Weight Loss and Maintenance.

I have chosen to comment on Prior Fat Girl.

I emailed Jen a few questions and I had hoped I would have gotten answers from her, but I have been lucky enough correspond with her via email.

I'll share those:

Hi Jen, I am a junior at UNC-Chapel Hill and I'm currently completing a final project for a Media and Popular Culture class. I've chosen to focus on blogging, and more specifically blogs related to weight. I've been following your blog for a couple of months and I have truly been inspired by your hard work and dedication throughout your weight loss journey. I've attached a few questions related to blogging and I would be so grateful if you would answer them. I really hope to have a better understand of how blogging forms a certain sense of community that can't necessarily be established through face-to-face interactions. Thank you in advance!
Kayla
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Hi Kayla!

Tell me more about your project & the capacity you would use my work in.
Is it in a paper you are submitting to your professor or something that
will be published online?

Also, how soon do I need to get this back to you? I actually have the
answers but they are written down on my computer. We just moved and I
haven't figured out how to get the wireless up and running on my computer
so I've been using Carlos' computer. Can I have until this weekend to
respond?

Let me know!

Jen, a priorfatgirl
sugar coating not included
www.priorfatgirl.com
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Hey Jen! Waiting until this weekend to respond is totally fine with me! The project is due May 7, so anytime before that is great. As far as the project goes, I've been following blogs like yours over the course of the semester knowing that I was eventually going to have to put together a final project, but I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I met with my professor a couple of weeks ago and she recommended that I blog about the things I've noted throughout the semester. I'll be incorporating general observations I've made throughout the semester, as well as tying in some of the scholarly theories we've learned about in class. I've got several posts saved as word docs and I'm going to be posting those between now and the due date on my blog http://1of3kgirls.blogspot.com and using the label "final project." I've sent similar questions to a few other bloggers and I'm trying to better understand the sense of community and friendship that develops through blogging. I think it is fascinating the way bloggers (no matter what their blog may be about) connect with one another and form bonds that I don't necessarily think could be created through face-to-face interaction. And in the case of weight-loss and maintenance, I hope to truly understand and convey how blogging helps some individuals continue down the path to a more healthy lifestyle. I'll also be submitting a short, abstract-like paper. If there's something that you don't feel comfortable broadcasting all over the internet, let me know, and I'll just include those in the paper! Once I have the entire project done I don't mind sending you a copy of the paper, and obviously the blog will be online, so you'll be able to see that too! On a sidenote: your 5K post really inspired me! It has motivated me to get back out there and start running again, even though I am by no means a great runner. My sister keeps asking me to sign up for a local 5K with her, but I always tell her I'm too tired/busy/stressed. In reality I think it's because I've just been lazy! She's probably going to run one in the beginning of September and I hope to be running right beside her! Thanks so much for your email! Kayla
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Dear Dear Kayla, Your sidenote below is the exact sense of community the blogging world is about. I will write more in my response to the questions but blogging is about not only sharing your feelings and experiences, but being connected with others who are at the same place in life. The internet has created this sense of antonomy in which most of us can let our guard down. We can drop some of the walls we've put up in real life and truly admit to something...even if it is through a comment on someones blog. It is about realizing that the human race isn't about working 8-5, isn't about this whole front we seem to put up in the face-to-face world that everything is all right, and that we are all super human. It's about realizing that, when it all boils down to it, we are all struggling to figure out our place in life. Alright...I'll keep the rest of my thoughts for my response to your questions. I don't mind sharing through your assignment - HA, I practically bare my soul to the world on a daily basis. I would love to see the end result, including the abstract-type document you turn in. Like you, this whole internet/blogging phenomenon is truly fascinating! Sincerely, Jen, a priorfatgirl sugar coating not included www.priorfatgirl.com
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[I stated in the emails that I would be submitting an abstract, but the more I think about it, I don't think I'm going to. I think in the spirit of a blogging project it would be best to keep it all online and in the public blogosphere.]
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Symbolic interationism is important within this sector of the weight blogs. I don't think we ever discussed this theory in class,but I have a TA in another class that recommended I look into it.

A quick definition of symbolic interactionism is: people act toward things based on the meaning those things have for them; and these meanings are derived from social interaction and modified through interpretation. [I realize I probably shouldn't use wikipedia for this project, but I thought the site provided the best short summer of what symbolic interationism actually is.

I think the best example of symbolic interactionism was from The Anti-Jared a few weeks ago. He challenged every reader to exercise for 60 minutes. Prior Fat Girl and Jared set up a 99 minute stairmaster challenge between each other for the same day Jared challenged all readers. Prior Fat Girl asked readers to send in pictures of their post-60 minute workout and I was really amazed at how many people sent in photos and commented!

The motivation between all the weight-loss bloggers is a great example of people "doing things based on the meaning those things have for them." The readers are able to interpret what the bloggers have written about an then in turn...act on it.