That's Fit

Gabriel Olds is a Hollywood actor. He's appeared on CSI, Law & Order: SVU and Six Feet Under, and his most recent film is Life of the Party. Usually the bad guy on TV, Olds is really a pretty good guy. Why? Because when it comes to women, it isn't fake boobs or fixed noses he prefers. Forget puffy lips and implanted buttocks. This guy like the real thing.

It took this guy a string of unsuccessful dates to figure out exactly what he wanted: Real bodies. He suspects other guys feel the same way.

"This is the part I think women don't understand," says Olds in a Glamour magazine interview. "When a guy falls in love, his lover's body parts become bewitching. I'm not going to tell you that our heads don't turn when we see a stacked blond walking down the street. But when we fall for you -- really, really fall for you -- you hijack our sense of beautiful. What's sexy to us? You -- in the "before" picture."

I've been an occasional watcher of Days of our Lives ever since my grandmother used to blare it in the afternoons when she looked after me as a child, so I've seen Alison Sweeney's weight yo-yo as much as her character Sami's love interests have over the years. But now, as the host of the Biggest Loser alongside her Days gig, she seems to be healthy and happy ... and she looks great! She recently spoke to Glamour Magazine about her weight. Here are some of the highlights:

• "When I stopped obsessing about being skinny, and set my goal at being "healthy'" the results started showing immediately. I felt better cutting out breads, pastas, and sweets. I hit the gym wanting to get back into shape, and it wasn't such a chore because I was doing it for the right reasons. At least for me."
• "Weight loss is an ongoing issue. It's not a 'diet' that can be over, then you forget about it. You have to be willing to make the change for the rest of your life. Which sounds a little overwhelming, but really, for me it makes it easier for me. A healthy 'lifestyle' means mental as well as physical, and sometimes, for my 'mental' health, I need a treat, or a glass of wine, or whatever. and you have to allow for those days. "

She seems to have a good grasp of what's healthy and what's not. Don't you think?

Off all the women's magazines out there, I've always thought that Glamour was one of the more reputable ones. They seem to tackle issues of global importance and, at least in most of the issues I've read, were quick to emphasize healthy lifestyles over looking good at any cost.

But regardless of where they stand on such issues, they're still joining countless other magazines who crop images of their cover models to make them look impossibly thin. The latest victim is Ugly Betty star America Ferrera. I think there's no question that they cropped the image of her -- just look at those arms. They are certainly not proportional to the rest of the body.

I understand that thin sells more magazines than frumpy, but Ferrera is the furthest thing from frumpy -- she's gorgeous and talented and fully deserving of a spot on the cover as is. Don't you agree?

The mystery of Star Jones Reynolds and how she lost all that weight is soon to be common knowledge in the upcoming September issue of Glamour magazine (available Aug 7th). Star says she chose to do an article versus an interview because she wanted to go "as in depth as possible" about how she's changed over the years.

Star has a lot going for her right now as she also has a new talk show scheduled to premier on August 20th on Court TV. And when asked if she has trouble looking at past, heavier, photos of herself Star says it doesn't bother her -- instead it reminds her not to let herself get to that place again.

There are two trains of thoughts out there. One that says to stay completely focused on every moment of your workouts to get the best out of it, and then there is mine. Mine says do whatever it is you need to do to accomplish your goal, make the time fly by, and allow your training to remain as enjoyable as possible so you continue to go back to it.

For example. I love exercise! In fact, I've made my career out of it. I'm also human. Sometimes my four mile jog just becomes freaking dull and if I don't have anything to take my mind off of the constant 'left, right, left, right' in my mind I would just be one more quitter in the world. So this is what little Miss Fitzness does to pursue her amazing goal of ultimate fitness. I get on the treadmill, stepper, gauntlet, rower, etc, completely armed. I bring an mp3 player, cell phone with ear piece, magazine, and then I usually set up in front of a T.V. At that point I set my magazine with many pretty pictures (think Cosmo or Glamour) on the machine and start to run. Then I choose my noise. Sometimes I chat, and sometimes I listen to music. Sometimes I talk on the phone, while looking at pictures and then check out the scroll on FOX News.

Does any of that make my workout suffer? Heck no! It allows me to complete it. All of these nonsensical distractions allow me to avoid any silly chatter in my head that would talk me out of finishing. In fact, usually I end up going harder than I planned, because I'm not bored to death! On the flip side, when I'm training for my sport, Full-contact Kickboxing, I'm 100% without interference. Fully focused. Ready for everything. If you are an athlete, I encourage you to do the same.