Let me start with an admission: I am just as skeptical of these “Please vote for us” awards as you are. More often than not they are a big ego play on behalf of the website owner, a traffic hunt from the award organiser and the only thing that they actually do is clog up Facebook and Twitter with blogs appealing for votes. That’s not healthy for anyone.
However, there’s one very good reason that I want you to give me the 30 seconds it will take to click on the #UKBlogAwards link, add your email and press submit (there’s no other requirements and you don’t get spammed, I’ve checked it out already). What is that reason?
It will help more overweight and obese men to win their battle against fat.
MAN v FAT was launched by you. I had the idea in January this year but I wasn’t 100% sure that it was something that the world wanted, or if it was just me. So I went begging crowdfunding and within a few weeks we’d raised over £9k to bring MAN v FAT into the world. In the nine months since then we’ve written a book, grown to the point where we now have over 22,000 readers and we’re at the point of piloting MAN v FAT Clubs to run across the country. We’ve done well but there is so much more to do.
We’re not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. The site graphics look like a partially-trained pidgeon does them on a Spectrum 48k (that’s my fault), the forum is sometimes buggier than one of Jason’s lunches (also my fault) and when you consider that there are 20.4 million overweight men in the UK alone you can see that we’ve got a way to go yet. But we’re out there, and we’re trying.
We’re trying because it’s not right that the diet industry is focused only on women or shaming men to thinking they need a six pack. We’re trying because it’s not right that men can be in greater need of help with obesity and yet find that they are being overlooked because they’re “difficult to reach”. We’re trying because I want to provide a place for any man, anywhere in the world who wants to know that other blokes feel the same way they do. We’re trying because you are.
MAN v FAT has always been about us doing something amazing together. Casting a vote for us in the UK Blog Awards is another step towards us achieving something incredible and helping more men around the world who just want the same thing as you – to win their battle against fat.
Please vote for us in the awards and if you can, please share our voting site and ask others to consider doing the same.
Thank-you.
