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SP_STAFF's Recent Blog Entries
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Monday, October 10, 2011
WooHoo! What an exciting time here at SparkPeople! Not only did our first cookbook become a best-seller on Amazon.com (we were the #1 cookbook for several days!), but now our own Chef Meg, author of "The SparkPeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight," is making her national TV debut!
UPDATE: click this link to watch Meg's interview and demo better.tv/view/C465532P234234V1505150
Tune in to the syndicated show "Better TV" tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct. 11) to see Chef Meg talk about the book--and cook up one of our favorite recipes from "The SparkPeople Cookbook": Three-Cheese Macaroni! Yum!
Check local listings for exact times and stations: www.better.tv/view/about-better
Have you ordered a copy yet? What are you waiting for? www.sparkpeople.com/linkexchange.asp?ic=29&il=4739&lnk=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Esparkpeople%2Ecom%2Fcookbook
Also coming this week:
A feature on "The SparkPeople Cookbook," with interviews and photos with the authors and member Hallelul--only in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Cincinnati-area members, please pick up a copy of the paper on Wednesday! We'll share the link for those of you not in Cincinnati.
Shape magazine (www.shape.com/) will host a "twitterview" with Chef Meg on Friday at 1 p.m. Follow @sparkpeople and @Shape_Magazine on Twitter, and search for the hashtag #eatingright! You'll even be able to ask (er, tweet) questions at the end of the hourlong interview. Be sure to "stop by" Twitter.com on Friday.
Fitness magazine will be giving away three copies of the cookbook on their blog, the Fit Stop (www.fitnessmagazine.com/blogs/fitstop/category/fitness/). Be sure to stop by and check it out--and tell Fitness readers why you love SparkPeople.com!
Also, anyone in the Dayton area can tune in to the ABC22/FOX45 morning news and see Chef Meg make a quick and easy Mini Apple Tarts recipe from The SparkPeople Cookbook on Friday morning at 8:50.
Supporting the cookbook is one of the most important ways you can help us Spread the Spark. The site you know and love will continue to be 100% free, but we think this cookbook will help you take your program to a new level. You'll ditch the diet and lose weight--while eating food you love!
Order "The SparkPeople Cookbook" today and get 500 SparkPoints plus bonus recipe cards and a kitchen chart pack available only to those who buy the book. Click the link here to order or find it wherever books are sold. The book, which has a suggested retail price of $27.95, is on sale for $16.36 on Amazon.com--a great deal! If you buy two (what a great gift!), you'll even get free shipping.
In addition, you can help us Spread the Spark by:
• Write a review of "The SparkPeople Cookbook" on Amazon.com and other sites to encourage others to buy a copy. Share your Success Stories so others can learn about SparkPeople.com.
• Sharing this blog and forwarding the emails we send about the cookbook. (Don't get the Recipe of the Day email? Click here to sign up: www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/email_flags.asp!)
• Sharing info about the cookbook in your Teams and on the Message Boards
• Sending me (editor@dailySpark.com) photos of you with the cookbook when you spot it in stores or get yours in the mail! I'll share them on the dailySpark.
• Joining the official SparkTeam today: teams.sparkpeople.com/TheSparkPeopleCookbookOfficialTeam&gcode=TLL4AI2F2I!
• Liking SparkRecipes.com on Facebook to get exclusive updates from Chef Meg and me! (Click here to "Like" SparkRecipes: www.facebook.com/SparkRecipes)
Cheers,
Stepfanie
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
It's here! It's here! The SparkPeople Cookbook is here! Can I get a WooHoo!? Today is the official launch date for our long-awaited follow-up to The Spark, but the praise and cheers from SparkPeople members, friends, and the press have been pouring in for some time now. We're thrilled you've been so supportive, and we're thankful that you love it as much as we do. Due to your unwavering support, the book has already become an Amazon.com "best seller"! www.sparkpeople.com/cookbook
Ditch the diet and lose weight, while eating food you love!
Order "The SparkPeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight" today to receive 500 SparkPoints plus FREE bonus recipe cards and a kitchen chart pack!
Wait until you see this book! 500 pages, dozens of full color photos, almost 200 recipes, hundreds more meal ideas – all available now! Order Today!!
If you haven't yet ordered a copy of "The SparkPeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight," order it today! Written by our healthy cooking expert Chef Meg Galvin with SparkRecipes editor Stepfanie Romine, this is more than a collection of healthy and delicious recipes. It is a healthy cooking bible--an endless source of inspiration, education and ideas for anyone who's on the road to healthier living (and for anyone who doesn’t want to travel that road without great tasting food!).
This book will take a prized place on your kitchen counter and inspire you daily!
Watch now: Meet the authors! www.youtube.com/watch?v=x51K1IPA_vk
The SparkPeople Cookbook combines Chef Meg's classic training and passion for healthy cooking with makeovers of comfort foods and favorite SparkRecipes--plus it's packed with dozens of slow cooker favorites, quick-cook or no-cook meals, Slim It Down options to save even more calories, "make your own" ideas for sauces, dressings and spices, success stories of SparkPeople members who lost weight while eating food they love and so much more!
Just as SparkPeople.com isn't a diet site, this isn't a diet cookbook. The SparkPeople philosophy is about changing your life, one step at a time; "The SparkPeople Cookbook" focuses on changing your life one meal at a time. In writing and researching The Spark, members told us that the difference between SparkPeople and a diet was that ours is a way of life. They lost the weight, started moving (and liking it) and changed their lives forever. But for many of our members, something was missing: They lacked confidence in the kitchen. Some were seasoned home cooks whose favorite recipes relied heavily on fat and salt; others could barely boil water. Many people were living on frozen diet meals. They were healthier, but they didn't love their food. We knew we had to help.
Take member IHEARTNOAHSDAD for example, who lost almost 60 pounds and kicked a daily fast-food habit to the curb:
It’s incredible how you can reverse course by making small, consistent changes: the more good stuff I ate, the better it tasted… Vegetables actually taste good!
With "The SparkPeople Cookbook," food can taste good and be good for you! Chef Meg ditches bland and boring food--she's a chef, so she doesn't do deprivation--and she replaces it with dishes that her entire family eats and loves. She loves sauces (even creamy ones) and uses real ingredients once deemed off-limits to anyone focused on health--like butter, bacon, and full-fat cheeses. How can you eat like that and still lose (or maintain) weight? Easy. By knowing how to use those ingredients in small portions, in ways their strong flavor will have maximum impact; by bulking up meals with loads of fruits and vegetables; and by choosing lean proteins, whole grains, and fiber-rich foods to ward off hunger. You'll be satisfied by these meals, and they'll soon become family favorites.
In "The SparkPeople Cookbook," you'll find recipes like:
Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Dill Sauce: (One of Chef Meg's favorites!) Less than 200 calories and 7 g fat for a restaurant-quality meal that's ready in under 30 minutes. The "creamy" sauce has no cream or butter, but boy is it good!
Peppercorn Steak with Herbed Blue Cheese: That's not a mistake. You can eat steak when you're watching your waistline. Here, Chef Meg swapped herbed butter for herbed blue cheese. You can use less because of the powerful flavor of the cheese, and you still get a rich finish to your steak (for less than 250 calories!).
Spring Cupcakes with Citrus Icing: The "confetti" in these cupcakes is zucchini and carrots, but no one will ever guess. They're light, sweet and fluffy with a rich orange icing that makes them festive enough for a special occasion (though, at 145 calories each, they're light enough for any occasion).
Quinoa with Pea Pods and Peppers: We didn't forget "the good stuff." We wrote an entire chapter on salads and another one on vegetables with recipes like this one, which is crunchy, fresh, and packed with protein. Finished with tangy lemon juice and fresh parsley, it's bursting with flavor as well as nutrients for only 228 calories, plus 4.5 g fiber and 8 g protein.
www.sparkpeople.com/cookbook
We promised you more than recipes, didn't we? We also included:
• A chapter on teaching your kids how to cook, with tips from parents who've lost weight and changed their lives.
• Quick and tasty “Make It a Meal” suggestions to turn every main dish into a well-balanced meal (plus Slim It Down suggestions to make any recipe fit into your meal plan)
• 150 meal ideas and recipes that take 30 minutes or less to prepare—plus dozens of other, more elaborate meals for days when you have more time to cook.
• Two weeks of meal plans—with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks—all about 1,500 calories per day.
• Dramatic before-and-after photos and stories of how SparkPeople members lost weight--while eating food they loved.
This is one of the most important ways you can help us Spread the Spark. The site you know and love will continue to be 100% free, but we think this cookbook will help you take your program to a new level. You'll ditch the diet and lose weight--while eating food you love!
Order "The SparkPeople Cookbook" today and get 500 SparkPoints plus bonus recipe cards and a kitchen chart pack available only to those who buy the book. Click the link here to order or find it wherever books are sold. www.sparkpeople.com/cookbook
In addition, you can help us Spread the Spark by:
* Using the cookbook cover above as your SparkPeople profile photo
* Sharing this blog and forwarding the email we sent today announcing the cookbook
* Sharing info about the cookbook in your Teams and on the Message Boards
* Sending Stepfanie (editor@dailySpark.com) photos of you with the cookbook when you spot it in stores or get yours in the mail!
Cheers!
Chris "SparkGuy" Downie
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
WooHoo!
We sent an email this morning announcing "The SparkPeople Cookbook," which will be available Oct. 4. We're absolutely thrilled with the support you've shown. In fact, you've, once again, blown us away, SparkPeople members!
The cookbook is currently #52 on Amazon (out of ALL books!), the #1 book in the low-fat "diet" section and #10 in all diet cookbooks. We want to keep that momentum going and break into the top 100--and even higher--today. If you haven't yet purchased a copy, this is the time to do it!
Here is our SparkPeople affiliate link to buy the cookbook on Amazon:
www.amazon.com/Sparkpeople-Cookbook-Love-Your-Weight/dp/1401931324/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311778069&sr=1-2&tag=babyfitcom-20
Did you miss the email that SparkGuy sent this morning to tell you all about the cookbook?
If so, here it is again. Please share that email if you have it, and this blog post, too.
SparkGuy News: 'The SparkPeople Cookbook' Is Almost Here!
WooHoo! What's my reason to shout it today? The SparkPeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight is almost here! Written by our own healthy cooking expert Chef Meg Galvin with SparkRecipes editor Stepfanie Romine, this cookbook proves that eating for health and weight loss can be delicious and satisfying. You don't have to give up delicious satisfying foods when you're watching your weight. You can eat to lose weight but still absolutely love your food!
Just as I've heard from so many of you that my book, "The Spark," sits on your bedside table and serves as a tangible reminder of your commitment to a healthy lifestyle, I hope that "The SparkPeople Cookbook" will take a similar place of honor in your kitchen. This is a book you'll return to time and again, whether you need a quick weeknight meal, inspiration for your annual neighborhood potluck, or a cupcake recipe for your son's birthday. (Psst: here's a sneak peek recipe from the cookbook that's a "healthy" kid-friendly cupcake that grownups also love!)
recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1009209
The book is chock-full of hundreds of recipes and meal ideas, dozens more variations, plenty of lists and sidebars with quick tips, substitutions and "Slim It Down" options. Plus practical, easy tips throughout to make healthy cooking quicker and easier, like no-cook breakfasts, a dozen slow-cooker recipes, tips for turning leftovers into meals, five-minute pasta and salad ideas, and so much more. With so many variations, options, ideas, and inspiration, this cookbook will become your constant kitchen companion!
Like the site that inspired it, this cookbook is intended to guide you, step by step and goal by goal, to creating a healthier you. We don't expect you to become a gourmet healthy chef overnight. Instead, we'll give you tips to learn at your own pace and suggest ways to improve your diet by cooking one meal at a time. The SparkPeople Cookbook shows that healthy eating can be simple and fun, and, best of all, delicious!
So why write a cookbook when you can access SparkRecipes.com for free? The SparkPeople Cookbook distills the best of SparkPeople.com and SparkRecipes.com into one book. And, it works perfectly with the online SparkPeople program-the nutrition information from all the recipes is even loaded into the nutrition tracker so that you can easily track what you cook! But it's much more than just delicious recipes! Inside you'll get:
• 150 meal ideas and recipes that take 30 minutes or less to prepare, plus dozens of other, more elaborate meals for days when you have more time to cook
• Makeovers of popular member-submitted recipes
• Quick and tasty "Make It a Meal" feature that suggests easy ways to add sides that will turn every main dish into a well-balanced meal, complete with calorie and nutrition information!
• Success Stories (including follow-ups from The Spark) that show how members cooked their way to weight loss!
• Nutrition and healthy kitchen chapters that give you a quick, easy but comprehensive crash course on how to create nutritionally balanced meals for you and your family
• Results from the SparkPeople "Ditch the Diet" Taste Test, which proves that you don't have to eat boring and tasteless food to lose weight
• Two weeks of meal plans-with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks-all between 1,400-1,600 calories per day
• And much, much more-almost 500 pages with 100 beautiful color photographs!
Try these recipes from the book!
• Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken. There's a reason why this is the No. 1 recipe among SparkPeople members. It's easy to make with infinite variations, and it's full of hunger-busting fiber and protein. Chef Meg's made-over version slashed the salt and added a serving of vegetables in every portion. Only 165 calories and 2.5 g fat per serving! (Try the new recipe tonight!) recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=871817
• Three Cheese Macaroni. So rich and creamy (yet easy!) you'll say, "Blue box? What blue box?" 2/3 the fat and half the calories of the original-only 260 calories and 8 grams of fat for a heaping cup! (Get a sneak peek at the recipe here: recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=892784)
• Tilapia with Roasted Tomatoes and Lemon. Fish that's easy to cook, impressive enough for company-and only 105 calories and 2 g fat a serving? Yes! And it's ready in just 30 minutes!
• Dark Chocolate Cake. Let's just call this decadent-and-healthier cake our dark little secret. It has half the calories (228), plus twice the protein (8 g) and fiber (4 g) than a typical slice of cake!
Pre-order your copy today (www.sparkpeople.com/cookbook)to get 500 SparkPoints plus FREE bonus recipe cards and kitchen chart pack available only to those who buy the book. Please encourage your family, friends (and SparkFriends) to purchase it, too!
Get your copy-and use it. Keep it on display in your kitchen, so you'll constantly be reminded of the importance of healthy cooking! This is one of the most important ways you can help us Spread the Spark. The site you know and love will continue to be 100% free, but we think this cookbook will help you take your program to a new level. So ditch the diet and lose weight-while eating food you love!
SparkCheers,
Chris "SparkGuy" Downie
Monday, September 19, 2011
Hi all!
SparkPeople has been nominated (by our amazing members) as a top 5 fitness site by Lifehacker.com, but we need your vote to win #1 (it only takes a second)!
We love when readers get to vote for awards because it gives SparkPeople members an easy way to Spread the Spark and help SparkPeople win, so please help us out -- we're currently in 2nd place!
All you have to do is visit the following link and vote for SparkPeople at the bottom left of the article. One small note that some users said they had trouble voting while using internet explorer, but that it worked fine in firefox and chrome browsers.
lifehacker.com/5841439/five-best-fitness-tracking-web-sites-and-services
THANKS and SparkCheers!
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I'm super excited about this cookbook!
can't wait until I get my book! 
Best of Luck to Chef Megan and the entire Spark team. Should do real well!
Member Comments About This Blog Post:
SP is 
in my book!
