That's Fit

"Pretty Boy Floyd" is not known for mincing words or sugar-coating anything. In fact this elite fighter who has won six world championship belts in five weight classes and has gone undefeated as a professional says it straight. He describes himself as the "greatest athlete ever," and honestly ... has done a lot to back that up.

He's featured in the book, Men's Health Celebrity Diet Secrets 2008, and I think one of his quotes is both poignant and hysterical. I encourage you not to read any further if you're easily offended though. He wasn't vulgar, but his thoughts on maintaining flat abs isn't for children either.

Before I go there, I just want you to know that Floyd not only walks the walk, but he has made it possible for his team (those who bust their butt to keep in at the top of his game) to get and stay fit as well. He's purchased memberships to 24-Hour Fitness for all of his employees. "I want to keep everyone around me healthy and in shape," he says.

Moms who followed a "hearty" diet prior to conception are more likely to give birth to boys, according to a recent study. We touched on this here at That's Fit yesterday, but I thought I would go into some of the details I discovered.

The study found that, out of a group of women who followed a high energy diet (which generally included a daily bowl of breakfast cereal) around the time of conception, 56% had sons. Out of the group that took in fewer calories, including moms who skipped breakfast, only 45% had sons. The women in the first group not only consumed more calories, but but took in a large variety of nutrients.

Not everybody is sold on this theory, but there are some valid points to back up the findings.

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 two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Dear Fitz. My high school offers very few sports, but I'd like to play something. I'd like to try out for football, but my old-fashioned mother thinks that will make me a "tomboy". What do you think? Katie

A. You've come to the right place Katie! I happen to have embedded myself in the traditionally male sport of full-contact kickboxing, and you know what? It made me a better woman! Sports are sports. Whether you play with a ball, racket, gloves or sneakers...sports are just a more fun way to exercise and flex your competitive muscles. Period.

I loved getting in the ring to try and knock an opponent out. I loved the strategy, speed, and power of the event. Fighting, in fact, is one of my favorite things to do. Some of the girls I've competed against thought they had to take on some sort of macho persona. Short hair, yucky jeans, and mean snarls. I, on the other hand, preferred to act like a monster in the ring and show up to the after-party like a lady in a pretty dress and heels. Embracing my athleticism, strength and courage has allowed me to appreciate how wonderful it is to be a woman. A strong, athletic, educated woman who loves to have the doors held for her.

Having a young child with a dangerous medical condition can be a parent's worse nightmare. Especially when that medical condition is referred to as "the rarest of the rare." Niemann-Pick disease afflicts around 200 people in the United States, so people can only imagine how limited the treatment options are.

A family in Oregon is battling with such a problem alongside their 10-year-old son, Peyton. He has this genetic metabolic disorder which leads to neurological deterioration. It's so rare that the drugs alone cost over $100,000 (and there is no cure). Dementia is also part of Niemann-Pick which leads to it being called "childhood Alzheimer's."

The issue is that this disease affects Peyton's spleen, liver and brain due to his inability to metabolize cholesterol. The Hadleys know that their son's chances of living past his 20s are very slim, due to Niemann-Pick Type C being fatal. But Peyton is a normal kid who loves to collect baseball cards and read the Hardy Boys. If you'd like to help support this family, head on over to HadleyHope.com and find out more!

There appears to be a gap in the health care system (ha! one among many...) when it comes to identifying eating disorders in boys and some ethnic groups. Obviously, boys and some foreign cultures don't display the same behaviors and symptoms as the "white females" the system was designed for, and so these patients inevitably "fall through the cracks." One example is the fact that doctors and clinicians are trained to pay special attention when patients express an interest in being "thin," but most boys will instead say things along the lines of "fit" and "healthy," and those terms don't set off the same alarms.

So it's pretty obvious at this point that some of the training in this area needs closer examination and perhaps even a complete overhaul. As news about the rising obesity epidemic in this country continues, the pressure for our children will only get worse.

Not too long ago we heard about how many young men and boys avoid seeing a doctor when they should for fear of being seen as some kind of wimp or something. This tendency of avoiding health care is hurting people, teens specifically.

Now, though, there's this article that explains a study on why "being manly is good for you." It basically says that the masculine principles of self-reliance, discipline, and macho stubbornness can actually help some men heal faster and better from injuries and illnesses.

The moral of the story seems to be this: go ahead and be a macho tough guy, just know when to seek help.

Here's a thought for all the single women of the future: less and less males are being born every year on average, and this trend has been going on for the last 30 years. So ladies if it seems someday like there just "aren't any good men left in the world" you might actually be right.

The cause for the trend is "unclear," but reasons like people having babies at older ages and environmental factors seem to be getting the blame so far. But there are a lot of things mentioned in this article that make me wonder, like why do boy babies have a higher mortality rate than girls? And why are some races at higher risk of death? Sometimes news just makes you more curious, instead of more informed.

Reading the recent blog here on That's Fit about "Why men ignore their wives" prompted me into a little fun research myself. So if men ignore their wives, why do women put up with it? The websites were endless. WOW. It seems that women tolerate a lot of certain behaviors from their spouses like being ignored, being fussed at or looked down upon and even being abused physically because of cultural beliefs, economic factors and personal fears. There is the disgrace of being a statistic, of being a divorcee. With our divorce rate hovering somewhere between 50 percent and 60 percent it is not hard to see that men and women really can not get along. Maybe the high divorce rate can be contributed to being ignored. wink wink...

But one study in particular stood out to me on why divorce rates are climbing. It emphasized that attraction in the work place between men and women has always been relevant but men had always held the dominant jobs in the work force. But that statistic is changing with women bosses increasing and more jobs like doctors, lawyers, police officers, fire fighters, and even politics with many women now leading in congress and the senate. Women are beginning to have equality in leadership roles. Many women who do well professionally find few men who are secure enough to be with them.

Being a man and being masculine are two different things. A man is a boy who has reached a certain age. A masculine man is a boy who has finally matured as an adult. Some men never reach that maturity. So I guess women have to look at being ignored by their husbands the same way they look at their children that ignore them when asked to do their chores.