weigh-2-go.org

So my friend P emails me:

…I’m at the 3rd stage on SparkPeople and wondered if you would be interested in doing any of [list of suggestions] together, any time soon…”

And I’m, like, “SparkPeople? Like, what’s that?”

And she writes back: “Ah–I should back up. So, do you know about SparkPeople? Free weight loss site used by millions!”

I guess I’m the last to know–unless, of course, I’m the first to inform you, dear Reader.

The SparkPeople site is very cool. And it has so many features that I can only scratch the surface before my enthusiasm compels me to blog it.

• Personal blogs and forums for members to share their progress, motivation, setbacks, and stories. A more robust and accessible community than the one on WeightWatchers.com, and it’s free.
• A wonderful food tracker, with a database that appears to be about as deep as Weight Watchers, but it tracks many other nutrients (like sodium, saturated fat, fiber and protein)
• Online fitness programs with tools to schedule and track activities.
• A “Reports” page with information such as “Calorie Differential Over Time–You set the dates to see your calories in versus calories out over time.” Cool–can’t wait to have some data for them to analyze.
• News headlines related to health.

SparkPeople is funded by ads. The site is well crafted and professional, and the ads are not in my face.

Today I logged my food on SparkPeople instead of Weight Watchers, just to give it a try. It is possible to log on SparkPeople, and then calculate POINTS from Calories, Fat, and Fiber totals per meal on Weight Watchers. I’ll be giving this a try to see which I like better over time.

The psychologist on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” writes this page about the psychological factors that she observes in the successful participants on the show.  (They don’t put the author’s name on the actual page, but the link to the page credits Alexa Altman for this column.)

The list of 5 factors is, in summary:

1. Successful “Biggest Losers” write or look at goals daily.
2. Successful “Biggest Losers” developed and nurtured their social network.
3. Successful “Biggest Losers” don’t interpret a small slip up as a failure; they get back on the horse right away.
4. Successful “Biggest Losers” utilized and developed new resources.
5. Successful “Losers” identify emotional roadblocks and ask for further support, referrals to mental health professionals, or referrals for medication.

Again, I personally like the emphasis on accountability and support networks.  By the time we have lost a lot of weight, we know the tactics about what works for us–diet, exercise, or whatever.   But in long-term mode, we have to tie together these  tactics with our real lives, and these softer skills–like asking for help and staying aware of our goals–are, I believe, the keys.