Spark People

I promised a blog post on Spark people, to someone who read my blog late last week. sorry I didn't get it done at the weekend but here it is anyway.

I LOVE Spark people, but I accept it is not for everyone.

if you are already used to being around a computer, being part of online communities and so on, you should at least give it a go.

Spark People at it's most basic is a site that allows you to log all your food and your exercise. Many many food items are in the system, already logged and the nutritional values there for you, but if they're not in the official list, you can check items that have been entered and shared by other users. And, of course, you can enter and share things yourself as well.

You can track a huge range of nutritional details, not just the usual calories, fat and fibre. For instance, I also track calcium, sodium and potassium. You get to choose what you track and the system will calculate it all for you, so if you have particular dietery needs it is an excellent tool.

The system will suggest your calorie level based on how much you want to lose how fast AND your predicted activity level, but you can adjust that yourself as well.

The fitness tracking has the largest range of activities to choose from I have seen on any similar website.

All of this is FREE.

ALSO there are message boards, that allow you to get advice from other members, share situations and so on.
OR you could join teams, which offer similar things to the message boards but within a specific group of people. There are all sorts of teams.
Teams based on

• amount you need to lose
• occassion you are losing for
• age
• location
• faith
• hobbies
• career

All sorts of them, and lots and lots of them, you are sure to find something that fits your needs.

AND you can Blog within Spark people too. You have a "spark page" that you can set up how you want it, and there are emails and things to sign up for too.

ALL of this is FREE

Attached to Spark People there are other websites. There is a diet site for teens and a healthy living site for pregnant moms AND a recipe site where you can either find recipes or enter the ones you are using and get the nutritional values for them.

ALL OF THIS IS FREE!

And no, I am not getting paid to write this post.

I started with Spark people may last year. Since then I lost 34 pounds. Life got away from me a bit sometime around September and I finally got myself back into gear again at the beginning of this year. So, yes, I have put some weight back on, and no, I have no intention of giving up. I am currently at 26 pounds down from where I started, and that's OK. I will learn from this period of time and never allow myself to get that busy for that long again.

How much more do I want to lose?
It's not abotu a number, it's about being healthy and feeling so much better than I do now (I have a number of weight related health issues). According to the doctors I probably have another 90 or so pounds to go. I seriously doubt I will go that far, I don't think I need to. But yes, I do still have a long way to go and I have every intention of getting there.

If you are going to sign up at Spark People, please use my Spark name in the "where did you hear about us" bit. WahZoe. If you click on the link below to sign up it will fill that in automatically for you.