Am I nuts?
Are We, food/health/fitness blog lovers, all nuts?
Or do we just know something that others don’t.
Before starting on my food blog reading journey, I admit, I was not a foodie. I thought of food in terms of how much weight it would put on me or how many calories or fat grams it had.
Fun times.
Then I discovered the blog world. Of course, my curious little self arrived at a whole slew of other fantastic food blogs over the months and I realized that other people had caught on as well.
Us, wonderful and mysterious and magical women, were giving our bodies what they needed:
FOOD!
It was a wonderful concept, especially coming from the 1990’s when you couldn’t click on the web or the TV and see a story about anorexia or other eating disorder. It seemed that as women, we had failed the battle with our bodies.
It seemed as though we had given up the fight and thrown our hands up in the air, all the while shoving flavoured mini rice cakes into our mouths. The whole bag is only 300 calories and I am going to eat the whole thing, damnit! What? You say this has 6 billion milligrams of sodium in it? So be it….!
The blog world changed my life. Or should I say the amazing women behind the bogs. They changed how I viewed myself, the food I eat, how I workout, and my idea of what a healthy lifestyle was.
I have spoken with so many other women who feel the same way as me, many of whom have overcome eating disorders and gained a whole new perspective on food.
In the past, food and eating wasn’t what I called fun. It was associated with so many other emotions that my actual, physical experience with food was stolen from me. I never really had the satisfaction of preparing a new recipes with new foods and enjoying the results. I didn’t think of food in that type of way before.
For me food blogs have opened my eyes to an exciting world where food and health is fun again.
Maybe a bit too much fun…
Now I am curious- How have your behaviours changed as a result of reading blogs? Has your relationship with food and eating changed? What positive effects have you had?
Stay tuned for the next installment on bloggers and readers and the friends and family who think they are crazy! :D You can see Part 1 and part 2 here:
I agree with Angela 100% that food blogs have been wonderful for my relationship with food, and with myself! I’m so happy I started reading even though I felt kind of weird and kept it a secret from my friends and boyfriend at first. :) However, you do have to be selective in which ones you “follow” – some bloggers demonstrate eating and/or exercise habits that I believe would be unhealthy for me, and therefore I avoid reading their blogs. I don’t have a history of disordered eating but I found myself being influenced by or competitive with certain bloggers for some reason and emulating them wasn’t good for me even though maybe it is fine for them and they seemed like wonderful people. Obviously I love your blog Angela and think you give us such an honest, useful example of a wonderful lifestyle. Thanks for all you do.
I linked to this post on my blog. It is such a great conversation!
I also started on Eat Like Me. I have become so much more AWARE of what I’m putting into my body. I don’t care as much about calories (the number). Now I want to make sure that I’m getting everything that I need and that I’m exercising enough.
I totally agree… blogging has honestly changed my LIFE!
For me, I was struggling to recover from anorexia when I found Cristin’s blog Eat Like Me. As I’ve told Cristin, I credit her in a HUGE way for allowing my recovery to ever happen. I based my new eating habits off of her own, and asked her too many questions to ever remember. She was kind enough to answer every last one, and I was well on my way towards recovery. I stuck around with her even after my eating habits were back to normal and I was healthy. I just loved hearing her stories and getting new ideas. From there, I heard about Kath’s blog and started reading both Cristin’s and Kath’s. No offense AT ALL to Cristin, but Kath tends to be somewhat more creative with her food, and therefore, I started to develop brand new eating habits and creating my own new dishes. From there, my passion with healthy eating and foods, and being creative with food, developed. I decided I wanted to start my own blog to connect with all of these amazing bloggers and to share my new ideas. I have yet to regret a single day of blogging… it has become a huge part of my life, but a VERY welcome addtion at that! :D
Yes! yes yes yes! I started reading EAT LIKE ME last spring, and Cristin inspired me in much the same way as you described! From there I started to clean up my diet and understand that it is okay to eat REAL food a la Kath’s blog, which I also frequent! Your blog is a new discovery for me, and I have to say that it’s fast becoming a new favorite alongside KERF, Jenns, and a few others. Blogs inspire me on a daily basis to stick with my goals and stay focused on my health/exercise. They’ve also inspired me to start my owm blog, which is a wonderful way to stay on track with food and exercise choices. Thanks for all your help and information – keep it up!
Linds
Food blogging has changed my life. I have met such interesting and supportive people. I’ve learned about new products and recipes to try. There are so many inspiring women out there!
I definitely relate, I appreciate my food a lot more and enjoy it rather then thinking about cals and fat!
Hah – that was my path, too: Eat Like Me -> KERF -> Eat, Live, Run. Then is just exploded into all these other blogs. I would definitely say it’s shown me that I can eat larger portions of healthy foods and ‘everything in moderation.’ Though, at one point, it made me think about food TOO much. After eating a meal, then reading about someone else’s meal as a bit too much. Now, spacing it out through the day doesn’t make me want to eat, eat, eat. It’s healthier – and I love getting ideas from everyone. It’s nice to know there are people out there like me that don’t just love food, but love healthy, whole foods. There’s a BIG difference. Obviously. :)
Thanks for the shout out!! I need to CATCH UP on my blog reading – I’ve been so behind with school creeping on me!
Obviously, food blogging and blogs have changed my life dramatically. I feel like i have so many friends!!
LOVE this post!!
My food blog taught me to ENJOY food again. And that it could be delicious, pretty, and filling. And that other people ate the same way that I did and EMBRACED it! I started my blog at the point in recovery where I was at a healthy weight, but still very fearful and unsure of eating/food issues. This world opened my eyes, and allowed me to let go of a lot of my fears!
Thank you Angela!! :)
LOVE YOUR BLOG ANGELA!
I have some weight to lose, and you are definitely motivating me. You and Jenna (eatliverun) are so inspiriing and when I think I can’t do it, I think of you too (especially poor Jenna as of late).
Once I have lost the weight (30 pounds) I hope to also start a blog, I don’t want to start one now because I don’t want the focus to be my weight loss, but I’m so full on excitment to start blogging, I’m currently living my excitment through you!
Keep doing what you’re doing -any tips for 30 pound ish weight loss?
x Keep up the great work!
Katie
Reading food blogs absolutely has changed my thoughts about food. I still have weight that I’d like to lose, but it’s absolutely inspiring to see all these beautiful, in shape women (including yourself) that EAT. And still maintain their figures! I’m not going to lie, I constantly seem to still be monitoring my food in order to get to my ideal weight, and struggle with what the best food lifestyle and plan for me is, but it’s a pleasure reading about so many people getting so much pleasure from food and eating for life, for joy, and for health.
Hi Angela!
I have been reading your blog for a while now, and I love it! I am in the first year of my undergrad, and discovred blogs in general just this year. They have help me so much, and I feel like they have given me a much healthier relationship with food. Being a competitive dancer all my life, my relationship with food was very disordered, to say the least. Reading blogs truly changed my life I believe. I know my family thinks I’m kind of weird for reading blogs, but they just don’t understand I guess. Your blog has been a pleasure to read and I will continue to read it each and everyday! Keep up the good work!! Yay for food love! xo
Food blogs have changed me for the better. The way I see it, I’m always going to be obsessive about food, but at least with my food blog, I can channel that obsessiveness in a more healthy manner. Before, I was crunching every last calorie and really just losing the enjoyment in my food. Now I get to be creative with it, share it, and talk about it with people who have a “healthy obsession” too!
Seeing healthy, thin women eat real food in real-sized portions has helped my perspective a lot too. It lets me see that I can eat “normally” and still be a happy size :)
Loved this post!
My perspective on food as changed immensely since I started blogging. I’m so much more aware of what I’m putting in my mouth and how I’m moving. I’ve also become much more intune with my body overall – and I am more comfortable with how I look than ever before.
This is my first time visiting your blog, but I just read this post and your two other posts about blogs and I have to say that I’ve been able to relate to a lot that you’ve written, as well as comments that people have posted. I started reading food blogs over a year ago (starting with Eat Like Me and then KERF and then escalating from there) and I have learned so much. Now, my eating isn’t as healthy as the eating shown on other blogs, I’ve still been able to make improvements in my eating/exercise habits and that’s something I’m very proud of. I’ve been debating for awhile now about starting my own blog, but I’ve been hesitating because I wasn’t sure if it would be considered “healthy” enough. After reading this, though, I’m now thinking that I may actually start one. Thanks for posting this and I will definitely be checking back for your next installment :)
Great post!! Food blogs are the reason I’ve been able to maintain such a healthy lifestyle for so long now. They’ve shown me that healthy food can be just as exciting as the unhealthy stuff. My mindset on food has been changed for the better and I love getting great ideas of new healthy meals and foods to try!
I started just as you did… I read eat like me and found KERF, which eventually lead me to dozens of other food blogs. I read 6 blogs daily now and they have completely changed my life! I started reading them when I was having a really hard time accepting my body and eating habits. These food blogs completely changed the way I looked at myself, and how I looked at my diet. I now have a healthy outlook of myself and haven’t ever been happier! People around me ask, what happened that caused the insecurities to disappear?? I always tell them to start reading these blogs!
When I read your post I felt like screaming “Yes! That’s exactly how I feel!” I love having a place where I connect with others like me – people who interested in their health and actually like eating vegetables. Prior to reading your blog and others like yours, I was having a hard time finding vegetarian/vegan recipes that weren’t side dishes or that didn’t include pasta. Thank you so much for sharing. You’ve been such an inspiration!
Great post, Angela! I am relatively new to the blog world and I also found Cristin’s blog first. I work as a dietitian, so too often, I see women who are starving themselves to try to be “happy” with their weight/body and are never satisfied. I love this group of bloggers that I have found with healthy appetites and healthy self-esteems. Thanks for sharing…and I’ll keep reading. Happy belated birthday!