Posted by Tawny Weber May 17 2012, 12:30 am in diet, Program, Tawny Weber, Tawny's Thursdays, tracking
My Spark Peeps, that is. SparkPeople is awesome, I’m telling ya!
Now, I’m not saying it’s just because I used SparkPeople that I reached my goal weight. I’m sure that I could have done it with another tracking program. But I looked at a lot of them, and went with this because it was totally awesome (did I mention that already?).
Why?
- Because it’s simple.
- It’s mobile
- It’s encouraging
- It’s all-encompassing
- It’s interactive
- It stays in touch
- There’s room to do lots, or little
- It’s free
- It works
Okay, the last point is probably the most important one. But we never know if something is going to work *for us* until we try it, so I’ll admit, that one is a little subjective. But the other points? Those are solid.
It’s super simple to log in what you eat, what you drink and what you do for exercise. You simply enter your current weight, your goal weight and the date you want to get there and the program keeps you on track. Whether you weigh in weekly, daily, monthly, whatever, it creates a graph so you can see your progress. Entering your information is super easy, too. The database of food/exercises is extensive, and if something isn’t listed, it’s simple to manually enter. What I loved about this was the ability to create a favorites list- those foods I tend to eat often and regularly, so I didn’t have to do a search for every meal. If you tend to eat food combinations, like I do (1/3 cup fat free vanilla Greek yogurt with 6 chopped almonds and 2 tbsp craisins after ever workout), there’s an option for that, too. Tracking is so simple and easy, there’s no excuse not to do it.
And mobility? There’s an app for the phone (free, baby) and the iPad (free, baby) and they all tie into the main account. So if I’m home, I track my food/workouts via my computer. If I’m out, I use my phone. There are also daily articles and blog posts that really keep the focus on being healthy, as well as offering a lot of new thoughts to mull, information to consider and options to try. They have recipes, too, and a great selections of fitness videos (all free!).
If you’re the social sort, one who does better with diet and fitness if you’ve got a lot of people on board to talk with, be accountable to or encourage you, that option is totally available. There is a large community, groups to join and challenges to inspire and keep you invested. Also, a clever thing they do is the “points’. You get points for everything – logging food, drinking water, logging exercise, reading articles (they have fabulous articles), etc… It’s a virtual award program that adds an element of fun to staying focused. You can also sign up for daily/weekly emails (and reading them gives you more points- ooh fun), so there’s a nice reminder if you slip away from tracking and visiting the site to get you back in gear. All of these are options you can dive into, or totally ignore. So if you’re like me, someone who just wants to do their thing, there’s no pressure.
Lets, see, what else did I list as a reason I love SparkPeople? Oh yeah, it’s free. I really like this one. I’ve tried a lot of weight loss programs in the past. The big famous ones, like Weight Watchers and Nutrisystems and Southbeach. None of them worked for me. This one did, and, again, it was free 
I’m in month 3 of being at my goal weight and still use SparkPeople every day. It’s a super simple way of staying on track and accountable.
Do you use a particular program? Are you open to checking them out? And if you’ve ever tried SparkPeople, what’d you think? If you haven’t, um, hey… Check it out! *g*
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Posted by Michelle Butler May 13 2012, 6:34 pm in exercise, fitness, inspiration, Michelle Butler, Michelle Mondays
Last week I listened to an interesting interview on NPR’s Fresh Air with Gretchen Reynolds, the Phys Ed columnist for the New York Times. It was a great overview on the latest research on fitness. What struck me the most in the piece is that Gretchen said she continues to exercise regularly because of research [...]
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