Trying to Lose Weight? Try These Sites for Help...
Ah, the quest for motivation in all it’s various forms…
I hate talking about losing weight. I don’t do diets, I just try to eat right. I hate exercise but finding the one that motivates me reminds me of looking for Mr. Right….everyone assures you he exists but no one seems to know him.
However, there are some pretty cool sites out there for accomplishing your goals (or at least dating Mr. Right Now), so I thought I’d share two of them with you.
One interactive site is a place called Spark People (http://www.sparkpeople.com) It’s like a one stop shop community. And if you like joining groups there’s got to be one for you there because if you can imagine it they probably have a group for it; photographers, people who hate to cook, tea drinkers, singles, and on and on. This site is totally free (most of the ones I tell you about here are free) and you can do as much or as little with it as you want. There’s a place to record your statistics and keep track of them with charts, a place to keep a daily food log, plan meals, get menus, log exercise, get exercise ideas, and sign up for different types of newsletters about different subjects. One newsletter I like is the daily food comparison one that takes 2 different foods we eat each day (like Little Debbie’s and Taco Bell’s tacos) and compares it against a similar brand or type of food to tell you which has less calories or is better to eat. Nice. You earn points just for signing in each day and receive virtual trophies, you advance to different levels and you can create your own web page. It’s fun and thoroughly engaging…and best of all free. So check it out.
Another place I like is the Hungry Girl site. (http://www.hungry-girl.com/) “Tips and tricks for hungry chicks” they say. If you’ve never heard of this site (or the cookbook that’s out) it’s worth a shot. I love thier attitude and thier ideas because it deals with real, everyday food I would eat. She talks about how to adapt the foods you love, let’s you ask questions, and best of all she tries out all the new diet foods and adapted foods on the market and tells you whether thier worth trying or are just a waste of money. (Get Mikey to eat it…he won’t like it…he hates everything…).
Hope you have a fantastic day today!
Sissy
I hate talking about losing weight. I don’t do diets, I just try to eat right. I hate exercise but finding the one that motivates me reminds me of looking for Mr. Right….everyone assures you he exists but no one seems to know him.
However, there are some pretty cool sites out there for accomplishing your goals (or at least dating Mr. Right Now), so I thought I’d share two of them with you.
One interactive site is a place called Spark People (http://www.sparkpeople.com) It’s like a one stop shop community. And if you like joining groups there’s got to be one for you there because if you can imagine it they probably have a group for it; photographers, people who hate to cook, tea drinkers, singles, and on and on. This site is totally free (most of the ones I tell you about here are free) and you can do as much or as little with it as you want. There’s a place to record your statistics and keep track of them with charts, a place to keep a daily food log, plan meals, get menus, log exercise, get exercise ideas, and sign up for different types of newsletters about different subjects. One newsletter I like is the daily food comparison one that takes 2 different foods we eat each day (like Little Debbie’s and Taco Bell’s tacos) and compares it against a similar brand or type of food to tell you which has less calories or is better to eat. Nice. You earn points just for signing in each day and receive virtual trophies, you advance to different levels and you can create your own web page. It’s fun and thoroughly engaging…and best of all free. So check it out.
Another place I like is the Hungry Girl site. (http://www.hungry-girl.com/) “Tips and tricks for hungry chicks” they say. If you’ve never heard of this site (or the cookbook that’s out) it’s worth a shot. I love thier attitude and thier ideas because it deals with real, everyday food I would eat. She talks about how to adapt the foods you love, let’s you ask questions, and best of all she tries out all the new diet foods and adapted foods on the market and tells you whether thier worth trying or are just a waste of money. (Get Mikey to eat it…he won’t like it…he hates everything…).
Hope you have a fantastic day today!
Sissy
Keeping In Touch
Being a part of a large family, we have our methods of keeping everyone informed about the many things going on in life. I have five children, one of which is divorced, four grandchildren (who are now in different families due to the divorce), two sisters, umpteen friends that I still keep in touch with that I went to school with, a niece and her daughter, her mother living in London, my brother who isn’t married to her anymore and living in phoenix with his new wife and brand new son, and gratefully my parents are still alive. That doesn’t count the many friends I’ve made a long the way, some of which live in France since I teach there.
The internet is a wonderful place and I would be remiss if I didn’t share some of the places you can go to keep in touch. Most you are aware of but this is mostly a list to jog your memory, not tell you. The list could go on forever also but this is just a few. If you know some I haven’t mentioned please feel free to post them as short comments.
There is, of course, the big brother of all groups, Yahoo groups, and now even Google has groups (which I didn’t know until this blog though it made sense to suppose they did). Family groups and School Alumni groups are great things to have here. Consider making them private if you would like to keep the group being able to share sensitive information. This way you can monitor and approve who is in the group with you. MySpace is always popular but I find that even though there are many adults on it, it seems more geared for the teenagers (that is not a slam…I have fun watching my daughter interact on it and we all keep up with her friends who are like my second kids).
Facebook was a lot of fun and I found a ton of high school buddies on it. The thing I liked best on Facebook was the multiplication factor…it seemed everyone I knew had someone they thought I would also knew and in one week I was talking to over 30 people I hadn’t seen in over 20 years. It was a blast! However, very hard to keep up with since it was so busy and I didn’t like that others could post bad pictures of me and I couldn’t do anything about it!
If your kids like making up characters and talking in 3-D (or you do) there’s a fun place called IMVU. It’s very interactive, with things like “poke”, “slap”, and “kiss” that you can type and the characters do and you can buy them clothes and things and play games together. And if you have younger children Hasbro has a site called LPSO (Littlest PetShop Online) where the kids go to play together. This area is monitored and they are not allowed to use certain words or say mean things to each other or will be kicked off.
For professionals there is LinkedIn which is a great place to network and to join groups about things you have an interest in. You can create a profile, get others you know to leave recommendations, connect to others with the same job interests and even do job searches on it. I found it quite useful for keeping in touch with others I worked with at my last place of employment.
The newest thing is Twitter. You can follow others and/or be followed but not necessarily at the same time. For example if X and Y are following each other and Z wants to follow both they (X and Y) can both accept or even just one and not the other. In other words…you have a degree of privacy here if you want it. You don’t have strangers viewing your messages unless you want them to. The messages are short and sweet (the way I like them because I’m busy) and answer the question, “What are you doing right now?” They don’t require an answer from anyone either (which I like because, again, I’m busy) so it’s just a way for you to know what’s up at the moment with a friend or family member. But now even the stars and groups are getting involved and you can follow them also. Barbara Walters and Mathew Perry will tell you where they are at the moment and voila! you have inside info. Of course they probably have no idea who you are but they let you follow them so it’s good. My advice is to watch the video on the Main page first and don’t skip it and you’ll understand it better. And once you get it set up online you can set it up to text you with SMS when someone leaves a one-liner which is the real benefit for me (remember…because I’m busy…lol).
There you have a few of the latest and greatest. Don’t forget that sometimes there are groups within the sites you like to visit. I know Paperbackswap (my favorite book site) has many smaller communities of others with similar interests and so does MySpace.
Parents, as always, please monitor your children if they are on these sites. Especially places like IMVU and MySpace where there are older people involved. And everyone, please be aware of what information you’re putting out for others to view. If you are looking for a job please be aware that your name is often googled now by potential employers. Now is not the time for that embarrassing picture of you holding 2 beers while someone is groping you to show up on Facebook or MySpace.
Have fun all!
Sissy
The internet is a wonderful place and I would be remiss if I didn’t share some of the places you can go to keep in touch. Most you are aware of but this is mostly a list to jog your memory, not tell you. The list could go on forever also but this is just a few. If you know some I haven’t mentioned please feel free to post them as short comments.
There is, of course, the big brother of all groups, Yahoo groups, and now even Google has groups (which I didn’t know until this blog though it made sense to suppose they did). Family groups and School Alumni groups are great things to have here. Consider making them private if you would like to keep the group being able to share sensitive information. This way you can monitor and approve who is in the group with you. MySpace is always popular but I find that even though there are many adults on it, it seems more geared for the teenagers (that is not a slam…I have fun watching my daughter interact on it and we all keep up with her friends who are like my second kids).
Facebook was a lot of fun and I found a ton of high school buddies on it. The thing I liked best on Facebook was the multiplication factor…it seemed everyone I knew had someone they thought I would also knew and in one week I was talking to over 30 people I hadn’t seen in over 20 years. It was a blast! However, very hard to keep up with since it was so busy and I didn’t like that others could post bad pictures of me and I couldn’t do anything about it!
If your kids like making up characters and talking in 3-D (or you do) there’s a fun place called IMVU. It’s very interactive, with things like “poke”, “slap”, and “kiss” that you can type and the characters do and you can buy them clothes and things and play games together. And if you have younger children Hasbro has a site called LPSO (Littlest PetShop Online) where the kids go to play together. This area is monitored and they are not allowed to use certain words or say mean things to each other or will be kicked off.
For professionals there is LinkedIn which is a great place to network and to join groups about things you have an interest in. You can create a profile, get others you know to leave recommendations, connect to others with the same job interests and even do job searches on it. I found it quite useful for keeping in touch with others I worked with at my last place of employment.
The newest thing is Twitter. You can follow others and/or be followed but not necessarily at the same time. For example if X and Y are following each other and Z wants to follow both they (X and Y) can both accept or even just one and not the other. In other words…you have a degree of privacy here if you want it. You don’t have strangers viewing your messages unless you want them to. The messages are short and sweet (the way I like them because I’m busy) and answer the question, “What are you doing right now?” They don’t require an answer from anyone either (which I like because, again, I’m busy) so it’s just a way for you to know what’s up at the moment with a friend or family member. But now even the stars and groups are getting involved and you can follow them also. Barbara Walters and Mathew Perry will tell you where they are at the moment and voila! you have inside info. Of course they probably have no idea who you are but they let you follow them so it’s good. My advice is to watch the video on the Main page first and don’t skip it and you’ll understand it better. And once you get it set up online you can set it up to text you with SMS when someone leaves a one-liner which is the real benefit for me (remember…because I’m busy…lol).
There you have a few of the latest and greatest. Don’t forget that sometimes there are groups within the sites you like to visit. I know Paperbackswap (my favorite book site) has many smaller communities of others with similar interests and so does MySpace.
Parents, as always, please monitor your children if they are on these sites. Especially places like IMVU and MySpace where there are older people involved. And everyone, please be aware of what information you’re putting out for others to view. If you are looking for a job please be aware that your name is often googled now by potential employers. Now is not the time for that embarrassing picture of you holding 2 beers while someone is groping you to show up on Facebook or MySpace.
Have fun all!
Sissy