That's Fit

Photo: Rance Costa/Flickr

Morning workouts are pretty ideal for most people -- you've got plenty of energy first thing, you get to check something of your to-do list right away and what a great way to start the day. But what if you just can't fit fitness in right after you wake up, or at lunch, or right after work? Sometimes, the only free hours you have for exercise are late at night. And that's OK (unless you have trouble sleeping, and then exercising at night might not be a wise move). FitSugar shares tips for moving your body long after your work day ends, and in the privacy of your own home.

Photo: franssenph/Flickr

Whether this weekend has you heading out or hosting your own celebration, you'll want to ring in the 4th of July with foods fit for good health and a stable scale. Here are some diet-safe and tasty dishes you might want to try.

• Kick off your event with Sun Dried Tomato Breadsticks. Just 67 calories and 1 gram of fat per serving.
• Need a super side? Our own Tanya Zuckerbrot offers this non-fattening Asian Slaw recipe, and one serving comes with only 51 calories and 1 gram of fat. Goes great with Tanya's Ahi Tuna Burgers, I bet.
• For a main meal, mix some lean meat with some antioxidant-rich fruit, whole wheat pasta, olive oil and a little lime zest, and you've got yourself a Chicken and Blueberry Pasta Salad. Stick with just one serving, and you'll use up just 315 calories.
• Every party needs a grand finale, and what's better than a red, white and blue dessert? Add a handful of blueberries and raspberries to a small bowl of low-fat, low-sugar vanilla frozen yogurt and watch the sparks fly. Or try this dessert that Jonny recommends: Eat blueberries right out of the freezer (mixed with frozen cherries), add some FAGE 2 percent yogurt, sprinkle with slivered almonds, flaked unsweetened coconut and some probiotic powder.

If you'd like more tips for slimming down your backyard BBQ, Kristen's got you covered.

Photo: j / f / photos/Flickr

Yoga is great, but can it help you lose weight? Sure can, says Sarah Brown at That's Fit.ca. The best type of yoga for shedding pounds, she says, is the technique that combines a cardiovascular workout with strength building and flexibility. Try vinyasa-style (either Bikram/Hot Yoga or Ashtanga) and watch the weight melt away. Don't forget a healthy diet, though -- exercising and junk food just don't work well together.

Lance Armstrong is teaming up with Nike this summer in the fight against cancer, and he's recruiting others to join him in the "It's About You" campaign.

"Lance is just one person," says wearyellow.com. "He can't fight the global cancer epidemic alone. So he asked artists, other athletes, survivors and writers to join his peloton. Now he's asking you. What's your bike? There are many ways to get involved and make a difference. How will you help?"

You can help fight cancer through a variety of social networking avenues. You can participate in a "Chalkbot" by submitting an inspirational message that will be written in yellow chalk on the roads of the Tour de France. You'll even receive an email with GPS coordinates providing the location of your message -- how cool is that? If you live in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Chicago, local artists will feature yellow chalk art on the streets, and you can add your message there too.

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Mel likes to eat -- a lot. She also likes her new body, 47 pounds lighter and a lot more toned than it once was.

Name: Melissa "Mel" Joulwan

Age: 41

Height: 5'4"

Before weight: 192

How I gained it: My family owned a diner when I was growing up, so food is really a big thing with us. I like to eat! And I can eat a lot, especially bread, pasta and rice. I exercised fairly regularly, but not enough to overcome my indulgent eating habits. I also had a consistency problem: I'd go like gangbusters for a while, then "fall off the wagon."

Jen, an instructor at Elemental Studios Photo: Sarah Oswald

You might not think of pole dancing as a workout, but it is. And just because it's called pole dancing doesn't mean it always happens late at night in strip joints. Let's just call it pole fitness. That's what Sarah Oswald, owner of Elemental Studios in Plantation, Fla., calls it -- it helps separate the exercise from the whole strip club thing, she says.

Oswald knows firsthand how powerful pole fitness can be. She stumbled upon an introductory class five years ago, and she quickly got hooked -- and fit. Now she witnesses regular women (like moms, teachers, lawyers, librarians and accountants) transform their bodies and minds in her studio, where two-hour classes are the norm, and flexibility, strong bodies and self-discovery are the goals.

If you're out for a workout that nurtures your soul, this might be the sport for you. "Our belief is that our students should always be treated as we would want to be treated," she Oswald. "That means celebrating birthdays and special events and being there for them when things are just not going right. Every week at the beginning of our warm ups, we go around the room to share the successes of the week and during our dancing, if the emotions become too overwhelming, the group gathers together to comfort and listen."

Photo: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

As the stunned world mourns the loss of Michael Jackson, who died at the age of 50 yesterday at U.C.L.A. Medical Center, speculation about the King of Pop's cause of death is everywhere. We're wondering too -- could his rigorous training for an upcoming tour be part of the puzzle?

"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest at his home," said brother Jermaine Jackson at a hospital news conference yesterday. Others are talking about the stress that consumed the superstar's life, his frail and thin body, his pre-tour workouts with "The Incredible Hulk" star Lou Ferrigno, and painkillers -- allegedly taken to cope with performance-related injuries.

No doubt, Jackson's rehearsals and performances over the past 40 years were grueling (he'd once broken a vertebra and leg from a fall on the stage). For his upcoming 50-show world tour, Ferrigno was reportedly making secret visits to Jackson's Los Angeles mansion to help him work on his fitness for dance routines. But some sources report Jackson -- who once rehearsed the famous moonwalk dance sequence for four hours until it felt like second nature -- would not lift weights.

Regardless of the outcome of his autopsy, and whether or not he was pushing himself too hard in workouts, one this is clear: Jackson inspired millions with his music and his moves. And doesn't that just make you want to get up and dance?

Photo: Robert S. Donovan/Flickr

Canyon Ranch nutritionist Jenny Flora told us that butter is better than margarine, and nutritionist Doug DiPasquale over at That's Fit.ca agrees. "Butter is better for you than any imitation butter spread and it always has been," he says.

Margarine and other fake spreads might be cheaper, but butter contains vitamin A, vitamin D, lecithin, vitamin E, selenium, iodine and short and medium chain fatty acids -- all essential for health. Margarine contains hydrogenated oils and trans fats -- and Flora says these are the ingredients we must pitch from our pantries.

Photo: Oakley.com

If you're exercising outdoors this summer, you've got to protect your eyes from the scorching sun, and did you know that wearing shades without UV protection can be worse than not wearing sunglasses at all? Sure enough. You see, pupils dilate behind dark lenses, which makes the retina more vulnerable to the sun's rays. So unless there's UV protection in those dark lenses, they're just doing damage to your eyes.

Follow these eyewear tips from Ladies Home Journal, and you'll keep yourself safe and sporty while tackling your warm-weather workouts.

• Purchase sunglasses that block 99 percent of UVA and UVB rays.
• Buy glasses with polarized lenses to cut glare and improve vision.
• Choose a wraparound stye to block rays from the sides.

Photo: bedbathandbeyond.com

Losing weight might be as easy as stocking your kitchen with the right gadgets. FitSugar recommends six tools to help you eat healthier, naming fruit and veggie cutters, steamers and the right measuring cups as definite diet helpers. There are three more featured finds in this photo gallery -- check them out, get shopping and stock your shelves with weight loss aids that really work.

Photo: MiikaSFlickr

There's nothing risky about sweating it out in the sauna after a workout, guys. Saunas are perfectly safe for the majority of men. In fact, the sauna is really quite beneficial -- it can relieve sore muscles, can flush toxins from your bod and can alleviate arthritis, asthma and chronic fatigue. It might even help you cut down on colds.

Now saunas are not recommended for heart patients (it'll cause your heart rate to jump), and if you have dad plans, you might want to steer clear of the hot box for a while, becasue it might temporarily affect sperm quality and mobility. But if you're healthy and not planning for parenthood, saunas won't do you a bit of harm.

So, step out of your running shoes and into the sauna. Twenty minutes is all you need in the cedar room, plus two to four glasses of water afterwards to rehydrate.

Photo: Rance Costa/Flickr

Chances are, you have a trouble body spot or two, which means you probably need some specific exercises to target those areas that drive you nutty. Lucky for you, Fitness magazine has a cool tool perfect for building your own personalized workout and uploading it to video. It takes just 30 seconds, and in addition to arming you with a super effective workout, your video will show you how to use the equipment you already have at home. And if you don't want to use any equipment, that's fine too.

To get started, all you need to do is enter a few pieces of personal information and pick the body parts that need some work. Then you'll select the equipment you have available (a rolled towel and chair count!), and you even get to pick the duration of your dream workout, which might be as short as 15 minutes or as long as one hour. Then, click "make my workout" button, and presto, your very own video pops up. Don't love it? No problem, because you can tweak it all you want.

If you prefer not to craft your own video, the folks at Fitness offer several that are pre-made and ready to view right now -- here they are.

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Valerie Bertinelli and Marie Osmond shouldn't battle over which of their diets -- Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig -- is better, because it doesn't really matter what diet you do, according to RealAge. Make it high-carb, low-carb, Mediterranean or something altogether different and you'll likely see results -- as long as it's heart healthy, it cuts back on calories, and you stick with it.

In a study of four weight loss plans and the people who tried them, the amount of weight folks lost didn't differ much, even though their diets did. Why? Because the diets, although varied in amounts of carbs, fat and protein, were low in saturated fat and cholesterol and high in fiber. Plus, dieters reduced their calorie intake, and they also exercised for at least 90 minutes per week. Not only did they all lose weight -- they also experienced better cholesterol, blood pressure and triglyceride levels. Incidences of metabolic syndrome dropped too.

We say it all the time here: Losing weight is a function of eating less, burning more and getting your nutrients through whole foods. So don't fret so much about the "perfect" diet. Just find a healthy plan that suits you, commit to it and move your body most days of the week. We're confident it's a plan that works.

Photo: tcby.com

Father's Day is right around the corner, and if you're still scrambling for what to get Dad this year, TCBY has got you covered. Even better, what they have to offer won't pinch your wallet or pop's waistline.

TCBY is treating dads everywhere to a free cup or cone on Father''s Day. This is a pretty good deal, because, well, it's free. Plus, a TCBY press release says, "There is arguably no better gift than one that's both delicious and healthy. TCBY's yogurt is low in fat and calories, when compared to ice cream, and is loaded with plenty of live, active cultures (probiotics) to improve overall health and digestion."

Now, frozen yogurt might not be an actual health food, but it's definitely a good option for the sweet tooth. And if you practice the few tips below, you can keep dad's indulgence (and yours too) a safe and smart one.

Photo: ~ggvic~/Flickr

The secret to reducing arm jiggle is in your triceps -- build them up and you'll end up with nice tone and a revved metabolism. That's Fit.ca offers four exercises for turning your flab to fit. All you need for these four is a bar with weights, a heavy dumbbell, a bench and three days a week.