Frugal dieting: community
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It seems like every week a new study is released, finally revealing the “secret of dieting.” Perhaps this is because we’re obsessed with minutia, like Ramit says. Probably it’s because eating extra tomatoes (or whatever the current “secret” is) sounds easier than eating less food and exercising more. Everybody loves a quick fix. The only problem is, the quick fix doesn’t usually do any long term good.
If you’re serious about losing weight and/or becoming healthier, you probably know what you need to do. The trouble starts when you have to actually do it. Most of us don’t find enough motivation within ourselves to stick to a challenging, sometimes overwhelming, lifestyle change. And dieting gets expensive. It doesn’t have to be, of course, if you eat less food and get exercise outdoors, but usually we end up paying for special “diet” food, exercise facilities, and perhaps folks who will motivate us. I’m going to talk about several ways you can bring the costs down.
That last category (folks who will motivate us) may be the most important, actually. I can eat well on my own, and exercise well on my own… for about one week. I’m too cheap to hire a personal trainer (because it is really, really expensive to meet with a personal trainer three times a week), but I know myself well enough to know that I need a source of motivation outside myself to keep me going. Some people are lucky enough to have friends or family members who will drag them into fitness. Those people are lucky; I’m half-lucky: my husband will drag me on any kind of exercise but he eats absolutely vast quantities of food.
A few months ago, I decided to seek out some form of dieting support system. What I eventually ended up with was eDiets [affiliate link]. I’d actually looked at them for some time but they finally won me (and my wallet) over with an excellent offer. It included their diet and fitness programs as well as access to their community support. There I found an incredibly elaborate recurring 3-week challenge to participate in. I love challenges! But the most important thing has been having people who are waiting for me to check in.
Perhaps you think you might benefit from this kind of accountability. Lucky you! I have two excellent websites to recommend that will help you get the critical benefit of community for free. When my eDiets membership runs out, I am probably not going to renew it, much as I love it, because these sites provide incredibly supportive communities without charging me money.
- PEERtrainer: I just found and signed up for this site yesterday, but I’m very impressed. Basically, you get yourself in a group and support each other. Sounds ordinary, but there are few things that make it great. First, each group can only have up to four people. That might seem like a downside, but if you choose an active group to join, there will be plenty of interaction, and you’ll really get to know those other three people. It’s a lot harder to bail on specific people you know than on a large, anonymous group. It’s easy to find active groups, and the system for logging your relevant stats is simple and easy.
- Work Out With You (WOWY): WOWY is affiliated with some specific workout videos, but you can use the site whether or not you use the videos. With WOWY, you set an appointment to “virtually” work out with another person. You find someone who will be working out at the same time that you’re planning to, and you agree to work out “together”. It sounds a little hokey, but it’s the same concept as PEERtrainer: you’ll have a harder time standing up a specific person. Your parter will look to see if you showed up. I like this system a lot, but I’d use it in conjunction with PEERtrainer to cover all your bases (food and exercise).
eDiets also provides a Guest Challenge forum for non-members that is worth a look. I’m not highlighting it like the other two sites, though, because it’s simply a forum, the likes of which can be found on lots of sites. It’s the extra tools that make PEERtrainer and WOWY top-notch.
Coming up next… Frugal dieting: food tracking. Stay tuned and by all means, share your own frugal dieting resources.
I enjoyed your site and look forward to more.