Sparking Away

I had done so well at the end of last year and even into the beginning of this, but once we went on our trip to the U.S, I lost steam in my workout engine. I had tons of excuses, work to catch up on, a husband leaving, rain, etc etc. but none of them were really valid. I just lost my momentum and consequently my mojo.

I did some yoga here and there but it wasn't until the beginning of this month that I really got back on track. For me the biggest help is SparkPeople.com. I've written about this website before and it really is an inspiration to me. 

They recently redid their front page design and I love it. It is so nice to look at the Start Page and see my progress:

I find that if I get on the website first thing in the morning--right after my workout, I'm more likely to stay on track all day.

It's not easy tracking my food here because we make things by hand and the ingredients don't have nutrition labels on them, but I do the best I can. Just by thinking about it I find I eat less--I pay more attention to portion control.

Watching my workout progress is very exciting too. Look at how many miles I've walked total (well, at least those I've logged)--nearly 138! My 2011 total is a bit low right now--just only around 15, but I will be remedying that.

Now that I've been walking 5K regularly (with a little break) I felt I was ready for the next step. I joined a five week 5K walk/run training group on SparkPeople. Each week I'll get an email telling me what to do for my 3 training sessions per week. 

To make it even more interesting, I've signed up for a virtual 5K. No, this does not mean I'll sit on my couch and pretend to run a race. What it means is that I have committed to walk/run a 5K race sometime in the second week of July. Everyone who has signed up for this same week is listed and I'll essentially be pitting my best time against them.

See all those people who have signed up so far? At the top I can filter out those who are not doing a 5K walk/run or any who are out of my age group. Or only list women. It's kinda fun. So far there is only one other participant doing a 5K walk/run but she's in a younger age group so even if she beats me I won't have to feel badly about it. LOL

As an aside, can I say that I'm not happy with my current age group. I'm happy with how old I am but I don't want to be lumped in with people who are nearly 10 years older than me. It makes me feel old.

One of the best things about SparkPeople is that you get points just for showing up. This morning I spun the little points wheel and got 10 points just for logging in. Plus I got 8 points for my yoga workout, 9 points for entering the food I ate at breakfast, and 3 points for reading a blog entry on SparkPeople. That's 30 points! And yes, the points are like the points on Drew Carey's Whose Line is It Anyway--totally meaningless. But they make me so happy!

If you're excited about this free website, you can sign up today. If you do, please use my name: Laiah73. I get 25 of those awesome points if you do.

What do you do to motivate yourself to a healthier lifestyle?

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