The secret to becoming fit and trim is painfully simple, and I know you can follow these easy instructions. No diets, pills or programs necessary!

Changing your post-workout routine, tools to "un-Gumby-fy" your yoga routine, and other neat fitness training tips can be found at ...

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I was a cheerleader back in my high school days. When my squad was training for competitions, we really worked out long and hard. Many times, the muscles in our legs would visibly shake with strain. Our coach, restricted from recommending vitamins or anything of that sort, always brought bananas with her to practice to help us with muscle weakness and muscle cramps. Bananas aren't my favorite fruit, but I have to admit that they helped.

While bananas are a decent source of potassium, there are many other options. Potassium-rich foods are important for your diet. Not only do they help with muscle cramps, but they can also have a positive effect on blood pressure. Good sources include:

• Avocado
• Baked potato with skin
• Edamame
• Papaya
• Sweet potato
• Salmon
• Tomato sauce
• Winter squash
• Cantaloupe
• Dried apricots

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Not like you need a reason to go bananas, but if you did, Jacki's got 'em.

Thanksgiving officially kicked off the holiday season. Laura has seven secrets for sticking to your diet between now and January 1st.

Horatio Sanz will never lose his sense of humor, but he did lose 100 pounds. Check him out now!

Karla wonders if you can go home again ... without picking up the bad habits you learned there. Hear more about her internal battle between North and South.

Wu Long tea: Real weight loss miracle or just another celebrity diet fad? You be the judge.

If you overdid it this Thanksgiving, don't sweat it ... undo it! Fitz tells you how.

San Francisco 49ers stars Steve Young and Jerry Rice visit Biggest Loser Families. Find out what happened.

Are you walking in a winter wonderland? Before you start digging out, read up on how to approach shoveling as a workout.

When you're done catching up with your favorite That's Fit posts, hop over to Holidash for more tips on staying healthy and fit this holiday season.

No monkey business here -- bananas are the real thing. Like corn, eggs, salmon, and spinach they are great source of vitamin B6, a little something known to treat the colon well.

A healthy colon is just one reason to load up on bananas, says RealAge. Here's another: Bananas help ward off Parkinson's disease and depression too.

Eating Well experts suggest you dress up your bananas like this: Add some protein to your yellow fruit with mini-rice cake stacks, or add chocolate for a quick and easy dessert (it's OK, chocolate isn't so bad in moderation), and whip up some spicy banana ketchup for your burgers.

Got any banana fixes you'd like to share?

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Resistant starch is found in foods such as potatoes, rice, corn, and bananas. It's the key behind trendy, new diets like the Morning Banana Diet. It's said to resist digestion while filling you up and reducing your hunger.

To be effective for weight loss, most foods that contain resistant starch need to be cooked then cooled. For example, beans, barley, corn, potatoes, and brown rice need to be cooked and then cooled for the resistant starch to form. Reheating destroys the resistant starch. The one exception is bananas which should be eaten raw.

Vital Juice Daily has two recipes that are high in resistant starch:

• Herbed Potato Salad
• Smoked Turkey, Black Bean, Bell Pepper, and Corn Salad

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That's Fit Club is our feature devoted to you, the reader! We have all learned so much on our paths to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! That's Fit Club members are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect; some are not. But all have health on the mind. Besides showing you off, we want to reward you for all of your hard work! Everlast and Everlast Woman are giving gorgeous workout T-shirts to each featured member! To join, please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Stephanie Hobbs

Age: 25

Occupation: Technical Support

How often do you exercise? Five to six days a week.

What type of exercise do you do? Running, cycling, and high-intensity aerobic exercises with weights.

Read on to see how much weight Stephanie has lost, how much she has to go, and what keeps her going!

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If you missed our daily postings this past week, we invite you to take some time to catch up on our prior week's news and gear up for a new week of healthy living information and inspiration.

The Japanese have gone bananas over the new Morning Banana Diet, while PETA has just plain gone bananas, suggesting that we all start eating breast milk ice cream.

Sure, you could lose weight eating eggs at every meal, but why would you?

Krispy Kreme trys to find its niche in a failing donut market, with ice cream. What's your favorite indulgence?

Bar Refaeli is committed ... to her legs. Find out why she looks so good.

Her sister lost weight, and now she looks older. Fitz weighs in on why.

The cooler weather is officially here, Chris shares several ways to keep your health from going south this winter.

Have a great week, everyone!

The Japanese love their fad diets, and a new one has taken the country by storm. The Morning Banana Diet has become so popular due to recent publicity that grocery stores across Japan are sold out of bananas, according to recent reports from banana importers. What's all the hype about? Here's a run-down of the diet:

• You eat a raw, unfrozen banana for breakfast.
• You can eat whatever you want for lunch and dinner, even fried foods. However, dessert is prohibited. You must eat dinner before 8 pm.
• At 3 pm, you can have a sweet snack, like chocolates or cookies. You can have something healthier, but if you want chocolate, don't deny yourself.

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My son started soccer practice last night and we were both so happy. There's a lull over the summer months where my son doesn't have any organized sports in season, and we both miss it terribly. But last night, I remembered what a time crunch it is planning for meals when there are practices to consider.

My son and I usually eat dinner at 7 p.m. -- smack in the middle of his soccer practice. It's too early for us to eat dinner before practice, so I like to make sure my son has a healthy snack before to keep him energized and curb his hunger during practice. We don't get too creative with the snacks, either. A piece of fruit -- usually an apple or a banana -- is my son's pre-practice snack of choice.

According to Healthcastle, the plain-Jane popular fruits pack a powerful nutritional punch. Check out the gallery to see the details.

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Want permission to eat before you go to bed? Here it is: About 90 minutes before you turn in for the night, head to the kitchen and make yourself a snack. Make it light and around 200 calories and you won't head into dangerous eating territory. You will relax your muscles, quiet your spinning mind, and rev up the sleep-inducing hormones serotonin and melatonin -- if you eat one of these 10 picks.

Bananas. Bananas contain serotonin, melatonin, and the muscle-relaxing magnesium.

Chamomile Tea. Chamomile has a mild sedating effect.

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For some people, merely talking about exercise seemingly causes their muscles to grow. For the rest of us mere mortals, building lean and strong muscle takes a great deal of time and dedicated effort. That's why preserving even the smallest amount of muscle gain is paramount.

Well, it turns out that keeping all your hard-earned muscle from atrophying doesn't require taking expensive nutritional supplements or spending your entire life in the gym. In fact, you probably have just what you need in your kitchen right now.

A study from Tufts University in Massachusetts found that older people who consumed the highest amount of potassium also had the most amount of total body muscle. One possible reason for this mineral/muscle link can be the neutralization of acid that causes muscle breakdown as we age.

Note to self: Add bananas to grocery shopping list.

Here's an interesting tidbit I learned from Fitsugar today: Bananas have the highest concentration of antioxidants when they're at their most ripe, meaning when they're just starting to turn a bit brown. Now, I have to admit, I'm much more of a non-ripe banana eater--I prefer them when they're just past being green. Otherwise they're too mushy for me. You too? Here are some healthy ways to stomach the mushy banana:

• Throw it in a smoothie. Browning bananas are much better-tasting in a smoothie than green or yellow ones. I throw it in with some vanilla yogurt and a touch of chocolate sauce -- it's oh-so-delicious.
• Slice it and have it with some granola or cereal.
  
• Much it up and spread it on toast, with some peanut butter if you like.
  

Afraid of bananas? Don't be--they have plenty of heart-healthy nutrients and aren't too high in calories either -- a medium one has 103 calories.

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Although in principle I like the idea of them, I've never been a big one for trying home beauty remedies for fear of ending up with some disaster like a head full of greasy hair that stinks like beer and mayonnaise. But here's one that seems a little less intimidating than some others: using bananas to get more beautiful skin.

You can go as simple as scraping off the insides of a banana peel and then apply them directly to your face (I tried this and although weird at first my skin did feel more moisturized!) or you can spend a little more time and mix up a banana-and-honey based facial mask.

My pantry is missing a few of the needed ingredients so I'll have to go shopping before I can try the recipe, but what do you think: worth a shot or just pointless food on your face? (After all, simply eating the banana is good for you too!)

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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: Christine Zulski

Age: 30 Occupation: Account Manager

How often do you exercise? Ideally at least five times per week, but I shoot for six.

What type of exercise do you do? I do interval training for cardio for 25 - 30 minutes, and I do strength training after that for about another 30 minutes.

What gets you to workout, even when you're feeling lazy? Knowing that if I don't work out, I will feel very guilty about it. Working out on days when I feel lazy is extremely rewarding after the fact.

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Get enough potassium every day? The mineral that is essential for proper cellular functions in the human body is most often associated with eating bananas, but what if you don't like that tropical fruit?

Nutritional supplements are a fine way to supplement your potassium intake, although the word supplement is the operative word there. Eating potassium-rich foods is really the best way to get a balanced diet along with all the other vitamins and minerals required for healthy living.

You may even have a potassium deficiency and not even know it. Do any of the symptoms below sound familiar to you?

• An abnormal heart rhythm (particularly in people with heart conditions)
• Constipation
• Fatigue
• Weakness in the muscles, or muscle spasms
• Paralysis, including paralysis of the lungs

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