SparkPeople Members Celebrate Together At The Finish Line

By: Jen Mueller : 3/12/2010  1:09:02 PM : 24 comments : 2,016 views

SparkPeople members are in the news once again! Seven members (who met on our site) recently completed various distances of the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach, California. When their story was featured on CNN.com, we asked if they wanted to share more details about the experience. They were more than happy to talk about what it meant to meet their online buddies in-person for the first time! Read More >

The Secrets of Success: Tap into the Power of Positive People

By: Nicole Nichols : 3/12/2010  6:07:11 AM : 30 comments : 3,981 views

When people first come to SparkPeople, they are often happily surprised by how positive our members and community are. SparkPeople members are by and large a positive bunch, continuously looking out for one another and spreading encouragement. This positive support system is so important in any healthy lifestyle journey--and it really works! Our most successful members--real people like you who have reached their weight-loss goals or lost at least 100 pounds in their journey to date--truly understand the power of positivity. When we recently surveyed this elite group, we found out so many things these big "losers" did to reach their goals and were finally able to quantify just how successful certain habits or strategies really were. You can find it all in The Spark, now a New York Times Best Seller!

We couldn't keep all the secrets in this book to ourselves, so we're sharing our 15 favorite secrets of success on the dailySpark from March 1-15.

Secret #12: Tap into the power of positive people.
Successful SparkPeople members don't just consider people a nice part of their community; instead they tap into the power of positive people and use that as a weight-loss tool. How? Read More >

Would taxes on junk food promote healthier eating?

By: Dean Anderson : 3/11/2010  5:42:53 PM : 170 comments : 4,859 views

According to a study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, when the price of junk food goes up, people eat less of it, their weight goes down, and blood sugar levels improve.

The study, which is described in more detail here, followed over 5,000 people for a period of 20 years, tracking their food consumption, height, weight, and blood sugar levels. Researchers also tracked changes in food prices during this same period, and found that incremental increases in the prices of soda and delivery pizza were associated with incremental decreases in consumption of these items. For every 10% increase in cost, there was a 7% decrease in the number of soda calories consumed, and an 11.5% decrease in pizza calories consumed. Likewise, a one dollar increase in soda cost was associated with a decrease in overall calorie intake of 124 calories per day (on average), and a decrease in body weight (2.2 pounds on average). This was true even though the “real” cost of soda and delivery pizza actually decreased over the 20 year period when prices were adjusted for inflation.

Does this mean that we can (or should) use taxes and/or surcharges on junk food items to encourage people to use less them of them?

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Which Strategy to Reduce Salt Would Work for You?

By: Tanya Jolliffe : 3/11/2010  12:41:20 PM : 105 comments : 4,505 views

Each time I review a new restaurant for our ongoing Food on the Run or Diet Friendly Dining series, there are always comments wondering why there is so much sodium in restaurant food.

A new Annals of Internal Medicine article looking at information from a cost-effectiveness analysis of sodium reduction strategies suggests that change may be right around the corner.

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The Secrets of Success: Get Cooking

By: Stepfanie Romine : 3/11/2010  6:00:00 AM : 86 comments : 17,965 views

There's no secret recipe when it comes to weight loss, no magic ingredient that will make the pounds melt away. Still, there are tips and tricks that help ease the process--and change lives forever. The weight-loss experts at SparkPeople (members who have reached their goals) told us how they did it, and now we're telling you. Until now, the 27 Secrets of Success could only be found in our best-selling book, The Spark. We're sharing 15 of those secrets here.

Secret #11: Get cooking. Read More >

March is Deep Vein Thrombosis Awareness Month

By: Nancy Howard : 3/10/2010  3:01:27 PM : 52 comments : 6,217 views

This month marks the 7th annual Deep Vein Thrombosis Awareness Month. The Coalition to Prevent Deep-Vein Thrombosis is working diligently to make more people aware of this potentially life-threatening condition.

While many of us are unfamiliar with the complications involving deep-vein thrombosis, each year almost 2 million people are afflicted with this condition and of that number 300,000 succumb to a more serious side effect known as a pulmonary embolism. By making the public aware of the risks and symptoms of this condition, treatment can be sought early enough to prevent further complications.

So what exactly is a deep-vein thrombosis?

Read More >

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