Patrick

Happy birthday to John (Zaine)! Thank you for all of your contributions here over the years. Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree for August is... skullsplitter. Congratulations skullsplitter! Thank you for being a member of our community for so long. Coming up on 9 years in December! We appreciate you. Sincerely, Patrick

Welcome aboard, JazzKicker. Happy that you found us. I appreciate the kind words about the community. Patrick

Welcome to KF, KarateNewbie. Glad to have you. Patrick

Thanks Bob, Alex and Brian. Patrick

Happy birthday to Danielle (DWx)! Thank you for being a part of our community, and for everything that you do here. Patrick

Hey all, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We have moved KarateForums.com to https://. This means that the information that you submit to KarateForums.com is now more secure. More details for the curious. Generally speaking, websites like ours hadn't done this previously, because we weren't dealing with what is traditionally considered sensitive information. We're not handling your bank accounts, credit card numbers, physical addresses, etc. But more recently, there has been an effort to push all websites to do this, driven by browser makers and search engines. It's a good idea. The big thing you may have noticed were nagging messages on our login pages, especially tied to the password field, saying this website was not secure (like this message in Firefox and this message in Chrome). These messages should now be gone. We appear to have implemented https successfully, but if you should encounter any problems, please let me know. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask. Thanks, Patrick

Hey all, Our own DWx is featured in this documentary about the EITF TKD European Championships 2017: Really cool. Congrats Danielle! Patrick

Belated welcome, Byzantine. Thank you so much for making the leap and registering! Patrick

Thank you for the kind words. And for helping to make it so. Patrick

No worries. Congrats to your wife! Glad to hear your enjoyed the concert, as well. Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree for July is... singularity6. Congratulations Ken! In a very short time, you have already made so many great contributions to our community. Thank you! Sincerely, Patrick

Welcome to KF, Lynn. Thank you for joining us. Patrick

Hey all, As a reminder, we allow discussion of weapons as they relate to the martial arts. Generic political discussions, including those tied to gun control, are not something that we host. Please keep this in mind. Thank you. Patrick

Belated welcome, Jansenki. Glad to have you. Patrick

That's great, LLLEARNER! Hopefully Ocrevus helps. Patrick

So happy to hear the recovery is going well, tubby! Patrick

Way belated thanks for the kind words, JR. That's really interesting. And good for me. Honestly, I find it better to spread it out, anyway!

Sorry to hear about your hip, singularity6! How did your wife do? Also, that's really cool about the concert. How was it? Patrick

Hello Mr. Miller, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. As you have another thread very similar to this, I am going to close this one and encourage the discussion to continue over there: http://www.karateforums.com/belt-embroidery-color-vt50763.html Thanks, Patrick

Congrats again! While I do value TJ-Jitsu's contributions to our community, our Member of the Month is actually selected by the staff. I only vote if there is a tie or they are unable to select someone. Thanks, Patrick

Welcome to KF, Antonio. Patrick

Welcome to KF, singularity6! Glad to have you. Patrick

Hey JR, I love the idea for this thread, and look forward to following your journey! I have also been losing weight. For context, maybe 4 years or so ago, I was at my highest weight, like 185 or 188. I'm 6 foot, so that isn't too terrible, but it was at the high end (or above) the generally considered healthy weight. And my vital stats from blood work were going up. So, I got more serious about my workouts (I love Fitness Blender routines). I also stopped drinking soda, and continually have made small changes in how I eat. Like not eating chips. And eating a lot less bread and/or lower calorie bread. Nothing drastic, and in April of this year, I was down to 160. I figured I wouldn't lose much more, but I also was carrying around more belly fat than I really wanted to have. Obviously, diet is super important, but I had always thought I'd never log my food. But I decided to start. I was eating healthy stuff, but I had a feeling that I was eating too much. Without tracking it, I wouldn't really know. And my stomach was a motivator for me. It was alright... but it wasn't particularly good, and I wanted to see what I could do. So, I started using MyFitnessPal. I put in my accurate info (age, weight, lifestyle). I said I wanted to lose half a pound a week (again, I don't really need to lose weight, necessarily). And last week, after two months, I was down to 147, which is pretty amazing to me. I wanted to keep it simple for me, so I only focus on logging food that has calories. I log those foods diligently, and don't give myself the benefit of the doubt. I think you have to be that way, and log everything with calories, otherwise it's 50 calories here, 100 calories there, and you're actually missing your goal when you think you are hitting it. Since April, I have had two days where I went way over my allotment, and a few where I went a little over. But other than that, all under and for maybe a third of that, I had hundreds of calories left. It was easier than I thought, and educational. I don't log foods that don't have calories. I don't worry about macros, except in a very general, long range sense. I don't log my water. I don't log my exercises. Again, needing it to be simple and not be too much of a chore. I have 2,090 calories per day, and I give myself an extra 100 if I want it, because I don't log the exercises. But that's the limit. And it has really worked. Around the time I started logging, I also started intermittent fasting. Basically, I don't eat past 10 PM and don't start eating until noon. I tend to exercise before noon, and I like it. I feel pretty great! And I have noticed a difference in how my body looks. At this point, I am just looking to lose more body fat, so I am still logging and maintaining those goals. I might lose some more weight, or not, but I want to continue to lose body fat, and it has visibly helped with that. (I was already exercising 5 days a week with a 6th recovery/stretching/yoga day, and that has continued throughout this process. Though I do take some extra days off when I travel, which is usually a couple times a month). I'm finishing up this Fitness Blender routine now, and will switch to a more lifting focused one for 4-8 weeks after that. I realize I'm not at the same place as you or other people, e.g. you might hear my weight and think "haha, you don't need to lose weight." And I'm not trying to lose weight at this, but thought this story might be interesting/might update here as my stomach (hopefully) gets better. Will be really interested to follow this thread! Thanks, Patrick

Welcome aboard, Mr. Aslin. Happy to have you. Patrick