Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

We wanted there to be a place where women of all different backgrounds could connect and work towards a common goal – achieving a healthy body, a happy mind, and a contented soul. We wanted there to be a place where women could feel safe to share their thoughts and feelings, and where they could access help, or inspiration, at any point in the day. Healthy Body Club membership includes access to our online discussion forums and chats, as well as invitations to upcoming Boot Camps and other fun actitivies. For more information, you might want to read our story, our philosophy, or have a look at some of our member testimonials.

Basic membership to the site is free, and includes invitations to some of our online chats and other special events. Paid membership includes full access to our member forums, live chats, and other site features.

For paid members, we recommend you first visit the Site Support Forum and see if your issue is known.

For all other visitors, please use the Contact Us form and select the category for "Website feedback". Helpful details to include for technical problems include:

• Steps to reproduce the problem (eg. the URL you were visiting)
• Approximate date/time the problem occured
• Your operating system (Windows XP, Windows Vista, OS X, ..)
• The web browser you are using (Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, ..)
• The username or email address associated with your HBC account

That is a good question as there are many conflicting reports in the media. At my heaviest and most out of control I weighed around 130 kilos. However I did not start chronicling my weight loss until I started on my ultimate healthy life quest chronicled in my book Confessions of a Reformed Dieter. That journey went from 109 kilos to 69 kilos. However since then I have lost even more weight as I put the finishing touches to my "masterpiece" haha, and currently weigh 61 kilos making my weight loss to date just under 70 kilos. Yay me!

"Hot topics" highlight popular forum posts based on recent member activity such as views and comments.

The "Who's Online" section on the right side of the page shows a list of members who are currently logged into the Healthy Body Club site. Each member is represented by a small picture called an "avatar" (see below, for how to update yours!).

By default, other members are allowed to see when you are "Online" and logged into the HBC web site. This is a great way to connect with other members and make new friends .. but sometimes you may want to pop into the site quickly without showing up in the "Who's Online" list —. We've added a toggle for your online status so you can change between "Online" and "Appear Offline". The toggle is a small icon which appears next to your current status underneath "Who's Online".

The "Who's New" section on the right side of the page shows a list of our newest members who are currently logged into the Healthy Body Club site. Feel free to say hello and make them feel welcome!

A great way to learn more about other members or to introduce yourself is the Introductions forum. Often members who have been away for a bit may also decide to "re-introduce" themselves and provide an update on their current situation. You can also click on a member's name in the forums to see any information they've decided to share on their home page.

User badges help identify some of the different types of members on the site.

Currently these include:

• - a paid member
• - a specialist such as a personal trainer or dietary advisor, who has also volunteered to help provide feedback on the site
• - someone on the tech team that helps provide software support and development
• - HBC's leadership team, Ajay and Yvette

Profile pictures can be up to 120x120 pixels in size, in JPEG or PNG image format. A square profile picture generally looks best, but it's up to you. HBC members usually prefer to use real photos of themselves, but usually just a head shot given the size.

All of your account settings, including profile picture can be found under the "Account Settings" tab. You can get there by clicking on My Homepage near the top right of any page when you're logged into the site.
 

The activity feed gives you a snap shot of what members are doing on the site. This includes member activities such as forum comments, giving gifts, joining groups, or saying they "love" a post.

You may see a few mention of gift giving on the site. These are referring to our "virtual gifts" that you can give (for free) to any other member to show your support or appreciation of their forum post or contributions on the site. You can give a gift by clicking on the gift icon when reading a forum post or comment. Virtual gifts include trophies, flowers, birthday cakes, hugs, balloons, high fives, and more.

A blog is an online diary or journal, where you can post thoughts, photos, and progress tracking details such as your measurements or goals. The name originally came about as a contraction of the term "weblog", and is commonly used to describe both a type of online journal with regular entries ("blog") as well as the action of writing entries ("blogging"). Use this space as a way to get 'out' of your system anything that is in your head... there are no rules! Just be honest and speak from the heart.... it really does help. It is a suggestion that you blog at least every day.... make it a ritual, a routine... get your thoughts out on paper and set goals for yourself... or … just have a rant! You can choose whether your blog entries are public (shared with other members) or private (only viewable by yourself) through your HBC home page "Account Settings".

All of your account settings, including signature, can be found under the "Account Settings" tab if you click on My Homepage near the top right of any page when you're logged into the site.

Since HBC has members from many different countries and backgrounds, we have opted not to provide spellchecking as part of our text editor.  You are free to spell colour as color (or color as colour) depending on your preference.
Most users do not worry about spellchecking their forum or blog posts (this isn't homework, after all!). For those who can't live without spell checks, there are some handy browser plugins available which will add support for spell checking to all your web sites:

• For Internet Explorer, try IESpell
• Firefox 2 or newer include a spell checker by default, but you may need to install a dictionary.
• Safari 3 or newer includes built-in support for spell checking

We have several forums which are subject based depending on the title. The Pink Room is the general forum for discussion that doesn't cover the other subjects.

If you've been away from the HBC site for a bit or just want to keep up with current forum discussion without having to read older entries, the "Mark All Read" button is a quick way to catch up. If you're viewing a specific forum such as "The Pink Room", only the topics in that forum will be marked read. If you're viewing the list of All Forums, this button will mark all topics in all forums as read.

Healthy Body Club heroes are members who have decided to raise money for charities of their choice. For more information, see our page on the Healthy Body Club hero team.