During my Spark days, the “5%, 8-Week Challenge” was a motivator! Am I competitive? Sometimes, yes! And yes, I was successful by actually losing 10% in 8-weeks. Nice! Track everything!
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I also did the “8 Glasses of Water per Day Challenge.” I surprised myself. I do drink enough. This is one area I don’t need to track.
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I did my own personal weekly challenge of adding jumping jacks to my exercise routine. Let me tell you, that first day was embarrassing, feeble, and alarming. It was bad! But … day by day, I improved. It got easier to do and I could do more almost everyday, adding 5 at a time. Just start!
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This week I am doing the “Freggie Challenge”. Fruits and veggies … it is easy to fall short. If I wouldn’t be doing the Challenge, I would have failed, most days. I have better nutrition because I am doing this.
Small changes lead to big changes, over time. One day at a time.
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Changes I have made: less processed food, more fresh food, no snacking after dinner, 10,000 steps, 25 flights of stairs, reduced carbs (30-40%), and intermittent fasting (16/8). I sleep well, have reduced stress, planted a garden, watch less TV (and news!) and connect with others by phone, Zoom, Messenger, etc. Life is about choices. Make some good ones for your health and future.
Well said all great initiatives to get started on :)
ReplyDeleteGood advice! It always helps me to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone! Lots has gotten accomplished that way for m e.
ReplyDeleteSince Spark vanished, I have pretty much abandoned healthy eating.... and ..... boy does it show!!
ReplyDeleteI commit to challenging myself to step out of my comfort zone and do what I know is necessary! Thanks for the inspiration! Eissa7 (Spark name)
I gained 15 lbs. after the end is Spark. I’m slowly getting back to a healthier weight. I can see how much harder maintenance is than the original weight loss. All the best in your reboot!
DeleteI can understand that. Sounds like an emotional-eating response to a favorite health and fitness site "abandoning us." Looking back, it's probably good that I'd abandoned SparkPeople (somewhat) before I got the news of its changing; I got a Garmin watch for my birthday, in March, and it just worked more seamlessly with MyFitnessPal (which, for me, had always come in a distant second to SparkPeople). I decided to focus on MFP for a while and get serious about my fitness goals when I saw an ALARMING (to me) number on my bathroom scales in July. I'm now down to my lowest weight in almost two years. Call me "ScaredStraight." I'm down 16.2 lbs (actually, 20.2 from that "alarming" number that I didn't even want to admit to myself - it was probably travel-related water weight, but still - eek!)
DeleteDon't let discouragement or other people dissuade or distract you from your personal goals. You matter. You can't throw in the towel in disappointment.
This concept sort of echoes for me the original premise of SP; the idea of effecting behavior change by building “Spark streaks” of little changes. 🙂
ReplyDeleteIt definitely works 💖
Challenges are a tricky thing, for me. Sometimes they work; sometimes, they backfire and have the opposite effect. If I could really figure out why that is, I might join in more of them than I do. Right now, I'm only challenging myself to do better than I did the day before. Consistency, increasing activity levels - steady weight loss and muscle gain - that's all I can focus on right now. I distract myself from the tedium of it all by trying to find adventurous ways to cram more nutrition and flavor into fewer calories. Pushing myself to join new classes at the Y, or to set new goals like "qualify for lifeguard certification by April 2022" - completely useless, but fun goals. Useless because I have no intention of coming out of retirement to be a lifeguard, but it might be nice to be able to if I wanted to. ;)
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