It's hard to be the real you when you are tired, out of shape and lack motivation. My first step in unleashing the real me is to clear my mind and strengthen my body. To do this, one of the goals I set for myself this year is no sugary foods in 2008 unless it's for a special occasion. Another goal is to strengthen my body by eating well, exercising and choosing to live a more active lifestyle.

I found a wonderful site that offers a lot of useful tools. SparkPeople is an awesome community and the man behind it has generously donated a ton of money and time into the place to help SPARK PEOPLE into a healthier lifestyle. Everything on the site is free to you.

Here are some of things the place offers:

1. I can track my calories and monitor the amount of carbs, fats and protein which is especially helpful for someone who needs to make sure the carb/protein levels are well balanced to avoid hypoglycemic reactions. Another problem I have is not knowing how much I need to eat to reach the calories I need to gain a little weight and to balance out Little Miss Princess' nursing. I can also track my water intake.

2. I can track my fitness goals including how much time is spent for cardio, weight training, etc. (it also tracks weight goals for those trying to lose). You can even track family members who aren't old enough to have their own page on the site (must be 18 or older).

3. There is a section for tracking other types of goals, for setting appointments with email reminders, journaling, etc.

4. There are a lot of recipes, articles, demos and information to help point me in the right direction. The topics range from nutrition to goal setting and much more. They offer meal plans and fitness plans or you can do your own thing.

5. Motivation! You can join teams and find challenges to help you reach your goals or set up your own team (group).Their are a lot of supportive people on the message boards including experts to answer questions.

Plus, almost everything you do earns you points including posting on the message board. There are limits to how many points you can earn for various tasks which I think helps keep things in balance.

6. You set up your own page, add friends, have a comment wall, can blog, send messages, etc.

Seriously, check it out and find support and motivation to help you unleash the healthy and fit you in 2008! If you do sign up (and I get points if you use the button on here), please let me know and I'll add you to my friends and we can encourage each other to reach our physically fit goals.