Twitter Weight Loss:
Using Twitter to Keep Your Weight Loss or Fitness Goals
by Josh Day
I've never been able to stick with an exercise routine for any length of time.
In high school I was on the cross-country team. We ran five miles every weekday, often had a meet on Saturdays or would have a seven mile team run, and Sunday was the only day where I didn't run. Because I was on a team I kept to the routine; there was no real option of just not doing it for a day out of laziness or if I had something else planned.
During my running tenure I tried lifting weights and using a workout machine. For half an hour every other day I worked out in our home garage.
Then one day I missed a routine. I was sore; I was tired from the day's run.
And that's all it took. I didn't touch the weights again.
If this story sounds familiar, then you know how easy it is to skip just one routine and blow your entire workout regiment.
Good news is I've found something that breaks the trend. It's easy, available online, fun, and the best part is it's free!
I'm talking about Twitter.
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read each others' updates, known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to other users - known as followers - who have subscribed to them. (Wikipedia)
"What are you doing?" is the very simple question Twitter asks. Your answer is shared with your followers in telegram-like messages called "tweets."
So how does Twitter help keep you on track?
You ultimately develop a network of like-minded followers. For instance, I follow natural bodybuilder Tom Venuto on my personal twitter account and he tweeted about an upper body workout of four styles of pull-ups. This motivated me to dust off my Iron Gym (an upper body workout instrument that locks into doorframes) and get serious about bulking up and losing a couple pounds around the middle.
At first I could only do two styles of pull-ups... I couldn't even do one of the two hard ones. As I progressed, I tweeted after doing each routine. Soon I'd built up enough strength to do all four styles during a set.
The cool thing about Twitter is the people you follow often follow you back. In turn their followers may start following you and you'll have a base of people dedicated to similar goals. For instance, many of my followers -- as well as the people I follow -- are bodybuilders, personal trainers, fitness experts, etc.
Doing a routine three times a day and then immediately tweeting about it is what really kept me with the program. It also kept me from plateauing, which is a workout phrase for no longer developing new muscle mass due to sticking at a routine that ceases to increase in difficulty. Combining workouts and twitter is like keeping an exercise journal complete with deadlines, goals, and reminders.
Before I never had an accountability system for my workouts. I tried to exercise regularly, but when I missed a routine, that was the end. Twitter provides me a level of accountability, similar to when I was on the cross-country team. When I miss a routine now, I tweet about missing it, which helps lock my brain around the next routine that I've dedicated myself to not missing.
Twitter can be used to maintain and meet all kinds of goals, like keeping your garden watered, weeded, and in good shape. But it's really ideal for all forms of dieting and weight loss. There are so many people with similar if not identical goals.
So if you've been putting off working out or losing weight, sign up today for Twitter. A good place to start is to follow us and peruse our list of followers and find like-minded people with similar goals.
Tweet often, and remember to always tweet after you accomplish a step toward your goal. In no time you'll have a nice group of followers who'll help you stay on track.
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