No need to 'fess up if you've ever peed in the shower, worn dirty underwear or skipped a handwashing after a trip to the ladies' room. About 1,000 adult women admitted to committing a mix of these and other germy sins, and Dr. Billy Goldberg shares which unhealthy habits it's time to nix. Read AOL Health's "How Dirty Are You?" to see if the "five-second rule" or your habit of going barefoot at the gym are really not-so-bad as you think!

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• Walkability: Pop in your address at Walk Score to find out how close you reside to walkable destinations such as stores, schools and parks.
• Conservation Efforts: Does your building recycle, use green lighting, rehab with green materials?
• Access to Green Space: If you live across from Central Park, you're golden. Beyond looking out over greenery, you must be near it to reap the physical benefits.
  
• Fitness Facilities: On-site, affordable fitness is critical, especially if nearby green space is filled with hoodlums after dark. Unless you own the penthouse, you probably don't have space for a home gym either.
  
• Healthy Eating Options: If a gas station is the only food source in the area, you're in nutritional danger.
  
  

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• Go for pre- or post-dinner walks
• Crank up the music and boogie down!!
• Make a game out of household chores
• Sneak workouts into other activities
• Turn TV commercials into fitness breaks
• Have a weekly sports night
• Walk or run for charity
• Put kids to work in the yard
• Team up for gardening
• Walk the dog

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Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose one per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hi Fitz, I'm 26 years old and have never been happy with my upper body. My arms are lanky and my chest is soft. I have a demanding job as an attorney, and simply don't have the time nor the know how to get involved in a complicated training regiment. I know I have to "earn" a good body, so I was hoping you could dumb things down for me. A simple routine I can do in a hurry. P.S. I love your fit tip videos! Thanks. Tim

A. Hello Mr. Tim! Training for a guy with "no time" huh? That' my specialty! Glad you asked. Look pal, I wish I could pull off the persona as a rocket scientist, because I'm on top of this stuff ... but I can't. Fitness is painfully simple, and you can achieve your goals without much complexity.

Continue reading Ask Fitz! Your Fitness Questions Answered -- Quickie Training

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I'm so excited to share with you the recipe for my Protein Power Potato. It's something I've been eating several times a week, and it really has served me well. I insist that my food be: low cal, low fat, high fiber, often high in protein and overall nutritious. This Protein Power Potato fills me up, and gives me the energy to get through tough workouts or wild days with my kids. (It keeps me really trim too.)

I've included an option for making this a vegetarian or carnivorous option as well. Since I understand food, and know what I want out of it ... sometimes I just look in my fridge and concoct something that's going to give me what I need. That's how we got this meal. Did I mention this thing is delicious too? Mmmmm. I could eat it every day!

To give it a try, visit the Recipe section available at Fitzness.com, page 42.

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Remember how happy we all felt when Lay's introduced Baked Potato Chips? I do. It was a feeling of relief for me. I had given up chips in lieu of a hard fit body. Fair exchange I thought! But then, there was this company telling me that they weren't going to fry all of their chips anymore, and yes ... there would be a healthier version for people like me. Yahoo!

Once again, snack lovers get to rejoice. The LesserEvil brand snack company has created an amazing variety of popcorns and krinkle potato sticks to make just about everyone drool. Most single servings contain about 110 calories of which about 20 come from fat. Not bad!

The Classic Kettle Corn is the perfect combination of sweet and salty, and thank goodness my bag was a single serving. If it weren't, I could have devoured nine! It was better than any of the junky stuff they sell at carnivals for sure! The Black and White Kettle Corn made my children's "movie night" here at home an even more special event. Good news for me ... I didn't feel the slightest bit bad about giving it to them. The Zesty Pizza Krinkle Sticks were odd to my husband and I though. Why? Because we could not figure out how they made them taste exactly like pizza! It was both weird and wonderful at the same time.

Continue reading Fitz's Cool Tools: LesserEvil Snacks - Kettle Corn and Potato Sticks

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Women's Health magazine just sent me a release with some fun tips entailed, and I thought I'd share this one with you. Four fabulous moves useful for those of you guilty of missing morning workouts to sleep in late, and then missing the gym after work due to fatigue. As your online trainer I want to make this clear to you: skipping your workouts on a regular basis is detrimental to your health!

Of course, early morning workouts can be tough. They're also what keeps you full of the energy you need to get through each day with vigor! Check out this gallery, and next time you go to hit the snooze button ... get your fanny up and do the Cat Cow pose instead. (No moo-ing necessary!) These four easy moves will give you the energy to get to the gym and start your day off right!

Gallery: Morning Moves

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I have a total love/hate relationship with medicine. Although I value science and medicine, quite often I can't stand the affects they have on me. I simply can't stand to be drowsy, foggy or affected in any way. Prescriptions are great if they fix what's wrong with you, but all of the side effects are for the birds. I suppose if we all took each drug correctly, we may have less. So, I was particularly intrigued when Women's Health posted a study regarding drug labels.

According to a survey in the Annals of Internal Medicine, almost half of the participants misunderstood drug warning labels, and most ignored the directions altogether. This gallery provides some of the most common instructions you'll find on those little stickers slapped on each bottle and what they really mean.

Gallery: Decoding Rx Instructions

Continue reading Decoding Rx Instructions

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If you or someone in your household suffers from asthma, you most likely take steps to help avoid an attack. You most likely already have your own comprehensive list of do's and don't's when it comes to your asthma, but there's something else you may want to add to that list: Stop using household spray cleaners.

An international longitudinal study discovered a link between common household cleaning sprays to an increased risk of asthma attack in adults. The researchers found that using household spray cleaners as infrequently as once a week is enough to raise the risk of an asthma attack by 76 percent. What's more, the risk became even greater if cleaning sprays were used more frequently than that.

Play it safe by switching to liquid cleaning products rather than aerosols, asthma experts say. If there's any difference in cleaning, it's a small sacrifice to be made in terms of protecting your respiratory health.

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Seven to eight hours of sleep. That's what researchers say is best, and that's what we all shoot for. Does it always happen? In this fast-paced world, constantly connected world, it happens less and less. Just the same, efforts are still made to get in a solid night of shuteye.

But what about the opposite end of the sleep spectrum? You know, when seven or eight hours turns into nine or more hours. Are there any health implications associated with sleeping too much?

It's quite possible, say researchers from the University of Warwick Medical School in England. The British researchers found that people who increased the number of hours they slept per night from seven or eight hours to more than that were twice as likely to die from non-cardiovascular disease within 11-17 years as those who kept sleeping for seven or eight.

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Curious to know how celebrities squeeze fitness into their daily lives? Want to know the secrets of the stars? Bi-weekly our That's Fit fitness expert Fitz sits down with the celebs we want to know more about, and digs out their great and not-so-great methods to staying healthy.

Nutrition expert, Elizabeth Somer, and I recently sat down in New York City at the Prilosec OTC round table event to chat about aging without feeling or looking OLD! She tosses out tons of great advice about living well, living long and looking hot while doing it. The interview was fun and her books are great!

View Elizabeth's books below:

Continue reading Celebrity Fitzness Report: Age-Proof Your Body with Elizabeth Somer

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Ladies, before making the big step of moving in with your boyfriend, perhaps first consider a study from Newcastle University in the U.K., in which it was discovered that men tend to lose weight when they live with a woman, whereas women tend to gain weight when in that living arrangement.

Reviewing previously published data on the influence that live-in partners have on each other's eating habits, the researchers found that guys tend to follow a more healthy diet, while their better halves tend to eat less healthfully than they did prior to cohabitation.

When living with someone, chance are you're eating the same foods. But, because men and women typically metabolize food at different rates, men are frequently able to burn off more of the calories from these foods than their cohabiting girlfriends.

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A few weeks ago, I received one of my favorite fitness tools to date. I'm a massive proponent of training with our own body weight. For most of us, it's the heaviest weight we will ever lift. From my eyes as a fitness trainer, we are all just a bunch of massive dumbbells. Isn't that nice of me to say? So my little dumbbells ... I have a cool new tool for you! The Lebert Equalizer will add some fun and give you a bunch of neat things to do with that delightfully heavy body of yours.

The Lebert Equalizer is perfect for pull-ups, push-ups, dips, decline rows, scull crushers, planks and tons of other fantastic strength and cardiovascular training exercises as well. It's light-weight, portable, versatile and not too pricey. For $99.99 you'll get a set of Equalizers along with a free training DVD and a poster to guide you while you train.

Much to their delight (or disgust), many of my personal training clients ages 16 to 62 have been subjected (tortured) with the Equalizers. I kid! The typical exercises one would do with these tools are hard though -- in a good way. My intermediate/advanced fitness level clients have loved the challenges put forth to them each session. I would not allow someone with very little strength to use them though, because without great balance, the Equalizers wobble a bit. Having said that, people wobble on the BOSU, stability ball, and lots of other fitness tools. Balance is an integral part of functional fitness training. I don't reference the wobble to deter you. I just want you to be extra aware not to allow Great Aunt Sue to use them.

Continue reading Fitz's Cool Tools: Chisel Your Body with The Lebert Equalizer

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Sometimes it's hard to serve a healthy appetizer or nutritious munchies, isn't it? Corn chips and salsa, potato chips and sour cream and onion dip seem like staples, but they are really saboteurs -- of our health and our waistlines!

• Trade those chips for some whole wheat pita, or better yet, fresh veggies, and serve up some hummus. Traditional is universally appealing, or try some black bean hummus -- one of our favorites!
• If you've got to have that onion dip, try this healthy version, made with tofu and fresh garlic and onions and parsley.
• Substitute plain yogurt for the sour cream in the creamy pesto dip, and you've got a simple dip with some basil-y pizazz.

Continue reading Cook healthy appetizers with ease

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Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose one per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hello Miss Fitzness, I see you have an extensive history as a kickboxer. I also like to kickbox, although I've never actually had a fight. I've since left my trainer though. I have bought a water based heavy bag, and know all of my punches and kicks. It's just hard to come up with things to do each round like my trainer you to have me do. I'm getting bored now without a goal. Have any advice? Scott

A. Hi Scott! Thanks for asking! Yes, my competitive kickboxing days go way back to the mid 1990s and I'm still desperately in love with the sport. It's a ton of fun, and a tremendous workout. Plus ... I personally enjoy kicking people in the head! Only those who have willingly signed up for a charming bit o' competition though, of course! I have also spent the past 15 years as the Fitness Division Director of the International Sport Kickboxing Association. The ISKA is the sanctioning body of the sport, just like the NFL is for pro football. So, yes sir! I can help you with that heavy bag training.

Gallery: Fitz's Kickboxing Gallery

Continue reading Ask Fitz! Your Fitness Questions Answered -- A Killer Kickboxing Heavy Bag Workout

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