FunFitnessFamily Wins Blogger Recognition Award!

FunFitnessFamilyis thrilled to announce that we are a recipient of the Blogger Recognition Award! This distinguished award is presented to bloggers by the blogging community.

We are honored to accept this award from Lydia Amadi Chinyere, the inspiring and empowering voice behind the relationship and self-improvement blog, Empressing.

In her nomination, Lydia recognized our blog, stating that FunFitnessFamily has “great tips on how the family can stay fit and still stick close”. I am honored to receive this award from such a talented fellow blogger!

To carry on the tradition of the Blogger Recognition Award, I now have the privilege of endorsing and highlighting 15 of my favorite fitness, travel, and family bloggers to receive this wonderful recognition. Before I announce the nominees, I’ll explain more about the award and why I started blogging.About the Blogger Recognition Award

The Blogger Recognition Award is a virtual recognition accolade designed to be a great way to connect with other bloggers and introduce visitors to their work.

• Thank the blogger who nominated me and provide a link to their blog.
• Write a post about the award that includes a brief description of how I started my blog and provide two tips to beginner bloggers.
• I must select 15 bloggers to pass the Blogger Recognition Award along to, explain why I have chosen them for the award, and notify them of their nomination by providing a link to this post.

Why I Started FunFitnessFamily

Two years ago, we entered an online contest to win an RV family camping trip. To enter, I had to put together a video of why our family should win. We LOVE to travel and I’ve been creating my own active travel itineraries for years, so it was a lot of fun to put the video together. I am also a fitness instructor and my family and friends are always asking me for workout advice. Finally, we are obsessed with all the things to do in and around our hometown of Columbia, Maryland.

So, I decided to blend my hobbies and passions together to share our travel and active adventures, promote healthy living, and highlight fun activities in our area as well as every place we travel to for others to expore and enjoy! I also have over 15 years of experience in the marketing field and an M.S. in Information Management so that has helped me tremendously as I developed my blog and learned the best way to market it to reach the right audience.

Advice to New Bloggers

• Write about what you are passionate about: In trying to grow my subscriber base, I’ve studied a lot of blogs out there and can quickly pick out the good ones from the bad ones. Some people are just throwing out words to get good site rankings and sell ad space. Focus on quality, not quantity and eventually, you will have a beautiful site that you are proud of!
• If you build it, they will come:Don’t get caught up in trying to grow too fast. If you create quality content, then you will attract loyal followers who will share your content with others. A snowball always starts out very small!

And now….The Winners of the Blogger Recognition Award are…..

I have selected each of these talented bloggers because they all create high-quality travel, fitness, wellness, and family content. I hope my readers enjoy checking out what they have to offer!

1. Michelle Dimov of Inspire for Healthy

Michelle offers practical, bite-sized tips for losing weight and staying well such as creating a healthy snack list and how to read food labels to make smart choices. She also has an easy-to-navigate layout as well!

2.  Claire of ClaireBearBlogs

Claire’s cute blog is neatly organized into three topics: Food, Travel, and Lifestyle. She posts highly relevant content religiously every Tuesday at 9 pm Central. Not only can I go to her site to find something new and interesting to make for dinner, but I can also get tips on how to stop procrastinating and make that recipe!

3. Michele Welker of LoveLaughCaribbean

This is a family-focused travel site that features my FAVORITE places to go – not only in the sunny Caribbean, but also fun spots to take the kids around the U.S. Michele shares lots of pictures, which helps take you there virtually. It is a great site to visit if you’re looking for ideas on where to go or just window shopping on a gloomy day.

4.  Gwendolyn Reinhard of Nurturing Family and Self

Nurturing Family and Self is a mom-focused blog. Gwendolyn shares her insights as a new mom as she balances her passions for running, baking, and making wholesome home-cooked meals. P.S. her double layer pineapple upside down cake recipe is simply amazing!

5. Caitlin Goodwin of Typically Twitterpated

If you’re looking for solid Disney planning tips, this is the place to go! Caitlin shares a lot of pictures and highlights the pros and cons of where to go with little ones in tow as well as for families with special needs.

6. Neeraj Kumar of Fitness Saga

This is a top-notch fitness site! It offers up workout ideas and tips with a dash of nutrition and supplement advice to mix it up. It is a definite go-to blog if you’re looking for some new ideas for your fitness routine or need some motivation!

7.  Terri of The Loyal Ohana

Terri is a very inspirational blogger. She recently moved to Houston to await her daughter’s double lung transplant as a result of her pediatric cancer battle. Her mission is to help families make life a little easier by sharing experiences, goodwill, and yummy recipes too!

8.  Kristin Hanes of The Wayward Home

Kristin is a journalist who lives on a sailboat in San Francisco Bay. How cool is that? She has fascinating posts that profile people that have ditched a ‘normal’ life to a downsized, adventure-filled one from free-spirited singles to families with young children. She also shares ways to save money and clear up debt.

9.  Dr. Allie Flowers of Life of a Fit Momma

As a licensed physical therapist, medical clinic manager, certified yoga therapist, and mom, Dr. Allie Flowers is an expert in her field. She shares workouts to follow, techniques to eliminate pain and soreness, and recipes for scrumptious reward treats!

10.  Keani Abel of Keani Travel

Keani has a well-organized, inviting homepage and well-written, thoughtful posts. She travels to the coolest places like Prague and Peru. She shares great travel advice such as how to travel to Russia without a visa!

11.  The Family at Settle in El Paso

If you are looking for a fun, family-themed blog that will always surprise you, this is it! Mom and Dad share the blog, while their son illustrates the occasional picture. This family transplanted them from the East coast to El Paso and shares a lot of interesting tidbits from local sights to a unique perspective on parenting to random DIY tricks. You’re guaranteed to learn something new!

12.   Ms. Kay of Kays Health and Beauty Sense

I love this site because Kay is very authentic in her advice. She covers wellness, financial tips, and beauty. She’s taught me a thing or two about where to shop to save money. Plus, she’s a busy mom of three and writes great posts about things I’ve wondered for years like which moisturizer is best for your face type and what is the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ cholesterol.

13.  Rena Gadimova of Hot Fit Cookie

Rena’s site is easy to navigate and has marvelous fitness tools such as a built-in daily calorie calculator.  I especially love her 4^th of July recovery plan, complete with guilt-free recipes, a workout music playlist, and a binge recovery plan. (I kind of need that every weekend! : )

14.  Erica DeStafano of Erryday Life

Erica is a very down-to-earth blogger that shares her own personal triumphs to lead a healthier lifestyle. I can totally identify with her posts on being a recovering junk food junkie and converting to a vegetarian diet.

15.  Jonathan and Chantele Cross-Jones of Two Hearts One Roof

This husband and wife team is from South Wales and offers a different view on things from another part of the world. They also have a “Pet Central” tab with some cool posts, including my favorite one about doggie fitness tracking apps! Some posts are not practical those of us in the U.S., but it is interesting to hear about their experiences in Europe and see what kind of products they have there that we’ve never heard of!

I do hope you enjoy visiting these brilliant blogs! Finally, thanks again to Lydia Amadi Chinyere at Empressing for nominating me for this prestigious Blogger Recognition Award!