Curious to know how celebrities squeeze fitness into their daily lives? Our fitness expert Fitz sits down with the stars and digs out their great and not-so-great methods for staying healthy.

Jill Wagner is the bombshell host of ABC's ludicrous obstacle course game show "Wipeout." We recently spoke, and she openly revealed how she'd fare on the course and why working out is a requirement of her job.

Fitz: The "Wipeout" obstacle courses are insane. In your opinion, do they require great strength and balance or just luck?

Jill: Well, if you look at some of our contestants ... I wouldn't say that some of them are the most athletic. I think that a lot has to do with balance and luck, though, because I've seen the most athletic people not even make it through the qualifier. Balance is probably the most important factor.

Fitz: Do you think weighing more could be an advantage?

Jill: I think weighing less is definitely a bigger benefit. The smaller people get across those big balls easier; maybe it's because they don't make such a great impact as they cross them. You know what happens to the bigger people (she laughs)!

Fitz: Have you ever done one of the courses?

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I've often wondered how stars of cooking shows stay slim. Well, how many of them stay slim, anyway -- Emeril not included. Most don't exactly cook the most low-cal meals, and I can't imaging that, after doing all the cooking, they don't indulge. But, if I indulged in those dishes every day, well ... let's just say I probably wouldn't be too qualified to write for this site!

As the host for Top Chef, Padma Lakshmi does just what I think most of us would do -- she puts on a few pounds. "I shoot for six weeks and gain 10 to 15 pounds. I spend the next month trying to get my health back."

Lakshmi knows just what to do to make that happen -- she lifts weights, walks a steep incline, takes spin classes and boxes three times a week. Still, this yo-yo dieting can't be good for her health, and I can't imagine the cycle is all that great on her emotional state, either. Who wants to have to drop 10 pounds or more every two or three months?

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When I moved into my first apartment during college, all of my friends from the dorms didn't spread too far and wide. In fact, most of us were in the same apartment complex -- others were just a few miles away. We started having what we called "Sunday family dinners." Each Sunday, one apartment would host dinner for all of our other friends. It was a fun way to get together and have at least one, good, home-cooked meal a week.

Shape Magazine has a fun idea for a grown up version of the Sunday family dinners. Gather a group of friends and create a rotation -- once a week, once a month ... whatever works for you. Then rotate whose home you go to, and the host will provide a delicious dinner with nutrition and health in mind.

The host should also prepare recipe cards and shopping lists for each guest. It's a great way to get together, have some fun, enjoy some great food, and expand your recipe collection of nutritious meals.

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If you watched last week's finale of So You Think You Can Dance, you were probably as impressed as I was with Mary Murphy when she got out from behind the judges' table and did a hot ballroom dance with Season Two's Dmitry Chaplin (who, as I had hoped/expected, opened his shirt at the end -- man I've missed him!).

At 39 years old, Mary showed that she not only still had the moves, but the lady's got a body! And, apparently, that body is courtesy of doing the Core Rhythms program (a dance workout incorporating lots of Latin movements) every day. Mary lost 30 pounds in three months, dropping from a size 14 to a size 8.



She's also following a healthful diet, eating lots of veggies, chicken, and Egg Beaters. She's thrilled with her new body, and with the fact that she can wear short dresses again.

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Curious to know how celebrities squeeze fitness into their daily lives? Want to know the secrets of the stars? Bi-weekly our That's Fit fitness expert Fitz sits down with the celebs we want to know more about, and digs out their great and not-so-great methods to staying healthy.

This week I got to sit down on a beautiful sunny day, in The Swamp with the very sweet, smart and athletic ESPN College GameDay Analyst Mr. Kirk Herbstreit. No, we weren't knee deep in mucky water. We were in the heart of Gator Country enjoying the breeze after Kirk completed his workout, running zillions of steps at the University of Florida football stadium, The Swamp. Kirk retired from playing football more than 15 years ago, after four years at quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes. But now, he's one of the major faces of college football. Pandemonium strikes college campuses across the country when he -- along with host Chris Fowler and analyst Lee Corso -- set up shop outside the biggest games of each week.

Kirk brings something unique to the team. Every time the GameDay crew heads to the University of Florida, I find more than just the expected crowd of rowdy football fans swarming their booth. There is always an unusual amount of females in a frenzy to get as close a look as possible into Kirk's pretty blue eyes. He's definitely worthy of the attention. From my interaction with Kirk, I think he's a genuinely nice and genuinely thoughtful person. Before we started talking fitness, Kirk shared concerns over all the violence taking place on college campuses. He's a protective father and husband who tries to excel in his career while taking care of his family. He is just plain old sweet! And even though his professional life has been built around sports, he works hard to squeeze in fitness and manage nutritious eating just like the rest of us. Kirk seems to be an expert juggler of life and shares some great tricks for staying fit on the go. He also dishes a few doozies on football.

Fitz: What types of things do you do to stay in shape?

Kirk: It's kind of a lifestyle really. As an athlete I worked out so hard, I could eat anything without paying the price for it. As I got older, I still had that appetite and I was not able to work out as hard as I did when I was playing football. What I really try to do is control my portions, and mix in cardio and strength training workouts four to five days a week. If I can do that, I feel like I'm in a pretty good place. It's just about doing it though!

Fitz: What do you do while you're on the road?

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Maybe so! I just got done chatting with the host of TLC's Trading Spaces, which by the way...is a lovely thing to do. Paige is saucy, fun and really very sweet. The type of girl you want to live right next to. I was interviewing Paige for a future Celebrity Fitzness Report and she was totally open and honest.

We talked health, fitness and show business. We also talked a bit about nudity. One of my reader's suggestions was to ask Paige if she'd ever pose in the buff. She didn't say no. In fact, under the 'right circumstances' she would do it. She didn't say she would do it to show off her fantastic figure (which she has) though......

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Fitzness Fiends is a section devoted to you, the reader! We all have learned so much on our path to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! Fitzness Fiends are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect, some are not. All have health on the mind. Please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Bob Rose

Age: 45

Occupation: Morning Radio Talk Show Host, The Bob Rose Show

How often do you exercise? Five times each week.

What type of exercise do you do? A mix of machines and free weights, push-ups, and core work. I alternate body parts three times a week. I play basketball and tennis for cardio on the other two days.

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Padma Lakshmi is an Indian-American supermodel, actress, chef, cookbook author, ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women, and host of Bravo TVs Top Chef. She can also add "blogger" to her resume because this accomplished one has been recapping snippets from her reality show via her video blog.

Lakshmi, a culinary goddess who features in her cookbooks recipes for a delicious low fat diet, reveals more than critiques of Top Chef contestants on her blog. She also shares tidbits about her own approach to food and drink. Through my own tour of her blog, I learned that she's a big lover of breakfast -- it is the most important meal of the day, you know -- and while she doesn't consider herself a big drinker, she does enjoy white wine, red wine, and single malt Scotch. She also loves green markets and enjoys cooking with items grown by local farmers. Lakshmi likes to take classic recipes, like macaroni and cheese, and add one or two ingredients to add a twist. And she's all for basic cooking. The better the chef, the more simple the cooking gets, she says.

There's quite a lot to learn Lakshmi, whose cookbook Easy Exotic was awarded Best First Book at the 1999 World Cookbook Awards at Versailles. See for yourself what this top chef has to offer by visiting her blog.

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He's lost more weight than he ever imagined, and he's still losing. He's dropping more weight at home, in fact, than he did as a contestant on NBC's The Biggest Loser. And that makes him a winner, despite his eviction from the show.

Jim Germanakos, 41, is 136 pounds lighter today than when he first set foot on the Biggest Loser set. He's dedicated everything to his weight loss, he told Today Show host Ann Curry on Tuesday. He left the comforts of home, left his wife and kids, and set forth on a journey he says is still not complete. Germanakos wants to lose another 35 pounds. I have a hunch he'll do it.

How exactly will he do it? Well, he'll work hard, hit the gym, and continue practicing what trainer Jillian Michaels has been drilling into his head about nutrition. He will (1) count calories, (2) avoid trans fats, (3) limit processed foods, and (4) consume mostly organic products. That should do it for the man who is putting his health and family first, the man who has inspired his wife to lose 45 pounds, the man who has happily become: one big loser.

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