I can’t quite believe that I’ve been blogging 5 years! I started the blog, called Keeping Slim and Getting Stylish, back in January 2010. I know some of you have been reading for a long time so you’ll know what an incredible journey it has been. Blogging has given me so much I almost don’t know where to start. I guess the biggest thing is the belief and will to turn something I was so passionate about doing into a living. I’ve managed to create a successful business from something that started as a little online food diary to keep my weight loss on track, it’s unbelievable! Through blogging I’ve met some incredible people, been offered amazing opportunities and learned a huge amount about myself. Though the blog is now part of a business, I would still write it business or not, because I love it. I love being part of such a lovely community and I’m lucky in that all my years blogging I’ve hardly received any nasty comments. I love that I have this little online home to express myself, share the things I’ve learned and be creative.
So for a trip down memory lane, here’s some highlights from the past 5 years!
2010
Me before I started blogging in 2009 at 14st10 and then at the end of 2010 a lot slimmer!
I did my first half marathon, the Great North Run!
This was also the year that I became a vegetarian.
2011
I was featured as a healthy hero in Healthy Magazine before the big shoot (more on that in a mo).
A lovely meet up with some fab bloggers! Remember that ladies?
Another Great North Run!
This is me at the end of 2011 and my skinniest ever. I was not healthy at all, in fact most of 2011 was not good for me. Looking back I can completely see how ill I’d become. I had an extremely disordered relationship with food, I had turned vegan, was not eating enough and was working out too much. My periods had also stopped. This was probably my lowest point looking back through the blog.
2012
I started my training to become a health coach getting my Diet and Nutrition advisors qualification and my Integrative Health Coach training.
I got a big new tattoo! The butterflies are direct copies of a brooch that was my Nana’s. This tattoo was a tribute to her.
I started my first community healthy living sessions and on my 30th birthday I registered Uniquely Healthy as a company!
I enjoyed an amazing 30th birthday including a fancy dress party!
The year ended with a photo shoot in London for the Healthy Magazine feature!
This was the year when I started to change around my approach to healthy living. I started eating all kinds of foods again and started a journey to try and heal my body and hormones.
2013
The article in Healthy magazine was published!
I learned to hula hoop! Something I’m hoping to start again soon!
I met Gok Wan for the first time and was featured in a You Tube Video with him for Activia.
More ink!
I continued to deliver community healthy living activities and loved it!
I wrote my first e book and e course!
2014
I found out after 2 years of no periods that I was pregnant!
I had a great pregnancy, but my little man Finley arrived 5 weeks early.
A few days after he was born we found out he had a serious heart defect that would require open heart surgery. He was operated on at just 9 weeks old, but proved what an amazing little boy he is by recovering quickly and leaving hospital just 5 days post op. He’s incredible and motherhood is just amazing. So much love and joy, whilst also being the most challenging thing I’ve ever had to do!
I changed the name of the blog from Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish to Wholeheartedly Healthy and set up lauraagarwilson.com . This year I became completely self employed!
I was nominated for a North East Blogger Award.
I was asked to write a recipe book! Grains as Mains is due out on 2nd March.
Me and my little family ♥
There’s been loads of other fabulous things as well. Blogging has enabled me to work with some great brands, attend parties and festivals and try out some of the newest healthy living products on the market.
The best thing about blogging without a doubt is you guys that read it. Thank you so much for visiting this little corner of the internet! It means so much to me, and the emails and comments I get from you that say I’ve inspired you in some way or that you can relate to what I’m going through mean so much. Thank you!
If you have a blog how long have you been blogging? What’s your favourite thing about blogging? Would you be tempted to start a blog?
I feel very emotional reading this! I had followed your blog pretty much since the beginning and from reading your blog, feel like I’ve been part of your journey.
It’s amazing to see what you’ve achieved in 5 years – you’re a huge inspiration to me.
Alice xx
Aww thanks Alice! We need to sort out meeting up for a coffee!
Happy Blogiversary! This was so lovely to see how much you’ve changed over the years, you should be so proud of everything you’ve achieved, it really is incredible!
I’m always so excited to read one of your posts and you’ve helped me in more ways than you can imagine. I hope the blog continues to grow even better than it has so far.
She’s So Lucy
Thank you Lucy :-) You are so sweet!
Wow Laura this is amazing – isn’t it incredible to see all that you have achieved in one go? Congratulations!
Without a doubt my favourite thing about blogging has to be the community, to be able to discuss things with other like minded people is just ideal, especially when lots of your ‘real life’ friends don’t really get all your crazy food obsessions!
Thanks Pip! Completely agree re the community, I think I would have driven my friends crazy with the nutrition talk!
Wow! So much has happened in the last 5 years! I can’t want to see what you do with the next 5! It’s always great to come to your site and find a positive approach to healthy living.keep up the good work!
Thanks so much Sarah!
You’re story is just amazing :-) It’s such a great uplifting story of your journey to health and happiness.
I can’t believe how different you look though in that photo in the dress from 2011. It’s just not you, you know? I think you look so much better at the moment for definite.
I love blogging because of the community and support – there’s always someone to help lift you up and give you good advice. I also love writing down things that have happened so I can look back on them later.
Happy 5th Blogiversary!!! What a lovely look back! I remember discovering your blog in January/February 2010 as i had just started my own healthy food/fitness blog (i think it was called Running in Pink?) I have had lots of different blogs since then but i have always followed yours.
You are such an inspiration, i know you had a tough year when you were vegan but you turned it around and focused on your health, which is fantastic! Glad that you have all the success you deserve and a gorgeous baby boy too.
I look forward to reading your blog for the next 5 years too x
What a fantastic journey! It’s amazing how far the blog has come and just how much you have achieved. Bet you never expected any of this when you first started writing!
You look so different throughout the years although probably the most naturally happiest in your more recent pictures. Here’s to the next five years! :)
Happy Blog Anniversary! I have followed your blog from the almost beginning and its been amazing to see your journey! x
It’s been a phenomenal half decade for you, Laura you’ve accomplished so much for you & the wider community you pro superstar you, congrats lovely!
Happy blogiversary. It’s been great to follow your journey.
This is amazing stuff – congratulations on 5 years! It is incredible to see the journey you have had, it is inspiring! Heres to loads more good stuff :)
Happy Blog-versary! I just checked and I started mine in April 2010, so nearly 5 years too! Doesn’t time fly!
You have achieved so many amazing things in that time- I am looking forward to your recipe book :)
what an amazing journey! the reason you only get nice comments is because you are such a lovely person and so caring and non-judgmental! I love reading your posts and find them very inspiring – keep up the amazing work!
That blog meet-up photo from 2011 seems like it was taken in another lifetime. That was (and still is) my greatest social achievement, and I couldn’t have done it without you being so caring and putting me at ease despite how weird and awkward I know I am. I will always owe you for that.
I think we’ve been blogging for a similar amount of time (I started blogging ‘properly’ at the beginning of 2009) but we’ve obviously had very different levels of success ;) I remember when you first put out a call for sponsors for your blog I was sitting there and wishing you all the luck in the world, but thinking that it would never work. Shows what I know about social media! I wish I had been on the ball the way you were. You’re definitely a pioneer when it comes to blogging as a business, and most of the other UK equivalents are just pale (and sometimes painfully obvious) copies and imitations of your design, ideas and concepts.
The first time I read your blog I think you were only about a dozen posts in, and it’s strange to think of how much you’ve grown since then! I remember being so scared to comment for the first time, but I’m like that with all blogs…I take months or years before I say anything but once I get started you can’t shut me up :P
Happy 5th Blog Birthday! I know there are many more successful years to come.
Happy blogiversary lovely! Gosh, this definitely was a trip down memory lane remembering all of these photos from those times! I think I started reading your blog about a month after you’d started it and didn’t comment for ages haha :) So glad I found it though and your journey has honestly inspired me so so much and continues to all the time with your whole attitude to life and your open honesty <3
I remember when I was vegan and you'd just started adding in more foods from being vegan and it was definitely an eye opener for me as to the reasoning behind why I was vegan and if it really was that 'healthy'. And seeing you both at your lowest weight and then healthier again was just lovely to see how happier you were too! Honoured to have met you as my all time fave blogger :)
And I hope you have many more years of happy blogging yet!! :)
what a journey you have been on Laura! thank you for always blogging honestly with your heart (and butterflies) on your sleeve. You truly are an inspiration! thank you on a personal note for all the love and support you showed me in 2013 and since then, Love Grace xxx
What a journey for you! Congratulations on everything you’ve achieved in these years!
I’ve only been blogging for a year or so and I really enjoy writing about different aspects of healthy living and this includes nutrition, healthy eating, fitness and natural cosmetics. I hope that I am helping someone on a journey to become a healthier person.
Petra
Happy 5 years Laura! You’ve managed to cram so much in and achieved so much – so inspirational!
Happy blogiversary :)
What an amazing journey you’ve had and here’s hoping there’s many more years!
Helen
♥
Wow, I am totally inspired Laura. I only started blogging last year and am amazed how far I have come in 1 year – it’s so exciting. It’s motivated me also to try and turn my passion into a living – I am 4 months into my nutrition course and love it. Your journey is so interesting. I can’t wait for the book – how cool! And of course, thanks for being my January Plank inspiration! Look forward to more challenges this year! Happy blogiversay! Lx
Happy birthday blog! You started blogging only a couple of months before I did (March 2010), which means you were one of the people who inspired me to get writing, so for that – thank you.
Gosh Laura, despite reading and being on this journey with you for 5 years, your ‘skinny’ photo really gave me a shock, I can’t even remember you being that tiny. I’m glad you can look at that photo now with fresh eyes and feel differently about yourself.
Thanks Alex! I know that photo really freaked me out, it’s like looking at a whole different person :-(