Losing Weight Plus Social Networking!?

I came across this blog article and immediately thought of the CF Biggest Loser blog and all of our other efforts! Everyone needs support! It's by Craig Ballantyne, who is a workout routine and fat loss expert, and writes workout routines for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines.

"Researchers from Regis University in Denver, Colorado believe that "social networks" are the key to halting the obesity epidemic.

After all, we know what we need to do in order to lose fat. It's not a lack of knowledge. In fact, even a 3rd grader could tell you that we need to eat less and exercise more to lose weight.

But it's easier said than done, especially when we're surrounded by easy eating and friends that want to drag us to another movie or high-calorie restaurant meal when we should be doing our workouts instead.

These researchers have found that, "individuals with similar body fat levels will cluster together into groups, and if left unchecked, current social forces will drive these groups toward increasing obesity".

That's a no-win situation, so you have to hunt out people who share your weight loss goals. But you don't have to stick to your friends. In fact, the researchers suggest, "interventions targeting well-connected and/or normal weight individuals at the edges of a cluster may quickly halt the spread of obesity."

So building a Facebook fat loss group full of strangers and including people who have already lost fat is one place to start. I prefer to use the website Twitter.com to encourage social support and accountability in my clients. You could also start by getting involved in the Turbulence Training Member's Forums, or another weight loss website club.

The bottom line is that you need social support for fat loss success. Start associating with positive people who share similar goals with you, and you'll soon be losing all the weight you want.

Reference:
Obesity (Silver Spring). 2009 Jan 15. Exploiting Social Networks to Mitigate the Obesity Epidemic. Bahr DB, Browning RC, Wyatt HR, Hill JO.

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS"

Interesting, right? That's what we're all about...supporting each other! So taking it to Facebook and Twitter...just think of the possibilities...





weight loss, lose weight, fat loss

Healthy Lifestyle Changes

Well we made it into January and it is time to get moving on our weightloss challenge. It is going to be fun having other team members to motivate one another, through the ups and downs we will inevitably have.

My first goal is to go into this with a new mindset. I am not on a diet, I am on a healthy lifestyle change and by changing small things one at a time we will be succesful. By setting small goals we will achieve our overall goal in the end.

I love the saying: It is not what you do between Christmas and New Years, its what you do between New Years and Christmas that really counts!

My other goals are to drink more water, cut out the snacking, especially while working on the computer and to become more active. I live out in the country so it is easy just to let the dogs run in the bush for their exercise, but while they are out I will do laps around the edge of our property that is cleared, each lap takes about 10mins to walk at a decent pace. These are the goals that I want to achieve in the month of January, then come February I will post new ones.

Here is a neat tool that I have come across to post our weightloss along the way. There are all kinds of tickers for different occasions. This way we don't have to say how much we currently weigh, but how much we want to lose...maybe one day I'll be brave enough to state what my starting weight was, but not right now!!



Happy New Year and Happy Weight Loss!