Controversial topic coming up….
I love blogging.
I love interacting with the healthy living blogging community.
I love the support I get from everybody.
I love how blogging has changed the way I view myself and life.
I love blogging about my day.
I love blogging about my workouts.
I love blogging about health issues.
I love blogging about new recipes I make.
I don’t love food blogging.
When I first started blogging, I tried to fit into the mold of what I saw from the popular blogs. In my eyes, these blogs were Carrots “N” Cake, Kath Eats, Oh She Glows, Peanut Butter Fingers, etc. They all photograph the majority of what they eat in a day with beautiful photographs that make food look incredibly appetizing. I saw how successful each of these blogs was and thought that “taking pictures of my food” was the way to go.
So, I did it. Want to know what happened? I gained weight. It made me anxious around food. It made me think too much about food. Food (or restricting food) ruled my life. When I blogged, I became obsessed with food for a different reason. I got anxious if I didn’t have something “pretty” to post. If I was just craving eggs and toast at night for the 2nd night in a row, I wouldn’t eat it because I didn’t want my blog to become redundant with boring food. That form of blogging became unhealthy for me.
Blogging about my food did not help me in my goal to eat intuitively. I would eat when I wasn’t hungry because I wanted to have food to blog about. I would eat things I wasn’t craving or wanting because that’s what bloggers ate and that’s how they ate. I would go home at night and binge on food that I really wanted to eat and never took pictures of any if it. No pictures, it didn’t exist? Right? Wrong.
My finances took a hit. I would find myself always going over budgets because I HAD to have crazy kitchen gadgets, only eat Ezekial (which I know only buy every once in a while), or always having to have the “IN” peanut butter all because I wanted to fit in with a blogging community that blogged about food.
I became stressed trying to always eat these beautifully cooked and prepared meals in order to have “things to blog about.”
And then it hit me. To quote Brittany from A Healthy Slice of Life, I began to feel o-blog-gated to blog. My passion wasn’t in my blog for a long time because I was doing what others did. Don’t get me wrong. I love and read every single one of those blogs everyday. It works for them. They have fantastic blogs. But, it doesn’t work for me.
My passion in blogging lies in showcasing ME. Not my food, just ME. I want to talk about my struggles, my triumphs, and allow readers to feel like I’m their friend. I want my readers to see me for who I am–and not what I eat. My blog reflects me, and not what’s going in my belly.
I realize I will never be popular because of the recipes I come up with. I won’t be popular for oats in a jar, overnight oats, breakfast cookies, sweet potatoes and almond butter, chia seeds, or green monsters.
You will hardly ever see pictures of food from restaurants. I remember reading posts recapping the Healthy Living Summit and seeing pictures of bloggers. I would see pictures showing bloggers standing over a table and all 10 of them had big ole nice cameras taking pictures of food. The image struck me as odd. I don’t want to break out a camera in a restaurant to take pictures of food I realized. I want to focus more on who is sitting beside me or in front of me, and not focus on getting pictures of my meal from 10 different angles.
Please realize, I’m not dogging ANYONE who does that. I love each and every single blogger who takes pictures of their food. I love LOOKING at their pictures because they take truly wonderful and often artistic shots. Also, I realize that JUST because they are taking pictures of their food doesn’t mean they aren’t focused on enjoying a meal with company. I imagine they are. Bloggers are some of the best people in the world and I know that every single one of them cares about relationships.
But, when I busted out my camera in a restaurant, it took away from my experience with my friend or family. BUT THAT’S ME.
The best thing in life that you can do is KNOW YOURSELF. Know what makes tick and makes you cringe. Know what will lift you up to the highest sky and know what will make you sink faster then you can imagine.
Know yourself.
Blogging has allowed me to get to know myself. And, now I know, that food blogging isn’t for me. You will never see a random picture of my sandwich or breakfast anymore (unless I deem it a beautiful meal and I want to practice photography in my kitchen).
And that’s ok.
What has blogging taught you?
If you are a reader, what has blogging taught you about yourself? What have you learned from blogs?
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