Hi, I’m back!
I missed you!
For the past month, I took a step back from blogging (and a half step back from social media…).
And it was probably the hardest/best thing I have ever done.
Taking a 31-day break from the blog was super hard because I have been blogging weekly since graduate school… AKA for the past FIVE YEARS. It’s kinda something I like to do. I love the crazy, messy process of coming up with new recipes, buying the ingredients (and having people stare at my shopping cart weirdly – marshmallow fluff and kale??), and actually cooking the food. The whole photography part is also pretty great, too! I love this blog, I love you (and your feedback), and I love this process. It is the perfect creativity I need to balance out my clinical nutrition career.
But, to be honest, blogging is exhausting.
Like I-need-extra-sleep-why-don’t-I-drink-coffee exhausting.
Between balancing work + commuting + errands + working out + being with family/friends, recipe creation/photography got pushed to the side and I felt my drive to create diminish.
Which is the absolute opposite of what this blog is supposed to be.
I started this whole journey because I CRAVED a way to be creative in a world full of black-and-white guidelines and practices. I was seeking a way of using my nutrition knowledge in a different way. I wanted to share my experiences of graduate school + internship + work and how the whole work-life balance is HARD… and ways to create meals that fit into that balance.
But sometimes we need give ourselves a break.
I knew that I needed to take a step back and focus on my family and my obligations to work/volunteer projects. I was so hesitant to take this break, but it ended up being the best decision I could have made for myself.
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What I learned by taking a month off:
1. I was able to refocus and get my balance back.
The end of July was a doozy emotionally/mentally, which meant that the blog got pushed to the side. Taking the month off allowed me to take a step back, get in some self-care, and refocus back on what is important (family, friends, work, blog). By taking the time to take care of myself, I was able to get my mojo back.
2. The blog didn’t fall apart.
My biggest fear with taking a month off was that the blog was going to suffer. I thought that not updating the blog would cause people to stop reading/commenting/sharing. But, you guys are AH-mazing. You kept reading, kept commenting, and kept sharing – I felt so love with all the love for the blog 🙂
3. The time off actually inspired me to create more!
With the pressure to push blog posts out, the process became fun again! Getting in the kitchen and messing around was so much more enjoyable without have the pressure to get the recipe right ASAP, snapping the perfect photo, and having everything typed up and ready to go in a couple days. No blog posts meant that I wasn’t super stressed about getting everything done perfectly. So the chewy granola bars that didn’t keep to a bar form was not a big deal (and turned out to be a perfect crumbled granola breakfast).
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I learned so much after taking this past month off. How to prioritize. How to trust that the things you built will continue to grow (even if you aren’t micromanaging them daily). How to refocus, recharge, and become reenergize about this whole process. And how to remind myself that this is a fun, creative outlet and I need to cut myself some slack.
But now I’m back and have a bunch of fun things to share!! Can’t wait to get back into the kitchen with you!
oxox,
Catherine
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