Expanding your family with a new baby is usually a joyous time. For alli user Laura Lee Mills, something was different with baby number three. At 27 years-old, Laura Lee felt like the fat friend at a party and started alli the next day.

"I didn't have any treatment effects. It's really as hard as you make it. If you stick to the diet you'll be fine," she said to me over an alli-friendly lunch. Laura has lost 48 pounds with alli, and has traded her size 15 pants for a size five. She says life has gotten easier.

"I can play with my kids now, and I feel good about it," she said. 

Laura Lee's story is included in the digital version of the free we lost it book or on the new allicircles community. If you haven't been to the allicircles, it has many new features including a tool to create your own circle of friends within the community. 

Oh, and the lawyer reminded me to add that Laura Lee's weight loss results and experiences may not be typical of all users.

"For women, clothing matters. How she is dressed when she walks into an interview affects her self-esteem, confidence and her power as a woman," said Joi Gordon, CEO for Dress for Success Worldwide (DFS), a global non-profit organization that provides work attire and career support to disadvantaged women. 

For this reason, we are encouraging those who lost weight to give their professional attire to the local DFS as they lose weight. So far, approximately 35,000 units of clothing have been donated through this campaign. 

Experts say keeping pre-weight loss clothes isn't good for your new healthy lifestyle, so why not donate them to a great cause? And, as part of the support, alli has also donated $75,000 to Dress for Success Worldwide to support its clients.

Visit allimillions.com to get more info on how you can donate your clothes or volunteer with DFS in your local community.

A usual trip to the pharmacy goes a little like this. Walk in, go to the counter, and hand in the prescription. Wait 10, maybe 15 minutes. Pay for your script, grab the bag.  Next, out the door and start thinking about dinner. Pretty typical, right?

Surprisingly, yes. The 2008 Parata Prescription Survey of the nation's 225 million prescription-takers found 80% of people spend less than two minutes talking to their pharmacist when they pick up their prescriptions and 45 percent don't talk to pharmacists at all.

Your pharmacist can be a great source of information.  They can:

• Determine if you are taking your medicine correctly.
• Counsel on potential drug interactions, preventing overdose and unwanted side effects.
• Provide prescription and nonprescription medicine information.  For example, when we launched alli, many pharmacists received resources that included information relevant to the alli program.

So the next time you go to the pharmacist, ask questions. Remember a pharmacist is the most accessible health care professional in America.

As the book says, "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus." This is no different for weight loss.  Generally speaking, men and women approach weight loss differently and have different favorite foods. 

But, can men eat hearty and still eat healthy?  Yes. In fact, this is one of the questions included in the American Dietetic Association's Men's Health: Fact vs. Fiction guide.  You can eat healthy and still have some steak, potatoes and eggs. 

Pat Baird, RD and moderator for the alli message board adds, "Whether it's steak or chocolate there IS a place for all foods in a healthy diet. Choose foods wisely, enjoy them in moderation, and include foods from ALL the food groups. Then smaller portions are realistic."

And for those interested, the picture above is from the Healthy Eating Guide, a book in the alli starter pack. You can find it in the 1600 calorie Heartland menu. 

As part of National Nutrition Month, the American Dietetic Association provides lots of information on their site, including an interactive quiz and games.  I also wanted to share some tips provided by Lisa Jones, MA, RD, LDN. She's a dietician with the American Dietetic Association, with 14 years of experience.  She recommends:

• If portions are confusing, try drawing them. Sketch an 8-inch plate, cut it in half, and then cut the left side in half again. The right side should be veggies, and the left side should be a protein serving the size of your palm with a starch like rice or pasta.
• Stop staring at food labels, just check the ingredient list. "If it's not in the first five ingredients there's probably not enough of it to make a difference." The healthy stuff, that is.
• For help understanding how to personalize the food pyramid, visit MyPyramid.gov and use the Menu Planner tool.

How much thought do you really put into your food before putting it on your plate? These resources are available to support your efforts during National Nutrition Month & beyond. 

After 18 years of marriage and weight struggles, it wasn’t until returning from a vacation last year that the Motons took their health seriously. “We looked at our pictures and we did not like what we saw,” said Jackie Trapps-Moton, 46.

Joe Moton, at his heaviest weighed 420 pounds. and Jackie weighed in at 276 pounds.  Here's their story.

Q: What was the most difficult change you made when deciding to lose weight?
Jackie: The biggest thing we learned was how to cook things differently.  Traditionally, everything we ate was fried.  But now we bake, grill, broil - we don’t fry anything. 

Q: Joe, as a man were you hesitant about dieting?
A: I’m the most non-dieting person you’d ever meet.  I saw it as something women do. But, I had to get real about food.  There was a problem.

Q: What are some cultural issues African Americans deal with when losing weight?
Joe: We think it’s too expensive to eat healthy, when that’s far from true. 
Jackie:  We tend to think the food is not going to taste good.  But I was surprised that everything I made from alli (the diet plan) tasted great and it looked healthy.

During our hour long conversation, the Motons touched on everything from having to pull one another back from the fridge to learning how to be content from eating rather than over eating.  Both have committed to an exercise regimen and it shows.  Jackie lost 54 pounds and Joe has gone from a 52 inch to a 42 inch waist.  And, the couple says they’re not going back. 

“What it really came down to is we wanted to change the outcome of our lives, we want to live for our grandchildren,” Joe said.

In the interest of full disclosure (you knew we'd say this)... The Moton's weight loss results and experiences may not be typical of all users.

Just to introduce myself, I'm Cynthia Levy, the newest writer to the blog.  One of my first tasks for the site was to sit down and talk about health issues with Dr. Valentine Burroughs, of Saint Francis Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware. 

It's a fact that nearly 70 percent of African American adults are either overweight or obese and 13 percent have diabetes. So, the statistics are laid out, but how can they be changed?

While there is no magic bullet to weight loss, Dr. Burroughs has a few ideas on how African Americans can begin to address some of the habits that lead to unhealthy living.

1. Because African Americans tend to perceive weight loss differently, Dr. Burroughs said it's best to measure yourself using BMI (body mass index), which takes into account height and build. Doctors prefer this method, and it can be used by everyone.
2. Common myths about dieting in the African American community are it can't be achieved and is difficult to do. Instead, Dr. Burroughs believes dieting is negotiable. By keeping food diaries and exercising, dieting can prove flexible.
3. "Learn how to say no for yourself," Dr. Burroughs said. Rather than looking to cultural norms or celebrities to define a healthy lifestyle, he said African Americans need to look inside. "Give up the remote, go outside and walk, take a realistic look at you."

He also emphasized portion control-yes, even when enjoying soul food. During our conversation, Dr. Burroughs and I talked a lot about the effect cultural norms have on healthy living.  Personally, in my family curvy women are admired-even when you're too curvy.  And because of this I've never felt pressure to be a size two. 

So the question is how do we keep positive cultural norms in place, while encouraging healthy living?

 Dr. Burroughs is a paid consultant on behalf of GSK, but his opinions are his own.

It's no big story that many African Americans struggle with health issues.  Hypertension, stroke, heart disease, in many cases these problems are linked to obesity in our community.

Here are some other cultural issues that impact us:

• Our culture has its own perceptions of body weight
• Our diet and activity habits cause disproportionate rates of diabetes
• While soul food is great, it tends to be fattening even when it doesn't have to be

So, these are the issues. But there's good news.

During Black History Month, we will focus on some of these issues. We'll be posting some tips from a leading health expert and sharing the experience of an African American taking on the weight loss challenge.

And feel free to post your own stories, questions or comments.

Today is Valentine's Day, and, if you didn't know it, February is American Heart Month.  Two great reasons to think about your heart, and the hearts of those closest to you.

As the alli calendar from Vogue Magazine (download it here) states: "do something good for your heart and for the one closest to it.  Take a long walk with your valentine."

It may not be practical for everyone to take a walk with your valentine mid-February, but you get the idea.  How can you make your February more heart healthy?

The issue of obesity as a lifestyle choice turned quite a few heads last month (i.e. New York Times and ABCNews.com, to name a few).

Fat acceptance blogs are popping up online and dismissing the obesity prevalence in America as mere hysteria.  Blog creators say the sites are breaking down stereotypes about overweight people and promoting self-love.

Confidence, high self-esteem and the overall idea of just being proud of who you are-yes, the alli team definitely supports that.  We know it's all about being the healthier you.

But, as one health expert said in the ABCNews.com article "the health risks are the health risks." It's undeniable that obese people are disproportionately at risk for diabetes, certain types of cancer, stroke and heart disease.

And while losing weight does require lifestyle changes, little things like shedding two pounds a week, and walking the steps rather than taking the elevator don't change the person.  They just gradually enforce better choices.

So, instead of shunning the blogs or saying they're all bad, we need to ask ourselves a question.  How can we use them to promote both self-acceptance and being the healthier you?  Seriously, we'd like your suggestions.