Your Chance to Be an 'Expert,' Help a New Member

By , SparkPeople Blogger
One morning, Saunya woke up, readied herself and her young daughter, and headed off to work. She was tired, and she was frustrated.

She was overweight and tired of being tired and unhappy. She searched for diet and workout ideas for busy people and found SparkPeople. She immediately joined.

So far, she has been a member for less than two months, and she's already making changes. She's walking during her lunch breaks and trying to say no to food when she's not hungry.

Still, she says she needs help. She saw a call for tips and ideas on the dailySpark, and while she didn't have one to share, she was desperately in need of one. She wrote:

"I honestly really don’t have a tip or idea. I need some help. I’m a 30-year-old mother of a 2-year-old little girl. I have trouble making time and I don’t have a lot of money to afford to buy things. I work from 7-5 Monday-Friday and once I’m home, my child wants all of my attention. We live with my fiancé and his mother in a 3-bedroom cluttered house with absolutely no room to work out even if I had the time. They also like to eat late at night (which I know is part of my problem). Oh, by the way I’m 5’2” and I weigh about 215 lbs. I hate my body, I have ZERO self esteem because I feel like I look horrible! I want to get back down, I really feel like I should lose about 90 lbs. So many of my co-workers (about 5) have done the weight loss surgeries. Once girl has lost a total of 100 lbs in a year. I would love to do that, but I don’t want to do the surgery. Do you have any ideas or pointers for me? I’m tired of being considered obese and not feeling good about myself."

While we are each in a unique situation, we can all relate to how she's feeling. That day, I sent her an email asking if I could share her story with the dailySpark.

We're not doctors, dietitians or trainers, but we've all been there, done that. We've lost weight and kept it off. We've done it on a budget and a tight schedule.

Saunya's looking for tips to help her get started, and she wants to be more active on SparkPeople, too. She says she's already found inspiration here.

What advice would you offer to Saunya?

What tips do you have to share?

Here's a chance to preach what you practice, share what you've learned, inspire a new member to stick with it.