Shout out to all the Fit, Strong Women Over 50
Today I’m celebrating milestones. Have you ever heard the saying “You are what you eat”? Or the saying “You are the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with.”? Perhaps you’ve seen this saying about “watching your thoughts” shown on the cover of this notebook?
I know that for me, whatever I put my attention and intention on, will pop up all around me. It is on my radar and I begin to really embrace it.
As we prepare to celebrate the first anniversary of Becoming Elli, I am reminded of this concept.
Celebrating Milestones
Depending on when and how you measure our official beginning, we’ve almost reached the first yearly milestone since our Becoming Elli website went live to the full internet. It’s always fun to be celebrating milestones and going live is a big one!
It was about a year ago, when Jill McCauslin and I began forming the ideas for creating the Becoming Elli community as a website, podcast and private Facebook Group. Although we weren’t sure exactly what form it would take, we both knew we wanted it to focus on being fit and staying strong as we get older.
Jill and I both agreed that fit and strong are key qualities that we want to embrace in this endeavor and as we continue in the second half of our lives.
Creating Becoming Elli
Naming “it” was a bit of a challenge.
We also wanted to identify and combine the concepts of healthy living, being fit, and becoming strong with our “cohort.” While we wanted to identify our age group, we both felt that “Baby Boomers” wasn’t the right phrase. In the process of coming up with a name, we learned how many derogatory terms there are for “older” women.
Elli, the Norse Goddess of Old Age, seemed like the right fit for what we’re hoping to achieve because she was fit and strong.
The Becoming Elli website was developed during the fall of 2017. The first time I think we discussed it out loud with each other while we trained for the Akron half marathon, probably in late August. To start we began to write some blog posts and brainstorm about what to call it. We bought some podcasting gear and learned what it takes to put together plans for a podcast.
We wrote and published a few articles on the server before the website actually went public. Most of our early stories were about our 2017 races like the Cleveland Firecracker 10K, the Akron Half marathon and what we learned by training for it and running it.)
Our first podcast for “Fit Strong Women Over 50” took a while for us to figure out, record, find music, edit and launch. We switched hosting platforms shortly after the first one. It took a while to get it up and running. I think we’ll have an official milestone celebration of the podcast launch separately from the website launch.
Over all, what I think surprised and delighted me the very most, was the reaction, response and reception to the podcast by other women over 50! We found out we are on the right track!
During the past year of starting our podcast, I have learned so much through the podcasting process. It has been so interesting to interview personal trainers, exercise enthusiasts, nutrition experts, and so many women who are working to become and stay fit and strong as they navigate life’s ups and downs, and zigs and zags!
Building Community
During the past year we’ve also begun to build the community with our Facebook page and the private Facebook Group. This too has been a learning process with the ups and downs of using Facebook as a platform. We also started other social media platforms with Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. We’re still learning!
To me, “Becoming Elli” has been a great addition in my life.
It’s become more than a project, it’s a passion! I love the community and hearing from other women around the country and around the world. Through the Becoming Elli community, I find that I am learning more everyday about how to stay healthy, fit in exercise during busy times, eat right even when it’s difficult and develop mental resilience.
Today I am feeling full of gratitude. Celebrating milestones along the way is important. I especially want to make a point to say thanks to my friend Jill who is the co publisher of Becoming Elli. Believe me, without Jill this whole thing would still be a pipe dream.
And to all of our guests who have shared their stories on our website, in our podcasts and to the entire Becoming Elli Community: a very special THANK YOU to you too!!
(*affiliate link disclaimer: some links are to Amazon where a small portion of your purchase will help to offset costs associated with this website and podcast.)