I wrote an e mail to Weight Watchers and Slimming World. I'll post the e mail I sent and their full replies soon. They declined to be involved in the Starvation Diet project or let Starvation Diet inhabit a place in their work. My aim is to provide a less self centred way of losing weight. I really want to work in partnership with as many organisations and people as possible. If organisations dealing with the same issues don't want to work with me where does that leave me in relation to them. Are we enemies, are we co-habiting or should we just ignore each other?
Weight watchers has an unmoderated forum which I have been into once or twice. When I go in and comment I feel like an intruder, a hacker a spy. In actual fact I am non of these things I'm just another human being with an opinion. I was challenged the other day by a person who asked if I had just gone in to promote my blog. I commented that yes in a way I had. This weight watchers forum is a place where people interested in diet go to. If I have something which is working for me and helping others less fortunate too would I be remiss to stay away and keep quite about it? I shiver when I start to talk like this sometimes though because it sounds so much like evangelistic religion and we generally hate all that in Britain. I don't want to be an advertiser or an Evangelist but I do want maximum benefit from things I do for the maximum number of people. How you achieve that is still one to work out.
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Here is the reply from Slimming world and below it the e mail I sent to them.
ReplyDeleteDear Beth
Many thanks for your email, and congratulations on your fund-raising so far.
We don’t at the current time have plans to add blogs or links to other organisations on our website. Whilst we can appreciate the incredibly worthwhile cause that you’re working towards, we will be continuing to focus our messages on Slimming World.
Best wishes for your fund-raising effort,
Nicola
Slimming World Website Team
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From: bethbarlow@bethbarlow.com [mailto:bethbarlow@bethbarlow.com]
Sent: 26 April 2010 13:42
To: Slimming World
Subject: Starvation diet
Dear Slimming World,
I am an artist currently taking part in an art/life project looking at the inequalities of diet around the world including the UK. I've done this by resisting food I don't truly need and donating this money to a charity called Practical Action. So far I've dropped 2 dress sizes and given £156.93 to the charity. I find that the motivation of giving to others allows me to refocus my efforts to loose weight more effectively.
I would love to add a blog to your site to present this way of loosing weight and shifting the money saved to others. Also, as I change my relationship to food I'm having to resist less and money going to the charity through my own personal efforts has gone down some. With this in mind I'm looking for new people to join the challenge, join the blog as followers and start their own starvation diet effort. My own blog notes my progress, ups, down, thoughts, learning's and experiences and can be found here:
http://starvationdiet09.blogspot.com/
My charity giving page can be found here:
http://www.justgiving.com/Beth-Barlow
And details of the charity I have chosen which does not have to be the charity whom others involved support.
http://practicalaction.org/
I see that your charity is supporting NSPCC and I found a recent report which from a sample of 75,000 uk children found 3.3% to be malnourished. So your charity of choice could very easily be the nspcc.
I think there are several links between what I aim to do and your aims as an organisation. If you want to go through any of the above or discuss possibilities please ring or e mail me or forward this e mail as you see fit.
Kind Regards,
Beth Barlow
07828148123
www.bethbarlow.com