Sparkpeople.Com: A Weight-Loss Revolution?

I have been a fairly active member of http://www.sparkpeople.com since January 2007. Sparkpeople is a free health/weight loss website that allows it's members to track what they eat, how they exercise, and connect with others for support and guidance.

Sparkpeople has been one of the absolute best things to happen to me. While I believe in the old adage, that when you work it, it works for you, I believe just having the support of my Sparkepeople friends, the the website tools, has helped me tremendously.

Have I lost the nearly 100 pounds that I need to? No? Have I lost some? Yes. Have I gained some? Yes. But when I didn't work it, the weight came back, and when I did work it, the weight came off. It's as simple as doing the steps.

While there is no miracle tool on Sparkpeople.com that makes your weight and health issues magically disappear, I found their articles and guides to be very helpful. The nutrition calculator has helped me to breakdown the food I am eating to see that larger portions are the root of my evil, and that carbs=calories. Just by simply breaking down the food you eat into fat, calories, carbs and protein, it has helped me to better track what goes into my body.

The fitness tracker helps me to see exactly how the exercise I am doing is working for my body. I can see what things I can do to burn more calories in a shorter amount of time, and what strength training exercises may benefit my aching back, weak ankles, etc.

While on Sparkpeople.com, I have found that connecting with the Sparkgroups has helped me to keep others actively involved in my progress. While some groups have the typical forum atmosphere, some groups are truly like a small family. We encourage each other on the good, and help to steer each other from the bad. It's a weightloss battle we fight together.

Being that it is a free site, it does not have all the tools you could want. However, for being a free site it has more than enough tools to keep you occupied for hours at a time. The trick is, not to spend hours on the website, and instead, use that time to get to the gym, take a walk and eat a healthy snack.

You can even find an entire sister website dedicated to recipes and the breakdown of what they will bring to your body. I have found this tool especially helpful when I want to make dinner, but don't have a clue how good or bad it will be for my diet.

I would highly recommend Sparkpeople.com to anyone who wants to make a healthy lifestyle change. The support system and tools offered are excellent, and don't cost a thing. However, I want to stress the importance of not getting sucked into the forum vortext. Get connected for support, but make sure to spend as much time on yourself, as you do posting for encouragement.