|
Goodbye eDiets, hello SparkPeople!
As many of you know I have been trying for over a year to lose 40 extra pounds that I put on during an extended period of high stress in my life. I have been trying to do it on my own based on strategies that I learned from eDiets when I successfully lost 25 pounds several years ago. This time around, I made slow but steady progress for the first 25 pounds, but then for the past several months I have hovered there, losing a few, gaining a few back, never making any further forward progress. I was determined that I did not need to pay for eDiets' services again (which have only become more expensive since I paid for them before), that I knew what I needed to do and should be able to do it on my own.
And then early this week I received an e-mail from a rewards program I'm part of, advertising a completely free online diet program and offering a handful of reward points just for signing up. That program was SparkPeople. I signed up for the free points, explored the site a little bit, and immediately knew I'd found the answer. I can't even explain why or how, but I was immediately more motivated than I ever have been. Maybe it was the fact that this site offers more features than eDiets, while being completely free, or maybe it was because I saw no less than three different disability support groups, and knew that if these other people with disabilities could do it, then I could too.
I jumped right in and started tracking everything I put into my mouth. I stayed right around the low end of my calorie range... every day. I got my full 8 cups of water... every day. I went out walking twice this week, doing a mile in 22 minutes the first day, and then shattering that the next day with a mile and a half in 26 minutes. This week, I lost 4.2 pounds. That is the most I have lost in one week since I started last April.
The best way I can describe SparkPeople is eDiets meets WebMD meets MySpace. They track your progress not based on how much weight you lose, but based on a point system. You earn points for healthy activities like tracking the foods you eat, doing and tracking your exercise, getting your full 8 cups of water each day, and even for participating on the support boards and reading other health information on the site. You create your own SparkPage, similar to a MySpace profile, with pictures and information about yourself and your goals. You can add friends and join teams of dieters with similar situations or interests, and track your progress against those friends and team members using the SparkPoints system.
If you're looking for help to lose weight and can't afford or don't want to pay for programs like eDiets or Weight Watchers, SparkPeople is for you. When you sign up, be sure to tell them HelloKit sent you!
<< prev • home • next >>
|
![[photo of me]](/princess144.jpg)
![[album thumbnail]](/photos/redsox2008/thumbnails/albumthumb.jpg)
![[album thumbnail]](/photos/fireworks2008/thumbnails/albumthumb.jpg)
