Blog 3- Blog on Blogs

For my third blog, I have been set the task to find a blog somewhere in the whole of the internet that particularly interests me, appeals to me, or just is an example of a really successful blog.

So, first step, find a blog that somehow stands out from the others...

Ok, step one done.

Whilst I am relatively new to the blogging scene, and I wouldn't normally choose to read blogs of people's daily ramblings of their lives, or offering me reviews of recent products (or whatever it is people blog about!), this blog caught my eye: http://www.jagsfitnessblog.com/

In this blog, "Jag" documents and tracks her weight loss journey, with regular updates via photos how far she has come since starting.  Although it's a full time commitment, she mainly writes about her feelings and how happy she is with her results, not just sharing with the readers the number of press ups she can do, or the weight she can dead lift.

Having spent some time with a friend of mine recently, I am beginning to become more open-minded about exercising. I'm not opposed to it of course, but when you can go online and see the 'obsessed' people, taking photographs of themselves daily, counting each calorie and weighing each cornflake, then I've had some issues.

[Read on a little further into the blog: "obsessed is a word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated"... Well, that's me told, can't argue with her there..!]

I met this friend of mine almost 3 years ago now, and in 2010, it was safe to say he was very slim. Some may say skinny, but to me, he was just 'slim'.  He never expressed any interest in exercise as such, and never really commented on his body. Fast forward over 2 years later, and he's talking to me about all the latest workout crazes- P90X2, Insanity, and I'm sure there are plenty more.  I took one look at the over enthusiastic muscle clad people taking part in these regimes and claiming the life changing results they had experienced, and rolled my eyes. How many times do we see this? The perfectly built, attractive, confident (and all those other things we really hate and don't want to be..) individual selling us this product or idea to make our bodies into these beautiful temples.  But is this just false advertisement? Are we being encouraged to aim for the unobtainable body ideal that only those with all the time in the world and damn good genetics can achieve?

But questions for me still remain: what is it all for, and what are we aiming for?  According to Germov and Williams (1996) women and females from the age of eleven report dissatisfaction with their bodies, and spend most of their lives on some sort of diet because of feeling the need to lose weight despite being in a healthy weight range.
They drew the following hypotheses from their study:

1. Most women perpetuate and reinforce the thin ideal through surveillance of other women.
2. Size accepting women have actively rejected the thin ideal in response to past experience with dieting.
3. For women, weight loss as a result of illness is rewarded.
4. The influence of health professionals and health promotion is unrelated to the desire of women to lose weight.
5. In respect of dieting to lose weight, women's attitudes cut across socio-economic barriers.


So is there any instances where women and of course men as well want to lose weight for their own positive reasons, and is there a way to do this in a way that is considered healthy and acceptable in society?

After reading this particular study, I found myself disagreeing with some of their findings and hypotheses, which leads me to think perhaps I am not so against weight loss and exercising as I first thought.  I think I am more open minded than I perhaps acknowledge at times, as I think there are health ways to lose weight and positive reasons for wanting to do so.  If I stop to think and take that big old sociological hat off then there has to be more to wanting to lose weight than the reasons I have read.  I'm sure there is some degree of unhappiness with images of the self, but I am also just as sure that people aren't losing weight just to conform to ideals.

However, it can't be ignored that there is obviously a big problem with media influence and pressure on individuals to conform to the fit ideals, and was it not Malcolm X who claimed the media is the most powerful entity on earth?  Therefore the problem that needs to be tackled, once again, in the media.  

Show of hands who thinks that's possible....





"I don’t lift weights to make myself aesthetically pleasing for you."

Blog 2- Autoethnography

Eating habits: Taste or Symbol?

Autoethnography is considered to be writing that is ethnographical and autobiographical at the same time.  According to Ellis and Bochner (2000), autoethnographies are autobiographies that self-consciously explore the interplay of the introspective, personally engaged self with cultural descriptions mediated through language, history and ethnographic explanation.

I will take this approach to discuss my own personal eating habits; what I consider acceptable to eat, and whether this is an opinion I have developed from my own experiences, or views that are constructed socially and culturally.

In theory, the majority of common land mammals are edible, and also most fish.  However, certain animals seem to hold a certain stigma over them, or are considered controversial, and those who eat such foods are adventurous or daring.

Throughout my life, I have not been one of these adventurous or daring individuals; I have only been willing to try food that looks a certain way and is aesthetically pleasing.

I regularly eat chicken and pork, and occasionally beef, which in my opinion are three of the most commonly eaten meats.  I have more recently begun to eat more fish, including cod, haddock, mackeral, tuna and salmon, and have tried squid, which seems to be coming increasingly common to eat.  Whilst I only eat a small selection of meats, I consider many more to be edible, but I have particular feelings and opinions about some of these.

Animals such as horses, lambs, rabbit and deer, for example, are ones that from a young age, many people have an interest in and will pet, etc.  I think this may have initially led to my aversion from eating these animals, and as I have gotten older I have developed my opinions on this matter.  Once we learn that these animals produce meats that we eat, it seems this may be a point at which stigma becomes attached for some.

Whilst I may not wish to eat these, I can fully appreciate that many other individuals do and this is perfectly acceptable.  However, if in years to come, there were limited amounts of the meats that I prefer, I would consider trying other meats, but after 22 years, my pre-conceptions and feelings towards these may take precedence and I may convince myself that I do not like them.  I often feel that if I was unable to eat chicken (the most common meat in my diet) I would prefer to become a vegetarian and eat meat free or meat replacement foods.

How food looks is particular concern to me.  For example, if the food on plate plate in any way resembles the animal it came from, I feel uncomfortable to eat it, such as a whole or half chicken. the thought of an animal carcass sat on my plate is particularly unsettling with me, and eating fish then finding I'm chomping on a bone is one sure-fire way to put me off my food.

In terms of society, and ideals held within the society we live in, it seems apparent that people's preferences to eat meats such as chicken, beef, pork, etc. may stem from the advertising and selling methods in shops.  these meats are readily available in shops and when walking around the average supermarket, you'd have to look hard for 'different' meats to be advertised.

One major issue raised with this is when we consider the future when we carry on this way.  If these meats are advertised most, and purchased more often by people, in the future are these going to be the most readily available if we continue to consume them at the same rate? And if not, are stores going to have to start advertising alternative meats, and people like myself stop turning up our noses to the thought of this?

The alternative? We all become vegetarians and save the animals we have, and consider more than just what we want.