Our private rooftop Core Fusion class. Photo: TropicanaOJ, Flickr

Nothing is quite as invigorating as trying a new class and getting a fantastic workout. Unless, of course, you're trying that new class on a grassy rooftop on a gorgeous Saturday morning, which is exactly what I had the opportunity to do last weekend.

I was in Chicago for a "Get Your Fruit On" weekend with Tropicana, and they set us up with Nicole Romano Uribarri from Exhale Spa for a customized Core Fusion® class on the roof of the PepsiCo Sustainability Center. Core Fusion is a mix of the Lotte Berk Method, core conditioning, Pilates and yoga, and is offered at Exhale locations in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Texas and the Turks and Caicos.

While the location was amazing, the Core Fusion® class would've been a treat no matter where it was held. We did moves I'd never seen before (which is saying something, because I've done a lot of classes and videos). And somehow, we did each move just long enough or repeated it often enough to have me making silent negotiations. (You know, using your mind to will the instructor to stop, and if she'll just stop now, you'll never eat another cookie/drink, another beer/etc.)

Traveling this holiday season? You'll probably be spending some time in the airport, battling long lines, grumpy fellow passengers, unhealthy food options and -- worst of all -- icky airport bathrooms. Shudder.

Health.com recently rated the airports in America and came up with a list of the healthiest airports in the nation, based on things like healthy food options, cleanliness and convenient services that help take the stress out of travel. Here are the top five picks:

• Phoenix Sky Harbour International
• Baltimore/Washington International
• Chicago O'Hare International
• Detroit Metropolitan
• Denver International

Check out the rest of the list here -- how does your city's airport stack up?

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In Anna Faris' new movie, The House Bunny, her clothes are a bit more revealing than the star is used to. In fact, when her character walks into a sorority house her attire prompts someone to state that it isn't a brothel. Faris' character -- sweet, kind, and a little more than ditzy -- states "Oh, I'm not looking to make soup."

To get her body into Playboy bunny shape for the role, Faris had to drop 10 pounds. "It was awful," said Faris. "I had to work out a lot and could only eat certain things. It was the regime of it all that I didn't enjoy." Despite her super-fit frame, Faris was still a bit self-conscious wearing such revealing costumes.

After filming wrapped, Faris put the 10 pounds back on.

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We keep telling you here on That's Fit to eat salmon. Full of the the right kind of fat, salmon is good for your heart and blood pressure. It can reduce your risk of stroke, prostate cancer, even macular degeneration. It keeps the brain sharp, inflammation down, and can ward off Alzheimer's. Yep, we want you to keep eating salmon, even though you may be hesitant after reading the story that follows.

One man -- Anthony Franz is his name -- claims salmon gave him a nine-foot tapeworm. The salmon came from a place called Shaw's Crab House and so Franz is suing the Chicago establishment for $100,000. Why so much? Topping the list are: Pain, suffering, lost time from work, and lost enjoyment in life.

Franz was just trying to eat healthy when he ordered his salmon salad back in 2006. Then he became violently ill and later passed the tapeworm. When a pathologist told him the giant parasite was likely from only one source -- undercooked fish, such as salmon -- the man decided to take legal action. The food safety folks at the restaurant's parent company (Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises) say they are confident the tapeworm did not come from their restaurant.

Not very good publicity for salmon, is it? Still, the fish is a sure thing when it comes to eating healthy. Eating regular servings of fish is one of the following 13 tips for healthy living, in fact. Here's what we suggest: Make sure your portions are fully cooked, then press on.

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According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), if you live in Austin TX or Boston MA you might want to think twice before going out to eat.

CSPI has ranked 20 US cities from best to worst using criteria from the city's food inspectors. The ranking considers "how often city inspectors found five major health hazards and five less critical concerns in 30 high-end, medium-range, and fast-food eateries in each city." Hand washing, maintaining food at a proper temperature, and improper cooking are some of the major health hazards. Minor infractions include poor employee cleanliness and hygiene, rodent and/or insect infestation, presence of sick restaurant workers, and contact of bare hands with food.

The CSPI encourages cities to adopt a restaurant grading program similar to a program in LA County where restaurants have to post what health inspection grade they received -- A, B, or C. (Lower grades would result in temporary or permanent closure).

Keep reading to see the CSPI's "Dirty Dining" list from worst to best.

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The American College of Sports Medicine has tallied the statistics to rank 15 of America's largest metropolitan cities. Which cities were deemed the fittest? Which fell at the bottom, and why?

The goal of the fitness index is to give a quick glimpse of the health status of America's metropolitan areas. Ultimately the ACSM hopes to help cities achieve a higher level of physical activity and healthy eating habits. The reports about each city include strategies for improvement. The top five cities were:

• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Boston, MA
• Washington D.C.
• Atlanta, GA

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What makes the Men's Health Urbanathlon and Festival different from other marathons? What makes it so special?

It's special because it's awesome. And I don't care if I sound like a 13-year-old for describing that way, either.

Apart from its advanced level of awesomeness, the Urbanathlon is also different in that it is more than just a run; it's a long-distance, urban obstacle course that's stationed over various parts of New York City (and also Chicago, which is its own separate event). Participants cover a total of 8.1 miles, starting from the Band Shell area in Central Park and -- after jumping over taxi cabs, navigating through a scaffolding maze, climbing the 52 stories of a skyscraper, and successfully overcoming a myriad of other obstacles -- eventually ends at a festival of live entertainment, health and wellness expos, interactive sports, and samplings and demos by a range of fitness-related vendors at Battery Park.

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Think you're a healthy eater? Why? Because the foods you eat are labeled as being a "Healthy Option?" If so, you may also be wondering why your waistlines seems to telling a different story.

It turns out that most people will consume 131 percent more calories when they select food labeled "Healthy Option" on menus and on packaging, say researchers from Cornell University. What's more, because they're convinced that their meal choice was low in calories (which, incidentally, researchers also found is seldom the case), many people will go on to have more drinks, sides, and desserts.

At the end of the day, you're Healthy Option can quickly become the biggest challenge to your opting to eat healthy.

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For several days now, I've been writing an ongoing series of diet and fitness posts titled "Why the Pounds Are Sticking Around," which are a collection of tips sourced from the health magazine Self. Since the response has been so positive, I decided to forge ahead with an idea I had for a series of healthy living posts. Since exercise and training are more my forte, I sought out information from an outside source -- Men's Health magazine. To that end, I found ten great health and wellness tips that I thought would be perfect for pieces on healthy living.

So, just as I have been doing with the diet and fitness posts, I will also be posting one healthy living tip per day as part of a series I think I'm going to call "Living Well." I think you'll find these tips to be as interesting and as helpful as I did.

Healthy Tip # - Showering shouldn't be a contact sport

If you wear contact lenses, you should avoid doing so while showering, say the folks at Men's Health magazine. Based on research conducted at the University of Illinois at Chicago, wearing contacts while sudsing up can expose your eyes to infection-causing water-borne microbes.

Instead, keep contacts in their solution-filled container until after you're done showering. Then, after you've toweled off, you can throw those bad boys back in.

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If you were to guess what U.S. city consumes the most caffeine, which would it be? Me, I'd go with Seattle. Would I be correct? Not quite.

Seattle, while it does rank number one in coffee consumption, still falls short with regard to total caffeine consumption. Surprisingly (at least to me), Chicago was found to consume more total caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate, energy drinks, soda, and caffeine pills) than Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and every other major city in the nation. These results come from a survey conducted by Prince Market Research.

I've never actually been to the windy city, but if I do plan to visit in the near future, I suppose I should expect to run into a whole bunch of highly energized people while I'm there!!

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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.

Hooray for Paige Davis! I just got done interviewing the delightful host of TLC's Trading Spaces and I genuinely like her a lot. We spent an hour blabbing our brains out, and I have to tell you that the girl is as easy, sweet and likable in person as she is on the show. The world of home improvement fans exhaled a collective sigh of relief when TLC announced they were bringing back their beloved Paige.

She's sweet, she's smart, and she happens to have a smoking body. She's been professionally dancing for a very long time, and has some terrific advice to help get the rest of us in super shape as well. Paige's perspective on both life and fitness seems to be on track. Her enthusiasm is contagious. If you'd like to catch a case of her 'perfect life' germs...read on!

Fitz: You've been gone from Trading Spaces for a few years, and just finished shooting the first half of the new season. How'd it go?

Paige: Great! We've shot 13 episodes so far. It's been different, but great! It's wonderful to be back working with all of my friends who were there before. It is so much fun working with Frank. And Doug is like a sibling to me. We have this silly chemistry, and we just poke fun at each other and have a blast all the time. Plus, I've made lots of new friends. I love it.

Fitz: Moving is really hard work. The audience may wonder of you're just the cute perky girl hosting the show, without having to actual pitch in to the tasks. How much physical labor do you actually do while filming?

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Fitzness Fiends is a section devoted to you, the reader! We all have learned so much on our path to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! Fitzness Fiends are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect, some are not. All have health on the mind. Please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Barbara Tripp

Age: 41

Occupation: Dental Office Manager & single mom

How often do you exercise? Five times per week.

What type of exercise do you do? Aerobics, walking, jogging, hiking, bike riding, weight lifting, and most recently added to my routine, yoga. I love it!

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The American public ban on smoking has been one of the most successful citizen-led public health campaigns of all time. Think a similar-type ban on cupcakes might catch on?

There's a growing movement out there, spurred by a law requiring schools to alter the nutrition of its students, to help kids eat cleaner, healthier diets. The latest manifestation of this obesity panic comes in the form of a cupcake ban in some Chicago schools. That's right. There will be no cupcakes at a handful of holiday parties across the Chicago region. Parents are asked, instead, to bring veggie trays in lieu of sweets and water rather than juice boxes.

I like this idea. Some don't.

"To believe that denying a couple of cupcakes during the Holiday season is going to make a difference in a child's overall nutrition is idiotic," writes the author of this editorial. "The Holidays are a time for celebration. And for generations of American kids, that celebration has taken the form of treats at school, shared in a true spirit of Christmas, with their friends and classmates."

Banning cupcakes only destroys the notion that holidays are special, says this man. What do you say?

12 "healthy" foods that really aren't:

Why? Click to find out!

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This past weekend, a rather brutal marathon was held in Chicago. Brutal, as in the temperature was a boiling 88 degrees during the race. Normally, that's somewhat mild. But, for this time of year and for a long marathon, that temperature makes for unsafe conditions.

One 35 year-old died during the race, and thousands others quit before finishing and many suffered from heat-related problems as well. But, the lone death did not die to to heat exhaustion or another related malady, but from a rare heart condition according to reports this week.

A condition called "mitral valve prolapse" is being blamed in the death of Chad Schieber, although doctors estimate that the birth defect actually affects 2 to 5 percent of the population -- which is millions of people. Unfortunately, the condition is generally undiagnosed unless observed during a stethoscope exam, or in this unfortunate case, a fatality possibly brought on by the running conditions Mr. Schieber faced.

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Kelly Osbourne is one celebrity who hasn't really caved to the Hollywood standard of beauty (read: Blonde and extremely thin,) and I think that's very refreshing. Kelly recently lost a bit of weight, but don't worry -- she's not shrinking to Nicole Richie-sized proportions. Kelly recently shed around 15 lbs for her role in the hit musical Chicago. And at 135 lbs, I think she looks great at a healthy weight. Here's what she had to say about losing the weight:

• (On changes she made to her diet) "Instead of having 10 sodas in a day, I'll have one. And instead of having potato chips, I'll have rice cakes. But I'm not one of those people who will deny themselves something they want. If I'm hungry and I want a burger, I'm going to eat it and I don't care."
• (On her best diet tip) "Get rid of your microwave! It's the easiest thing to chuck some three-minute meal in. If you don't have one, you'll pick up something fresh."

Hmm ... I don't know about her diet, but I fully agree with her stance on the microwave. What do you think?

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