That's Fit

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. Fitz, For about a year now, I've been doing exercises for my obliques. I've done them about three or four times each week and have done a variety of different exercises each workout. I'm also a naturally thin person who recently lost 10 pounds (so I'm really thin now) and I still have those awful love handles! How do I get rid of them? Emily

A. Ugh Emily! This is a question I've answered before, but since it's such a tremendous source of frustration for so many...I believe the topic of love handles is worth visiting again. You're actually the perfect example of how annoying they can be. You are a trim person who does a variety of abdominal exercises frequently. Most folks would believe that would be enough. Unfortunately for some people, it is not.

Love handles often have to do less with abdominal muscles and more with body type. For example. I'm a pretty trim chic, but when I have gained weight...it's all gone to my boobs, belly and thighs. In fact, I used to be 40 pounds heavier than I am today, but I've never had love handles. Some people get it all in their hips. Even if they achieve their ideal weight, some of those people are still stuck with dreaded 'saddlebags'. Your issue is the same. Great fitness. Lean body. One or two annoying pockets of fat.

When I was about 35 pounds heavier, I used to think about my body all the time. I was constantly fretting over the parts I didn't like, wondering how I was going to change, stressing over food and agonizing over clothes. I was all-consumed. I spent so much time thinking about my body, that I kind of lost track of the more important things in life. I certainly must have been far less productive and thoughtful to others than I am now as well.

Throughout my fitness journey, which truly began when I started teaching group fitness classes at 15 years old....I have had many great and not-so-great moments with my body. I even enjoyed a few great years in my teens as a bulimic. Whoopee! (That was really the low point.) Having said that. Along the way, I've learned to enjoy a variety of challenging exercises and balance my fitness. I also learned to appreciate and enjoy produce more than Cheetos. I got a grip on eating right and now I never fret at all over what I put in my mouth. I simply make great choices most of the time.

I was plugging along on my treadmill today when I decided to focus on the training zones that light up on my machine as I exert myself. My zones are: Warm Up/Cool Down, Fat Burn, Endurance, and Performance. I'm a definite Fat Burn girl and today, I consistently lit up this entire area. When I ran, I hit Endurance and when I transitioned into an incline workout, I moved with force into Performance mode. This is a hard one to maintain so I made only a brief appearance here.

So these training modes got me thinking about my overall exercise routine. I started considering just how hard I push myself when it comes to physical fitness. Obviously, the more rigorous the activity, the better it is for my heart, my muscles, my whole body. Am I rigorous about my workouts? Am I strenuously putting forth effort? Or am I mostly warming up and cooling down?

After giving some thought to my questions, I've determined that what I saw on the treadmill today pretty accurately portrays my daily exercise output. I do more than warm up and cool down. And while I occasionally endure and perform, I typically stay quite firm in the fat burn mode. I'm sure this is fine. But I like a challenge every now and then. So tomorrow, I'm shooting for better. I'm going to light up that Endurance bar, and I'm going to keep it shining bright for as long as I can stand it. I'm going to endure. Yes, I am. And maybe one day, when this becomes old hat, I'll start performing. That's my goal.

What's your training zone?

FitSpirit explores the mind-body connection and the intangible benefits we gain from our efforts to stay physically fit.

Do you engage in "fat" talk? Many women do. It's the norm, actually, for women to regularly say negative things about their bodies. Research proves it.

A study from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina -- home to great white water rafting, by the way -- reveals that "fat talk" is social currency for women. It goes something like this:

"I'm so fat."

"Oh, no, you look great, but my thighs are HUGE."

"YOUR thighs are huge? Look at MINE!"

And so on.

"Fat" talk is not all bad. It creates a solidarity among females. It allows them to open up. It's a way of sharing, disclosing, and receiving reassurance. But wouldn't it be great if we could bond as women without trashing our bodies in the process?

Let's try to minimize our own "fat" talk and see what happens. I predict we'll boost our moods and may even secure a better chance at making healthy choices, perhaps even trimming down.

A positive attitude can do wonders for mental health. So compliment yourself next time you're about to slip into "fat" talk. Surely, you've got a few redeeming qualities you can acknowledge. I know, it seems like bragging, but give a try. I'll go first. I won't tell you about my least favorite body part, although it's tempting. I'll only tell you this: I like my calf muscles. I consider them my best feature, in fact.

That wasn't so hard. Your turn.

Watching my kids' milestones warms my heart. When they first walked, talked, fed themselves, brushed their own teeth, I was one proud mama. Today, I'm bursting at the seams with pride, all because my six-year-old hopped on his bike -- he's only been riding for few months -- and accompanied me on a six-mile trek.

With aching legs and labored breathing, we rode over flat terrain, and up hill, and down hill, and when we arrived at our half-way destination -- my sister's house -- we took a break. Then it was back on the bike for the return trip home. Joey said mid-way home, and mid-incline too, that he wished his Daddy would arrive -- Daddy has a truck, and Joey thought he needed rescuing. He didn't, though. He muscled his way through our journey and even announced at one point, "Can you believe a little guy is riding all this way?" I could believe it. I was witness to it. And it was grand.

Riding his bike this morning was so good for Joey. It was physically good, and mother-and-son good, and most of all, it was self-esteem good. Joey is proud, amazed even, that he accomplished such a task today. It makes me want to ride with him again, after he recovers from this fitness feat. When I told him, "Joey, I think we should do this every weekend," he replied with pure fatigue, "No! How about every 10 weeks?"

Every weekend, every 10 weeks. It doesn't matter to me. I'm game either way.

If you get heartburn more than twice a week, you ought to embrace the basic tenets of a healthy lifestyle. Not only will they keep you in fighting shape, they'll solve that indigestion problem too.

Heartburn, sometimes a sign of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), can be minimized, even cured, with the right kind of exercise. Try walking, biking, swimming, yoga, and gentle weight training. Steer clear of high-impact aerobic activity -- this can make reflux more intense. And try to wait two hours after eating before exercising.

Gaining weight can also make GERD worse. A rise in your body mass index can bring on or worsen symptoms, especially if the pounds land in the abdominal region. Eating smaller portions works too by decreasing acid. Make sure to eat meals three hours prior to bedtime since symptoms are often worse at night.

Some of the most depressing jobs on this planet are the ones where people are isolated for long periods, such as in Australian mining towns or on Antarctic stations. But in the future we're no longer going to be dealing with just "on this planet" anymore, a new job opportunity is fast approaching that will carry with it similar mental health challenges: working on the moon.

Researchers are now looking further into the link between isolation and mental health than they ever have before in preparation for the impending need for workers on the moon. Understanding how people will be affected by the environment and distance from home (and Earth!) will go a long way to minimizing negative effects and keeping everybody happy.

Sometimes when life throws you a bunch of difficult situations to handle and you think you will never get through it all, your inner strength may just need to take a vacation to let you know your body and mind need a complete rest before you totally shut down. Stress. The silent killer. Oh boy was I there the last few weeks and this past weekend my inner strength said it had had quite enough to deal with and was time for a vacation. I had hit that brick wall and it knocked me flat on my big girl pantie butt. Health issues, financial issues, sick family members, computer problems, relationship problems, and the loss of a dalmatian that has been a child in the family for 13 years. No willpower in the world was going to drag me out of bed. I am not a violent person but finally when I did make it out of bed, I just wanted to hit something and cry.

Then it dawned on me all of the articles I had read on boxing and how it relieved stress and not to mention was a good cardio work out. Well I didn't want to go to a gym all puffy eyed from crying for two days and start beating the crap out of punching bags in public. People might think I was waging a war inside toward someone. And actually I was waging a war inside with life's situations that somehow creep up on you when you reach that soon to be 50 mark and responsibilities seem to triple. So I stuffed an over sized pillow case full of towels and blankets and hung it over the door of my closet and whala a punching bag and a huge stress reliever. When I was completely out of breath, I sank to the floor and let the weight of the world fall to the ground. Nothing had been resolved any more than it was 15 minutes before that, but it felt like it had.

Just getting rid of some of the stress let my inner strength back in to start dealing with everything that I faced. I miss my dog "Cally" just like losing a family member but now I am able to focus on the memories we had with her and not just the pain of losing her. I got a letter saying I was accepted into a health program that will give me financial assistance for medical care, and after three weeks of trying to figure out a computer problem, my best friend finally figured out my computer problems with me over the phone and that allowed me to get back into the server to blog. I should have made that make shift punching bag years ago and now I am a firm believer of lightweight boxing and doing something to get rid of stress.

In a new study, published in this week's edition of Neurology, women with chronic headaches were found to be 4 times as likely to also suffer from symptoms of major depression. Those with migraines were 32 times as likely to be depressed.

Researchers say it could go either of two ways -- the pain of headaches and migraines could be encouraging symptoms of depression, or the depression itself could be heightening the perception of pain. Either way, treating chronic headaches and migraines gets a lot tougher with depression thrown into the mix.

Talk about misery!