That's Fit

Sounds impossible, doesn't it? Who in the world ever thought of going to Disney and eating healthy? Crazy talk, right? Wrong! Your loving online Fitzness Expert (me) who has extremely high standards on what I put in both my children's mouth and my own can spend a day at the Magic Kingdom or EPCOT and eat as well as I would in my own home. Disney has made grand efforts to improve the healthfulness of the foods they offer, and has even gone overboard with an abundance of fresh fruit stands located throughout each theme park.

I just spent a week at Walt Disney World in Florida and returned home half a pound less than I was the day before vacation. Want to eat right while enjoying the magic with Mickey Mouse? Read on.

• Mickey makes mealtime easy on the fitness fan. Every restaurant I ventured through offered several menu options based on lean grilled meat, veggies, and/or fruit. Even the children's meals come standard with side items like: grapes, carrot sticks, and unsweetened applesauce. They also come with bottled water or skim milk. Sweet! Parents would have to go out of their way to substitute french fries and soda for their children instead of the healthy stuff. Eww! You the fitness fan, certainly wouldn't do that!
• Sit down dining restaurants offer Egg Beaters cooked without oil in lieu of regular scrambled eggs. I enjoyed this perk while dining with Minnie and Goofy at Disney's Yacht Club Resort.
• Resort dining facilities offer endless refrigerators full of fresh fruit, veggies, yogurt, dried fruit, nutritious snack bars and more.
• Seek out healthier desserts. Anywhere they are served, Disney has made efforts to make reduced fat, low sugar or fresh fruit treats available.

On a regular basis, I make a habit of informing both my personal training clients and lecture guests of exactly when calories count. For some reason, this topic often seems more complicated than it is, so let me lay it out for you clearly.

When Calories Count:

• They count on Friday night.
• They count on your birthday.
• They count when you are out drinking.
• They count on Thanksgiving.

It's hard to say which day out of the six we spent a few weeks ago at the Walt Disney World Resort was my favorite, but day three really was special. It was jam packed with a variety of super fun activities that were both totally exciting and totally relaxing at the same time. The majority of day three was spent at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, where we were staying. We capped off a superb day with a glamorous evening at The California Grill, one of Disney's Signature Restaurants located on the top floor of The Contemporary Resort.

If you take your family to Disney, I highly recommend strategically placing at least one 'resort day' in the middle of your stay. The theme parks and water parks are amazing, but can be exhausting. Playing at your Disney resort still offers loads of fun, but doesn't drain. In fact, a 'resort day' is the perfect recharge for tired parents needed a break. The pools are wildly creative, the hot tubs....to die for, and the free organized activities are endless. Yes, you heard me right. Most of the Disney resorts offer planned activities for both children and adults.....FREE OF CHARGE! Whooohooooo!

As I've been leading you through the paces of enjoying the best Walt Disney World has to offer, without trashing your health and fitness habits, this is one of the easiest days to master. On our second day of vacation we headed to the holy land of wholesome family fun, The Magic Kingdom. Ahhh yes! This is the place where children squeal, Mommies well up with tears of joy on a regular basis, and Daddies shout like kids themselves on the roller coasters. It's also a place where every last visitor is likely to do a ton of physical work. In fact ... read on and you'll learn exactly how many calories we burned during this day. It's insane!

So! Our day consisted of pushing the kids in the double stroller, then watching the castle show. Did I mention each of my children weigh almost 40 pounds? Then we pushed the kids in the double stroller some more, and rode some rides in Fantasyland. In fact, before we even stopped for lunch, we pushed the double stroller again and rode rides in: Fantasyland, Tommorowland, back to Fantastyland, Mickey's Toontown Fair, Adventureland, back to Tommorowland and finally landed back in Adventureland for lunch. Then we ran circles in the water squirters at both Ariel's Grotto and Pooh's Corner to cool off for about an hour. The latter half of the day resembled the first half, except it seemed even busier.

I used to travel for work; often for three weeks out of the month if not more. I've stayed in my fair share of dives (in fact, there was one place in Texas where you had to request the "big room" otherwise you couldn't open the bathroom door without standing on the bed and jumping in). But even in the nicer hotels, fitness wasn't usually high on their list of comforts.

But my traveling days were several years ago; today, hotels are putting more emphasis on fitness equipment and making work outs easier for their guests. Some hotels are even adding to the standard weight machines and having Pilates and other classes conducted on site. The Kimpton hotel chain supplies guests with yoga mats and equipment; a channel on their in-room TV allows them to follow a yoga routine.

If you're traveling this summer and aren't sure your hotel room will be quite so well-equipped, consider throwing a jump rope in your suitcase. It hardly takes up any room at all and provides an excellent aerobic workout.

Today I bring to you the first day of our recent family vacation at the happiest healthiest place on earth, Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. To catch up with this feature, click here. As your online Fitzness Trainer, I'm eager to share with you the simple ways my family and I maintained and enjoyed our healthy lifestyle while on vacation. Disney has really made strides with their efforts to embrace healthy food and entertainment options. They've done a bang up job at it as well.

You'll see in this photo gallery that we started our day off at Typhoon Lagoon. Those energetic hours were followed by a ridiculously healthy dinner, scootering around our resort, and dancing our tushies off all night. It was both high-energy and a blast. Can you say "Quality Time"?

A few months back I went to a place I like to call "Man Heaven" and wrote a few articles about it. Man Heaven is also known as ESPN: The Weekend at the Disney Hollywood Studios in Florida. The event was jam packed with dozens and dozens of your sports lovers' heroes from today and yesteryear. Football, basketball, baseball, tennis, hockey and golf stars flooded the theme park with ample opportunity for each Disney guest to get up close and personal with the athletic love of their life.

Of course, there were also a ton of female fans decked out in their team jerseys, but truly....this event was for boys. Young boys, elderly boys, and every boy in between. I saw big groups of men in coordinating jerseys riding the tram to the park, and then I saw tons of father/son duos shooting baskets with their favorite hoops star.

The event isn't until early next March, so you'll have plenty of time to book your air, hotel, and ticket reservations. He'll have lots of time to squirm with anticipation for the big event. Trust me.....if your guy loves sports, he will love ESPN: The Weekend and love you even more for sending him to it.

Anyone watch Biggest Loser this past week? The five remaining contestants traveled on a forever plane ride to Australia for sightseeing, a mini-triathlon, bridge climbing and delectable food. Travel down under was not kind to their overall weight loss. A couple gained a pound, a couple hardly lost any weight and one contestant did shed a miracle three pounds.

What this show told me was vacations are plain dangerous when it comes to weight gain. If Biggest Loser contestants have trouble losing weight on a quick jaunt to Australia, even with their careful calorie counting, intrepid hydration and stellar fitness efforts, how can us average folk keep off the inevitable five or ten pounds after a week basking on the beach, dinners out and bicycle rides to the island ice cream store?

Muffin-topping over your pants upon return from an exotic vacation is the quickest way to sabotage a week's relaxation. For me, a more reasonable goal is to keep my weight the same or gain no more than a pound or two. Beyond making sure to pack my scale, here's a handful of ideas to feel relaxed and fit into your tightest jeans after a week or two on holiday:

• Calorie Compromises -- eat a low-cal breakfast to enjoy a sumptuous dinner with dessert.
• Share high-caloric foods/desserts.
• Keep lifting and cardio on the radar (pack a fitness rubberband, go for walks/jogs/bicycle rides). Hotel/resort gyms are an added bonus to keep your fitness on track.

A few weeks ago I interviewed the TLC Trading Spaces host Paige Davis for my Celebrity Fitzness Report. Paige was open, honest, and hysterical. We blabbed for an hour and Oh Boy! did she fill it all up! One of the standard questions I ask my Celeb Fitzness guests is what their favorite vacation spot is, and whether or not they work out while on vacation. Paige gave me the best response I'd ever had to that question. Read on to find out what it is. Maybe you too, can incorporate her training into your other holiday activities?

**Actual excerpt from Celebrity Fitzness Report.interview with Paige Davis.

Fitz: Where is your favorite place to vacation?

Paige: Vegas. And, I know it's totally gag-me, but I love Disney World too!

Traveling is easily one of my favorite activities. Whether it's a short road trip with friends or an across the globe adventure, as long as I can get the time off work and scrape together enough money to go, I'm in. The only thing I don't like, is the dazed and crazed look I often sport after several hours of travel time.

I wrote not so long ago about an article that gave tips on how you can maintain your good looks while on a flight -- drinking lots of water and no alcohol, sleep and movement are all key. This time I've come across an article that will help you prepare beforehand, including advice on what to pack and which beauty treatments to try before you hit the road. Whether you're traveling for business or for pleasure, the advice listed here will make sure that you're looking great as soon as you land.

I just returned from a place I've decided to be Man Heaven. Man Heaven is a place where loads and loads of men dressed in various colored athletic jerseys giddily board trams with feverish excitement to spend time with their favorite sports heroes. These men were squirming in their seats, beaming bright smiles and high-fiving their way all the way to the entrance gates of Disney World's Hollywood Studios. ESPN the Weekend is Man Heaven.

The weekend was filled with endless opportunities to meet, train with, question and listen to America's favorite ESPN stars: Donovan McNabb, Tony Gonzalez, Hershel Walker, John Stockton, Cal Ripken Jr., Chris Carter and more. Oodles of ESPN Sportscasters took stages across the park hosting their own scheduled and aired ESPN shows, and also hosted other fun question and answer sessions with the stars of Man Heaven.

Who says St. Patrick's Day has to be a day devoted to green beer and corned beef and cabbage? There's no reason you can't bring some exercise into the mix, especially if you live near Merrimack Valley in Massachusetts. A new race series has been introduced (and I'm sorry, we've already missed the first one) -- The Wild Rover Irish Series.

The series takes place on three Sundays, beginning last Sunday on February 24, and runs along "The Emerald Necklace of Merrimack Valley." The first race is three miles, the second is four miles, and the last race is five. However, the point of these races isn't get the best time -- it's to have the best time. After all, the idea for this was spawned in an Irish pub -- how serious can it be?

Parties will be held after each race (and possibly before, and during), and you know a good party always make it a little easier to push toward the finish line. It sounds like a great way to have fun training for spring races!

If you're interested in registering, check out the website.

There's nothing like cleaning the clutter out of your house in order to clear the stress from your head.

If you're like me, you did it New Year's Day: After chucking the Christmas tree, sweeping up the needles, and putting away the lights and ornaments, you keep going until you've cleared out all the extra crap in the nooks and crannies of your house. If your not like me, you've never thought about the novelty of shifting a historically springtime chore to the middle of Winter. And I'm writing to tell you it's time. Who wants to be in the house when warm temps hit and flowers bloom?

The January purge is one of the most satisfying chores I accomplish each year. It just seems a natural progression from the tree and all. I burrow through each bedroom, closet and file cabinet as well as the basement and take the piles of throwaways to the local Salvation Army. Sometimes I also donate to Purple Heart, which does pickups. Being able to do good with stuff you don't want provides an added feel-good element to freeing your house from the clutter that's stressing you out more than you realize.

If you're a workaholic or someone who likes a routine or schedule, taking a vacation may actually make you sick. An expert cited in this article calls it "leisure sickness" -- a phenomenon characterized by taking a break from a busy schedule only to acquire aches, pains, and cold and flu-like symptoms.

One possible explanation for such sickness goes like this: When you are busy, your body is activated. When you are not busy and have nothing to do, your body is relaxed. For some people, this can be pathogenic. Some say "gimme a break" to this perspective; others say it's serious stuff, perhaps tied to stress and the challenge of transitioning from work to non-work.

While the science of leisure sickness remains unproven, the topic is not a new one. An inability to relax on vacations and holidays has long been a characteristic of Type A behavior. When Type As are not in control, headaches, nausea, and fatigue often result. It may be a hormonal thing. Or it could have nothing to do with personality at all. It could be that vacations involve greater exposure to germs that make us sick. Or holidays may simply allow us to acknowledge the symptoms of sickness we may ignore when we're busy with work.

Regardless of the reason behind leisure sickness, it seems regular exercise may be the cure.

"If you're under such chronic stress that you're impairing your immune system, you need to pace yourself," says Esther Sternberg, researcher of neuroendocrine immunology at the National Institutes of Health. "You can't expect to push your body to the breaking point and not have it break."

Especially considering the holiday spirit, frivolity and cocktails are not uncommon among large gatherings of friends and family. But if you're a calorie counter, or on a strict diet, you may want to educate yourself on the potency of alcohol before indulging in the fun.

For starters, the stronger the proof the more caloric content it has. An example includes 80-proof vodka which has 64 calories per ounce. Compare that with 82 per ounce found in 100-proof vodka. Add in heavy mixers and you could end up with a latte-sized cocktail.

The original article has a list of suggestions for cutting calories on your alcoholic beverages. These include water and club soda as mixers, which provide virtually no collateral damage. Other low-cal mixers could be light lemonade, sugar-free syrups, or light cranberry juice (which goes great with vodka, by the way). Of course cutting out mixers altogether saves all the hassle of added calories. Read on for more tips concerning health-conscious cocktails.