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fitbody


Tweet those Fitness Goals


Online Friends Help Us Stay on Track


by Tamara Grand


friends with similar health and fitness goals. Follow links to motivational photos, low-calorie recipes and at- home workouts. Tweeting when feeling the urge to eat virtually guarantees that we’ll receive a helpful response in a minute or two. Twitter chats are also a fabulous way to connect with an estab- lished and helpful healthy living tribe.


Pinterest


A visual smorgasbord of clean-eating recipes, at-home workouts and inspira- tional photos keeps spirits up. Pinterest accesses photos throughout the Internet that we can grab and “pin” to a person- al online vision board. It’s also possible to create a visual cookbook, pinning recipes to, for example, clean eating, Paleo, pumpkin and oatmeal themed boards. It’s fun to connect with our favorite healthy living peeps and start following their boards for continuous injections of inspiration and motivation.


H


umans are inherently social creatures. Most of us enjoy the company of others and


spend much of our waking time engag- ing in social interactions with col- leagues, friends and family. People that spend a lot of time together often adopt one another’s eating and exercise hab- its—sometimes for the better, but often for the worse.


At least one positive side to wish- ing to conform socially is unexpected. Finding the right circle of friends—our own personal support group—can make sticking to an exercise schedule or diet easier. It’s a key factor in the popularity of organized weight-loss groups and exercise classes. Studies published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology and the Journal of Obesity demonstrate that just having a weight-loss or fitness support system in place results in better adherence to diet and exercise with more pounds shed and kept off over the long term. Researchers believe that in


50 Collier/Lee Counties


addition to the motivation and account- ability supporters provide, benefits are also enhanced by learning through ob- serving; changing our behavior through watching the actions and outcomes of others’ behavior. If we don’t have physical access to a local support group, we can access one online or create our own, using one of the following social media platforms.


Facebook The leading social networking web- site includes thousands of community and group pages devoted to weight loss, exercise and healthy living. Its search function helps find one that fits our needs. Make an introduction and join the discussion. Participating in a special challenge helps everyone stay motivated.


Twitter This micro-blogging site is informal and fast-paced, providing nearly instanta- neous feedback. Use Twitter to identify


swfl.NaturalAwakeningsMag.com


Instagram Love to take photos using a smartphone? Instagram provides a platform for sharing snippets of our day via pictures. Fitness fans regularly “Instagram” their meals and workouts, in part to remain account- able to their online followers, but also to help motivate themselves and others to make healthy choices each day.


YouTube Our go-to resource for music videos is also home to hundreds of healthy living “channels”. Want to follow someone’s 100-pound weight-loss journey, learn how to cook quinoa or follow along with free, at-home workout videos? This is the place. Watch, share and com- ment on a favorite YouTube video to become part of its online community.


The key to using social media to


improve our health and fitness is inherent in the name. It’s a friendly way to inter- act, participate and engage with others.


Tamara Grand, Ph.D., is a certified per- sonal trainer and a group fitness and in- door cycling instructor in Port Moody, British Columbia, in Canada. Her new book is Ultimate Booty Workouts. She contributes to Life.Gaiam.com and blogs at FitKnitChick.com.


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