Healthy employees are more productive say many reports published in the past year. And, one of the biggest epidemics currently facing the United States is obesity. A sedentary lifestyle and bad food choices have seen our waistlines and our healthcare bills rising.

Now, I have always enjoyed my food and like most people who do I have put on a few more pounds than I would have liked. About 9 months ago I began looking for weight loss help online. Like most college students, I tend to spend a lot of time online, so it seemed like a good option. I needed something that would teach me Healthy Habits as well as help hold me accountable for following them.

Two of the “heavyweights” of online diet help are Weightwatchers.com and eDiets.com. However, both of these services have fees involved. Instead I ran across Sparkpeople.com. While the name doesn’t give it away as a diet website it offers all of the top notch services you should expect. Everything from a nutrition tracker, meal plans, exercise plans, recipes and best of all, a great community. Sparkpeople is not just for the individual who wants to lose weight though. They market their Spark Teams to businesses as well. Sparkteams allow a company to have its own private “leaderboard” and forums. A great way for employers to get involved in their employees weight loss.

And I have to brag a little as well. Thanks in part to Sparkpeople, I have currently

Here’s a link to a Fox News story about Sparkpeople.com