Journaling about goals, food, and exercise helps to keep dieters aware of where they are in terms of progress and where they may be able to make adjustments to their weight loss plan. Having a social support system in place keeps dieters accountable to someone other than themselves, and studies show that those who have a social support system in place lose more weight than those who do not. One easy and fun way to combine these two key strategies is to create and maintain a weight loss blog.
What is Blogging?
A blog is an online journal that is published and shared on the internet. Adding journal entries to a blog is called blogging. There are hundreds of blogs on the internet in which people share their personal experiences, hobbies, and thoughts on specific topics or current events. Blogs allow readers to submit comments to blog entries, thereby creating discussions. A blog can be about any topic, including weight loss. A blog can be updated as often as a user likes.
Benefits of a Weight Loss Blog
There are many benefits of creating and maintaining a weight loss blog. Blogging provides the freedom to express thoughts about how weight loss efforts are going, vent frustrations, and share successes. It's also a great way to keep track of any progress made. Blogging about weight loss gives a user the ability to share their progress or frustration with others, who in turn can provide supportive comments and tips to increase motivation. Also, personal weight loss stories may motivate others to keep going when they're struggling with their own weight loss efforts. A weight loss blogger can also pass on what works for them and what doesn't to inform others of tried and true weight loss methods.
Creating a Weight Loss Blog
There are many free weight loss communities that provide personal blogs to their members. BuddySlim and SparkPeople provide free blogs for users, in addition to other weight loss tools and resources including personalized diet and fitness plans, recipes, calorie counters, and more. If a user prefers having more control over their blog, Blogger and WordPress both provide free blog hosting and offer templates that can be used to make a blog unique in appearance.
While a weight loss blog has many benefits, it is not for everyone. If a dieter does not like to share their personal experiences surrounding their weight loss efforts with a wide group of people, then it's probably best if they stick with keeping their journal private.
