That's Fit

Jennifer Love Hewitt might have a body that many of us envy, but she sees a big difference between her body now and when she was younger. She even went so far as to say she wishes she had been nude from 12 to 28!

Pregnancy is tough on all bodies, and Laila Ali had a concern that many moms to be experience -- she was afraid that, since she was already a "big girl," that pregnancy would make her huge! That's not exactly the case, though -- check out how she's handling pregnancy right here.

If you're not watching Burn Notice on Thursday nights, you're missing out. Not just because it's action-packed and witty, but because Gabrielle Anwar plays one kick-ass character. To get ready for the role, she made a few changes to her diet, and many other celebs have made similar dietary changes.

See you later, Kerri Walsh -- it looks like beach volleyball superstar Misty May-Treanor will be trying out a new partner ... at least for this season's Dancing With the Stars. She's not only content to be the winningest beach volleyball female of all time, or to have two beach volleyball gold medals -- she wants to be the best dancer, too!

I'm a little biased, since I'm a huge fan of Misty to begin with, but I have to say this is the most excited I've been for DWTS. While I enjoy seeing celebrities out there dancing, I like watching the athletes on the show even more. Seeing people with quick feet on the court or field translate that talent to dancing footwork is fascinating, and is a big reminder that athleticism comes in many forms.

Misty will be joined by fellow gold medal winner Maurice Greene, a sprinter, and retired football player Warren Sapp, along with Brooke Burke, Kim Kardashian, Susan Lucci, and others. Will you be tuning in?

While Laila Ali has certainly been in the public eye through her boxing, appearance on Dancing With the Stars, and her job hosting American Gladiators, she's not under quite the same pressure as some Hollywood starlets to stay thin throughout her pregnancy. However, in an interview with Pregnancy, Laila spills about her stresses, and I think many of us can easily relate.

"I always thought I was going to gain a lot of weight because I'm a big girl naturally," said Laila, who, at 5'11' normally weighs in at around 175. "I thought, 'Oh God, I'm going to be like 250 lbs. and huge.' I know a lot of women have that fear. But, because I'm already a big girl, I was just imagining myself to be giant."

Her concern doesn't really stem from vanity -- she's mainly worried about having a big baby. She has a big sweet tooth, and she's working hard to control it, especially now that she's in her third trimester. She continues to hit the gym four days a week for cardio on the elliptical and light upper body weights, and it sounds like she's appreciating her body through her pregnancy. I bet she'll follow a sensible plan after the baby to get back to her fighting weight!

When the first season of Dancing With the Stars started, I thought it would be terribly cheesy. Kind of like this decade's version of Circus of the Stars. (Do you remember that? Or did I just age myself terribly?) Well, Dancing With the Stars is terribly cheesy, but it's also oddly enjoyable. If you've watched the show, you've probably seen celebrities like Joey Fatone and Marie Osmond lose weight during the season. All their hours of rehearsal and hard work paid off on the scale.

Dancing is a fun and effective way to exercise. It adds variety to your routine. You can join a dance class if you'd like, or, if you're a bit shy about dancing in front of others, try one of the many dance fitness DVDs on the market. There are options ranging from hip-hop to latin to bellydance to ballroom.

Pop star Melanie Brown (aka Mel B) may have a fitness DVD in the works. After the Spice Girl appeared on Dancing with the Stars, her body is more toned than ever. She states that she works out three times a week and incorporates a lot of weights into her fitness routine.

"I've devised my own workout that hopefully I'll be sharing with people soon," says Mel B.

After her stint as Scary Spice, Mel B released two solo albums. Her second-place finish on Dancing with the Stars wasn't her last TV run, either. She's reported on Access Hollywood and is scheduled to host a singing competition with Joey Fatone this summer.

Check out AOL Body for more celebrity fitness news.

Mario Lopez showed the world he could do a little dancing on Dancing With the Stars, but who expected this? Our beloved former A.C. Slater has taken his act to Broadway, joining the cast of A Chorus Line!

Mario will be playing Zach (no, not a nod to his former Saved By The Bell BFF, Zack Morris), a demanding director in charge of casting the chorus roles for a new musical on Broadway. He debuts this Tuesday, so you'd better get your tickets fast -- if these promo pictures are any indication, this is going to be one hot show!

Or, at the very least, Mario will be looking hot, and that's enough for some of us. I'd have to say Broadway agrees with him. Wouldn't you? Check out the gallery for proof!

Dancing With the Stars has certainly become quite the phenomenon, and I know I always find it interesting to hear about the training the stars (and dancers) have to go through in order to pull off those dances each week. Even for professional athletes, learning a whole new skill (and performing it so they can be judged on national TV) is difficult.

Olympian Gold Medalist figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi is currently on Dancing With the Stars, and she's joined with OK! Magazine to blog about her experience. I had hoped for a little more detail on the dancing training itself, but it's still a really interesting read. She's honest about what she finds difficult and what makes her nervous -- tonight she'll be dancing the tango, which is requiring her to bring out more anger than she can easily manage.

Anyone who is a fan of Kristi on the show or simply remembers her Olympic victory will get a kick out of what she has to say.

At 56, Dancing with the Stars contestant Jane Seymour looks fabulous -- she must be the envy of all the other mothers at parent's day. But is her youthful look natural? If you had asked her a couple of years ago, she would have insisted that yes, her look are natural and she would never consider plastic surgery, but she seems to have changed her tune.

According to this article from the Daily Mail, while in 2005, Seymour credited her looks on good genes and a sensible diet, she now admits to undergoing a few plastic surgery treatments, including breast implants and and eye lift.

I'm not a fan of plastic surgery, and she probably should have been upfront to begin with, but she does look good -- at least she looks natural. What do you think?

Thumbing through a very tabloid-ish magazine the other day, I came across an article promising to reveal the secret behind Mel B's weight loss. Here's the deal: Ex-Spice Girl Mel gave birth a mere few months ago to Eddie Murphy's baby, got married to someone else a short while later and is now competing on Dancing with the Stars looking very fit and in-shape.

So how did she do it? She claims to hate 'dieting', and swears that drinking cold water gave her the body of her dreams, because your body burns calories trying to warm the water up. This sounds a bit hokey if you ask me. Celebrity Diet Doctor recently looked into her so-called diet trick, and he insists that while theoretically, this extra calorie burn does happen when you have your water ice-cold, it would only really lead to a 2 or 3 pound weight loss per year at best.

Still, drinking water is important, so if you want to drink it ice-cold, go for it. However, I will stick to water at a room temperature in the interest of my sensitive teeth.

I've never seen a single episode of Dancing With The Stars, so to me, Mario Lopez will always be AC Slater. But even so, Slater looks great -- even better than he did during his time at Bayside High, I would say. In an effort to get people moving, Lopez recently did a video for People.com on some of his favourite fitness moves. His workout MO? Keep it fun with ... what else? Dance moves -- salsa in particular.

Lopez also encourages the use to of weights in your workout routine. With an inexpensive set of dumbells, he says, you can do a whole range of exercises that will keep you trim and toned.

To watch the video for yourself, click here.

I admit it. I'm totally hooked on the TV show "Dancing with the Stars" (ABC Tuesdays 8/7C). I watch it every week with my wife (she's thrilled), we vote on the Website, we provide armchair critiques of each dancer's performance and each judge's ratings. If you haven't seen it yet, this is a reality show where talk show hosts, athletes, third-rate actors and singers are paired up with ballroom dancing champions to compete in front of professional judges. The judges conclusions are combined with audience reactions (via telephone and Web voting) and each week one competitor goes home.

My wife and I are very interested in ballroom dancing ourselves. We started lessons a few years ago, but time schedules for both of us get out-of-hand and we haven't been back to it since.

But watching this great show has reignited our interest, and I think we'll be making the time to take some more lessons. And, as it turns out, ballroom dancing is great exercise, according to a study done by the National Institute of Cardiology in Mexico, presented at the World Congress of Cardiology last month.