Blogs have taken center stage when it comes to content people want to read. If you want tips on how to make the most of a small wardrobe, want to be a coupon queen, or want to learn how to craft on par with Martha Stewart, there are a number of blogs for your perusing pleasure. Maybe you just want a blog that entertains you–or allows you to more easily procrastinate a Monday morning project. If so, you’re in luck!
With so many blogs on so many topics, it should go without saying that fitness, food, and general health motivation are in high availability. A Google search or scroll through Pinterest will lead you in lots of different directions.
Why Read Blogs?
Blogs often offer first-person experience that can feel similar to sitting down with a close friend for advice. While this advice shouldn’t be taken as expert provided, blogs can offer tips and tricks that are specific to a region, a time of year, an age group, or a dietary restriction. Magazines and major content providers can’t typically do this because they are trying to reach and sell to wider audiences, which means topics can get watered down.
Since niche audiences tend to be the blog specialty, you’re likely to find other people who are in similar situations. That means not only are you going to walk away with something useful from the blogger herself but also are likely to gain support and tips from the readers as well. So if you’re a gluten-free diabetic living in Alaska and trying to make a holiday meal, a blog and its community might be out there to guide you along.
Blog Your Way to a Better You!
Reading blogs related to fat loss and eating right is one way to get healthy, but a study conducted by Penn State and Brigham Young University showed positive impacts on blog writers, too–well, blogging moms, that is. More than 150 moms with children under 18 months old were studied to see the effects blogging and social media had on them. While social media didn’t seem to make much of a difference, blogging offered mothers a place to share stressful moments and find support from other new parents.
If you’re not a mom, or you have kids but mommy blogging isn’t your thing, consider starting an online journal about your fitness, fat loss, and healthy eating journey. Losing weight and getting in shape can be an emotional roller coaster; one with stresses just like those which new moms may feel saddled (albeit for different reasons). Creating a community like the ones the studied moms had can be just the support and encouragement you need to keep working toward your goals.
Blogging can even be a great way to take more responsibility for your actions, laugh them off, and move on. Most people have been in the over-indulgence boat. Instead of beating yourself up for the cheesecake you ate (that’s right, the entire cake), write about it on your blog. Why did you do it? Was it as glorious as your thought it would be? Did you feel like death when it was all over? Would you do it again? Your community of readers have likely done something similar. If you can find some humor in it and the give tips on how not to do it again, your readers will love you all the more for it because they too can relate. Who knows, you might have skipped the cheesecake altogether if you knew you had to fess up to your fans.
Blogger’s Block
You don’t need to be a web expert or really even a guru in any particular topic to start a blog. If you want to do a healthy blog but aren’t quite sure what to write about, try the following topics on for size.
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New Experiences: People love to read about the trials and tribulation others go through when trying something new. Take new classes and let your readers know all about the experience. They might get inspired to try the same, and needing new content will be great motivation for you to keep working out.
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Recipe Share: Want to add more veggies to your meals? Looking to incorporate smoothies as snacks? Share what you eat online with others. If you treat it like a food diary, you might be prone to make better decisions. And if you have an epic food fail, a reader might share some cooking advice or a different recipe to try.
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Before and After: Use your blog to track your progress. Take pictures when you start, and share more selfies along the way to show the changes that are happening. When you’re stuck in a rut, turn to your readers for a boost in confidence, or scroll through past posts to see how far you’ve come.
Remember that what you say matters, even if no one is really reading (after all, it can take a lot of time and energy to grow a blog following). Share your site with friends and family members, and on other blogs and message boards. If you write for you and are true to yourself, you and your readers can both benefit.
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Source
Penn State News
Carrie Anton is a freelance writer focusing on health, fitness, and sports. She's been published in Self, Women's Health, Oxygen, and Maximum Fitness.
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