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LIVESTRONG.COM Blog: 10 Mistakes People Make in the Gym with DietTribe's Jessie Pavelka
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Secret tricks for power users

Posted by Lex | May 27, 2009 | 8 Comments
While answering a question on the forums today, I was reminded of some powerful shortcuts we've built into The Daily Plate on LIVESTRONG that you may not be aware of. Tracking your foods every single day takes a lot of commitment, and it's our goal to make doing so as painless as possible. So we've built some powerful features that live behind-the-scenes to help you out, without looking too intimidating to new members just starting out on the site.

1. Did you know that you can use keyboard shortcuts to add foods to MyPlate faster? When you're on a food page, hit Alt-I (for "I Ate This"), and that food will instantly be added to MyPlate for today. Hit Alt-Y to track the food for yesterday. Some folks find keyboard shortcuts faster than mousing around. If you do prefer the mouse, don't forget to take advantage of the "today" and "yesterday" shortcuts underneath the "I ate this!" button.

Keyboard shortcut users, be aware: Different browsers handle them differently. (Internet Explorer, for example, may require you to press "enter" after you type the shortcut; Safari users on the Mac use control-option instead of Alt. Wikipedia explains it all.

2. You know those modules on the right side of MyPlate -- Meals, Frequently Eaten Foods, etc? If you double-click on a food in one of those modules, it's instantly added to MyPlate for today.

3. You can drag-and-reorder the MyPlate modules so that the ones you use most often are on top.

4. Finally, Gold members can use Week-at-a-Glance view to drag foods and meals between days to copy them.

Now you're in-the-know about these powerful tricks for using The Daily Plate more efficiently. Enjoy!
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LIVESTRONG.COM Team Joins Curious Joe Workouts

Posted by Joe | May 20, 2009 | 4 Comments
As I mentioned in my last post, we are very excited to be working on the new LIVESTRONG.COM workout program and app. We wanted to make sure we tried any workout program ourselves before unleashing it on our members.  Our goal is to provide an easy-to-follow, challenging and fun workout program that can appeal to EVERYONE and be done almost anywhere, whether your home, your office, outside or a gym. No matter what your goal, body type, age or injury situation is, our program should also adjust to your needs and to your schedule.

Recently, the Inflict Training guys came back to our offices, and we grabbed three more LIVESTRONG.COM team members to join me for a workout. It was a great experience. We were able to really see how the workout could be tailored to different people with different goals, strengths and intensity levels.  Craig and Danny tailored the program on the fly to accommodate us all -- from beginners (people who have not been to a gym in a while), to intermediate (regular gym users). Soon, we also will be adding a more advanced person to the mix to see how the workouts can be turned up to achieve high levels of intensity.

One of our new trainees was Content Editor Krisserin Canary. Krisserin regularly exercises and has spent a large portion of her life in the gym. But, she says she is still overweight and out of shape. Krisserin’s ultimate goal, she says, is to lose 10 pounds and increase her overall strength.


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LIVESTRONG.COM Content Editor Krisserin Canary

“It's been quite a while since I've been to the gym, and even longer since I've done anything more than cardio, so I was expecting to get my butt kicked by Craig and Danny,” says Krisserin, a former competitive gymnast and a pole vaulter at UCLA.  “Instead I felt great after the workout … Craig made sure I paced myself and I was only slightly sore the next day. Even though I know my way around the gym, I'm completely clueless as to what exercises to do or what order to do them in."

Krisserin, who used The Daily Plate on LIVESTRONG.COM to lose the 30 pounds she gained in college, realized she had been doing basically the same routine taught by her athletic trainers in college, “which becomes ineffective after a while, as your body becomes accustomed to the routine.”

“In the past, the lifting and cardio I did was tuned specifically to gymnastics and pole vaulting. The training I did with Craig however was a lot more focused. I felt like I was working my entire body and the circuits we did felt like an aerobic workout,” she says “I learned with Craig and Danny that you need different variations to continue to challenge yourself. I'm excited for my next workout, and excited to learn new ways to challenge myself and my body.”

In addition to being able to do this workout at your own pace and in your own space, the best part of the LIVESTRONG.COM and Inflict Training philosophy is it is a total body workout that focuses on strength, agility and improving your cardiovascular capabilities.  The exercises combined stretching, cardio and resistance training and focus on total body movements, as opposed to muscle isolation. There is also a great deal of focus on strengthening your core which helps almost all of the other areas perform better.





Krisserin and I especially liked that the first part of the workout: "muscle activation" for 15-20 minutes. We used many stretching exercises along with foam rollers and resistance bands to really ACTIVATE specific muscles.  This made doing the exercises later in the workout much easier to do.

And Krisserin can attest that she definitely felt a difference in her workouts. If you want to learn more about Krisserin, visit her LIVESTRONG.COM profile. Next time, you will learn how the workout affected LIVESTRONG.COM Graphic Designer Wil Teran, a father of three, who put exercise by the wayside for parenthood.

In the meantime, please send me you ideas and thoughts. I would love your feedback on the workouts.
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Curious Joe's Search for a Workout That Appeals to All

Posted by Joe | May 14, 2009 | 17 Comments
Recently, I was looking for a new workout program to help me get more fit.  I have gone to a gym for years (ever since college) and learned exercises and programs from friends, books and magazines.  I never really thought I needed a personal trainer or a set workout program, but felt like I was not really getting the results I wanted.


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Curious Joe's Workout

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Welcome to the New LIVESTRONG Blog!

Posted by Lex | May 14, 2009 | 1 Comments
We're thrilled to launch our brand new LIVESTRONG Blog! We want to make our LIVESTRONG Blog to make it a bit more personal. The LIVESTRONG.COM team is staffed by employees who are passionate about our  message of taking charge in our own lives, improving ourselves, and hopefully inspiring others to make the same choice.

Our new blog will be filled with posts from a variety of our team members. We all work on different elements of LIVESTRONG.COM, as different as the personal goals we’re each working toward. But, we share the belief that we can improve ourselves, that our own site can help us, and that our members might be interested in hearing our stories. More on that below.

We also released a slew of brand new features:

We fixed your Dares page so that you can once again see just your own updates. We tweaked some navigational elements around the site. And we fixed a few frustrating bugs, like the inability to leave groups in certain situations.

With that out of the way, let me tell you more about this new blog!

We’ll continue blogging about site news, of course, too. That’s my job actually — I’m Lex Friedman, our Director of Community. On the new blog, though, I’ll post more than our latest sitewide announcements. I’ll also share the story of Lex Getting Healthy. I’m the father of two beautiful girls, and I work from my home office in New Jersey. I spend about 10 hours a day sitting in a desk chair working at a computer, and my belly shows it. I’d like to shed about 20 pounds through a combination of tracking my food intake with The Daily Plate and sneaking exercise when I can find it with my Wii Fit, and, of course chasing my girls around outside during the summer.

Joe Perez, who heads up product, wants to get bigger, faster, and stronger. His blog, Curious Joe, will chronicle his workouts with Lance’s trainers in Santa Monica, Calif., as he attempts to learn more about exercising and pushing his own limits. Joe is working with Inflict Training, LIVESTRONG.COM's new partners and fitness Experts. Together, we will launch a new feature for everyone, where you can create your own workout, matched to the intensity level you prefer. Like Joe, you can start at a lower level, and progressively advance to increasingly intense workouts. You’ll learn more about Inflict in the days ahead, and you’ll get to watch as Joe “eats the company dog food” and tries the workout app for you first, publicly, on his blog.

MOTS and MITS, or Jodi Cararas and Krisserin Canary, who run the content division of LIVESTRONG, try to stay abreast on the latest news surrounding health, lifestyle and fitness. It is an important part of how they decide on what articles and videos are featured on our site. And they know it is important to you, too. In their blog, the duo will discuss timely news and relevant topics and how it impacts their lives and yours, in hopes of making this part of LIVESTRONG.COM’s daily discussion.

And Susy Sedano, our Community Manager, will write Susy Sez, featuring healthy recipes and dieting tips she encounters in her own life. Susy is also a slow-cooker aficionado, and she’ll share some of her ideas for healthy Crockpot cooking, as well. Our new, built-from-the-ground-up recipe builder will be launching in the near future, and Susy Sez will tie in nicely.

We’re very excited about this new direction for the blog, and the new features that we have to roll out in the weeks and months ahead. As always, we thank you for your support, and can’t wait to hear your thoughts! read more

3 Mobile Versions of LIVESTRONG.COM

Posted by Lex | May 11, 2009 | 3 Comments

You probably already know about our iPhone app and our Blackberry app to track foods using The Daily Plate while you’re on the go. If you rock an iPhone, iPod Touch, or Blackberry, those apps are definitely the way to go if you want to track calories wherever you are.

But if you’re using a different web-enabled phone, you may be interested in learning more about option three, “TDP Mobile.” It lives at http://livestrong.com/m, and offers a slimmed-down version of The Daily Plate. All members can use the TDP Mobile to search for nutrition information from our database, and Gold members get bonus features: They can actually track, access Frequently Eaten Foods, and more.

With three mobile ways to get to LIVESTRONG.COM, you can carry the nutritional information for 500,000 foods and data on more than 1,000 physical activities in your pocket.

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LIVESTRONG.COM and the Apple Store

Posted by Lex | May 10, 2009 | 0 Comments

We’re extremely proud of our various mobile options for accessing The Daily Plate at LIVESTRONG.COM, especially our iPhone and Blackberry apps.

These apps are a great way to track your calories on the go. In fact, Apple is so pleased with our iPhone app that it now appears on their in-store marketing. Take a look!

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Thanks for helping our mobile apps become so successful! We sincerely appreciate your support

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Diet Face Off, Season 2!

Posted by Lex | May 4, 2009 | 1 Comments

Our first Diet Face Off was a huge success. In that dieting competition, we asked LIVESTRONG members to take on different diets, using The Daily Plate to help them track their calories in the process. At the end of the first Diet Face Off, the winner was clear: Weight Watchers.

For Round 2, we’re going to pit Weight Watchers against a new challenger: The Best Life Diet. And we’re seeking folks who want to lose weight and are willing to try the Best Life Diet, in the following categories:

 

  • Two people age range 20-40 who want to lose 5 pounds or maintain current weight
  • Two men age range 20-40 who want to lose 15-20 pounds
  • Two women age range 20-40 who want to lose 15-20 pounds
  • Two diabetics
  • Two people age range 20-40 who want to lose 100 pounds
  • Two people over 50

 

All you have to do is send a video response describing why you think you’d be perfect for our next Diet Face Off to www.youtube.com/livestrong. We will be selecting candidates starting May 4th through May 22nd.

The Diet Face Off is a great way to achieve your goals with the weight of the LIVESTRONG.COM community behind you. You’ll have the help of a LIVESTRONG.COM nutritionist, and all you have to do is write a weekly blog and record a weekly video diary.

So if you’re ready to lose weight, and want to share your experience with the LIVESTRONG.COM community, send your response to www.youtube.com/livestrong, and dare to change your life for the better today.

Read more here.

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LIVESTRONG.COM Bloggers

Joe Perez

Co-Founder of the The Daily Plate and Head of Product, Marketing & Community - Demand Media

susy sedano

Krisserin Canary

Galleries

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Tools

The Daily Plate

Track your daily calories. See how many calories you burn and consume.

Body Mass Index

BMI is a measurement of body fat based on height and weight.

LIVESTRONG Loops

Map your local running, cycling, walking and hiking routes and track your calorie burn.

Stay Motivated

Find us on the web, receive emails and use our mobile app to keep you motivated.

Symptom Checker

This tool will help you to decide whether to treat at home or see a doctor.