If you’ve resolved to live a healthier lifestyle but easily fall back into old habits and excuses, consider joining SparkPeople, a free Web service whose aim is to keep users on point, offering nutritional tracking, workout advice, meal plans, and an interactive online community that you can take or leave.

SparkPeople offers structure and sanity to exercise that is too often and too easily derailed – by way of SparkTeams, groups based on common goals and interests, success stories, motivation pages and, for those who want a competitive edge, a points program. We like SparkPeople because it lacks the hokeyness of other health/fitness sites, because it’s designed for men and women, and because it focuses on holistic techniques for healthy living: not only diet changes, but also fitness regimes and overall life goals.