Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Another Try

I've recently (i.e., yesterday) decided that I need to recommit myself to a healthier lifestyle. Generally, I do a pretty good job. I exercise a fair amount these days. I try to get enough sleep. My big issue is eating as a way of coping with difficult feelings and kind of as a form of rebellion. I just feel so deprived when I can't have that chocolate dessert or take a smaller portion than I'm used to. It's like I see it as a dare -- "Yeah...go ahead. Just try to deprive me. I'll show you! I'll have TWO servings of chocolate cake. Ha! So there! As god is my witness, I will never be hungry again!" Well, I just need to get over the drama. I was looking online and found this web site called sparkpeople.com. It was started by this guy who sold software or a website or something that was like ebay to ebay. He became a gazillionaire and decided that he wanted to do something to help people reach their goals -- specifically goals about health and weight loss. 

So this website is a really comprehensive place to get support, ideas, inspiration and practical tools to try to make these changes. I know it's not magic and it really is up to me whether I make the changes or not but I'm hoping that having a frequent reminder of my goals I'll be able to keep it up. It's kind of like a Facebook for healthy living. I know some of you are also interested in healthy lifestyle so thought you might want to know about it. If you sign up, you can just say I told you about it (qualialori is my user name) and I think we'll get friended automatically. 

It's totally free of charge and I haven't been able to see any catch yet. There are advertisements of course but they aren't overly intrusive and don't get in the way of using the site at all. Apparently, this guy has the resources and he really does want to share them. Or...alternatively, he's a sociopath and is lying about that when he really wants to make money and is doing something sinister behind the scenes. I'll go with the former for now.  

1 comment:

  1. I went ahead and signed up for this too! It looks very much like Weight Watchers online, but not quite as slick.

    Here are my goals for the week:
    Go to bed at 9 every night
    Get up at 5 and get on the treadmill every morning.
    Stay away from all the Halloween candy at work.

    If I do this each day, I'm going to reward myself with a trip to the mall next weekend for some fall and winter clothes which I need anyway.

    I've also looked at that website you mentioned earlier, mindful eating - it's good as well.
    And Tik Nhat Hahn (spelling??) has a book out called Savor that I saw in the bookstore - again, all about being mindful.

    Sadly, usually I'm just mindful of being under stress and wanting to eat those damn Reeses Cups...

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