magazine website and saw Tina’s blog, I fell in love with her laid back approach to healthy living. Something about her blog resonated with me. I felt like I read something written by a friend and continued to read daily.
Tina’s blog led me to many other healthy living blogs. Eventually I knew I had to get in on the fun and started PBF. (You may see my totally amateur and embarrassing first post here.)
So now I ask you…
Question of the Morning
- How did you discover the first healthy living blog you ever read?
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Chocolate Covered Katie was the first fit blog I came across when I googled Cinnasnaps I believe. Then I found yours on her blogroll & fell in bloggie love!
I had my reading routine down — wake up & read your morning post, read the afternoon post on my lunch break at work & then come home & read your evening post.
You inspired me to start my own blog!
I genuinely want to thank you for that, or I might never have had the chance to be a part of this amazing community.
i discovered yours first! i was googling pictures of food to use for a lesson plan for school and one linked to your blog… i was sucked in immediately and i now don’t know what i’d do today without all of the blogs i follow to entertain me, teach me, and inspire me to live healthy!
I found Cranky Fitness while looking for a review on a random exercise DVD that I heard about. It opened my eyes to this wonderful world full of information, insight and, most of all, REALISTIC adventures of so many people trying be be healthy!
I was looking up easy recipes online and stumbled upon PBF! I’m typically not a blog reader (like you, I thought they were just personal venting portals), but after browsing around, I noticed that you provided fun and easy recipes PLUS fashion and workouts! So I stayed and read (a bit stalkerishly) some of your past posts and boy, I was hoooooked!! And that’s when a blog-reader was born..i bookmarked PBF on my toolbar.. Now you’re part of my morning routine! It’s such a great reminder in the mornings to start the day off healthy and helps encourage me to get up and workout! Through your guest posts, I’ve discovered other blogs, and now I save and tab recipes and workouts so often! 🙂
I discovered your blog first. I was reading fit sugar and they had linked to one of your posts, so after reading your blog I was hooked! After that I found your blogroll and fell in love with other blogs too. Now I have my own blog, which is not really a healthy living blog, but more of just my life blog.
I just read EVERY SINGLE COMMENT!
I found Kath’s blog through her personal Calorie King journal- it was still sleep, eat, repeat at the time and not katheats.com!
I love reading people’s first posts on their blogs.. it is so fun to see where we all began compared to where we are now.
Hahah I definitely just read every comment too – looking for some new blogs I’m not familiar with yet!
I stumbled across my first one when looking for a new workout routine then clicked around to the blog roll and just never stopped. I had no idea there was this world of bloggers!
Your blog was the first healthy living blog I ever read. My best friend directed me to PBF because she said your personality reminded her so much of me…in a non creepy way….I was hooked last September and read PBF everyday. You have inspired me in so many ways to do what makes me happy and I recently moved from Fort Myers FL to Nashville just to do it and experience a new city and hopefully find a sweet job! Thanks for the awesome blog that has turned into my daily reading ritual 🙂
I started reading ‘Eat Like Me’ on Self Magazine’s site which led me to Kath and also the reason I went to school to be a Dietetic Technician. 🙂 Now, I read so many blogs that have been linked and what not. I started my blog last January thanks to all of you!
The first healthy living blog I read was yours!!!! and I’ve been reading it since then! I like to read about recipes, running, workout routines, everyday life as it’s also part of my life. It allowed me to discover this whole blogging community. But PBF is my favorite ^^
yours was actually the first blog I ever discovered!!!!! I religiously listen to a morning show here in Austin and one of the hosts, Amy, did a video about your rutabega fries and then I discovered PB Fingers! I started posting on FB about how much I loved your blog and now so many of my friends follow you! Through you I have found Gina and Courtney, two bloggers I love!
I started reading Baking Bites while looking for a good crumb cake recipe and from there started clicking the links in her “Bites From Other Blogs” Wednesday posts. From there I learned of several food blogs and from links on their blogs I discovered several healthy living blogs. I read a mix of healthy living blogs and straight-up butter and sugar food blogs. Balance 🙂
Such a great question. If I remember correctly, the first blog I ever read was Oh She Glows. I was actively participating in The Knots Get in Shape message board and someone linked to her Green Monster posts. Then I was hooked! I read her blog religiously for a few weeks, found others and then finally started my own. It’s taken me a while to figure out my blog voice, but now over a year later, I’m super pleased with my style and quality of posts.
Are you ready for this!?!? YOU my friend, at PBFingers was the first healthy living blog I read, and loved, and I continue to read EVERY SINGLE POST you write – they’re so candid and fun to read. I’m really loving the blog talk tuesdays addition too!! I adore Sadie even though I’ve never met her and loved her internet hugs yesterday.
I now have my own relatively new blog and love this blogging world, there are so many wonderful people in it!! Thank you for being so candid and sharing your life with us – you officially inspired me to start my own blog and I love it, so thank you Julie!! 😀
Tina @Carrots ‘N’ Cake was the first healthy living blog I read… Then yours was a close second 😀 A lot of my close girlfriends from college love reading your posts- keep up the great work!
I just started my own a couple of weeks ago and get such a rush out of it- so fun and a great way to share memories with family, friends, and future friends!
I searched about the Nike Womens Marathon and found Skinny Runner and fell in love! A few months later you were one of her cat lady blogs!
Hi Julie! I found Caitlin’s blog first from a link to operationbeautiful.com that someone posted on facebook. From there, I was absolutely hooked. I think I found your blog (which I’m SO glad about, I love love love pbf :D) from Meghann’s blog, where she was talking about wedding websites! I read through all your wedding recaps (SO gorgeous) and then I was hooked!
I often wonder about this, because I really have no idea how I discovered them! I believe Healthy Tipping Point was the first one I found and I still love reading Caitlin’s blogs. It might be from SparkPeople when they started blogging at Daily Spark because I have been a member there since Feb ’07. But I really don’t remember!
Gina’s at fitnessista was my first blog! I was reading about inspiration boards on glamour’s website and there was a link for her blog and I’ve read it ever since. Soon after I discovered yours and so many more 🙂 ps I love your pictures of Sadie, they are so cute and funny!!
The first blog i read was see bride run aka healthy tipping point. i was just online trying to find some ideas on how to get healthier eat better exercise all that. Than from there I just found other similar blogs. I haven’t yet jumped into the blog world but i have been really thinking about it. I was wondering how did you come up with your blog name? It’s one thing that has stumped me so far as to create my own nothing jumps out at me.
i did a post all about this history of my blog name! 🙂 here ya go: https://www.pbfingers.com/2010/08/11/pbf-whats-in-a-name/
The first blog I ever found was yours actually! I’m pretty sure I was just googling stuff (like fitness, or recipes) and I just stumbled across yours and kept reading. Then I found many others !
A friend of mine was really into reading blogs and I’d only ever checked out a couple of friends’ blogs. My friend sent me a list of about 8 blogs of all different areas of life and one or two were healthy living. As I’d been doing the healthy living thing for about a year and a half at that point this really jived with my lifestyle. After a few months I was super inspired to start my own – living dairy free and eating for IBS – while doing the healthy thing.
A Life without Ice Cream was born 🙂
I was referred to Foods of April first … the rest is history. 🙂
well, I discovered healthy living blogs in about march/april?
First one was loveveggiesandyoga though someone else blog-reader and then through comment there found so many more.
Such a great question! I was in an “un-inspired to exercise” mood one day and typed in running in google. I found “Iowa Girl Eats” and fell in love with it! I read it for about a year or two and then one day it hit me that I could read other blogs too! (brilliant, I know)
So I looked at her comments, found others upon others and have been addicted ever since!
I just found yours a few wks ago from HGR. I love it! I have family in Orlando too 🙂
the recipe for Fitnessita’s breakfast cookie was passed around the Weight Watchers forums that I was reading for a long time. From there, I found all the other healthy blogs I read (and also found a new attitude towards food and health from reading them!)
Annette @ http://www.enjoyyourhealthylife.com is my childhood best friend and when i started reading her blog, i found yours (on her blogroll) and am now mildly obsessed with both! 🙂
The first healthy living blog i came across was…..YOURS!!!!
my little brother’s girlfriend found your webpage bc of Sadie! My brother wants a Veszla and they were researching them…stumbled across your page, left it up on the screen one day and I started browsing your page and fell in love! I also clicked on Holly’s page (greek yogurt and apple slices) bc of the name and now read hers daily too!
Both of you have inspired me to start my own blog documenting my journey to live a healthier lifestyle!
Thank you for the inspiration! You really have no idea how much you help me everyday!
Yours was the first blog I got into the habit of reading every day… but I think I found Oh She Glows from FitSugar and then clicked around to find you.
I read Skinny Runner first. I think Michelle sent me a link?
I read that for a few months and she inspired me to start my blog. I didn’t even know about all the blogs out there until about a month after I started mine, so I’m WAY behind. I’ve only been reading blogs for like 8 months!
My discovery came when I was recipe searching! I found blog after blog and couldn’t get enough. Eventually I was inspired to start writing my own 🙂
I first found out about Healthy Living Blogs from that article in Marie Claire. Reading it really made me want to check out those blogs for myself. Well, needless to say, I found that Healthy Living blogs were much more motivating and supportive than the article made it sound like. I eventually started browsing other blogs and finding ones that I really liked! SkinnyRunner was the one that really got me into running, and blogging! From there I found tons of other blogs I love! Like this one! I always like reading other people’s comments because that’s really how I discover new blogs! It’s kinda weird to think that a few years ago I didn’t even know what a blog was! Now it’s part of my every day life! 🙂
Your blog is actually the first one I ever found!! There was a link to it from Women’s Health and your recipe for a kale fritatta (which is the bomb, by the way).
From here I’ve found so many other healthly living blogs that I read each and every day. I never knew they were all out there, and LOVE them. So many great ideas and inspirational ladies!
I found my first healthy living blog by googling ‘clean eating’ and some popped up!
My first healthy living blog I ever found was Shauna aka Dietgirl’s… she caught me in with her writing, and links to other great food/health blogs over the first year, which then fanned out by their blog’s mentions. I found your blog I am pretty sure one time when you guest posted on someone elses last year… and have been hooked since! Thanks! Keep it up!
I can’t remember how I found it, but my first was Roni’s Weigh, back when it was still Roni’s weight watchen page. From there I joined Blog to Lose and started reading other blogs, including Self’s Eat Like Me and Carrots n cake.
A friend of mine from a message board had a blog and I looked at it occasionally but didn’t understand blogs. Then she asked for recommendations of other blogs to read and I looked at others. I was hooked. I read a ton for 6 months before starting my own.
Somehow I found Foodgawker and I was hooked on checking that daily. I then began to click on the recipes and eventually I realized that there were more than recipes when I clicked and I found KathEats and HowSweetEats…I was hooked. Once you start clicking, you just can’t stop!
you were my first blog ever!!!! One of my friends was reading you during lecture and from then on I was hooked!!
That poster is AMAZING!!!
One of my closest friends started sending me links to blogs she’d started reading…and I think I got into one of them at first…One Twenty Five. Then I was home from work early one day and I started surfing around and found a handful of other blogs that I started reading (yours, Ali on the Run, Skinny Runner). I LOVED getting online every day to hear what everyone had to say. Now I follow so many I can barely stay on top of my Google Reader!!! But I love all of the ideas I get and the recipes I try. Plus, they just always help put me in a better mood!
I found Angela’s blog (Oh She Glows) when she guest posted on Sparkpeople. I loved reading about her recipes and advice and eventually my Google Reader was bursting with healthy living blogs, including PBF (obvi!!)
Yours was actually the first I started reading!! I THINK it might have been a link from Spark People but I don’t remember for sure.
I first started reading the fitnessista after she was recommended to me on twitter and it opened my eyes to a whole healthy living community I never knew existed! I discovered other blogs through her blog and so on. I love how the healthy living bloggers really feed off one another (ha – pun intended I believe!) 🙂
PBF was my first after I saw your peanut butter energy bites recipe on one of Shape’s slideshows! (sidenote: i love those energy bites, i can eat the whole batch in like one day!) 🙂
I was HOOKED on Rachel Wilkerson’s blog and yournutritionista for two years before I found any other blogs. I found them via the marie claire article..not sure how I stumbled upon yours but I check it multiple times a day now 🙂
In 2005, when I first started weight watchers, a friend of mine showed me a blog about a girl similar to my height and weight that had successfully reached her WW goals… (FitFatRinseRepeat) I read her site everyday to find out what she was eating and what she was doing. I thought it was sooo cool that she was willing to share her weight struggle and success with perfect strangers online. I would also use the forums on the Weight Watchers site and found a link to Roni’s Weigh. I hated cooking and loved how she provided step by step pictures and instructions. I just love to see good before and after pictures and see a good story!! Blogging has become a huge hobby and interest of mine. I found PBFingers from Keeping Up With Katie…. somewhere around the time I found Peanut Butter Runner and Losing Weight In the City…. I think some of those were in the Women’s Day article in Dec….? Anyway… I think health and fitness bloggers are the best… and I think it’s cool that y’all are willing to share your knowledge and experience! 🙂 Thanks for all you do! The blogs certainly helped me during my weight loss journey! 🙂
The first Healthy Living blog I found was Hungry Runner Girl! I googled “running blogs” because I was getting into running as a form of exercise and wanted some inspiration. I stumbled upon HRG and fell in LOVE. I was addicted. I would stay up at all hours of the night going from blog to blog, soaking in the incredibleness of it all!!!!
I first stumbled across Oh She Glows 2 or 3 years ago but i never stuck with it. I discovered PBF through a friend who “liked” it on Facebook, It is now part of my daily routine, my day would be lacking without it! Julie your blog is something i look forward to every morning, i know it will always be positive, funny and thought provoking. A perfect way to start the day!
But I do have to admit the Sadie pictures/comments maaaay be my favourite part!
Thanks for your awesomeness!
The first blogs I read were CNC & Self’s Eat Like Me. From there I discovered yours, Healthy Tipping Point, Une Vie Saine, and Girl Meets Life… any many more to come. I always want to start my own but havent gotten around to it.
I found healthy living blogs through my friend Danielle who has From 5k to Marathon, and then through hers, I found Healthy Tipping Point.