Welcome to Start Making Choices, Your Plan for a Balanced Life

Frequently Asked Questions




  • Getting Started

    I'm already a member at Start Making Choices, but I don't see my plan. How do I start?
    Starting your new Balanced Life Plan is easy. First, you'll need to log in and answer a few registration questions to update your member profile. Next, you'll take the Balanced Life Index survey to help you evaluate and measure the balance in your life in the areas of nutrition, activity, and well-being. Finally, you'll create some personal goals for yourself and choose what content you would prefer to learn about.

    Your new personalized Balanced Life Plan will now appear on your home page every time you log in to Start Making Choices. To learn more about the new plan and other features, visit our See What's New page.

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    I was a member of Start Making Choices on HealthyChoice.com. How do I get my new plan?
    To help you balance nutrition, activity, and well-being in your life, we're offering you a new plan from Start Making Choices. To start your new Balanced Life Plan, you'll need to log in and answer a few registration questions to update your member profile. Next, you'll take the Balanced Life Index survey to help you evaluate and measure the nutrition, activity, and well-being balance in your life. Finally, you'll create some personal goals for yourself and choose what content you would prefer to learn about.

    Your new personalized Balanced Life Plan will now appear on your home page every time you log in to Start Making Choices. To learn more about the new plan and other features, visit our See What's New page.

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    Where are my old meal and fitness plans?
    If you were a member of Start Making Choices in 2007, you'll notice some changes to our plan. First, your old meal and fitness plans are no longer available. Instead, you'll be able to build a new personalized Balanced Life Plan with daily nutrition, activity, and well-being recommendations to help you find more balance in life.

    In creating our new Balanced Life Plan, we developed a whole new database of meals, activities, and well-being suggestions, with less emphasis on calories and weight loss. With your personalized Balanced Life Plan, you'll discover ways to focus on your own nutrition, activity, and well-being goals and find balance in your life.

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  • Signing Up

    I want to receive emails and read the exclusive content, but I don't want to take the Balanced Life Index survey or get a Balanced Life Plan. Can I do that?
    Sure. Just complete the first page of registration and check the appropriate box to receive the weekly and/or monthly newsletters. Click the "take survey now" button at the bottom of that page, and you'll move on to Step 2. When you see a pop-up asking you to start the survey, just click the "No thanks, I'll take it later." link in that window. Then just follow the steps to set your goals and preferences, and you're all set.

    To sign up for this exclusive content, visit the registration page.

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    I forgot my password. How can I log in to Start Making Choices?
    We'll send you a password reminder by email. Just visit the Forgot Password? page and give us your email address by following the instructions on that page.

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    I want to read older articles/get a plan/access the community (message boards), but I'm being asked to register. Why?
    These features are exclusive to registered Start Making Choices members. To access this free content, just visit the registration page.

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  • Understanding the Plan

    How can I improve or update my Balanced Life Index (BLI) score?
    There are two ways to update your BLI score.
    1. Keep your Daily Planner up to date by logging your meals and activities. Your Nutrition and Activity BLI scores will be updated automatically with each entry. However, you’ll need to retake the Well-Being portion of the BLI survey (the blue section) to update your Well-Being score.
    2. You can also take the BLI survey again to improve your overall BLI score. Just log in and click the "Retake the BLI survey" link.

    Remember, the BLI is for educational purposes only and is simply a general indicator of balance.

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    How can I change my Nutrition, Activity, and Well-Being Planners?
    Log in to the site to see your personalized home page and click on "My Preferences." You can do a number of things on this page to update your plan, including:
    1. Update your daily calorie intake.
    2. Select/deselect activities or change their frequency and intensity.
    3. Increase/decrease how often you receive well-being recommendations or select different recommendations.
    4. Remember to click "save goals and preferences" at the bottom of the page to save any changes.

    To make adjustments to your Activity plan, just follow these simple steps:
    1. Log in.
    2. Go to "My Daily Planner."
    3. Click the "Set Activity Schedule" link under the Activity Planner.
    4. Use the drop-down lists to adjust the intensity, duration, or frequency of any of the programs you're using.

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    I ate more than what was recommended in my Nutrition Planner. How do I log that?
    Log in to your personalized home page, and click on either "Daily Planner" or "Weekly Planner." Look in the Nutrition Planner section of the page, and scroll down to the section called "Other." Click on the link that says "Enter as Necessary." In the window that appears, you can select one of your favorite meals or build a new meal by selecting foods from our database.

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    I don't see any Balanced Substitutions on my Nutrition Planner. How do I make a substitution?
    The list of Balanced Substitutions is filled with your favorite meals, but the list will be blank until you create those favorite meals using the "Build a Meal" feature.
    1. Log in.
    2. Go to "My Favorites."
    3. Click on the "Add a new meal" link.
    4. Enter the name of one of the ingredients of your meal and click the Search button (green arrow).
    5. If the ingredient is a name-brand food, you can click the "Refine Search by Brand" list to choose that brand.
    6. All matching food items appear in the "Search Results" box. Select the item from that list that best fits your ingredient and click "Add Item."
    7. The item will appear as part of the "Meal Ingredients" list. Remember to adjust the quantity as necessary. For example, if you have some pretzels as a side item, make sure you log how many pretzels you eat.
    8. You can repeat this process to add as many ingredients to the meal as you want.
    9. When you're done entering all the meal's ingredients, add the meal to your list of favorites by typing a name in the "Create a Meal Name" box.
    10. Then click the "Save Favorite" button. That meal will now appear in your list of Balanced Substitutions.

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    My Nutrition Planner details page shows percentages for each food group. Is my goal to reach 100% for each food group every day?
    Yes, ideally you should get 100% of your recommended daily amount for each food group. Your Balanced Life Plan is designed to help you meet these goals, but your total may change when you make substitutions.

    To learn more about using MyPyramid, use our Interactive Food Pyramid tool.

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    Is there a shopping list to help me find the items on my Nutrition Planner?
    Although there isn't a shopping list feature just yet, there is a way to find out what ingredients you need from the store. Go to your Daily Planner or Weekly Planner and open the Nutrition Planner. When your Nutrition Planner appears, click on the Print icon.

    You’ll get a list of all the meals for that day/week as part of the recipe, which you can use as a checklist as you shop for groceries.

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    How do I log desserts or other "extra" foods that I ate?
    At the bottom of your Nutrition Planner, you’ll see an "Other" category. Just click on the "Enter as Necessary" link and follow the steps in the resulting "Build a Meal" window.

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  • Accessing the Articles and Other Content

    What are RSS feeds?
    RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a technology that automatically sends out notices of new website content, which is then received by RSS readers. If you subscribe to an RSS feed, you'll get these notices whenever new articles, recipes, blog entries, or other content appears on the site.

    To get RSS feeds from Start Making Choices, you'll need to set up an RSS reader for your browser (such as Internet Explorer® or Firefox) or your personalized home page (such as iGoogle™ and My Yahoo!®). Both iGoogle and My Yahoo! offer personalized Web portals that you can customize to show the information you want. You can also get applications that display RSS feeds on your desktop.

    RSS feeds are a free, simple way to stay in touch with the latest information you care about the most. To get RSS feeds from Start Making Choices, visit the RSS Subscriptions page.

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    How do I subscribe to the RSS feed from Start Making Choices?
    Once you log in, you'll see a "Subscribe to RSS Feeds" link just above your Balanced News alerts. Just follow that link to set your preferences. Once you're on the "RSS Subscriptions" page, select the content you want and click the button that matches your RSS service: Google, My Yahoo!, or a generic RSS.

    To subscribe today, visit the RSS Subscriptions page.

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    How do I download the podcasts?
    If you have iTunes, just click on the "Download in iTunes" link. If you don't have iTunes, click on the "Download video" or "Download audio" link and follow the prompts.

    To access the latest podcast from Dr. James Rippe, visit the Balanced Living Podcasts page.

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SmartShop Tip
Bread—Back from the Dead
Wrap day-old bread in foil and put it in a warm oven for 10 minutes. The crust will crisp and the insides will return to being light and fluffy. Use right away or it will revert back to its old, stale self.
Tips for better balance



Now It's Easier To Eat a Balanced Meal!




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Ask Dr. Rippe My Pyramid nutritional information