How social media can help you get fit

It's a pretty well-known fact that telling friends and family about your goals can help you achieve them, and fitness is no exception. While broadcasting your New Year's resolutions on your Facebook page might not do much to keep you from abandoning those goals a week later, the more you involve others in your ongoing plans, the more likely you are to stick with them.

There are a lot of resources out there to help you find someone to join you in your workouts, and there are tons of iPad apps that help you log your runs, count your calories, and even plan your yoga workouts. But don't forget the power of social media — here are some great ways to harness your social network and meet your fitness goals.

Post your goals and your progress
The simplest thing you can do is post your goals and your progress to social networks. Once you've set your goals — say, losing 15 pounds and running a 10-minute mile — do a daily post to Facebook to keep your friends up to date on your progress. When you complete a workout, tweet about it. If you make the decision to skip that bag of chips with lunch and have an apple instead, let your friends know.

Not only does this keep your goal fresh in your mind, it lets your friends respond with encouragement and support. You don't want to spam your friends list with every detail of your life, of course, but hopefully they'll be happy to see the progress you're making. You might even inspire someone else to make healthier choices, too!

Don't be afraid to post when you slip up a bit or have an off day — you'll do better tomorrow, and your friends will be there to help you do it.

Set and reach your micro goals
Social media is all about breaking things up into small, bite-sized portions. After all, 140 characters on Twitter isn't a lot of space to be verbose! Conveniently, that's also a good way to go about reaching larger goals: by breaking them up into smaller, more manageable bits. If your overall goal is to lose 20 pounds, you might break that up into losing 2 pounds a week for 10 weeks. If your goal is to run a marathon — but right now, you can't run the length of your driveway — break it up into quarter-mile chunks.

Be part of a community
If there's one thing that social media is great at, it's creating and developing communities of like-minded people. Perhaps your neighbors don't understand your penchant for vegetarian cooking. Maybe you work the night shift and can't find a workout buddy who shares your schedule. Whatever the situation that's keeping you from connecting, chances are there's someone, somewhere, who's a kindred spirit. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook can help you find that person — and probably many others, as well.

Most exercise-related websites, blogs, and apps have a community function to help users connect with each other and share ideas, thoughts, goals, and progress. Sparkpeople is a wonderful resource for all things related to weight-loss and fitness, and there's a thriving community of users ready to help you. My Fitness Pal is another website with very active forums, where users discuss everything from weight lifting technique to low-fat cooking.

Specific diet and fitness plans also have their own online communities. The popular P90X fitness program has spawned a legion of loyal practitioners, and they're thrilled to share their success stories and offer advice to those new to the program. Weight Watchers has a large online component to its diet and meal plans, including message boards and other ways to collaborate.

Challenge yourself and others
Making your fitness activities into a game can be a great way to stay motivated. Create daily, weekly, or even longer-term challenges for yourself and your fitness buddies, and keep track of your progress. FitFriendzy is an iPhone app that lets you invite friends to complete exercise challenges with you, and it includes more than 50 different challenges for all fitness levels.

Peer pressure is a good thing
Sometimes, a little peer pressure can be a very good thing. Your online social networks can give you a little good-natured prodding when you need it, help you celebrate your accomplishments, and support you when you're struggling. As a very wise group of young men once sang, we get by with a little help from our friends.

[Image credits: Chris Bruce, Elvert Barnes, lululemon athletica]

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