Once, I was at my son's school during recess and noticed that (other than a few exceptions) it was mostly boys playing kickball and girls sitting in small groups around the jungle gym chatting and playing cats cradle. At the time, I didn't think much of it, but I was reminded of it the day when I read an article about how young and old females aren't as active as males.

Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University followed 10 and 11-year-old children during recess and found that boys tend to engage in more active play than girls. On the flip side of the coin, another study found that women over age 70 are less likely to be active than men.

It's important for everyone to be active. But it's certainly important for girls (during the formative years when their bones are growing) and older women (who need to maintain bone density) to be physically active.

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As a former cheerleader, I'm not even remotely surprised by the recently released statistics showing that cheerleading causes the highest percentage of injuries for female athletes. When you consider the stunts, and lifts, and jumps, and tumbling... it's just not a shocker at all.

According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research based out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, cheerleading accounts for 65.1% of female athlete injuries at the high school level and 66.7% at college level.

The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators has safety rules for college, high school, and all star levels. While injuries can (and do) occur within these guidelines, adhering to the safety rules will minimize injury risk.

Still, knowing all the associated risk, if I were magically transported back to more youthful years, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. Cheering was hard work and awesome fun, and I loved every minute of it.

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You know I'm not talking about Posh when I say there's a Spice Girl who likes her curves -- does Posh even have a curve? Nope. It's Baby Spice Emma Bunton who remarks that she doesn't think she'd look very good thin.

"I like being curvy," says the new mom of almost one year who just isn't someone to obsess about her figure 24/7. That doesn't mean she wasn't concerned about fitting into her skimpy Spice Girl outfits after having her baby boy, though. Breastfeeding and lots of walking helped get her into shape and she's careful about what she eats too -- no carbs on this girl's dinner menu.

When she's in the mood to indulge, Baby Spice says she does love chips, Coke, a great wine, and Chinese food. Cheers to a woman who knows what she likes, curves included.

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This morning, my kids asked for cinnamon toast. So I made it for them. I used whole wheat bread, light butter with Canola oil, and a few sprinkles of McCormick's cinnamon sugar. My kids gobbled it down, which makes me happy for whole wheat purposes. My husband tends to think the rest of the equation -- the butter and cinnamon sugar -- is crap. I argued with him a bit, not trying to convince him butter and cinnamon sugar are good for our kids, just to let him know that our kids eat pretty darn healthy most days and there are far worse foods they could have ingested, with far more crap packed into them. Then I questioned myself. Then I did some research.

Hungry Girl says in one of her Chew the Right Thing posts that cinnamon sugar is something we ought to fight, not bite. Now she's speaking mostly to us grown-up calorie-counting folks and not to the kids of the world, but here's what she says: "McCormick's Cinnamon Sugar has only 15 calories per teaspoon. So why are we telling you to 'fight it!'? Well, we just don't see why anyone should waste any calories at all on this sweet spice when there is a just-as-good no-cal version available. After all, when you're watching your weight, every single calorie counts. Fifteen calories here, 30 there, another 40 here ... it can all add up." HG doesn't mention sugar in her opinion but clearly, there's sugar in cinnamon sugar.

So what does the Hungry Girl suggest? San Sucre Cinnamon Sugar. It uses Splenda and makes a great sugarless cinnamon sugar blend, she says. No calories in this goodie either. HG's final piece of advice: "Cinnamon helps keep blood sugar levels low, so sprinkle away!"

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She's not a nutritionist. She's just hungry. And because she loves food, Lisa Lillien learns about it, reads about it, researches it, and dreams about it. When you have a few free moments, check out this average girl, struggling with food issues like everyone else, on her very own website. In the meantime, here's a little something she's put together for the hungry folks of the world -- a list of her top ATE calorie-saving cooking swaps.

• Nonstick cooking spray instead of oil for stove top cooking
• Canned pumpkin instead of eggs and oil for baking
• Light vanilla soy milk instead of milk or cream
• Fat-free liquid eggs instead of eggs
• No-sugar-added applesauce instead of butter
• Ground beef style soy crumbles instead of ground beef
• Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granular) instead of sugar
• Butternut squash instead of potatoes
  
  

This hungry girl also has a book -- Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World -- which is available in stores now.

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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.

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I'm a gym girl now. Never was before -- too much money, too much commitment, too much guilt when I didn't work out regularly. It was just easier for me to do my own thing, on my own terms, for free. My own thing has been getting a bit stale, though, so when my dad offered me a gym membership for a Christmas gift, I accepted. Now, I'm about to embark on a new two-year adventure.

It was my dad's idea that I join a gym. He told me I was doing great with my cardio strides but recommended I step up my weight and resistance training. I just don't discipline myself in this area at home so going to a gym, where I can get one-on-one assistance and a good dose of motivation, seems a logical move. The gym I will frequent -- Gainesville Health & Fitness Center -- has three locations in my city, loads of fitness classes, trainers at my disposal, and childcare too. I can't wait to get started -- and to let you know how it goes.

Stay tuned, my friends, for future briefings on my life as a gym girl.

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Normally I don't think that marketing products to children is very honest or ethical. However, I don't have a problem with Dove's latest ad, which is aimed squarely at young girls. The commercial, which you can see at ParentDish in this post by Jonathon Morgan, is the second by the company to bring attention to the sort of (mis)information we are fed by the beauty industry.

The first ad was the one that began with a regular young woman and then fast-forwarded to the same girl transformed into a beauty queen with the many steps necessary to change her look shown in between. The new commercial, titled Onslaught, begins with a young girl and then displays a barrage of fashion and beauty images that promote a thinner, prettier and more perfect ideal. The video ends with a message urging parents to talk to their young daughters before the beauty industry does.

As this piece mentions, the videos are part of Dove's campaign to raise awareness about the industry and more importantly, to raise women's self-esteem. I've seen the ad and I think it's great. What do you think about the video and the campaign?

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Is your man making you fat? I think we'd all like to answer 'yes' to that question and call the nation's obesity problem solved, and although it's not that simple for the world in your case it is likely that your guy is contributing to your weight gain. It's been found in studies that women gain weight when they move in with a man, which is likely due to the fact that couples tend to adopt each others eating habits and men burn an average of 26% more calories in a day than women do. Those extra calories burn away on him, but on you they park on your hips and settle in for the long haul.

Guy-proofing your diet isn't completely effortless, but it is easier than you probably think. Take a look at these tips, which address all of his worst habits (like skipping veggies and drinking a beer every night with dinner) and give easy advice on how to deal. And please share if you have any tricks of your own! Us ladies got to stick to together.

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