People stay motivated on SparkPeople. This is shown by their countless participation in message boards. Also, today, I discovered SparkPoints, which can be earned and collected by performing tasks that help people reach their goals. Exercising, logging your food intake, reading articles, and even spinning the SparkPoints Wheel each day for logging-in would collect SparkPoints. SparkPoints follows wherever the user decides to go. Every time a user posts something, user's image and SparkPoints would show as well.
When I logged in, I pressed the button, and it spun realistically (probably used Flash), and I earned 4 points! It felt really good! The SparkPoints page also shows the SparkPoints earned by all members, and the number changes dynamically. It made me feel competitive, and I wanted to gain more points.
So I decided to do gain more points by doing more challenges. I read a dailySpark blog entry, which gave me 3 points more. I read about a custom-made energy bar called YouBar. It looked pretty disgusting and I would not like to try it. At the end of the blog, there is a button that says "Get your SparkPoints." Unless the user clicks on that button, the user won't get the points.
There are also other challenges that users could take to motivate themselves, and get points as well. Completing "Getting Started Checklist" would earn 25 points, watching an inspirational news story about SparkPeople would earn 10 points, and even posting to message boards earn 3 points.
Best of all, SparkPeople community is also motivated by each other's concerns and advice.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
CRAVING A BIG FAT JUICY CHEESEBURGER!
SparkPeople use message boards as forums.
The message boards are organized by topics such as "Fitness and Exercise," "Staying Motivated," "Site/Technical Help," "SparkPeople Challenges," "SparkPeople Game Room," and "Panic! Button for Immediate Help." Usually I found the messages related to the topic of the room, but then there are posts that are not related to the topic.
I visited the "Panic! Button for Immediate Help" room. The message boards in SparkPeople are different from other forums in that each post is displayed in a round-square talk bubble. In the talk bubble, the users' status of the weight loss is displayed as a graphic. It could also show the their favorite quotes or lists of rewards if they hit certain weights.
I found "Craving a big fat juicy cheeseburger!" thread honest and informative because RJZIMMERMAN shares her concern, and other try to help her out by describing what they do or sympathizing with her.
RJZIMMERMAN 2/17/09 10:48 PM: Tonight I just want so bad to devour a cheeseburger! To make matters worse I have a coupon for a free one! Would it hurt to eat one just one time?!? What i I left out the cheese and mayo...it might not be so bad. SOMEONE HELP!
BAM0827 2/18/09 8:36 AM: I'm with Carena - figure out how to work it into your calorie range. I eat a lot of things people say are "bad" (I hate that term in relationship to food) and almost always fit it into my Spark range or at the very most in a maintenance range. It's all about balance through the day.
I have hamburgers a lot - but I make them at home (summer on the grill). I get 93% lean beef, wheat buns, and my partner uses 2% cheddar slices (I don't care for cheeseburgers much). Add some tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup/mustard - it's good. Good without thinking that I have to eat celery the rest of the day.
If you decide that you want the cheeseburger at the restaurant - have it but don't get the french fries that generally come with it. There's no nutrional value there (at least beef has nutrional value)
Later on, with other replies,
RJZIMMERMAN replies on 2/18/09 9:52 AM: Thanks so much for the advice! What I ended up doing was taking 2% piece of cheese and some lean tukey deli meat and rolling it up. It made the craving pass and my husband helped too! So nice to have the support you need! Now I will be better prepared for when this fast-food craving attacks again!
The message boards are organized by topics such as "Fitness and Exercise," "Staying Motivated," "Site/Technical Help," "SparkPeople Challenges," "SparkPeople Game Room," and "Panic! Button for Immediate Help." Usually I found the messages related to the topic of the room, but then there are posts that are not related to the topic.
I visited the "Panic! Button for Immediate Help" room. The message boards in SparkPeople are different from other forums in that each post is displayed in a round-square talk bubble. In the talk bubble, the users' status of the weight loss is displayed as a graphic. It could also show the their favorite quotes or lists of rewards if they hit certain weights.
I found "Craving a big fat juicy cheeseburger!" thread honest and informative because RJZIMMERMAN shares her concern, and other try to help her out by describing what they do or sympathizing with her.
RJZIMMERMAN 2/17/09 10:48 PM: Tonight I just want so bad to devour a cheeseburger! To make matters worse I have a coupon for a free one! Would it hurt to eat one just one time?!? What i I left out the cheese and mayo...it might not be so bad. SOMEONE HELP!
BAM0827 2/18/09 8:36 AM: I'm with Carena - figure out how to work it into your calorie range. I eat a lot of things people say are "bad" (I hate that term in relationship to food) and almost always fit it into my Spark range or at the very most in a maintenance range. It's all about balance through the day.
I have hamburgers a lot - but I make them at home (summer on the grill). I get 93% lean beef, wheat buns, and my partner uses 2% cheddar slices (I don't care for cheeseburgers much). Add some tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup/mustard - it's good. Good without thinking that I have to eat celery the rest of the day.
If you decide that you want the cheeseburger at the restaurant - have it but don't get the french fries that generally come with it. There's no nutrional value there (at least beef has nutrional value)
Later on, with other replies,
RJZIMMERMAN replies on 2/18/09 9:52 AM: Thanks so much for the advice! What I ended up doing was taking 2% piece of cheese and some lean tukey deli meat and rolling it up. It made the craving pass and my husband helped too! So nice to have the support you need! Now I will be better prepared for when this fast-food craving attacks again!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Signing up for SparkPeople
According to SparkPeople, it has over 5 million people joining to lose weight and make healthy lifestyle change through information sharing and community support.It has been named "Best Health Website" in 3 years straight from 2006 by Business Week.
My first impression of SparkPeople was that it looked like it has lots of information and has a nice, Web 2.0 look and feel. The site uses bright colors, clean, big fonts, and gradient boxes.
When I signed up, the site asked me if I wanted to lose weight or not lose weight and lead a healthy lifestyle. Then, I needed to indicate my conditions and interests, such as knee pain, daily exercises etc.
The Start page lists my information and networks for the site in an organized way. I could track my nutrition, fitness, weight, and post on message boards. I'm not sure if I would update what I ate everyday, or even do all the exercises they recommend everyday, but I might create a little goal such as losing 2 pounds because it is doable.
I also breezed through the message boards, and there are more than 30 posts and hundreds of comments per day. SparkPeople is an active community!
My first impression of SparkPeople was that it looked like it has lots of information and has a nice, Web 2.0 look and feel. The site uses bright colors, clean, big fonts, and gradient boxes.
When I signed up, the site asked me if I wanted to lose weight or not lose weight and lead a healthy lifestyle. Then, I needed to indicate my conditions and interests, such as knee pain, daily exercises etc.
The Start page lists my information and networks for the site in an organized way. I could track my nutrition, fitness, weight, and post on message boards. I'm not sure if I would update what I ate everyday, or even do all the exercises they recommend everyday, but I might create a little goal such as losing 2 pounds because it is doable.
I also breezed through the message boards, and there are more than 30 posts and hundreds of comments per day. SparkPeople is an active community!
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