Hi all and thanks so much for bearing with me during my move - I was offline for a bit longer than expected, it's so good to have internet access again and to have caught up with all your requests and messages 
As we look to expand the site over the coming months a key area we want to look at is the recipes system. I started to develop something for this quite some time ago, but as always technology moves quicker than me and I think it's time to work on revamping what I had originally planned. We've now got a great team together to develop the FastDay website and it's going to be really exciting once it's all ready and so much more than I could ever have achieved by myself. I'm sure you'll be delighted with the new content and resources we're going to be offering to support fasters in addition to just the forum.
In the meanwhile I've realised it would look a bit silly starting up a whole recipes/food section only to have absolutely nothing in there to start out with. It won't exactly look good to new members will it?! I know a lot of you have contributed some really great recipes in the 5:2 Food forum here but it would take me ages to go through and organise these into a more manageable format instead of the free text format in which they have currently been entered, and not only that but I'd prefer to know that the authors are happy for their recipes to be displayed on the site beyond the forum itself. We've got enough there to really make a nice starting selection of recipes on the expanded site, so I'd like to invite all of you who have contributed to re-submit your recipes (if you're happy for them to be included) via this simple form:
Submit your recipes for the new FastDay Food section
Thanks in advance This way we'll be able to keep them all more organised and easy to search by various criteria. I'd like to think that one day we'll be the web's premier venue for everything 5:2 - advice, support, recipes, tracking etc. Big plans I know, but one thing at a time!
That said, I'd like to tell you a bit about an idea which I hope will become a real possibility at some point down the line, once the above Food area is set up and filling out with lovely recipes...
I've had a taster of what it's like to get products to review when I was offered my Withings scales and tried out some supplements and meal replacements (ewww!). I think it would be fantastic if we could get involved somehow with some of the ready meal companies out there or even the home delivery meals services. We already know a lot of them offer meals for under 500 calories and its clear that more and more are jumping on the 5:2 or VLCD (very low calorie diet) bandwagon.
As the web's most active 5:2 (& related fasting methods!) community I'm sure we have some clout. On top of being able to offer a huge selection of recipes to fellow fasters it would be great if we could have an area to provide a sort of directory of ready meals which fit our way of eating, including reviews and feedback from fellow fasters. I know processed foods aren't the ideal, but I'm sure many of us have chosen to go for the easy option on a fast day from time to time or simply prefer not to cook when fasting. I'd like to think that at some point when our new Food section is underway and has a good amount of content, these ready meal producers/sellers might be prepared to offer us some sample meals (either via delivery or perhaps a product-specific token/voucher) for our members to try out and review.
What I'm thinking is that we could have a sort of 'Foodie Panel' here at the forum, a group of volunteer members who are happy to try out these products (whatever they may be!), and complete a mini review about them afterwards, rating them for various key factors like taste, healthiness, how filling they were and so on. Would anyone here be interested in being on such a panel if any of this were to come to fruition? It would be great to have reviews of meals available not just in the UK but from around the world in key supermarkets & chains. In terms of sample products I don't know yet how we'd reach out to the international market but if folks are buying meals for their fast days anyway it would be great to add these products and a simple review to our directory. Perhaps the 'Foodie Panel' might also be given the opportunity to dine out at fasting-friendly eateries one day!
Looking further down the line I wonder if we could have other review panels/groups to review useful new products like scales, fitness devices, books etc - whatever we can arrange to get samples of.
I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback regarding the above ideas and anything you'd really like to see in terms of features, searchability etc in the new Food section of the site, thanks.
TL;DR: We're going to have a lovely new Food section here at FastDay and I'd like folks to submit their recipes for inclusion. In the future I'd like to arrange some kind of ready-meal review panel and hopefully arrange for some free samples for them to try out.
As we look to expand the site over the coming months a key area we want to look at is the recipes system. I started to develop something for this quite some time ago, but as always technology moves quicker than me and I think it's time to work on revamping what I had originally planned. We've now got a great team together to develop the FastDay website and it's going to be really exciting once it's all ready and so much more than I could ever have achieved by myself. I'm sure you'll be delighted with the new content and resources we're going to be offering to support fasters in addition to just the forum.
In the meanwhile I've realised it would look a bit silly starting up a whole recipes/food section only to have absolutely nothing in there to start out with. It won't exactly look good to new members will it?! I know a lot of you have contributed some really great recipes in the 5:2 Food forum here but it would take me ages to go through and organise these into a more manageable format instead of the free text format in which they have currently been entered, and not only that but I'd prefer to know that the authors are happy for their recipes to be displayed on the site beyond the forum itself. We've got enough there to really make a nice starting selection of recipes on the expanded site, so I'd like to invite all of you who have contributed to re-submit your recipes (if you're happy for them to be included) via this simple form:
Submit your recipes for the new FastDay Food section
Thanks in advance
This way we'll be able to keep them all more organised and easy to search by various criteria. I'd like to think that one day we'll be the web's premier venue for everything 5:2 - advice, support, recipes, tracking etc. Big plans I know, but one thing at a time!That said, I'd like to tell you a bit about an idea which I hope will become a real possibility at some point down the line, once the above Food area is set up and filling out with lovely recipes...
I've had a taster of what it's like to get products to review when I was offered my Withings scales and tried out some supplements and meal replacements (ewww!). I think it would be fantastic if we could get involved somehow with some of the ready meal companies out there or even the home delivery meals services. We already know a lot of them offer meals for under 500 calories and its clear that more and more are jumping on the 5:2 or VLCD (very low calorie diet) bandwagon.
As the web's most active 5:2 (& related fasting methods!) community I'm sure we have some clout. On top of being able to offer a huge selection of recipes to fellow fasters it would be great if we could have an area to provide a sort of directory of ready meals which fit our way of eating, including reviews and feedback from fellow fasters. I know processed foods aren't the ideal, but I'm sure many of us have chosen to go for the easy option on a fast day from time to time or simply prefer not to cook when fasting. I'd like to think that at some point when our new Food section is underway and has a good amount of content, these ready meal producers/sellers might be prepared to offer us some sample meals (either via delivery or perhaps a product-specific token/voucher) for our members to try out and review.
What I'm thinking is that we could have a sort of 'Foodie Panel' here at the forum, a group of volunteer members who are happy to try out these products (whatever they may be!), and complete a mini review about them afterwards, rating them for various key factors like taste, healthiness, how filling they were and so on. Would anyone here be interested in being on such a panel if any of this were to come to fruition? It would be great to have reviews of meals available not just in the UK but from around the world in key supermarkets & chains. In terms of sample products I don't know yet how we'd reach out to the international market but if folks are buying meals for their fast days anyway it would be great to add these products and a simple review to our directory. Perhaps the 'Foodie Panel' might also be given the opportunity to dine out at fasting-friendly eateries one day!
Looking further down the line I wonder if we could have other review panels/groups to review useful new products like scales, fitness devices, books etc - whatever we can arrange to get samples of.
I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback regarding the above ideas and anything you'd really like to see in terms of features, searchability etc in the new Food section of the site, thanks.
TL;DR: We're going to have a lovely new Food section here at FastDay and I'd like folks to submit their recipes for inclusion. In the future I'd like to arrange some kind of ready-meal review panel and hopefully arrange for some free samples for them to try out.
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