SparkPeople Community Coordinator
Denise's first introduction to SparkPeople was January 1, 2004, as a member. It took her eight months to lose 40 pounds and reach her goal weight, which she's maintained for many years thanks to regular walking, yoga, and fitness videos. Losing weight and exercising inspired Denise to change her life. She went back to school and earned a bachelor's degree in wellness at Lincoln University in Missouri and become an ACE-certified personal trainer. Now a SparkPeople employee, she helps others achieve their health and fitness goals, including the 13- to 17-year-old members of our sister site, SparkTeens.com, where Denise works as the Community Leader. At SparkPeople, you'll find her throughout the Community, answering questions, leading SparkTeams and challenges and providing support to members.
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Secrets to Super Summer Skin
Summer is near, which means many of you will be wearing shorts, tank tops, bathing suits, and other clothing that exposes more skin. Some of you may already be doing this as many areas in the U.S. are already experiencing very warm weather. Exposing more skin, especially in the sun, can be really hard on your skin and create some issues that you may not think of at the time of exposure.
Posted 5/31/2012 6:00:00 PM By: : 9 comments 16,207 views
SparkPeople's Mix and Match Meal Planner: Meal Planning Made Easy!
Are there times that you feel like you're stuck in a rut with your current meal plan or that you just don't know what to make for certain meals? If so, then the Mix and Match Meal Planner may be just what you are looking for!
The Mix and Match Meal Planner is a tool that is very easy to use and can help you plan out healthy meals that meet your nutrition goals. Planning out your meals ahead of time can help you stay on track a lot easier than if you wait last minute to decide what you might eat. If you are anything like me and you don't like to cook and/or would like to find some quick and simple meals, then the Mix and Match Meal Planner may be just the thing to help you get on track (and stay on track) with eating healthier meals overall. This interactive feature allows you to choose the food items that you like, but it will also make sure you pick the right items to make it a complete meal that is healthy and tasty.
With all the different options available in the Mix and Match Meal Planner, there are numerous meals that you can create to give your meals quite the variety. You can not only save time with your meal planning, but you can also say goodbye to boring meals!
Posted 5/24/2012 6:00:00 PM By: : 32 comments 45,009 views
Quick and Easy Ways to Burn 100 Calories
After being a member (and now an employee) of SparkPeople, I have learned that having an all-or-nothing attitude about healthy eating and exercising isn't something that is advised or healthy overall. With that type of attitude I would sometimes feel that if I didn't have time to exercise for at least 30 minutes or more, that I was wasting my time and effort, which is far from the truth. This is something that I also see members post on SparkPeople's message boards once in a while as well, so I know I was not alone with those thoughts.
Posted 5/17/2012 10:00:00 AM By: : 66 comments 75,658 views
This Month's Best Member Blogs
Count down is over---it's here
Hi Self... You are freaking amazing... Just thought I'd tell you
Happy dance time.... pics included!
26 lbs down, and plenty of NSVs!
Posted 4/22/2012 5:00:00 AM By: : 7 comments 17,746 views
Reaching Your Goals = Confidence & Endless Possibilities
Throughout the years of being a member and employee of SparkPeople, I have seen many success stories on the site. While a lot of those success stories started out being weight-loss related, they turned into so much more. As many of those members lost weight, they also gained much more than that: confidence. Confidence is not always something that comes easy for many, including myself.
When I embarked on my weight-loss journey back in 2004, I never imagined that I would get so much more out of reaching my goals. For me, I gained confidence in myself and the ability to do whatever I set my mind on. After reaching some of my goals with SparkPeople, I started doing Tae Kwon Do and stuck with that for several years (until I moved to a new state where there isn't a place to train nearby). That was a huge step for me as I could never imagine all the things that I actually did when I was training in martial arts.
Posted 4/12/2012 2:00:00 PM By: : 28 comments 23,162 views
Life Lessons 101: Taught By My Dog, Zoe
As some of you may remember, I have a yellow lab named Zoe (along with a new puppy adopted from the shelter and three cats). When my husband and I brought Zoe home though, our lives changed forever! She is full of character and enthusiasm, to say the least. While I’ve been taking her to obedience training classes to get her to learn how to behave well, she is not the only one that has been learning new things. Zoe has taught me some very valuable life lessons that I think may help others too.
Posted 4/5/2012 2:00:00 PM By: : 48 comments 20,568 views
Study: Tech + Tracking Helps You Stick with Your Weight-Loss Plan
Something in common with many of the Success Stories on SparkPeople is that those members used our free Nutrition and Fitness Trackers to help them reach their weight loss goal. Being able to track your nutrition intake and how much fitness activity you do really does help to figure out the right balance for not only weight loss, but for maintaining your weight as well. A new study confirms and suggests what many of us already know, which is that people who use electronic diaries that offer feedback are more likely to adhere to their weight loss program.
The study followed participants using a paper diary, an electronic device that provided no feedback and an electronic device that had a program that offered feedback. As you might guess, the group of participants that used the electronic device that had a program that offered feedback was more successful and was more likely to stick with their weight loss program over time. It was also found that over time in the later phase of the program, if the feedback frequency declined, so did the participants’ adherence to their weight loss program. Even more interesting is that the participants who only used the paper diary were less likely to continue with their program, especially over time.
Posted 3/29/2012 10:00:00 AM By: : 26 comments 23,945 views
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Challenge Central: One Stop to Help You Meet Your Goals
Are you looking for something to give you an extra push in the right direction to help you reach your goals? Or maybe you just want to join a team that can help you find that motivation you are looking for. Many of you may already belong to SparkTeams that might help you with motivation and accountability, but some of you may not know that SparkPeople actually has a Challenge Central page that has Challenges that are geared toward specific goals.
SparkPeople’s Challenge Central offers various “official” challenges that “give you a specific plan to follow and all the information you need to reach a new goal or make a new personal breakthrough.” So not only do you get to be a part of a challenge that is offered by SparkPeople and led by SparkPeople Coaches (along with the help of co-leaders who are experienced SparkPeople members), but you also get detailed information on how to complete the Challenge and you can earn a SparkTrophy for each of the Challenges from the Challenge Central page that you complete!
Posted 3/22/2012 10:00:00 AM By: : 17 comments 17,829 views
This Month's Best Member Blogs
Top 5 Reasons I LOVE Exercise
My 6 Steps to Success
Workout with Chubbs n Pudding!
100 Pounds Lost --- YAY!!!
The key to my success. My message board posts with a stranger.
Posted 3/18/2012 5:00:00 AM By: : 2 comments 6,986 views
Motivation: How Can I Find It?
How can I get motivated?
How do I stay motivated?
Will someone please motivate me to exercise?
These are all questions that I have seen a lot of members ask on the SparkPeople message boards recently. Motivation seems to be hard to come by some days, while other days it seems much easier. Why is that? Well, something that I have experienced that may help with the “problem” of finding and keeping motivation to stick with your health goals (and any other goals you may have set), is to find the motivation and power from within yourself.
While having external motivators, such as preparing for a big event, fitting into your swimsuit just in time for summer or fitting into a particular outfit for that special event, can be helpful in the short-term, it may not help you in the long-term. What happens to your motivation once that event comes and goes? Your motivation to keep going after an external motivator is over may cause you to lose your desire to move forward, therefore, you may be more likely to lose your motivation and fall back into some older, less healthy habits. That is unless you have some other form of motivation from within yourself.
Posted 3/1/2012 2:00:00 PM By: : 28 comments 24,232 views
VIDEO: Shocking Before and After Transformation Photos in 5 Hours
How many times have you seen a product that promises great results for weight loss in a short amount of time? Too many, if you ask me! Not only do they make these great promises, but they have "fabulous before and after photos" to show consumers how their product can help you see such amazing results too. Of course, the photos that they show make their product look like it really works, but are they true before and after photos? I'm sure most people have heard about photos being manipulated in Photoshop, which some may be, but below is a video that shows some interesting insight into how some before and after photos for "weight loss" can be done in the same day (within 5 hours of each other, without Photoshop).
Posted 2/23/2012 2:00:00 PM By: : 72 comments 74,960 views
This Month's Best Member Blogs
Be Aware Of The Example You Are Setting
Then and Now: A Photo Blog of 100 Pounds Lost
I'm not obese anymore!
Photos of my journey
Those Little NSV's That Make Me Smile
Posted 2/19/2012 5:00:00 AM By: : 5 comments 14,009 views
Cool Infographic: How Kids Consume Food Marketing
As some of you may remember, Coach Tanya recently blogged about how First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined celebrity chef Rachael Ray and announced last month that there will be changes to the school lunch program. To help support these new nutritional standards in schools, Teach.com has created and shared the following infographic with statistics that share lifestyle, consumption, and media activity relating to children, which contribute to obesity in childhood (and for some, into adulthood).
Posted 2/16/2012 2:00:00 PM By: : 22 comments 24,586 views
Weekends: You Can Survive Them
Do you find yourself doing great with your healthy lifestyle habits during the week, only to find that you lose your motivation to stick to those healthy habits during the weekend? Don't worry, you are not the only one! I see numerous SparkPeople members say something similar to this somewhat often. You work so hard during the week for your job and/or school, your family, doing various tasks, changing various lifestyle habits, etc., and perhaps you feel you need a break from it all at the end of the week. However, by making some small adjustments you can change that all around and make your weekends healthier too! We have rounded up a variety of resources to help you get through the weekends with more motivation to stick to your healthy lifestyle habits.
Posted 2/9/2012 2:00:00 PM By: : 55 comments 31,870 views
Let’s Go Streaking!
Don’t worry -- I’m not talking about that kind of streaking (keep your clothes on). I’m talking about a consistency streak to help you reach your goals (health and non-health-related). Something that I have said in the past, and still believe, is that "Consistency is the key to success! If you are consistent in reaching smaller goals, that leads to bigger goals, and you'll be successful no matter how you look at it."
I recently looked at my SparkStreaks page and noticed that I currently have a streak of 854 days (over 2 years) since my last drink of soda. WOW! That’s a long streak and I am proudly keeping it going. Not only am I keeping track of that goal as a streak though, I’m also keeping track of other various goals on my SparkStreaks page. Some of those include doing a minimum of 4 days of cardio, doing a minimum of 2 strength training session days, drinking at least 8 cups of water daily, and many more. While I am doing great with those streaks, my longest streak is my “don’t drink soda” goal. Now, while that may not seem like a big deal to others, that was a hard habit for me to break. I admit though, the first couple weeks were the hardest for me, but once I got past the first month, it did get easier. The longer I went without soda, it got even easier to not drink it. Today I don’t think a soda sounds appealing at all.
Posted 2/2/2012 2:00:00 PM By: : 31 comments 18,910 views
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