The more the merrier-together we are unstoppable!

I went to my local Community Garden’s grand opening a few weeks ago. This amazing endeavor entails local green thumbs working together to create their own little eco-system, and it produces masses of beautiful flowers and bushels of delicious fruits and vegetables. It got me thinking about how important community is to nutrition and fitness. Just like the bounty of vegetation bursting from the Community Garden vastly outweighs any single person’s gardening effort, having companions to share in your fitness and nutrition journey often amplifies your own results.

Recipe Swap
Have you ever heard of a cookie swap? Participants bring multiple dozens of their favorite homemade cookies and the accompanying recipes to exchange with guests. Well, instead of adding inches to your best friends’ waistlines, why not give them the tools to eat healthy with delicious, yet nutritious recipes instead?

1. Create an e-mail exchange with your best gal pals and share recipes once a week on a particular day. Make up your own rules! Here are a few guidelines you can throw around as ideas:
-Must be an original recipe
-Must be under XYZ amount of calories/Points/calories from fat/sodium…whatever you are watching or counting these days (e.g. If it is an entrée, keep it under 400; if it is a dessert, keep it under 200; if it is a snack, keep it under 150, etc.)
-Have a certain theme (e.g. great for picnics, vegetarian, Mexican, Italian, desserts, tapas, Indian, pasta, cocktails, etc.)

2. Have a recipe swap potluck night. Do you have a group of friends that gets together regularly for Bunko/book club/wine club/child’s play group/bible study/you name it? If you do, your group activity no doubt has snacks involved. Turn it into a recipe swap potluck night! You can take turns cooking or all bring a dish, but make sure you always bring enough copies of the recipe for everyone to take home. The most important thing is to include the nutritional information! I learned quickly on this blog to try to speak more language than just Weight Watchers Points (and I do try, Jen!), so try to include the calories, fat, and fiber as often as possible. If you could include the amount of sodium, you would be doing your friends an even bigger solid.

Don’t have an already established group? Start one! You can get together JUST for the recipe swap. Eating healthy food and catching up with friends—who could ask for anything more? You can even turn your recipe swap into a monthly cooking demo. Have a friend who rolls sushi or makes her own pasta? The best bread baker or the most amazing cocktail shaker? Take turns hosting and teaching each other your slimming kitchen secrets.

Message Boards and Online Communities
Support, support, support! That is why I started this blog in the first place. We all have questions, frustrations, tips, tricks, and must haves to share, and the Internet has revolutionized the way we can help each other out! There are lots of blogs, message boards, and online communities devoted to nutrition, fitness, and weight loss that can give you a place to learn and vent when you need it most.

While I find some of the comments on the Weight Watchers Online Community frustrating (e.g. I ate a whole cake. How many Points is that?), I do look for specific topics there to answer questions or to find folks who might be going through the same thing I am with relation to a weight loss plateau or starting a new exercise. Other online message boards are very similar in nature, so look for specific topics that relate to you.

Social Media is also an amazing place to get great tips! Become a facebook fan of your favorite healthy cooking magazine or website, your favorite fitness guru, your favorite calorie-saving products (yes, I am a fan of Western Bagel!) or your favorite calorie conscious chef. You will get posts in your feed of deals, tips, articles, and tons of other stuff to help keep you motivated.

Running groups and work out buddies
The buddy system isn’t just for summer camp, people! Find a friend that wants to work out, too. When I was first starting out at the gym, I did it partly because I knew I would get to see one of my dearest friend’s little faces every single time. And I knew she would miss me if I weren’t there. We relied on each other and motivated each other.

Find someone at or near your fitness level with whom you can work out, walk, run, jog, bike, you name it. When someone depends on you, you are more likely to follow through.

Getting an even bigger group together is even better! Running groups and gaggles of gal pals at a Zumba class can be so encouraging when it would be so much easier to sit at home and watch your stories. The more people involved, the more it feels like a party! And who doesn’t love a party?

In fact a 2009 study at the University of Oxford showed sportsmen to have a significantly higher tolerance to pain after exercising in a group than they did after exercising alone, suggesting that their group workouts led to a greater production of feel good endorphins.

Not only do these results imply a benefit to exercising with others, they also help to explain why group activities like dancing, laughing and making music make us feel so fantastic. The authors of this study suggest a greater production of endorphins during these activities could be a way to help humans to bond in groups and improve social interactions.

So get together and make it happen, people! Don’t do it alone!!