Before I start talking about healthy vs. unhealthy, I must first let you in on why I have chosen this new journey. When I was 8 years old, I received my first pair of stretch marks on my knees, and boy did my family make a big deal of it! It was the first time I learned not to love something about me. At the age of 16, I received a beautiful band of tiger stripes on my back, and the stress of those stretch marks sent me down a vicious downward spiral, but we’ll get to that another time. From then, until now, I have struggled with self love, weight, and emotional stability, but recently I have found success in my struggles! There was no magical diet, there was so surgery, there was no strict diet, there was me starting! Starting to fall in love with what I saw in the mirror, starting to love the body that carried 2 babies into this world, starting to love who I am, a young woman who loved to read her kindle on the weekend instead of going out, and that is okay! With that power I was able to lose 20 pounds in 6 months, simply because I STARTED!

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.