Written by kara on November 15th, 2009
A day late, maybe, but not a dollar short by any means.
Yesterday was the one month anniversary of our weight loss and fitness forum. In that month we’ve racked up the following stats:
Members: 70
Threads: 335
Posts: 2,544
We have 3 successful challenges going.
We have a Christmas card exchange going.
We have people posting recipes.
We have support from a kickass trainer who gives advice here.
We have maintainers, beginners, trainers, people in the middle of their journey, and people who are becoming friends.
And here are some of the things our members are saying:
I’m having a great time here, with great people.
You have crafted an awesome site, and I look forward to being part of it as it grows.
We are blessed by the presence of many of the most supportive people on any forum. People who have acquired an amazing pool of weight loss knowledge and are prepared to help others reach their goals. People who are focussed and therefore project a great example to anyone looking for inspiration and the way forward.
I like that it is smaller and more personal than some others…I don’t just feel like a number. I feel like my opinion and thoughts DO count and can make a difference.
I’m so glad I found this forum. Unlike some other forums I really feel like I’m a part of a community and get lots of support 
Thank you!
Come join us and be a part of our “rockin’ forum” (so says Korrie)
Posted in Kudos, Site Stuff, forums | No Responses »
Tags: anniversary, board stats, forum, forums, Kudos, message boards, props
Written by kara on November 12th, 2009
I stole this line from Lyle McDonald because I love it so much. It’s perfect for the holidays and goes in line with the last tip on the topic: Plan to Maintain.
There are a plethora of bad choices that face us during the holidays. Do we have another helping? Do we have dessert? Do we have 2 desserts (who can resist taking a piece of both types of pie after Thanksgiving dinner)? Do we have another glass of champagne? Do we take the chocolate that’s offered?
Sometimes you can’t say “no” without being the Grinch – and sometimes we don’t want to say no. But saying yes doesn’t mean you can just abdicate all responsibility and go crazy. So instead make reasonable choices to indulge where it’s important.
- If you want both kinds of pie, take two 1/2 slices instead of two full servings – and skip the whipped cream or ice cream on top.
- Pick either dressing or potatoes with dinner, not both.
- Alternate glasses of water with whatever alcoholic drink you’re having. (Not only does this slow down your consumption of alcohol, it’ll help with alcohol related water retention the next day.)
- Have an appetizer or dessert, but not both at the same meal.
- If the choice is between veggies and a rich creamy spinach dip or fried stuffed mushrooms, choose the veggies and dip.
In other words: if you’re going to choose to eat something that falls on the “bad” side of the equation, at least make it a better bad choice.
Or as another friend of mine says: just because you take a small step off the path, it doesn’t mean you should throw yourself down the side of the mountain.
Enjoy your holiday reasonably rather than making it an all or nothing.
(And please remember during the holiday season to drink responsibly if alcohol is part of your celebrations!)
Posted in Eating, Holidays | No Responses »
Tags: diet, food, healthy eating, Holidays
Written by kara on November 4th, 2009
One of the things that often keeps people from changing their eating habits is the idea that eating heathily means buying specialty foods and shelling out a lot of money, but the truth is that eating healthily doesn’t have to be expensive.
When people define “healthy” in such a way as to be prohibitive, it then becomes another excuse to not make changes. I’m not saying people necessarily do it intentionally – I think for a lot of people it’s unconscious. Of course you can MAKE it expensive by putting all kinds of arbitrary restrictions on it. But at it’s core, eating healthy doesn’t mean all the caveats that most people put on it.
- Eating healthy does not mean you have to buy all organic food.
- Eating healthy does not mean you have to buy all fresh fruit and veg, even if it’s out of season.
- Eating healthy does not mean you have to buy gourmet food.
- Eating healthy does not mean you have to buy brand names.
If the choice is between three items: a burger and fries, vs. rice and beans, vs. organic rice and organic beans in gourmet olive oil … the middle option of plain rice and beans is still HEALTHY. And it’s far healthier choice than the burger and fries.
And that’s where I get frustrated with people who say “I can’t eat healthy because it’s too expensive.” I guarantee that eating healthy can be much cheaper than eating junk – if you learn how.
Come discuss this in the forum where I started a thread on healthy eating for one for about $80 a month.
Posted in Eating | No Responses »
Tags: diet, food, healthy eating, organic
Written by kara on November 3rd, 2009
This is the first of a series of posts on how to survive the Holidays. For those of us in the United States, we have nearly three months of food, parties, alcohol, and temptation. It starts with Thanksgiving in November, moves on to Christmas in December, continues with New Years Eve and Day, and ends sometime in January with the obligatory SuperBowl parties (which you often can’t avoid, football fan, or not). And even for those of us not in the States, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, and other seasonal holidays often put a crimp in weight loss and dieting plans!
Our first weight loss tip for the holiday season is this: Plain to Maintain
What does that mean? It means that for some people it might be better to not try to lose weight over the holidays. The pressure of special (and often calorie laden) holiday foods, parties, eating out, family and friends, and so many other things makes it really hard to say “no no no” all the time. And you don’t want to be the party pooper who sits at their desk while coworkers are socializing, or rejects every party invitation, or comes to the Thanksgiving dinner table with your Tupperware container of chicken breast, brown rice, and steamed broccoli!
Instead set your mind that for the next three months, you’ll maintain your current weight by making healthy choices and continuing to exercise, but allowing yourself a little more leeway than you do when you’re in a strict weight loss mode.
Not only will planning to maintain take some of the pressure off, it will also give you a bit of insight into how you’ll handle things after you’ve reached your goal.
Of course if you’re still able to lose weight over the holidays, we salute you! (And we want to know what your will power secret is! 
)
Posted in Eating, Holidays | No Responses »
Written by kara on November 1st, 2009
ADF is running a monthly MPH challenge in our Forum
What is the MPH challenge, you ask? Well, it is an exercise challenge where we try to collectively work out as much as possible over the month. MPH – because we will be logging our workouts in three categories:
- M – Miles – any exercise that can be measured by distance
- P – Pounds – the total number of pounds we lift
- H – Hours – anything that can’t be measured by the above two methods, we will log by time.
At the end of the month, we will see how much we collectively lifted, how far we ran/walked/biked/whatever, and how long we did other exercises for. We’ll keep a running total posted on the forum and over to the right on the blog.
It is a challenge, but not a competition. We are going for a collective total.
Come join the November MPH Challenge today!
Posted in Challenges, Exercise | No Responses »
Tags: biking, Challenges, Exercise, goals, hours, jumping, miles, pounds, running, walking, weight lifting
Written by kara on October 23rd, 2009
Another Diet Forum announces the President’s Challenge ADF Group!
What is the President’s Challenge?
The Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) program allows people of all ages to receive presidential recognition. The program is designed to motivate participants to be physically active on a regular basis by allowing them to participate in activities they enjoy. With a list of over 100 possible activities, that’s
easy to do!
If you’re a member of Another Diet Forum, register for the Challenge at http://www.presidentschallenge.org and then join the ADF group to track progess as a group. The group information is available on the forum in the President’s Challenge post.
Join the forum for discussion and support for weight loss, dieting, and fitness.
Posted in Exercise | No Responses »
Tags: Exercise, fitness, president's challenge
Written by kara on October 15th, 2009
Yes, as the name of the site declares: This is yet another diet forum.
Why another diet forum when there are already so many forums for losing weight out there? Do we really need another one?
Maybe not. I’ll be honest that this is, to a large degree, an experiment on my part. There are already a ton of forums dedicated to diet, fitness, weight loss, exercise, body building, and all those other things. I’ve been on a lot of them and I’ve discovered that many of them fall into one of the following categories:
- Forums that are run as profit centers for owners who couldn’t care less about the integrity of the community and the information provided.
- Forums that have been overrun by spammers and shysters selling the latest “quick fix” solutions, to the point at regular users have been driven away.
- Forums that are sponsored by commercial concerns that limit discussion to only those topics that support their product or sales pitch.
- Forums that are populated by nutrition and fitness fanatics or hard-core body builders (not a bad thing, but hard for the average person looking to lose a few pounds and be healthy to feel welcome in).
- Forums that are geared mostly towards women, where men feel awkward or out of place posting.
- Forums that simply don’t have a sense of community.
I want to create a forum that avoids as many of those pitfalls as possible and is a resource for anyone looking to lose weight – any amount of weight. If you have 10lbs to lose to fit into your favorite jeans, I want you to feel welcome here. If you need to lose 100lbs, or 200lbs, or more for your health and well being, I want you to find a home here as well.
I hope to recruit the participation of some of the “fitness fanatics” I know, so that the information provided on the boards here is accurate and useful.
I hope to find people who have successfully lost weight to join and hang around to give us the benefit of their experience and success.
I hope to grow a community of people who learn to care about each other and the struggles we all face at whatever weight we are, and at where-ever we are in our journeys.
If you’re reading this post, you’re probably interested in losing weight and getting fit and talking about it to like minded people. I hope you stay around and become a part of our community. Come join us and see what it’s all about.
Posted in Site Stuff | No Responses »
Tags: diet, dieting, fitness, forums, message boards, weight loss
