Keeping at it

I've been a member of Spark People since late May. I didn't meet my goal as I had hoped, but I do recognize that I was the one standing in my own way, and my poor choices were the only ingredients that kept me from reaching my weight loss goal.

For the first few months I was absolutely faithful to the Nutrition Tracker. I knew that recording every bite I took was actually the key to losing weight for me. I even told others that the Nutrition Tracker is the best tool to use if you're really serious about weight loss. Yet beginning with Halloween, I became lazier and lazier with my tracking. I still tracked the easy stuff, but it was hard to break down what was in those snacks, what was the proper portion, how many I actually ate. I stopped trying to figure out all of the extra stuff. I logged some of my food every day, but certainly not all of it. I've regained eight of the fifteen pounds I originally lost. Now, I focus on the seven pounds I haven't regained.

I have lapsed on my devotion to using the Nutrition Tracker the way it was designed to be used, but I haven't lapsed in my devotion to Spark People itself. I have signed into the site every day. I have huddled with teams and I've read articles and taken polls. I enjoy the blogs. I watch demos of exercises and try them. I've found favorites that I enjoy and recipes that I make often. I've made friends, and I've been supported and encouraged.

Spark People is so much more than the Nutrition Tracker, and all those things have kept me coming back every day, even when I was in a tough spot with my food choices. All of those things will lead me back to using the power of the tracker, too. I know I will get back to using it correctly, and I know that I will eventually reach my goals because of it.