On July 8, 2005, I wrote the following on my family blog:

Weight Watchers Week 1

Most people know I’m slightly weight obsessed. Well being pregnant has put me back to my all time highest weight. I’m not that depressed about it considering the little gift I got from gaining all of it! Anyway, as soon as I could I joined Weight Watchers and I finished my first week yesterday. Happy to say I was down 6lbs! For a total of 38 since Ryan was born. It will be a long journey but I’m up for it. I may add a Weight Watchers section tracking my progress and sharing recipes, especially since a few people I know are also following the same diet. We’ll see.

Over the course of the next 11 years that “Weight Watchers section” changed my life. I lost the weight and gained so much more.

I Don't Even Know Where to Start

When I started blogging in 2004, I could have never predicted how it would change the course of my life forever.

And yes it literally did change my life. I’m not exaggerating.

Back then I was a 28-year-old Assistant Professor at a community college teaching web development and multimedia. Pregnant with my first child and living a few hours from all my family, I started blogging to share stories of the baby. I used my site as an example in classes. I built my own blogging platform. I took photos and experimented with different technologies.

It was just a fun little project to keep my web development skills sharp. That’s all.

After the baby came I started sharing my Weigh Watchers progress and after a month or so I decided to make a separate page for my weigh-ins.

Roni’s Weight Watchen (aka Roni’s Weigh) page was born.

That page grew into its very own blog where I shared my thoughts on weight loss. I wrote about things that inspired me, shared my progress and started posting recipes.

Recipe sharing and cooking, in general, became a passion, and I decided to start a spin-off blog just for my food adventures.

GreenLiteBites was born.

I was having so much fun and spending so much time on GreenLiteBites I used to joke it was my “second child.”

Blogging became a complete creative outlet for me, and it was helping me achieve weight loss and life goals I never thought possible. It worked so well I decided to host a community so others could use the medium to reach their own goals.

BlogToLose was born.

Traffic to my sites grew and grew over the years, and I realized I had a budding business on my hands. Blogging was really booming, so I decided to get a bunch of us “healthy living bloggers” together in a conference of sorts.

(BlogToLose has since been retired)

FitBloggin’ was born.

Around this time I left my faculty position. Having a full-time job, a toddler and my own business, I was drowning. It was a hard decision to make for sure, but it also felt right.

All I could do was trust my gut.

The next few years were an adventure, to say the least. Hosting FitBloggin’ became a full-time job. I was traveling more. Having fun with recipe development, posting about my running adventures and working with amazing companies like The Laughing Cow, POM Wonderful, and Quaker. One of my recipes landed me on a Good Morning America segment, and my story was covered on Inside Edition when some weight loss company stole my before and after photos. I was even featured in a Wired article about blogging and running apps!

(I sold FitBloggin' in 2012)

Then it happened, a fellow blogger and I landed a book deal. We wrote What You Can When You Can and had a blast recording a weekly podcast.

Looking back, it all feels like a dream. A dream that happened a long time ago, a very, very long time ago.

In 2015, I was burning out from the stress of hosting the conference, finding sponsors, writing a book, and wearing every hat entrepreneurs need to wear to make a living — accountant, network administrator, designer, developer, moderator, account manager, writer, photographer, etc., etc., etc.

I sold the conference to a third party, decided to consolidate my sites down to just RoniNoone.com, and started to look for a traditional full-time position.

I felt blessed to be able to work for myself, but I was craving the stability of a job and missing the camaraderie of co-workers.

Going back to work was an adjustment! Actually, just figuring out how to build my resume and explain seven years of blogging as a business was hard enough. It took me over a year and about 50 applications to find a job, and I didn't realize how hard it would be returning to a traditional office environment. So, I fought hard and long to get back to the classroom.

I forgot how much missed and enjoyed teaching!

Returning to Academia felt like coming home. The atmosphere of a college campus, the faculty, the students, it’s all so refreshing. I look forward to coming to work every day. It’s a great match for my skill-set and personality.