I get by with a LOT of help from my friends

It's kind of a scary age of social media and I'll be the first to admit that the avenues we use in which to vent our frustrations for the world to see can often backfire.  But I will tell you that starting this blog and using facebook has allowed me to hear from others across the country who struggle as I do with weight loss as well as gain insight into healthy changes, recipes and exercise tips.   I love that!

Recently, a friend from college pointed me towards a site I had never heard of called My Fitness Pal and it allows me to profile what my daily calories, fat, carbs, etc should be as well as journal my food and it's FREE! It's been a wonderful tool for me this week and I have found it much more helpful than my Weight Watcher's calculator where I just count my points and subtract them daily as I go and often I'm like, "what did I even eat today"?  The fitness pal program is great because it's online, fast and all the work is done for me in terms of tabulating the calories and fat for the foods that I have eaten once I plug them in my journal.  According to this website I'm actually not eating enough calories which could be one of the reasons I am just hovering at the 190 mark.  Another concern is my carb intake which I didn't realize was so high but thanks to this program I can see that being under calories and over on carbs isn't a good thing.

Another friend also added me to a facebook page group geared towards healthy weight loss and in just 2 days I have felt such encouragement from people I don't even know.  I've enjoyed seeing what they eat since everyone shares their meals and fitness regimens and it's also motivated me to just keep on with the exercise which is something I really don't like most days.

I enjoy all the people who take time to send me their favorite healthy recipes or websites that have helped them like a sweet church friend who told me about Peas and Thank You or an old Young Life friend from high school who told me about Happy Herbivore.  I wouldn't know these sites existed if awesome friends didn't take the time to say, "hey, let me show you something that I love".   A very busy teacher friend of mine actually made me a beautiful "points" bracelet and mailed it to me so I can wear it and keep track of my points throughout the day.  I get letters in the mail and sweet email messages almost daily from people I've known since preschool or just met 2 weeks ago and it's so uplifting.  Last night at a mom's night out in Frisco I got to catch up with a church friend who was so sweet and supportive and even encouraged me to "eat a cupcake" and enjoy the night.  I didn't eat the cupcake of course but rather just enjoyed chatting with her for an hour about life and kids.

I get by with a lot of help from my friends.  I am inspired daily so, thank you.