It's International No Diet Day on May 6th 2012 and we are planning to celebrate. This is rather a long way off but the reason I’m writing about it now is that we would love your ideas, creativity and support to make it a really amazing celebration. Bear with me… I’ll explain.Next year, in 2012, the celebrations will be two-fold. As with every year, I will personally be celebrating yet another diet free year. That's coming up for 13 years!! And that is a major celebration for me every single year. When I look back I just cannot imagine what my life would be like today if I were still clinging on to WW meetings or spending my hard earned income on diet books, dietitians, naturopaths, personal trainers, vegetable steamers... and all the myriad of things I wasted my money on for such a long time. Really, I have to think long and hard to remember the desperation, the feeling of hopelessness (and the feelings of desperate hope... that maybe this one would be the one...!) the sense of utter powerlessness, the obsession of it all... So, on May 6th, I will be raising my glass (hopefully full of something deliciously bubbly) yet again to NO DIET DAY - to freeing women from the tyranny, and frankly the con, of dieting.
And this coming year, NO DIET DAY 2012 - we’ll have something extra special to celebrate. We’re launching our new book - Beyond Temptation - which will be published on May 3rd. NO DIET DAY is on May 6th. And that’s where you come in. We would love to plan an event or a series of events around that time to celebrate both NO DIET DAY and the launch of our new book. I’m sure there are lots of possibilities and at the moment we are a bit stumped! Here are some of the ideas we’ve been playing with:
A big celebratory picnic in a park in London - but the thing is we’d rather not be so London-centric as it excludes so many Beyond Chocolaters.
A series of local picnics arranged by Beyond Chocolaters - which dilutes things a bit but is more inclusive.
A flash mob in London somewhere or a series of co-ordinated flash mobs in various parts of the UK - which I love the idea of as it gets people talking about NO DIET DAY and beginning to question what it’s all about...
That’s about it so far...
So we’d love your ideas and thoughts, whatever they are. When you you think the best day to celebrate might be? Is the fact that it’s a Bank Holiday weekend a problem? Would it be better to do it the weekend after? Or is the Bank Holiday an advantage? All you thoughts and suggestions are very welcome. Thank you.
Hi Sophie
ReplyDeleteWhat is a 'flash mob'?
Maybe it's a bit ambitious, but what about organizing a conference in London? There are tonnes of conferences out there for people who blog about health, but I've never seen anything about intuitive eating specifically --- esp not in the UK. You could get speakers in (people love to promote themselves!) and offer networking opportunities for like-minded beyond chocolaters. This is also a good way for your chocolate fairies to network. I know you don't want it to be London centric, but England isn't THAT big (I'm American) with a fabulous train system. The one difficulty would be getting sponsors I guess (as that's the way to keep costs down for attendees), but maybe there's a way around that. Just an idea. (And I don't think the bank holiday is a problem -- maybe even better if it was a two-day conference or event.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, you should totally pitch something to Stylist regarding your upcoming book (and whatever event you decide on). Women seem to LOVE stylist and it would reach many. they even wrote an article the modern relationship with food recently (did you see it?), so they are definitely open to Beyond Chocolate's approach.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Taron's idea about a conference. Although it is quite short notice to get something like that off the ground, I'm sure it would be possible!
ReplyDeleteA Flash Mob is a pre-organised, apparently spontaneous, group of people who pop up out of a crowd all at the same time and perform a dance or a song or whatever. As soon as it's over, they all melt back into the crowd again.
ReplyDeleteGoogle it, I'm sure there are lots of examples.
I would support a 'No Diet Day' conference - count me in!
I love the idea of a flash mob. There are 'I'm a photographer not a terrorist' flash mobs which are organised for places in London because the security guards hate people taking photos of buildings and people, especially in The City, so flash mobs to take photos of guards, buildings, etc just to rub it in that they have no right to stop people taking photos is a great thing. A flash mob on a shopping mall or a public park would be a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI don't think a conference would be a good idea. It would cost way too much money for the number of people BC would like to gather in one place. If sponsorship was involved who would sponsor it within the BC principles? Food companies would have their own agendas, Dieting organisations would have theirs, whom to ask? At least a flash mob wouldn't cost anything beyond that of travel for the participants. As for BC fairies networking, don't they have monthly meetings or conference calls or something for such purposes?
How about this: a flash mob at a park near you, where you bring food of the creamiest, jammiest, sugariest order and sit and have a picnic and wait for the disapproving comments from passers by. How about that?! We can all take photos and post them to the BC website, to link in with what others have done. Not a shopping mall, if it rains, it's private land and they can ask you to leave. Have to think of something else.
Sharon, Bristol
'Not a shopping mall' - mind you if it's a flash mob, we can all blend into the background at the first sniff of a security guard, couldn't we?
ReplyDeleteSomething to think about...
Sharon, Bristol
I love the idea of a flash mob. Maybe you could get loads of Beyond Chocolate Teniers printed - they are pretty cheap if you don't expect them to last forever! and have a massive flash mob in as many stations as possible, where we all rip off our jackets to reveal the BC tankers, do a few very simple steps & turns that you've taught us beforehand, and hand out cards saying "no Diet Day" on one side and "Beyond Chocolate" on the other along with loads of those little individually wrapped squares of choc, to all the startled commuters. Would be wild, no?
ReplyDeleteAnd then we could all meet up for a drink :)
Hate bloody spellcheck autocorrect. Was trying to say t-shirts there. *scowls*
ReplyDeleteLOVE that idea Eliza Jane :-))
ReplyDelete