Lunch!
Today’s mid-day meal included a salad.
Eat Up
In the bowl:
- Bed of fresh spinach
- 1 large yellow pepper, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- Leftover pulled salsa chicken
- Pace black bean & roasted corn salsa
Salsa
The chicken, salsa and yellow pepper all competed against each other for the star ingredient of this salad.
Pour Some Salsa On Me... In the Name of Love!
I loved all the different tastes and textures in this bowl.
Dessert was nabbed from the candy jar in my office.
Candy is Dandy
Yesterday the dumpy peppermint candies were replaced with chocolate and my coworkers and I have been riding a chocolate high ever since!
Onto your daily does of fashion until I can get the fashion page of this blog up and running…
Today's Look
- Beige shrug with peach satin bow: Say What? (via TJMaxx)
- Army green tank top: Forever21
- Flare jeans: People’s Liberation
- Beige bangle: Random booth in the mall (Yes, they actually got me!)
- Army green suede pumps: Nine West
And now for some fun blogging talk that will hopefully interest you bloggers out there and will likely bore the rest of you to tears. For those of you totally uninterested in blogging, please enjoy this picture of Sadie. 😀
"Tennis Balls are WAY Cooler Than Blog Talk!"
My Number One Tip for Bloggers
Over the past few months, I’ve received an increasing number of emails from other bloggers or readers who hope to start up a blog. The emails contain a myriad of questions on topics ranging from starting a blog to growing a blog to finding the time to blog.
To be honest, I’ve avoided talking about this on my blog because I don’t feel like my blog is “legit” enough to really be a sounding board of advice. I absolutely love blogging and would whole-heartedly encourage anyone interested in starting a blog to do so, but I feel awkward giving advice on the topic since I don’t exactly feel qualified. Maybe I’ll muster up some courage to do so in the future, but for now I figured I would share the one thing I’ve always kept in my mind ever since I started Peanut Butter Fingers:
Create a blog you would want to read.
The blogs I most enjoy reading focus on living a healthy lifestyle, as mine does. But one thing that keeps me going back to my favorite blogs is the way they also let their personalities shine and give readers a peek into their day-to-day lives and relationships.
Most of the time, I breeze through posts that hone in on recipes but linger over ones where the blogger did something exciting with her girlfriends or went on an adventurous date with her husband. (Double points go to bloggers who saturate their posts with pictures of their pets!) To me, this is what I find most interesting to both read about and write about, so that’s how I frame my blog.
I address workouts, recipes and healthy living topics, which I also adore writing about and truly find interesting, but I honestly feel like the real essence of my blog comes from simply living. What did I do today that I found particularly amusing? What makes me tic? What random things excite me and make me laugh? This is my blog fodder.
I love reliving fun events in my life and blogging about random musings like love languages or debates I have with Ryan. These are things that I find interesting! I would hope that if I weren’t the one writing this blog, I would still want to read it.
In a nutshell, my one piece of totally unfounded and unresearched advice would be to simply be yourself and write a blog you would want to read. Chances are if you find it interesting, someone else out there may get a kick out of it, too.
Now I ask you…
If you could only provide one piece of advice to bloggers, what advice would you give?
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I LOVE your outfit today and thank you for the blog tip. I’m just getting started on my blog and appreciate all the advice I can get. 😀
Great advice. I often just breeze through posts to get to the juicy stuff too.
I totally agree with you! Which is why I tend to linger around PB Fingers quite often… 😉
have you ever heard the song grow a pair by kesha?
Great post!
I’m on the shy side and have been thinking about writing about my life/husband/dogs etc a little more.
I like to read blogs like yours because I feel like I get to know you…virtually. 🙂
Thanks so much for the advise.
I love your blog and since I’m new to the ‘blogging world’ I really appreciate all the great advice! You are the queen or making things personal and always being interesting. I only hope that someday my blog will be as great as yours is! Plus you and your hubby are so adorable!
I think this post along with others comments have really hit the nail on the head. I’m in the process of trying to figure out whether to keep my blog anonymous or not. I think I’m timid to reveal to much because I’m worried someone I know would read it. Its not that I’m exposing any secrets but somehow the thought of admiting to my friends and family that I know I’m over weight seems scarry.
I also think you’ve said it before, but not to focus too much on whether or not people are reading it. Don’t get discouraged because your readership is low. It takes time to build a fan base.
First and foremost I think you are more than qualified to weigh in on what makes a good blog… a good blog! I love your blog and it was truly the inspiration to start my own. With that being said, I write my blog about my life… my husband, my animals, my friends. To be honest I look at my blog as my little live scrap book/diary that I allow others the pleasure to read and relate too!
I JUST started my blog last Thursday, so, Julie, if you’re not qualified, I definitely am not, but I will still add my 2 cents! 🙂 I think the thing that has helped me so far is not being shy about “promoting” my blog. I actually sent out an email to my friends and family with some information and a link to my blog, and I also asked them to forward the link to other people who they think would be interested. I have also shamelessly told some of my coworkers about my new adventure! I figure that if I can spread the word on healthy habits and influence one person to be the best they can be, I am on par. There is no shame when you are trying to do something good!
Love your blog…Where do you get the peanut butter M&Ms (fun size)? Those are my favorite!!!
Office candy jar 🙂 Wish I could be of more help!
It’s ok…Guess the fun size packets haven’t made their way to Texas yet! I sure hope they do soon!
AMEN to being yourself! I blogged for almost a year before I realized I was so NOT like most of the bloggers whose blogs I read and love.
Something clicked in me a couple months ago, and my writing style totally changed (to reflect who I really am).
GREAT advice, Julie!
I love this and completely agree! There are some things I feel like I just shouldn’t write about yet out of respect for others. To be more specific (and I think I can do this since my ex doesn’t read your blog) my ex and I broke up back in October but we live together and the lease doesn’t end until the end of May. I want to write about my new single life but I think it could be hurtful to him if he reads my blog (which he says he doesn’t but sometimes he knows things I did that I didn’t tell him but were on my blog!). I think I’ll probably have to wait to start doing “single life” posts until we’re not living together! Readers/Julie, what do you think?
i think that’s very wise and respectful of you! you can still blog about your single life, but i would also use caution when talking about random crushes, etc. since i’m sure you would find that hurtful to read if he was writing about something similar. that being said, if you meet someone you really, really like and want to date, he might feel miffed not being mentioned. totally your call on that one!
i think that’s pretty darn good blogging advice ;o)
The blogs I enjoy reading the most are the ones that are both informative and FUNNY! My blog is in its infancy and recently appears to have had a major growth in daily visits. However, some days are still hit or miss. I think the most important thing to remember is why you started blogging in the first place. For me, it was a way to stay motivated in my new lifestyle. To reach out and connect with like minded people and to hopefully inspire others. Comments on my blog posts are rare and although I know people read my blog, a comment from others fuels my motivation. I’ve been told from other successful bloggers that it takes a long time to grow a blog. I’ve been given some great advice and so far it has really helped me. Comment on others posts and be sure to include your blog link in the area provided. If the blogger needs a guest poster, be that person. Link to others blogs by adopting a theme they have created. For example, I recently adopted the What I Ate Wednesday theme created by Peas and Crayons. I try to submit something to Meg’s High Five Friday and so on. But most importantly, just as Julie suggested, be yourself!
xoxo
~Lainee
I agree. When I first started my blog I had no identity really. I’d been reading healthy living blogs for only a few months but I knew I had my own story to tell — how I lost 110 pounds and kept it off. I basically copied what everyone else was doing: food diary and exercise diary for each post. Except I got bored writing that. If I got bored writing it, who would want to read it?
I changed my blog to writing about things I wanted to share and the page views tripled. Seems that people were more interested in reading things OTHER than a food and exercise diary type blog! I think it’s important to find your own voice, share YOUR story and the readers will come. 🙂
I LOVE this post, as a new blogger it was great to hear advice from someone who has some experience. Also, I love that you love pictures of pets 🙂 Ironically that was my post earlier today haha
I’ve been surfing your blog site all morning and I absolutely adore it! You’re a true inspiration for other fitness bloggers! I especially like that you include a sneak peek into your personal life, which is what I have caught myself doing from time to time in my posts, but have always wondered if I was straying away from the meaning of my post by doing so. You’re totally right though, when we include a little bit of our personality or personal life in general, we make each of our posts unique as opposed to another by the book step by step guide to ‘6 minute Abs’. It’s amazing that you have taking your passions to a level where you literally work and do what you enjoy doing every single day with success! Thank you for sharing!
Great blogging tip! I have a blog at http://www.NoSkinnies.com that focuses on fitness and nutrition. I very rarely put anything personal in my blog. I will definitely change this! I’d love for you to take a look at my site when you have a minute :->
Tammy
I’d love to echo the other comments here to say yes, yes, and thank you. I’ve been blogging about horror film for a few years now and have found it incredibly fulfilling because I’m doing it purely for me. I know other bloggers who see it as a chore or find it frustrating, and at point, I wonder why they bother. My friend and I just started a fitness(ish) blog, and so I’m now entering a whole new online community. It’s great to see the same general attitude here, one of full support and truly entertaining writing. Thank you for posting these tips. It’s wonderful of you to share not only your posts (and beautiful Visla pictures) but also advice that can help the overall blogging community.
You are awesome! Thanks for the real advice and I for sure WANT to read your blog -xo-
I recently started a blog and came to yours for tips because I love reading it, so I figured you must have some good tips 🙂 I love this tip so much because this is exactly the reason I enjoy your blog so much- I love hearing about your day-to-day life and your fun little adventures (not to mention Sadie’s shenanigans)!