Build the Taco Bar of Your Dreams

The signs of spring are undeniable: Warmer weather, greener grass, blooming flowers, birds chirping at 5:00 a.m., the looming threat of cicadas and, of course, Cinco de Mayo celebrations. 

Small or Large, Running Groups Help You Take Charge

In one week, we'll be writing our race recap. I can't believe I’m even typing those words. The past four months of training for the Flying Pig have honestly been one of the hardest things I've ever done, and I have had two children. Despite being injured, I recovered—only to reinjure the same leg again. I've spent the last two months limping through my workouts and training runs, making trips to my doctor, doing physical therapy, stretching, taking ibuprofen and battling sleep issues due to long-run anxiety dreams.

Can a Spoonful of Honey Keep Allergies Away?

Mary Poppins might have sworn by a spoonful of sugar for a quick medicinal fix, but for allergies, many sing the praises of a spoonful of nectar from the hard-working honeybee, instead. 

10 Ways to Train Smarter and Avoid Injury

The late-February morning sun was warming the crisp trail air, I had a clear view of the calm Little Miami River through the still-bare trees and I had just hit mile 4.5. Suddenly, my muscle starting tugging at me, a faint whisper that I could ignore. As I continued to run, the whisper grew to a shout, so loud that I finally had to acknowledge the old, familiar tug of pain in my left hip.

Viewing Your Nutrition Information and Accuracy Just Got Easier with SparkPeople Mobile's Newest Update!

SparkPeople members spoke and we listened. With your feedback in mind, our team has been working diligently on some fabulous new feature updates on our mobile app and we wanted you to be the first to learn about the improved user experience.

If you don’t have the app yet, download it by clicking on one of the links below: 

Download SparkPeople for Android

   Download SparkPeople for iOS

Did you download? Great! Now that you have the latest version of the app, let's go through the main changes you will see:

Break down your calories, inside the app! Now you can enter any food item, click "Full Nutrition Report" and view a pie chart of the calorie breakdown. This visual representation of your nutrition information paints a nice picture of how you are consuming your calories.

Vote on nutrition information and earn SparkPoints. Have you ever noticed incorrect nutritional information? Let us know! You can now vote whether or not the nutrition information is correct for some foods at the bottom of the "Add Food" screen. (Note: This box will not appear if you have already voted on the food or for some common foods that we have confirmed contain the correct data.) You can help us make food logging more accurate; best of all, you earn 1 spark point every time you give us a hand!

Change the day you want to view from the "Add Food" screen. The "Add Food" screen now includes the ability to change the date at the top of the screen. Ensure the Log is set to the new date whenever you’re logging food for a previous day, so you know you’ll always have an accurate daily breakdown.

Everything in the Mobile Chat and Member Blog sections are fully clickable on the home screen. No longer do you have to try and line up your finger with the teeny blue text to click—now the whole section is clickable, so you can easily move on to your favorite chat and blog content.

We are happy to make changes that make you even happier! As always, we're interested in any ideas you might have that would make the app better. Please leave your thoughts, comments or suggestion in the Comments section below.

Spark Cheers!

Discover the Pluses of Pulses

What's dried, round and sustainable all over? Give up? Pulses! No, not the kind of pulse that you take after working up a sweat—these pulses are edible. Though you may not have heard of the term pulse specifically, this healthy food is nothing new. In fact, the United Nations declared 2016 the International Year of the Pulses to raise public awareness of both their nutritional benefits and the part they play in sustainable food production around the world.

We'll Run When Pigs Fly: Meet the Runners

What's that saying? We'll run a half marathon when pigs fly? Well guess what? In Cincinnati, they do! Every year, more than 36,000 participants spend the weekend in downtown Cincinnati running a variety of Flying Pig races—from a kids' fun run to a full marathon. 

Shop, Prep, Freeze--Your Dinners Will Be a Breeze!

Unsure what to make for dinner tonight? Open the freezer. Have a sick friend who could use a meal to lift his or her spirits? Head to the freezer. Sick of eating the same 10 meals you have in heavy rotation? Check in your freezer. Is your freezer empty? It’s probably time to plan a freezer meal party. Parties such as these, in which you spend several hours with a group prepping and freezing many meals at once, are gaining popularity.

25 Ways to Have a Single Celebration on Valentine's Day

If your Valentine's plans begin with a trip to the grocery for multiple pints of Ben & Jerry's finest and end with you staring at the empty cartons littering your coffee table and the season finale credits of Downton Abby rolling in the background, hear this: There's a better way. Rather than spending the day focusing on being single, why not throw all those negative feelings aside and use the day to celebrate you?

From Cauliflower to Crickets: Foods Stepping into the Spotlight

Acai berries. Chia seeds. Kale. Coconut water. Fat.
 
Before you start singing the childhood tune, "one of these things is not like the other," think again. Yes, you read that correctly--fat is the latest in a long line of up-and-coming foods predicted to trend in 2016.

Controlling Your Weight Just Got Easier with SparkPeople Mobile's Newest Update!

Hi SparkPeople!

We're releasing a new version of our top-rated health and fitness app (#3, woohoo!) and we wanted you to be the first to learn of the fabulous new changes we made with you in mind.   

If you don’t have the app yet, download it by clicking on one of the links below. 

Download SparkPeople for Android

   Download SparkPeople for iOS

Did you download it? Good! Now that you have the latest version of the app, let's go through the three main changes you will see:

Manage all of your goals right in the app. We've incorporated much more versatility over managing all of your goals, including:

• Maintaining more control over your weight goal.
• The ability to change your goals for your calorie intake and adjusting your macros (fat/carbs/protein) and other nutrients that you are interested in tracking.
• Easily editing your weekly fitness goals for fitness minutes and calories burned.
• Having more control over your calories burned and eaten. In the past, you could specify if you wanted to add in your calories burned each day to your calories eaten goal each day. Some members expressed interest in keeping the same calories eaten goal each day, so now you have the option to do either.

To edit your goals, go to the MySpark tab, then click "Settings" at the top and from there, click "Manage Goals."

Another new related feature we added is that now from your Home and Log screens you can click the "Calories Remaining" bar to see a summary of your "calorie math" for the day, plus get a link to manage your goals.

A new food-tracking option called "Add Quick Entry." With Quick Entry you can quickly add calories (as well as fat/carb/proteins) for a meal without searching for a food or manually adding a food. This is beneficial if you have a rough idea of the calories you ate at a meal. This option is available on the "Add Food" screen, either at the top right of the screen or under your list of Recent Foods/Food Search results.

The ability to change your measurement settings to "Metric." You'll find this on the MySpark/Settings page.

We hope you are just as thrilled with our updates as we are. As always, we love to hear from you, so if you have any ideas that would make the app better, please leave your thoughts, comments or suggestion in the Comments section below.

Spark Cheers!

10 Ways to Shape Up Your Gym-Time Decisions

It's Saturday morning. You wake up an hour early to hit the gym (bravo!) and put on your favorite workout clothes—a sports bra you've owned since Tiffany had a number-one hit, a cotton t-shirt, some random shorts from the dirty laundry pile and a pair of gym shoes from the mid-90s. You skip breakfast to spend an hour on your "I woke up like this" hair and makeup, grab your keys and head out the door. 

Spark It or Scrap It: Is Emergen-C a Cold Knockout?

Whether it’s the kids waking up with coughs or your co-worker sneezing every five minutes at the desk next to yours, the winter months might have you feeling as though the germ-filled walls are closing in around you with no escape in sight. But wait--is there? What if you could keep that seemingly inevitable cold away away just by opening a little pouch full of powdery goodness, pouring the goodness into water and drinking it down?

Seasonal Beer vs. Christmas Cookies: Which Wins the Holiday Calorie Conundrum?

Just as you solidified your vote for the best boozy fall beverage, Christmas ales and winter lagers have moved in to officially replace the Oktoberfests and hard ciders found on grocery store shelves. Much like the popularity of fall brews, there is no shortage of winter beers vying for attention. Ratebeer.com lists 50 different brews as their top-rated seasonals, choosing from among the hundreds of varieties on the market. What will continue to remain constant this holiday season, though, are the high calorie counts found in many favorite holiday treats—from beer to Christmas cookies. 

WHO Declares Bacon Bad; Will You Change Your Habits?

An announcement today from the World Health Organization has the public going hog wild: it turns out that cured and processed meats such as sausage, hot dogs, ham and, yes, even bacon, cause cancer. These foods will now be added to the list of known carcinogens, joining the likes of asbestos, arsenic, alcohol and cigarettes.