My Blogging Style – An Explanation

I was asked a couple of questions on my ask me anything page and thought a post might be in order to properly answer them.

You’ve gone through various blogging styles (daily food journaling, more sporadic recipe posts, insight posts etc.) Is their one that you enjoy most or gives you the most balance?

I think that blogging in general gives me balance and I don’t feel obligated or tied to any one style. First and foremost, I write my blog to aid in my recovery and share my passions so I just do what feels right at the time.

As an avid blog reader, I’ve noticed that alot of bloggers have really positive attitudes, tend to be more goal oriented,and just plain inspiring. Have you noticed a change in your attitude or the way you live since blogging? I hope that made sense:)

The short answer is no. Blogging has allowed me to express myself and reading blogs has allowed me a sneak peak into how others express themselves.

As far as my attitude, sometimes my attitude is positive and sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes I have my eye on the prize and sometimes I don’t. But, that is what recovery from an eating disorder is, it is a journey of ups, downs, highs and lows. Heck, for that matter, that is life. It isn’t all rainbows and butterflies.

And if we are getting down to it, I think that each blogger decides what they want to share with the world and some choose to only share the good. I choose to share it all and I hope that in and of itself is inspiring.

Grab a cup of tea because here is the long answer.

I started my blog almost three years ago as a way to chronicle my journey to learning to eat intuitively. My very first post, and many after were just insight types of posts. I wrote about the things I was learning and the things I wanted to work on with intuitive eating. At the time, I didn’t know about food blogging or food journal style blogging at all. Back in July of 2008, I googled “oatmeal pancake” and stumbled onto Kath’s blog. The next day, I decided to start a food journal style blog called “What I Ate Yesterday”. In the beginning, it was fun and within a couple of months, loads of people were reading and commenting each and every day and I was making lots of bloggie friends.

At the time, I was doing fairly well in my recovery and most of my posts were upbeat and cheerful. I was still blogging my ups and downs but mostly, I was doing well. In December, I took a break from blogging because things started going downhill in my recovery and blogging everything I was eating was really starting to get to me. It felt obsessive and I often compared myself to others in the blogging community and would beat myself up for not being like the others. I blogged briefly at a new blog address but it didn’t seem to fit so my break from food journal style blogging was short lived.

In January of 2009, I started up again and my readers seemed happy I was back. I still had plenty of readers and comments each day and then things started to take a turn for the worse. Both with my recovery and my blog. I had started group therapy and all of my skeletons were flying out of the closet. I was blogging everything I was eating as well as working through the darkest times in my recovery, all for the public to see. My posts contained pretty food pictures as well as deep dark secrets. The combination shattered how I felt about blogging and, apparently, how people felt about responding. I would write about being abused or binging and crying my eyes out and people would respond with how delicious my breakfast looked. Sharing the deepest parts of myself only to receive responses about how good the chocolate looks was heart wrenching. Eventually, I got on my soap box and I guess I offended people because the popularity of my blog took a major nose dive. But, I was being true to myself.

The feelings that brought out just perpetuated the feelings I had felt my entire life. I felt like those deep and dark things didn’t matter and that I had no right to express them. I was in the trenches of my recovery and I tried salvaging my blog but at that point, a large portion of my readers were gone and I just didn’t have it in me anymore. Eventually, I called it quits; I couldn’t take not feeling accepted and putting my heart on the line.

Temporarily, I started an insight style blog but really missed blogging about food. One of my greatest enemy’s in life had been food and through blogging, I found a new healthy passion in food. I started blogging about recipes, writing reviews all the while sharing my insights about my journey to recovery. Eventually, I realized that I needed a blog that would allow me to express whatever it was I needed to say. I place to share my journey, a place to share whatever I had on my mind. I August of 2009, I imported all of my past blogs into this one, the one you read today. A blog that grows and changes with me and everything I feel I need to say.

So, my haphazard style of blogging probably doesn’t make me the most popular girl on the block and it leaves me open for a lot of ridicule but I have let that go. I don’t think it is fair to judge someone and make assumptions about who someone is when you don’t know the whole story. Bit by bit, pieces of my story have been revealed within this blog and this blogging community and I receive emails from people who had previously written me off as a flake telling me how they are sorry and that they just didn’t know. It has taught me a lot about being judgemental and making assumptions about people because of how they blog, or for any reason, for that matter. You don’t really know someone from their blogs, you only get a glimpse and because of that, I don’t feel the need to be like everyone else.

This journey has been long and hard and I am proud to say that even though I have blog hopped and blogged in every style possible, I have good friends that have stuck by me through the whole thing. They have changed their blogrolls, they have commented, they have emailed and told me how inspiring I am to them. I’ve come a long way since March of 2007 and blogging has been a wonderful, rocky part of that. And as the saying goes “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” — Dr. Seuss

So, for now, I am blogging a couple of times per day about whatever strikes my fancy. I must admit, I have been shy on the insight style posting because frankly, I’m just not feeling very insightful. It ebbs and flows and that is why I blog the way that I do. I blog to fit what I need at the time. When I am feeling low or hitting a bump in the road, I don’t blog as much because I need that time to reflect without subjecting myself to how others feel.  Currently, I am feeling light and doing a lot of internal work to get to where I need to be. Foodwise, I’m doing well but my food choices are very limited while I try to get rid of the candida. I don’t have too many recipes to share because I am eating very simply. Rest assured that I will continue to write recipes once I am settled into this new way of eating.

That’s it. That is the story of my blogging style. Yep, it changes but so does life and I don’t feel the need to stay stuck. I’d much rather grow and change and move in the flow of life.

Here’s to honoring my health.

More on This Topic?

• Honoring Health Poll
• Using My Voice
• Looking Back and Looking Ahead
• Recipes – A Legal Vs. Ethical Debate
• Lots of Changes Here, Max