Being in New York City and having walked nearly 100 blocks last night, I thought about the age-old adage that you burn as many calories walking as you do running. Obviously, this isn’t true per unit of time – you’d burn more calories running for ten minutes than walking for ten minutes. But what about per unit of distance? Would [...]

The holidays are about jingling bells, not bellies… but almost all of us gain a few holiday pounds. Eat good food and be merry, but do your best to replace these five worst of the worst foods to minimize the gain: Egg Nog. Drink two cups of egg nog and you’ve already exceeded your daily recommend saturated fat intake. Yup, [...]

Frequency of ab workouts is one of the great fitness debates. There are basically two schools of thought. One school of thought argues that abs should be exercised everyday. Because our abs are stabilizer muscles, we’re always using them – whether it’s walking down the street, getting out of a car or sitting in a chair. And since our abs [...]

With my boyfriend in town, I got to thinking about the cardiovascular benefits of sex. It certainly gets the heart pumping, the blood flowing and the sweat dripping. So, it’s got to be a good workout, right? Sorta. It’s certainly better than watching TV and eating Cheetos. An hour of intercourse burns somewhere between 300 – 400 calories for the [...]

I just got my ass kicked by a piece of rope. I’ve recently rediscovered jumping rope as a fun and effective way of getting cardio – in fact, a $7 jump rope is on my holiday gift guide. I say rediscover because when I was in elementary school, I loved jumping rope. Each day at recess, my friends and I [...]

If you’re exercising, then you probably have goals. If you don’t have goals – make them! Otherwise, it’s like taking a road trip without a destination in mind. And if you haven’t already, it’s a good idea to write down your goals. I like to write “SMART” goals – goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. Since my [...]

‘Tis the season for giving – and so (to take a page from Oprah) I’ve put together a list of my favorite things! And no, I’m not getting commission or kick-backs for any of these products… though I feel like I should be on the Lululemon payroll by this point. Lululemon Smash Pant I have two. One for lounging around [...]

As a culture, we’ve become very conscious of carbs, fats (both good and bad) and calories… but few people pay much attention to sodium. We should. It’s been called the forgotten killer. Sodium is a necessary ingredient in the human body. But most of us are getting way too much. The general consensus is that we should aim for 1,500 [...]

Since elementary school, our phys ed teachers have reminded us to drink our 8 cups of water a day. But why? It turns out they were on to something. Staying hydrated is associated with a number of benefits – including better definition in your abs. Decreased risk of cancer, clearer skin and increased productivity are a few of the reasons [...]

Tell me if this sounds familiar: You decide to make a huge, positive change in your life by becoming healthier through exercise and nutrition. Because your friends and family love and value you, you expect them to be supportive. But they aren’t. Sometimes they say things about how you’ll fail – or other times they push you to cheat on [...]