Let's make a SPARK

My New Years resolution this year is to lose weight (just like everyone else's, i know i know). But not just to lose weight, I really want to be healthier. And, really, I mostly want to lose inches...who cares what my actual weight is. When I worked at 24hour fitness I encountered people all the time who would come and work out for an hour a few times a week. Hooray! But you know what? They never lost any weight. Why? Because they weren't changing their lifestyles. They still ate an enormous amount of calories and didn't do any other physical activities outside of going to the gym. And I would always think to myself: "why spend all this money on a gym membership and never see any results?"

Losing weight really has to be a small part of a LIFESTYLE CHANGE. It can't be all about the number on the scale, because there will always be a number on the scale and you might find that you are never satisfied with that number, no matter how big or small that number is. SO. To fix this problem and be a happier you, you really gotta mix it up. Go to the gym, eat better, go walk around the park or go for a jog. Set healthy goals, turn the t.v. off and get out and do something.

I have found something that has really helped me to change my lifestyle. It's called SparkPeople. SparkPeople is a free, online tool that will help you in your weight loss. It might be similar to WeightWatchers, but I hear that costs $$. SparkPeople offers meal plans, calorie counters, exercise options, etc, etc. I have found it to be very helpful. You can enter your weight loss goal, and it will tell you how many calories you need to lose each day to attain that goal. You can enter in what you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and it will tell you how many calories each of those are, how much protein you have eaten so far, how much fat, and carbs. You can input how much water you have drank. You can also put in what types of exercises you've done that day and for how long. It will help you plan a grocery list. It will educate you on how depression, insomnia, menopause, IBS, high cholesterol, and allergies all play into your overall health, fitness, and weight. SparkPeople is a holistic approach to better health.

You have to be diligent with it. If not, then what's the point? So many people make New Years resolutions to lose weight and then by March, they're back to their old eating habits and have stopped exercising. You have to make this website a part of your daily routine, just like you check your email and Facebook a million times a day. Not by a computer? That's okay, you can download the app to your Blackberry/iPhone.

So go check it out. Maybe you like it, maybe you hate it. Either way, make today count.

Here is an article from SparkPeople that I found very interesting:

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=1260

HealthyMama is a HappyMama