It Has Been An Awesome Four Months!

Happy 4 month anniversary to Give It A Whirl Girl! I started up this blog four months ago on June 6th. I was recovering from a hernia operation when a lightbulb went off in my mind! I had to fire it up and get the ball rolling on starting up a blog! My number one passion in life is cooking and baking. It was also my new year’s resolution to get a blog up and running. It took me half a year of planning to finally take my first step. I am so incredibly grateful for my husband, my daughter, and my mother for holding my hand along the way!

I was tremendously nervous to start this new venture. It takes a lot of strength to write and put yourself out there for the world to see! In the beginning, I would have a little anxiety attack before hitting that publish button. Fast forward to four months later and now I am incredibly eager to hit that publish button and share my foodie venture with the world! When I discover a new food or a new recipe that I fall in love with I want to spread the word.

I have learned a TON and taken in a lot of information in these past four months. Starting up a blog is a lot harder than one would think. There is a lot of knowledge that needs to be fed to your brain so you have a clue on what the heck you are doing! I still have a lot to learn. Learning about things like SEO makes me feel dumb. Blogging is so complex! I am determined and committed to learning and embracing all of this knowledge so that when my one-year anniversary arrives I can look back on all of this and see how far I have come.

Along the way, on this journey, I have had friends and family that have been very supportive and I think of them all as my cheerleaders. You need to have a support system in place to be a blogger. They are the people that inspire you to do your best. I am so thankful to each and every person who has had my back on this adventure. I am thankful for all of those who take the time to read my posts. I appreciate everyone in my audience. Nobody wants to be out there talking to themselves. It is always reassuring to know that people take the time to sneak a peek at the inside of my cooking and baking journey.

My days now start out with a cup of coffee (obviously) and once that first cup of coffee kicks in I am ready to write! If you asked me ten years ago where I thought I would be today I would have never thought I would be a writer, a blogger. I have always had a passion for writing but art was my strong suit and I thought I would have been a professional in the art field at this point in my life. It is okay though and I am perfectly happy where I am today with my life. I feel renewed and I feel like a whole new person. I look forward to my mornings when I sit at my desk and write. I finally have found my happy place in life!

I love what I do. I love to cook. I love to bake. I love to eat. I really love to try new foods. Put all this together and then I have content to write about. These are things that I am most passionate about. I fell in love with cooking a few years ago and I have evolved so much along the way. At this point in my life, I have developed my own personal philosophy about eating/dieting and it is my blog tagline:

Eat healthy so you can have dessert.

And that is exactly what I do! Take this dinner below as an example. It is an awesome, healthy, and nutritious meat and veggie dinner that falls within paleo guidelines. I am very paleo-ish but I will never be completely there with it. I still love to indulge in some not-so-healthy foods. See the photo below of the bubble-gum cake that I created. I want to enjoy that on occasion so I don’t hold back and I indulge in a sugary treat every now and then! You know the term, YOLO (you only live once), and that is what often pops up in my mind. I’m not going to live forever and if I crave a dessert like that I do not hold back and restrict myself. And a major plus to these sweet treats is that I also have a blast making them in the kitchen so it is a win-win situation!

Eating like this is what works best for me. Last year I lost 35 pounds eating this way. A year later I might have put on a few extra pounds but for the most part, I have maintained my weight and I am so happy with where I am at today with my body. I am no longer self-conscious and I feel comfortable in my skin. After all, that is what is of utmost importance~ to have love and acceptance for who you are today.

Let’s take a look at some of my favorite highlights:

Paleo & Vegan Cookie Dough Cheesecake

Drinking boba at Kawaii Bubble Tea

Paleo Dark Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

Thunderbird Bar Pecans + Goji + Pistachio in Eastern Market, Detroit, MI

Give It A Whirl Girl with her Menchie’s Froyo Creation

Sugarfina Cereal Collection Gift Set

Paleo French Toast w/ chia and flax, vanilla custard, and raspberry compote

Homemade gluten-free pizza

One thing that I would love to work on more with the blog is to reach out to more local businesses to do reviews. I have done a few reviews of some local hotspots and those are the posts that I am most excited to write about. I do not get out of the house much so when I do get a chance to go out and experience food at a restaurant it totally makes my day. Reviewing my stats also shows to me that that is also what my readers enjoy the most. My local reviews are getting the most hits. I am really looking forward to expanding this section on my blog. You can see my local reviews right HERE.

I would like to end this anniversary on a final note of appreciation once again. Thank you once again to everyone who has been along for the ride. Much love and gratitude to each and every one of you. Thank you for reading and I hope you stay along with me on this food blogging journey.