I'm 36, mother to 3, live in Texas. I just moved back to TX from S. Korea and working on the last part of my masters degree in mental health counseling.

Sparkpeople is a place of trial and tribulations, commitments, perseverance, commonality, education, support, friends, to sum it up it's a place that allows all of us to know we are not alone and it gives us a place where we belong. So often the world shuns those of us who do not fit the idea of perfection but here we are ...

I'm 36, mother to 3, live in Texas. I just moved back to TX from S. Korea and working on the last part of my masters degree in mental health counseling.

Sparkpeople is a place of trial and tribulations, commitments, perseverance, commonality, education, support, friends, to sum it up it's a place that allows all of us to know we are not alone and it gives us a place where we belong. So often the world shuns those of us who do not fit the idea of perfection but here we are accepted. What I've noticed lately is that there are many people here in great shape with great eating habits which shows me it's a great community. The human support and health education is unbeatable.

I like to learn about Carl Rogers who founded the personal centered theory. His theory reminds me of Sparkpeople. He believed people are individuals, treat them as such. He believed therapists needed to make clients comfortable in a nonjudgmental environment, express empathy and unconditional positive regard towards clients, in a non-directive approach. He said if therapists used these behaviors the client will grow on his own in his natural way. He also left room for integration other theories such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy. CBT says change your faulty beliefs so you can change your response.

Isn't this what Sparkpeople does? Here we grow in our own way and we're all treated as individuals, it's non-direct, and there's so much empathy here it's why most of us stay here. We integrate other methods as we feel necessary. Some stick to the sparkpeople plan 100% while some, like myself, integrate others like Insanity or WeightWatchers. Regardless of what you choose, we learn to change our inner dialogue (thoughts and beliefs) to have better responses (positive change).

Sparkpeople is set up well for people to succeed at getting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It's brilliant and a blessing.

Read More About KRISTALD76 (Updated January 12)

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