On a chilly winter day, hot soup often hits the spot. My problem with soup is that it rarely fills me up. Mind you, I'm a little lady and I still don't find a bowl of soup satisfying. I can't imagine how hungry a big guy would be without adding a large sandwich on the side.

I have a solution, though! For a long time, I've been adding other ingredients like cooked vegetables to canned soups to keep the calories low, the meals hot and my tummy full. It's really easy and quick and actually allows soup to become a meal in itself.

I've added my Easy to Make - Soup Dinner recipe to the online recipe book at Fitzness.com on page 32. I hope you'll give it a try!

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Ever wonder how healthy your heart is? There's a fairly easy way to get an accurate answer, says Men's Health magazine, citing a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

After following over 5,700 men for 23 years, researchers concluded that the faster your rate drops after exercise, the lower your risk of dying of a heart attack. To perform the calculation, first take note of your heart rate at exactly one minute after you've finished your workout. Then, take that number and subtract it from the maximum heart rate you reached during the workout. If the difference is more than 35bpm, there's a good chance you do not face an increased risk.

If, however, it is less than 35bpm, the study suggests there's need for caution. Specifically, if the difference is between 31-35bpm, your risk is increased by 40 percent; 25-30bpm, risk increase is 30 percent; less than 25bpm, risk increase is 110 percent.

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When it comes to exercise, most people start a program -- or are at least think of starting a program -- because they want to lose weight. Like I said, this is most people. But, it's not everyone.

Hardgainers -- that is, people who have difficulty putting on weight of any kind -- usually turn to weight training as a means of bulking up. These folks are usually classified as ectomorphs; the skinniest of the three somatypes, they are characterized by long arms and legs and a short upper body and in most cases have long, thin muscles. While the concept of somatypes is a bit outdated these days, labeling hard gainers as such serves the general purpose for the sake of this discussion.

However, try as some hardgainers might to pack on a bit of muscle, many find this task to be quite difficult. While this may be due to any of a host of reasons, there's a strong possibility that it may be related to the amount of cardio being performed. Because of the metabolism-boosting effect cardiovascular exercise has on the body, a hardgainer may have trouble holding onto enough calories to build and retain new muscle. Again, I'm speaking in very broad and general terms here, but this is pretty much the gist of it. So, if you happen to be someone who can't seem to put any meat on your bones, you may want to cut back on the time you spend on the treadmill and instead focus on mass-building, compound lifting moves.

Are you an animal at the gym? Do you push yourself to your physical limits, to the point where it feels like even your teeth are sweating? If so, that's fantastic. But are you still not seeing the gains you've been hoping for? Now for my follow up question: Are you sleeping at night? Because if you're not, it may be what's holding you back.

Researchers at Midwestern State University found that maintaining a sleep debt may impede your fitness progress. This makes sense for many reasons, chief among them being that most muscle repair and growth takes place while we're at rest. So, if you're not sleeping enough, you're not giving your body the time it needs to respond to your hard work.

In the study, male volunteers were kept awake for a full 24 hours and then completed a gym workout. While they were able to finish without any issues, the typical post-workout testosterone spike did not occur. Moreover, researchers posit that a lack of sleep may actually cause testosterone levels to fall over time.

Are your pressing exercises becoming somewhat stale? If so, try doing them with a new twist. Whether it's the bench press, the shoulder press, or even the squat press, your muscles will once again be shocked into response and your brain will send you a mental thank you note for eliminating the boredom.

Although it is possible to add a twisting motion to the end of a barbell press of almost any kind, it's really not all that practical. You would have to drastically reduce the amount of weight you use during the pressing exercise in order to effectively complete the twist at the end of the motion. So, with that being the case, we'll stick to dumbbell pressing exercises.

For the dumbbell bench press, start in the bottom part of the movement with your palms facing each other. Then, as you extend your arms and push the weights upward, twist your wrists. By the end of the movement, your palms should be facing away from you.

For the military press, adding a twisting motion has you performing what's known as The Arnold Press. Yes, this was named after the Governator himself. Start with your palms facing in and with the dumbbells just above your shoulders (but not resting on them). Then, as you push the weight upward, twist your wrists so that your palms are facing away from you by the end of the movement.

And for the squat press, this is where you may want to introduce two kinds of twists to your workout. The first is similar to The Arnold Press, twisting your wrists as you press up the weight so that your palms are facing away from you by the end. But, what you may also want to do is twist at your waist as you rise up from the squat position. Alternate your body twists from left to right with each rep you perform. This additional twist will incorporate more of your core muscles into this movement.

It's always good to change your workout every 4 to 6 weeks. Sometimes this can come in the form of an entirely new workout. Other times, it can be something as simple as changing the amount of weight you use, increasing or decreasing the number of reps you perform, or simply adding a little twist to your current program.

Some of the best fat-burning and muscle-building exercises are those that combine several movements into one. Not only will they help you cut down your time spent in the gym, but they'll also help you see results sooner.

The squat-press is probably one of the better known multi-muscle movements. Adding that exercise to your routine will surely help amp things up, as will adding a different, and lesser-known, compound movement called the Side Lunge with Upright Row.

To perform this exercise, start by holding a dumbell in each hand with your palms facing in. Next, take a big step to the right side with your right foot. As you do, bend your right knee approximately 90 degrees and keep it in line with your toes. As you do this, try to keep your left leg as straight as you can. Now, this is where it really gets good and difficult -- as you lower your body to the side by bending your knee, lift your elbows until the dumbells are just below your chin. As you then press off from your foot and return your leg to the original position, slowly lower the dumbells. Continue by next going to the left leg, then back to the right, and so on and so forth.