It is just over two years since I posted my first blog. This is blog number 42. And what a 24 months it has been. I started with the objective ‘of using it as a diary of my progress towards my fitness goals and sharing what I discover with other women and possibly men (mustn’t be sexist) of a certain age’. It has ended up as a record of my recovery from major surgery and the devastation of losing my best friend who wasn’t so fortunate to have something that could be fixed.

That first blog now feels a long time ago. And whilst what I intended to do with it has changed it is something I am very proud of. Writing about my experience has been therapeutic. It helped me come to terms with what was happening to me and it is a reminder of how far I have come. Even if I was the only person to read it the investment has been worth it.
Before I set the blog up I asked friends and family what they thought. All but one were very positive. One friend, however, told me I was wasting my time as nobody ever reads them. Two years on he has read every one of mine and frequently posts how much he enjoys them. 
So did I achieve my original objective? Well I think it remains work in progress. When I started I was training 4 to 5 times per week. I was happy with my weight. And I was studying to become a Personal Trainer. The only problem was feeling lightheaded when I ran. 3 months in I had to stop training and put my studying on hold. Two years later I can run a half marathon and have qualified as a PT. For a 58 year old woman I am fairly fit. I am happy with what I’ve achieved. Sure I’d like to lose a stubborn couple of kgs which hang around as love handles. I’d love to run a bit faster and to able to do a pull-up but I am healthy and I feel strong.Have I inspired anyone to get fitter? Yes I have. Two friends credit me for getting them to become fitter and they are both loving it. I just love reading their Facebook posts. And hopefully others may be doing that something extra as a consequence of reading what I have achieved.

So if anyone is thinking about starting a blog here is my advice for what it is worth. I started with a free platform (wordpress.com) which is a self hosted site. However, this does not mean that you have complete control. Adverts can appear on the site which you have no say over. Plus there are limitations in how far the site can be developed. So after a number of months I moved it over to a hosted site (wordpress.org). I didn’t have the technical expertise to move the content over so I paid for it to be transferred. All went well so it was money well spent. I also have to pay an annual subscription to the hosting company (Bluehost). It works out at about £4 per month. The benefits being that they sort out any glitches and I have access to a range of plugins. Plugins are software that can be uploaded to increase the functionality of your site. 
The other thing I have learnt is the best way to use images. I always get more visits if the image is a personal one. Of course, this means that I have had to take the odd selfie. I have also bought a tripod stand for my iPhone but haven’t got round to using that yet. Accessing other images is a bit of a nightmare as you can’t just use one that you find on a google search due to copyright issues. And in my experience free images are pretty poor or limited and it can be fairly expensive to buy good images. But as I say personal is best.
The one thing I haven’t yet cracked is traffic to my site. Although I now get a fairly steady number of visits from Australia to Vietnam the numbers are small. Visits peak when I post on social media. So I need to do more work on search engine optimisation (SEO).
My blog has been my side during what has turned out to be a fairly traumatic period in my life. It helped me get through it. I intend to continue to write it. And hopefully it will morph into Fitfrom60.