That's Fit

Do you have a junk food lover in your house? Sometimes it's hard to deny those cravings... especially when they're foods we've eaten for years and years.

Women's Health has a great idea for making some junk foods a little bit healthier. You can mix healthier options in with your not-so-healthy favorites to create a treat that's not so damaging to you waistline. Better yet, when you start adding healthier options in -- like mixing a bowl of half whole grain cereal and half sugary cereal -- you're starting to retrain your taste buds. In time, you'll find you enjoy the healthier foods as much as the junky ones.

I have a bunch of fun, lower in fat, less bad for you dessert options in the recipe section of my web site Fitzness.com. This Low fat Blueberry Napoleon with pistachio cream is a favorite of mine that is hugely popular at holiday parties. I like sweet treats too, but I'm not willing to stuff myself or my friends with butter or oil. Some of the recipes are real deal healthy, and some of them just offer better versions of the really bad stuff.

I love to bake and my treats are rarely pretty, but they're incredibly low in fat and absolutely delicious. Enjoy! Healthy Holidays from your online trainer Fitz!

We ate at a new restaurant on Saturday night. Everything we ate was organic. I had an organic salad, organic bruschetta, organic wild salmon, organic veggies, and organic rice. My husband had what I had, and our kids -- who were a little hesitant about the menu at first glance -- ate quesadillas made with organic tortillas and organic cheese. They had organic apple juice and organic fruit bars for dessert. Everything was organic. Everything.

Our Saturday night meal was delicious, and filling, and while it was a bit expensive, it was grand. My husband remarked that he could get used to eating like we did for that one meal. I could too. And so I've revised my wish for a personal chef -- not only do I want my very own chef, I now want my very own organic chef.

It's common sense for many that eating organic -- this means consuming foods grown and prepared without pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, hormones, irradiation to prevent spoilage, and microwave cooking -- is healthier for the body and better for the environment. Make sense to you? If not, check out this article, which provides a few arguments about why you should bother to eat an organic diet.

It's always nice when readers send in interesting health and wellness-related websites for everyone at That's Fit to check out. One of the most recent ones that caught my eye was the website for Dr. Gourmet. According to the site, Dr. Gourmet is both a physician and a chef, making him an expert on healthy but tasty food.

The site includes links to a wealth of resources including a Q&A section, a newsletter, columns and resources for things like body mass index and hip-waist ratio. The highlight of the site though, is Dr. Gourmet's My eatTHIS diet. The free, interactive menu software can be accessed online and gives advice on how to eat healthier, how to eat to lose weight and even how to plan healthy but delicious menus for the whole family.

The diet can also cater to those with dietary restrictions such as lactose intolerance and food allergies. Sounds like something worth giving a try. If you check out the site and decide to try the planned menus, make sure to come back and let us know what you think.

Yesterday, I published a post citing the fact that 95 percent of those who successfully lose weight somehow go on to regain the unwanted pounds within a few years. Now I've happened upon this statistic: 50 percent of people who start an exercise program quit within the first three to six months.

Hey, it happens. I know. In my combined 37 years on this planet, I've cycled in and out of exercise programs more times than I care to count. And while I seem to be doing OK right now -- I do something fitness-related every day -- there's just no telling what might throw me off my course. That's why I always try to remember why I exercise.

I exercise for energy -- even when I'm tired, I force myself to do something. Inevitably, I feel recharged when I'm done. I exercise for strength -- I want strong bones, strong muscles, arms powerful enough to hoist my littlest growing boy into the air on occasion. I exercise for a lean body -- I've seen results, and I don't want to lose them. I exercise for a healthier heart -- my low resting heart rate always tips off my doctors that I'm challenging myself aerobically. I exercise for peace of mind -- I need to escape the madness of my family unit now and then, and I always feel invigorated when I return home. I exercise to boost my mood, ease my worries, diminish my stress, refocus my thoughts, recharge my spirit, and perhaps most important: To keep breast cancer from paying me a return visit. Recent research links five weekly hours of strenuous exercise to a pretty significant cut in breast cancer risk. That's reason enough for me to keep huffing and puffing.

Sometimes thinking about changing your lifestyle in order to be happier or healthier seems like a daunting task. I know that times when I decide I'm unhappy with my habits and end up on a mission to make changes and improve my overall well-being, I tend to give up easily because I get in the mind frame that I have to change absolutely everything at once.

Of course, overhauling your entire life in a day isn't necessarily the best way to make changes for the better. A few small steps can be taken each day, week or even month to improve your life. Eventually all of these little alterations will add up to some major life changes.

I like this article from the Canadian Living website because it gives a list of 10 things you can do in the month of October to improve your well-being. There's nothing very difficult to accomplish on the list -- suggestions include eating more berries, doing push-ups, taking the stairs and trying out pomegranate -- but I bet if you made the commitment to try them all throughout the month, you'd find that you feel a bit happier, more relaxed and healthier overall.

If you want to see all 10 tips and find out just why they're all good for you, take a peak at the entire article here.

When it comes to superfoods, blueberries are generally considered as good as it gets as they're full of cancer-fighting antioxidants. But according to a study done in Australia, the super berry has noting on many of the fruits that the country's Aboriginal peoples have been consuming for thousands of years.

Known as 'bush tucker', fruits like Kakadu plums and Brudekin plums have got nearly five times more antioxidants than blueberries, according to scientists, as do other foods like the Tasmanian pepper, red and yellow finger limes, brush cherries and Molucca raspberries. Many of these also contain massive amounts of vitamin C.

Unfortunately, it has taken some time for non-Aboriginal Australians to embrace the food so it is not widely available in that country or any others. So for now, if you really want to try out these superfruits, you'll have to seek them out Down Under.

Do you love to snack on treats like potato chips, cookies and candy but you worry about the fat and calories? Do you still think they'd taste as good with less sugar and healthier fats? This is the challenge that snack food manufacturers are facing these days as many are demanding more nutritious 'junk' food, but refusing to buy treats that don't taste as good as the old version.

Companies like Kellogg's and Kraft are having to make some major changes in their food, not only due to consumer demand, but also to keep from getting sued by food lobby groups and children's interest groups who don't want tasty, but ultimately nutrition-free, junk food being marketed toward kids.The result is that trans-fats are being replaced by healthier fats, the amount of sugar in treats is getting reduced and snacks are coming in much smaller portions.

I think it's a great idea to make a range of healthier 'junk' food but I wonder how many die-hard snack fans will be so quick to jump on board. It's one thing to eat a smaller amount of your favorite treat but would you still want it if the flavor and taste is gone? What do you think, would you be willing to give a low-or no-fat/low-calorie version of your favorite junk food a try? Or do you already have a tasty-but-healthy-alternative snack to recommend?

Trans fats are all over the news lately with food companies dropping them one by one, and even entire city and state governments banning them across the board. But most of the talk has been around commercial products in places like fast food joints and restaurants, so it might be time for a little refresher course on exactly what trans fats are so you can avoid them in places like the grocery store too.

Trans fats are made when liquid oil is chemically processed to become a solid a room temperature -- stick margarine is the most common example. Many stick margarines are full of trans fats, so avoid them in the grocery store if you can. Margarine was originally thought to be healthier than butter, but not only does it raise bad cholesterol but it also lowers good cholesterol (butter doesn't). Good news is that many margarines are available now with little to no trans fats, Benecol and Promise to name a couple examples. And I was surprised to read that the softer the margarine is the less trans fats it probably has. I would have guessed the other way (maybe thinking stiffer margarine was closer to butter in processing?). Just goes to show it never hurts to read about this stuff again!