I mentioned that I was giving SparkPeople a try. Unlike other years, I decided to start it about 3 weeks ago) after Thanksgiving, instead of waiting until January 1st. I'm sure that (and being sick the last few days of the year, helped me emerge from the holiday season having stayed about the same (actually down .4 lbs.) Given that the average American gains 7-10 lbs. over the holidays, I'm feeling good about that.
In the first week of the New Year I lost 2.2 lbs, which I'm also quite pleased with. I don't actually feel like I was neglecting to eat while sick, but I didn't feel well enough to exercise, so it was far from guaranteed that I was going to lose that much. I'm quite short, so usually exercise is pretty much required if I'm going to be successful.
The Yahoo! Health Care Blog on personal fitness has a set of obvious '5 Tips to jump-start your weight loss.' Nothing you haven't heard before, from setting realistic goals to celebrating successes. But basic reminders are good. What's not good, IMHO is the way the Yahoo! health blogs throw up great info, let comments run wild, but then the blogger never weighs in or responds to anything. That seems to be across the board. OK, so it's one thing on this blog...although I would not mind if their fitness expert came on and told all the teenagers talking about being fat what healthy guidelines are...but when you see it on the blog dealing with depression, well, it's kinda sad.
Anyway, in addition t the 5 Tips above, I think another key contributor to success is mindful eating, and for me that means writing stuff down and keeping track. Another thing that always brought me success and that I haven't returned to in a long while is actually planning ahead. I do eat many of my meals at home now that I work from home, so I could do this pretty often. I am much less likely to be successful when I just wander into the kitchen open the fridge or cabinet and see what's there.
So, how have you been doing? And what tips, tools or tricks are you using?
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