Fresh Features

Posted by Stephen - 03/25/09 at 04:03:24 pm

1) New Challenges

Challenges have become one of the most popular features on Gyminee, and they have really done a great job at helping people stay motivated and see results - users have recorded over 48,800 pounds lost in Weight Loss challenges to date. To help continue this trend, we have added some new styles of challenges.

Body Fat Challenges

Now you can create or join a challenge that lets you compete to see who can lose the most off of their percentage Body Fat. For example, you can join a challenge where the goal is to lose the most Body Fat within 3 months.

Reps Based Challenges

These allow you to compete in certain exercises to see who can do the most reps. For example, you could challenge your friends to see who could do 5,000 Crunches first.

Calories Burned Challenges

This type of challenge looks at all of your exercise activity recorded on Gyminee, and then uses the total Calories burned to update your challenge progress. Currently, these are only available as “Everybody Wins” Challenges (see below).

New Everybody Wins Challenges

A handful of new “Everybody Wins” style challenges have been created. Here’s a few of them (you can browse for more by visiting here):

	Burn 25K Cals Get recognition for all the hard work you’re doing. There are Challenges for burning 5K and 50K Calories well.
	1,000 Pushups How long will it take you to do 1,000 Pushups?
	Lose 10% Body Fat If you track your Body Fat, then this type of challenge is for you.

2) Progress Image Improvements

Keeping a visual log of your progress over time can be a great motivator. We wanted to improve this experience in a couple of ways. First, we bumped up the supported image size so that people could upload more detailed images. Also, we moved away from a small, contained slideshow viewer to one that allows you to click on thumbnails and easily view images at their full resolution.

Second, we added a new way for users to browse public images. Before now, the only way to view a user’s Progress Images was to click through to their Profile page. Now, there is a Browse Public Progress Images section that lets you easily find other users who have shared some public images.

Side-note: If you see an image that is inappropriate you can now flag it for removal and an administrator will review it. This is also available for flagging posts as spam in the Forums if you are an active Forum user.

3) Workout Program Browsing

The last feature to cover is a small, yet quite useful, improvement to finding Workout Programs. Before now, your only option for finding a Workout Program that may be interesting to you was to enter a search term. Now, when you browse for workout programs you will see a drop-down box that helps you find programs by category (Fat Loss, Cardio, Free Weights, Intermediate, Advanced, etc.).

That wraps up this quick look at some of the new features that have been added to Gyminee. Lots of other stuff is also in the works!

Native iPhone App - Sneak Peek 2

Posted by Stephen - 03/20/09 at 07:03:16 am

Here’s the second sneak peek at our upcoming native iPhone application. In this installment we’ll look at the BodyTracker, which allows you to keep track of things like your Body Weight, Body Fat %, Waist Size, etc.

Fish Is Good; Mercury Is Bad

Posted by Susan - 03/18/09 at 10:03:29 am

There has been lots of great discussion on the Gyminee message boards recently about the importance of fish consumption and sources of inexpensive, quality protein.  No big surprise that canned tuna, a long-time staple in the American diet, comes to mind in both instances.

At first glance, canned tuna appears to be an ideal source of protein. A 5 oz can of Bumble Bee Solid White Albacore Tuna In Water will cost you around $1.99 and contains:

175 calories, 2.5 g fat, 0 carbs, 37.5 g protein

However, it’s important to note that The Environmental Defense Fund has issued a health advisory for longline-caught albacore tuna (the kind used in most canned tuna) due to elevated levels of mercury. The EDF recommends that adult men and women limit their consumption of canned, albacore tuna to no more than 3 meals per month (a “meal” is defined as 6 oz).

The EDF also points out that fish is generally healthy to eat, but you should limit the consumption of certain types of fish. You can access a chart here that lists the most contaminated fish, and how much can safely be eaten each month (assuming no other contaminated fish is consumed). The advice is based on EPA guidance and the latest mercury and PCB data.

You may notice what is referred to as “light tuna”.  Canned light tuna is a safer option as Skipjack, which accounts for most canned light tuna, doesn’t grow nearly as large as albacore, so it has approximately one-third the mercury levels.

My Two Cents

As I have mentioned on the message boards, it is never to difficult to find an “expert” to support your side of any argument.  With that said, I don’t believe you would easily find a source that would deem mercury to be non-toxic.  Methylmercury is the most toxic form of mercury.  It enters the body through ingestion, and it is absorbed more readily and excreted more slowly than other forms of mercury.  This is the type of mercury found in certain types of fish, including tuna.

However, all this talk about mercury poisoning should not turn you away from eating fish, which is an excellent source of heart healthy Omega-3 fats and an excellent source of protein!  Not all fish contain toxic levels of methylmercury.

You can still have a can of tuna a couple of times each month, but you also want to make certain to incorporate fish into your diet that are low in toxins. Domestic (US) shrimp, wild salmon, Pacific flounder, rainbow trout and tilapia can be eaten several times each week.

While a bit more expensive than canned tuna, I love wild, canned salmon - which doesn’t need any mayo to taste good! You can literally eat it right out of the can, although salmon cakes are another tasty treat.

Train hard; stay strong.

Susan

New Stuff (And a PRO Coupon!)

Posted by Stephen - 03/09/09 at 01:03:26 pm

There were a few changes added over the weekend. In case you haven’t noticed them yet, here’s a brief overview of the highlights.

Daily Actions

When you visit your Locker Room you will now see three bright buttons. The purpose of adding these buttons is to make it very clear to users (especially new users) what the main actions are that they should be doing. While many of you are seasoned Gyminee experts, it is also important for new users to have a clear picture of how to get the most out of using Gyminee.

Plan This

This is a new feature that, personally, I was pretty excited to see added. When you search for foods, you will now see a “PLAN THIS” button right next to the “QUICK ADD” button. This feature allows you a quick and easy way to plan foods without having to navigate into the Meal Planner. If you’re already a PRO user, then feel free to check it out, if not then you’ll have to upgrade before taking advantage of this feature.

If you’ve been wanting to try out PRO for a while, but needed a little extra push, then feel free to use this coupon code for a FREE 14-day trial. You better hurry though, only 50 people can use this coupon before it expires!

TRYPRO14

To use this coupon, enter it into the “Coupon Code” field when upgrading your account to PRO.

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