When I first started on my journey into diet and exercise, it was hard to find somewhere to go to keep up with it all. As many of you know, just dieting and exercising alone without keeping track of it can quickly turn into failure. Like a good friend of mine used to say, "A ship without a rudder is just a fancy float."
For those of you that don't already know, I had tried Weight-Watchers twice in the past. Each time, I felt like I was paying for it and not getting any results. I'm not saying that it doesn't work; it's just not for me. I needed something a little stronger that made me understand my diet and exercise more, instead of just telling me what to do.
Enter SparkPeople.com, and my personal revolution. This site is a great tool for anyone really looking to ramp up their personal health goals. They have a tool to log what you eat that counts calories, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. This tool also has a built-in optional meal planner that can be tuned to many custom diets like red-meat free, vegan, vegetarian, low fat, and etc.
There is also an exercise logger on the site that helps you track everything you physically do. The tool will tell you how many calories you have burned in the day. This comes along with a cardio tracker and a walking tracker. If you need ideas for your workout routine, they also have an online "personal trainer" that will show you the proper way to execute many exercises in videos.
This site does so much more, such as letting you keep track of your goals like weight-loss, water intake, slimming down, miles walked, and so much more. This is a great place to keep motivated with your health.
The only downfalls to the site that I have noticed are some of the "extras." They have a social side that is similar to MySpace, where they encourage you to make and maintain a page. I felt like I didn't have the time to update my personal information on the site and then do it all again on the page. They can sometimes encourage a little too much as well. I got more than enough emails from them in my inbox and many personal messages from people that I had never met. I understand that they were so motivated and inspired by the site that they wanted to motivate others, but sometimes it was a little overbearing. Some people won't have a problem with this though, and I'm sure that the emails could be filtered a little better as well.
The best part about Sparkpeople is that it's free. The site was started by a couple of people that used to work for eBay and decided to get out of the business and help people with their weigh-loss goals like they had done for themselves. Since then, the site has a membership of over 9 million users who have come to them for help. I still have a membership with them, although I don't use the site on a regular basis. I do still like to use it when I want to track nutrition for a day or learn about some new exercise ideas.
If you're looking for something new and awesome to try for your personal health, or need something to help you meet your goals; Sparkpeople.com a great place to check out!
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