Blogging 101: On Food and Narcissism

So this blogging thing.

There is a little more to it than typing words on your laptop and hitting publish.

Am I right?

The Blogging 101 series is mostly a series of posts where I have sent bloggers a list of questions all about the behind the scenes of blogging.

Catch up on past posts here:

14 Questions with Lindsay Cotter

Getting Real with Heather from Kiss My Broccoli

Living and Learning with Katie

Advice from Alex Tries it Out

Tips from the Chimes

Advice from the Purely Twins

Perspective from Maria Falls

Free, User Friendly Tools to Make Your Blog More Awesome

Since I tend to feel like my blog isn’t super successful (whatever that means), I’ve taken to leaving it to other bloggers to explain certain points. The thing is, I’ve been doing this blogging thing for three years now, so I thought I might jump in and take a stab at a few of the topics.

 

I often ask myself,

“Why am I blogging?”

(sometimes more like, “what the heck am I even doing with this blog??” as I slam my laptop closed dramatically. It happens.)

The answer isn’t always easy to find, but it usually boils down to these points.

1. I want to help people. Mostly women. I want them to know it is okay to:

  a. EAT FOOD. Eat what you love. Enjoy your food! Sure, it’s okay to eat healthy foods, but find the healthy foods that you love! What good is it to force yourself to eat a rice cake when what you really want is a cookie? Eat the damn cookie and move on already.

  b. Love yourself and your body. No matter what you have done or how you act or what you look like. Just love yourself as you are. I firmly believe that self-acceptance is the first step to making any changes in your life. You won’t get far shaming yourself into getting skinny…or at least you will be miserable throughout the process and will likely fall back on old habits.

  c. You are uniquely and wonderfully made. Yes, this goes along with point b., but this part also has to do with my belief that God created all of us for a purpose. The creator of the universe did not make a mistake when he created you. Sappy? Yes. True? Absolutely.

2. Writing helps me work through things in my life. Whether I am going through times of trial or a time where I am plain bored, writing helps me make sense of it all. Plus during those times when life is kind of boring, creating a beautiful recipe post that makes people drool can make life seem a little more fun.

3. Since I have moved away from my home state, I like to think that my family checks in on the blog every once in awhile.

4. It gives me space to be creative. I know I need to work on the photography bit, I mean have you seen Lee’s photography lately? Mind=blown. Still, I can spend hours editing photos and/or getting a post just right and for the most part, it is a fun activity.

5. It gives me something to do with my time. Let me be clear–I was not sitting around twiddling my thumbs when I started this blog. I was a full time student with at least two jobs at all times until I moved to the twin cities. Now I have a job at a cafe, two writing jobs and an apartment slash boyfriend to take care of, not to mention the fact that if I want to see my family it takes 12 hours of my time for a round trip. So there are other things to do. But having a blog gives me this one thing that is mine and I can always go to that occupies me when said boyfriend is pulling an 80 hour work week in a city where I still don’t know that many people.

6. Since I can list all day, I’m going to close it with this final thought: I see this blog as an opportunity to better my future. Super vague, right? Well, my career goal is to be a dietitian. I want to help women with food issues and for some reason that requires a degree. I also like to write. Whether I am good or not is up for debate, but I at least know a couple of companies are willing to pay for my writing so that gives me a little hope. This blog and any blog presents an opportunity to show what I can do with writing, recipe creation, photography and social media promotion. This to me, means I am slowly laying a foundation for any future hopes I have of working for myself as a dietitian or writer. No, I don’t necessarily plan on making beaucoup bucks solely from this blog, but again, the opportunities that a blog affords are as large as your own imagination allows. (Plugging Lee again, but she just did an amazing post on blogging as a business.)

 

When I ask myself the question of “Why am I blogging?” my mind is usually dwelling on the things that I dislike about blogging. Mind you, my brain tends to dwell on the negatives, but

there are some legitimate reasons to not have a blog:

1. You are sacrificing privacy. Some sacrifice more than others and most of us feel a slight pressure to open up more and more because those are the posts that people respond to the most. Take the lovely Carly from Snack Therapy. She wrote a gutsy and revealing post that is mostly getting rave reviews. I also have a dear friend Lindsay who shared not one but two tragic, heart-breaking stories of miscarriages, posts that brought me to tears, not to mention her body-baring posts on her current successful (yay!) pregnancy. But why do bloggers post things like this? When is it too personal? Ten years ago jaws would drop to the floor if you knew your friend was revealing so much online. This is not to single out these ladies that I love in a negative way, but to point to the fact that sacrificing your privacy on your blog does indeed sell. It’s tough to draw your own line on what to share and it can hurt relationships at times.

2. With all of this sharing…you can become narcissistic. Self-obsessed. Getting into your own head too often and for too long. MeMeMeMe all the time. You think I’m kidding? Try blogging every day for 30 days straight and tell me how many of the posts involved YOU. Yes, it is your blog, but sometimes it’s just not healthy. I have not found a way to alleviate this aside from taking time off…fellow bloggers let me know if you have any tips!

3. It can become an obsession. If all bloggers are like me, they tend to walk through life looking for a blog post. Anything having to do with food or fitness, my camera or phone is out snapping pictures in case I decide to write up a post about it. Sometimes I have to take a step back from blogging when I feel it taking over.

4. You can ride a roller coaster of emotions if you aren’t careful. It can be rough writing up content that you feel is meaningful and unique, only to find out someone posts something similar and gets tenfold the positive feedback. Then again when you receive numerous compliments, it can go to your head. 

5. It’s also very tempting to get bogged down with the numbers. How many comments did I get? Why did 4 people just unfollow me on Twitter? How many likes do I have on my Facebook fanpage? I only made 20 cents today? Or really it’s easy to get lost in the details of blogging such as SEO, blog layout, ad placement, sponsorship, etc.

6. Lastly, blogging friends (or “blends”) can be the best or they can be the worst. They can lift you up or they can create unconscious jealousies (see the beginning of the last point). Like with any group of friends, you might feel left out of certain get-togethers or get “cliquey” with a certain small group. I also feel pressure at times to keep up with the latest news on my blends, which can be tricky the more connections you make in the blogging world.

(Katie is always the best, by the way.)

 

For the time being, the positives have outweighed the negatives. Especially now that I have moved, I somewhat cling to the blog and social media for support and sanity (despite the ironic fact that at times it drives me insane). I have made friendships I would not have made without this little blog that I absolutely cherish. I have realized potential I might not have had I not decided to start writing things and sending them out into a seemingly empty void. I am thankful I am able to blog and I think I will keep at it a little while longer. 😉

 

 Tell me…

Do you blog? Can you relate to any of this?

Readers: do deeply personal stories keep you coming back to a blog? Why or why not?