Health and Wellness + Free Your Fork

Hello all! It feels like we JUST flipped our calendars to November, doesn’t it? And yet Turkey Day is almost upon us. It occurred to me how very veryyyy close December and the end of another year are getting. Like so close, guys. Not to send anyone into a holiday shopping list panic but, it’s coming and I am not prepared. In the slightest.

Anytime someone says they “can’t wait!” for Black Friday sales to start, I get panged not with excitement for sweet deals but with manic present-buying-anxiety. Really hoping everyone is fine with receiving bags of granola for Christmas because as of right now, that’s pretty much all I have to offer you. Hope you’re cool with raisins!

As we wrap things up and come ever closer to Free Your Fork’s 1-year blogiversary / 1^st ever blog birthday (what does one even call these things??), I have been thinking a lot about what I’ve done with it in the past year and what hopes I have for it down the line.

For starters, I love doing recipe posts. LOVE. THEM. And love YOU for reading them (and for making them at home and sharing them with your fam & friends) for that matter. They are literally the bread and butter material of the site. They are the whole reason for starting the blog in the first place, and will continue to be the focus of FYF in the years to come. Which means even more recipes are headed for your email inboxes all throughout 2017 and beyond! Because food is LIFE.

But what else? What other lovely things could I start to incorporate and sprinkle into the mix? What other info do I want to be sharing on here that I maybe have been too shy or too scared to delve into before?

And that. THAT place. That is where I want to start going a little more in the coming months. That semi-uncomfortable place that tugs at my heart-strings and whispers “PSST. hi. I’m here too. Please share me”. And I think it might be very nice to go to that place with you all. To challenge myself and the blog’s potential to grow. To reach out a tiny bit further, dig just a little deeper, and help more people live their best lives by expanding the content to include food (YES!) AND also bits and pieces of health & wellness info.

So why haven’t I done this before? The simplest answer is the one I just hinted at. The one that so often prevents each of us from doing whatever it is that we truly want to do.

Fear.

The fear of being judged for what I say, or for sharing too much, of making myself (or anyone else) even the slightest bit uncomfortable, of deviating from my “brand”, of putting myself and my stories out there for public consumption. All of those things and more. That line of self-questioning that comes before you do anything majorly different in your life. Questions and criticisms like “who am I to try to do something like this?”, “what if everyone hates it?”, “you’re not qualified enough”, “you’re not a real writer / nutritionist / trainer / cook”.

But instead of being weighed down by all of that uncertainty and choosing the safer path, I have decided to do the bold thing anyway. Not without fear, but in spite of it.

I am choosing to shelve my self-doubt and all those “BUT WHAT IF” questions knocking at the back of my brain and instead…just do the damn thing already. To tell my inner critic to shove it. Allow myself to hope, to have a bit of faith, and put out a little more goodness into the world the best way I know how. On here, in my little slice of the blog-o-sphere, in simple plain words and pictures. To share what I have learned about health, the way that I have chosen to approach it, and what has (and has not) worked for me.

Real life requires real solutions and real, honest, straightforward conversations. Safe spaces to explore knowledge and new ways of doing things. And I am excited for this to be one such space.

Health is SUCH a multi-faceted, many-headed beast to tackle. Especially if you are trying to do it on your own. I have been there, at square one, afraid to take even the tiniest step forward. Pursuing a healthy lifestyle involves not just health-minded recipes and nutrition or what you’re putting into your body, but also how you feel while you’re trying to do all those great things for yourself.

It is all encompassing. Physical health, mental health, diet, exercise, self-image. It’s all inextricably tied and woven together. And sometimes it can be downright overwhelming and confusing.

When I started my health and fitness journey, navigating all that knowledge without guidance or support was a LOT to take on. I often felt totally lost and stumbling along the way, trying anything I could to see what worked. After years of trying to educate and train myself, I finally got there (or closer to wherever “there” is). But it took a lot longer than I expected and I made a lot of mistakes I wish I didn’t have to make.

And that’s why I am going to make a conscious effort to include more about my own journey (both past and present) on here, in the hopes that it will help make some sense of it all and consolidate all the information in one place.

I know that in taking this big leap forward in expanding my content, I may lose some readers along the way. Maybe they will pop in to see a recipe here or there or choose to simply unfollow me altogether. And that’s okay, I respect that choice. I get it.

But my sincere hope is that you’ll follow along with me and explore those open, uncharted waters. Health looks different for EVERY person. And I want to be here to support you while you find what works for you and let you know we are all in this thing together. There is no one-size fits all when it comes to a healthy lifestyle, it’s just a matter of finding what works uniquely for you.

I’m super excited to be sharing posts more regularly on things like:

• Diet & Exercise Basics – what programs I’ve tried, what has worked & what I would never do again
• Meal Prepping Essentials – why we do it every week, how you can do it at home, & what recipes we love to make
• Lifestyle Hacks & How-To’s – making (not finding) time to exercise // cook at home, how to eat healthy while travelling or camping, eating healthy on a budget etc.
• Mental Health & Happiness – self-image, body dysmorphia, disordered eating habits, & body positivity

And if there’s anything you’d really like to see featured on here, be sure to send me a little message or drop me a note in the comments section below!!

xo, Lauren

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Photo Credit: Billy DeKom

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