Spark Relief!!

It's a cool grey morning here on Prince Edward Island and the air smells wonderful: fresh and flowery.  Henry has had his long walk, snuffing at everything assiduously and letting all the neighbour dogs and rabbits and foxes know he's been by.  Well, that took a lot of vigorous leg lifting!!   And he had to dance on his hind legs a couple times to let me know how much he enjoyed it!!  And perform a few prance steps too, just out of general joie de vivre!  Because moving just feels so good!!  And after that, rehydration with a BIG bowl of cold water -- tasted so good!  Licking his black lips!!

Now he's ready to do pretty much nothing for awhile.  Nobody does nothing better than Henry!

And, following Henry's fine example, nothing is what I've been doing a lot of also. 

Well, I've been reading blogs over at Spark People and leaving a few comments here and there as people "take to the lifeboats"!  Since it was announced June 6 that the Spark People site is closing August 17, there's been a huge flurry of activity.  

First of all, exclamations of anger and disappointment, grief and despair.  How can life go on?Utter disbelief   Especially for long term Sparkies, and for those who relied heavily upon Spark People to get through the social distancing of the pandemic.  

It can't be over!!  Surely they'll change their minds!!  Surely the unilateral decision to discontinue SparkPeople will be rescinded!!  

But reality sets in.  Especially for those of us outside the USA, it's not looking likely that the new SparkAmerica services will be available anytime soon.  Or that those new services, geared more towards workplace wellness, will ever replace the community of individuals that had been built up internationally among Sparkies.  

Who used the site to stay in touch in with each other multiple times a day. Quite frankly, very often on topics that had nothing much to do with weight loss or weight maintenance . . . and more to do with supporting each other through all the crises and sharing of all the joys human beings experience every day. Expressing all the thinking about feelings that human beings experience every day.  

So: that way of life (and it was a way of life) is ending.  Which means future Sparkie refugees have been checking out new fitness trackers.  Checking out new nutrition trackers.  Checking out out new blogging platforms.  Checking out new messaging centres on GoogleDocs or Facebook or  . . . . Then, blogging on Spark People to share the information, to let Sparkies know where various specific Sparkie friends are landing . . . Yeah, there have been steep steep learning curves for all the different new technologies. And no one site seems to provide everything that the old SparkPeople platform provided. 

It's been a lot.  And it's understandable (if sad) that plenty of people have just drifted away.

However: I'm also sensing from exchange of comments and from reading blogs, both on the old Spark site and at various new sites, that many people are beginning to feel: Ya know what this change maybe isn't so bad!!  Ya know what, SparkPeople occupied a disproportionately large amount of my life!  Less time on line might be more!  

And, as time has passed, discovering that less time on line IS more.  

Some Sparkies are saying that even after years and years of spending hours and hours on SparkPeople: they didn't actually achieve their weight loss or maintenance goals.  Because . . . they were spending more time on the SparkPeople site than exercising.  Because they weren't getting the food prep done that would have maybe better supported their maintenance. But now, but now but now: with less time on SparkPeople: they ARE losing weight!!  Feeling better about their bodies and hopeful this is going to continue! 

And some of them seem to be thinking: rather than learning a new technology,  maybe they'll just forget about the food and exercise tracking. Because they're less into rigid tracking of calories in/calories out.  Now. Since it's pretty evident that calorie tracking is at best an estimate . . . how big an apple?  (apples aren't likely the problem anyhow); and how much does my golf bag weigh if I'm carrying my clubs? or if I'm using a push cart?  (getting out to play golf is likely a good thing regardless ) . . . which doesn't take into account how different metabolisms process different foods and burn fuel differently anyhow.  

Maybe their focus has become more intuitive. More of a "wellness" focus. Enjoying the best possible foods till I'm just about full and then stopping.  Eating again when I'm hungry.  Moving in ways which make my body feel good and then stopping before I'm exhausted or injured. Doing nothing for awhile.  Just letting myself be less competitive,  Just letting myself be less interested in meeting challenges.  

Sure, their ARE people of a certain entirely admirable mindset and training who can work all that data as neutral points of information.  Who can weigh every day, track calories and other nutrients every day, track fitness minutes every day, record on spread sheets for years and years: and all without becoming obsessive.  Because for some people the data is "science".  Just supportive tools.  Illustrating useful trends which guide healthy behaviours.  

But: there are others who seem to be saying: sure, I absolutely loved the Spark community and the friends I made there and some of the skills that I learned there.   But maybe at this point in my life it was getting a little stale.  Maybe it was encouraging me to focus more on an outmoded "diet" mentality, encouraging me to focus more on restriction, more on discontent with my body and even self-loathing than is really optimal. (Uh, no amount of self-loathing would be the really optimal amount). 

And overall, no matter how much weight I lost or managed to keep off: that attitude was having a negative impact on way too much of the rest of my life.  Weigh too much. Which really is about more than what size my pants are.  

Been there, done that, ready to move on.  

Maybe the demise of Spark People isn't such a tragedy.  

Maybe it's an opportunity for a fresh start.  Now. And now.  And now.  

Time to do less.  And be more.