I struggled yesterday while at the movies with my kids. I was a bit hungry and wondered what, if anything, I could get from the colorful concession counter that wouldn't derail my normally-healthy diet. Couldn't come up with anything. So I let my tummy grumble and waited until I was home where the food is guaranteed nutritious.

Glamour magazine shares in the February 2009 issue what's safe (well, safer) to eat while enjoying a big screen show. Topping the list in the candy department is Sour Patch Soft & Chewy Candy. Just more than three ounces will fill you with 375 calories and no fat. See why I went hungry? No thank you for that amount of calories. I'm not going for the big soft pretzel either, even though it's apparently a better option than many with 310 calories and four grams of fat. Next to the nachos and cheese and its over-the-top 894 calories, I see the draw. Still, I'll pass.

Love chocolate? Milk Duds are best, with 371 calories and 13.1 grams of fat. Holy fat. Hey, they're better than Peanut M&Ms, with 39.3 grams of fat. It's just a matter of perspective, I suppose. I mean, sure, a kid-sized butter popcorn with 20 grams of fat is far better than a large with 126 grams. But does better make these foods healthy? No. Which is why I'm packing a few ounces of nuts next time I cozy up in my theater chair to watch a courageous animated mouse save a princess from a life of doom and gloom.

For tips on how to stick to your diet in the most tempting of situations, check out this America Takes It Off article, which will even arm you with tactics for handling a relapse. Oh, and if you haven't yet weighed in with America Takes It Off this week, head over to this post and tell us if you've lost anything this week. Weigh-in deadline is noon today.

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The days before Christmas are winding down. If you're in need of a quick gift, a DVD is a good choice. While a couple of hours plopped on the couch certainly doesn't do anything for fitness, many sports-themed movies have an inspiring message. So, when picking out a flick for your favorite movie buffs, why not choose one that motivates them to become more fit? Check out the gallery for some ideas.

Question: What do these eight people have in common, besides super stardom and an abundance of cash?

• Charlize Theron
• Christian Bale
• Sylvester Stallone
• Renee Zellweger
• Hilary Swank
• Will Smith
• Matt Damon
• Adrien Brody
  

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What's on your top 10 list of I know I shouldn't have it but I want it so badly foods? For me, movie popcorn ranks pretty highly on the roster. It's difficult to go to a show without getting a big bag of salty goodness, the more buttery the better. It's expensive and it probably has a million calories, but once I smell that popcorn smell, I feel like I have to have it, sometimes even when I'm not hungry.

But we know that kind of buttery indulgence is going to cost us in the calories department -- well, if we get butter anyway. Popcorn itself is considered a whole grain, and whole grains are good, right? So, theoretically, if we don't pile on the calories by adding butter, we should be ok. Right?

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She may be committed to fitness, but overall, she doesn't have the healthiest habits. Eva Mendes recently revealed that despite her svelte figure, she's not adamant about watching what she eats. Says the gorgeous starlet: "I'd shock you at how much I could eat. Any kind of dessert is fantastic. It's gross, but I also love cup noodles. I'll eat two at a time because the salt really does it for me. They're so cheap so they can't be that good for you, but they're yummy!"

Mendes, 34, adds that the only time she is careful about eating well and exercising is when she is filming: "f I have a shoot I'll work out more and watch what I eat, but if I don't I'll let myself go. I'm addicted to bread. I want it constantly so, right now, I'm letting myself have more of it but when I start my next movie I'll cut down."

Why does she rely on junk food? Mendes also admitted that she is a terrible cook -- so bad, in fact, that she's given up trying to prepare meals.

(via Calorie Lab)

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I remember watching Ice Castles as a kid and wanting nothing more than to be an ice skater. (Preferably without a terrible accident that caused blindness, though.) So maybe the movie is a bit cheesy and admitting that I had a little crush on Robby Benson certainly dates me as a child of the '70s, but it motivated me into trying something I'd never tried before. And that's exactly what a great sports movie can do.

FitSugar recently asked readers what their favorite motivational sports movies were... and they came up with a great list. Some of the picks are:

• Remember the Titans.
  
• Million Dollar Baby
• Miracle
• Rudy
  

Click over to FitSugar for the full list. A couple of my favorites that didn't make the list are Hoosiers and The Rookie. What other sports movies have inspired you?

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Friday night usually means there's a new movie to check out at the local theater. Sometimes that new release is a great flick, while other times you wonder why you bothered to leave the house. I don't know about you, but if I eat concession stand food and a movie isn't very good, I feel even worse about eating it -- as if the movie didn't make the calories worthwhile. A ridiculous way of thinking? Oh, absolutely.

The fact of the matter is, good movie or bad, the calories count. And in many cases, they count a lot. Concession stands aren't exactly known for their high quality eats, but you may still be surprised to learn just how damaging some of your favorite movie theater treats actually are. Here's a quick look at some movie fan favorites:

• Small Popcorn (unbuttered) = 500 calories, 25g fat
• 3oz Junior Mints = 360 calories
• 6 oz Twizzlers = 604 calories
• 5.3 oz M&M's = 752 calories, 31g fat
• 3.5 oz Raisinets = 418 calories, 17g fat
• 3.5 oz Gummi Bears = 354 calories

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Three quarters of a million teenage girls will get pregnant in 2008. That's a statistic coming from this article by CBS trying to uncover how the media is influencing the depiction of sex among teenagers.

It's fairly common to see trends in movies and TV gearing adolescents toward more mature behavior. These depictions were normally reserved for adults and more mature audiences. But with teen pregnancies on the rise, it's clear that perhaps it is not as taboo as it used to be.

There's definitely a debate regarding the issue, and no simple answers. Movies don't seem to make having a baby seem like anything more than a bump in the road. Anyone seen Juno recently? And young media icons like Jamie Lynn Spears are 16 years old and already expecting. This definitely has an effect on the topic of sex in the hallways of high school. Even if Hollywood somewhat glamorizes pregnancy, is that transitioning to peers and classmates as well?

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Did you get a chance to see the hit movie Cloverfield on opening weekend? The home camera look really made the film stand out from other monster flicks. But if you're like some people with uneasy stomachs, then motion sickness might have followed the jerky camera movements.

In fact, a manager at WebMD admits to having left the movie theater to escape the nausea. Personally, I had to look away several times or down at my feet. The reason people like us felt so icky was because our brain and eyes were transmitting mixed up messages.

The erratic camerawork tricked our eyes into sending messages that we were moving around. But the inner ear told our brain otherwise, since sitting in a theater chair is obviously stationary. This is also what happens in cars or planes. There are lots of medications one can take to prevent motion sickness (but most result in drowsiness, like Benadryl). I'm just glad to know I'm not the only person who felt the side-effects of Cloverfield!

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I've always thought how great it would be to have a job that naturally keeps you in shape, and of the jobs in the world that do that being a celebrity is at the top of the list. Starring in an action movie often means months of vigorous training and workouts before filming even begins, and a star like Matt Damon would know that better than anybody with his third Jason Bourne movie, The Bourne Ultimatum, out this summer.

Damon, who's 36 years old, has been in famously good shape to play the ex-hitman character over the years, but this time was different: he has a family now. Damon was quoted as saying of his life before "I really used to have no life outside movies. I'd work all day, go to the gym and go to sleep." But then he married his wife Luciana back in 2005 and they now have a 1 year old daughter together, Isabella, both which give him a reason to come home after work instead of always working out. And despite the film being shot in a total of 8 different locations the family was only separated once.

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Michael Moore's recent documentary, Sicko, is a damning indictment of the United States health care system (or lack there of). But, while there's a number of things people can do over the long-term to tackle the issues he addresses, what about the people who are being denied treatment today?

In a recent interview on MSNBC's Hardball, Moore proposed an interesting solution:

"...what I tell people is, if you're having trouble right now with your insurance company, and they won't pay for something, go ahead and use my name ... Say that I'm coming, that you have talked to me personally. You have my permission to do that."

Plus, just to make you seem more authentic, Moore created a Sicko insurance card that you can print out from his website, laminate, and use to threaten any doctor who refuses treatment.

How did he come up with such an ingenious idea? Apparently people have already been doing it without his permission, so -- rather than try and stop them -- Moore decided to make it easier.

Not that I'd normally advocate blackmail, but if you've run out of options, this seems like it might actually work.

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Rigel did a post a while back on the the 300 Workout -- a workout regime that's based on the popular movie. It got me thinking -- we're always trying to steal celebrity workout secrets, so why isn't there more talk of using movies for inspiration to get active? I know that when I see a movie with a particularly ripped female lead who is doing a lot of ass-kicking (literally or figuratively) it inspires me to get my butt to the gym and start toning up.

So this week, I'm compiling a list of inspirational movie characters who I've found inspiration from workout-wise. Here it is:

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Sometimes it is all those little distractions during the day that we curse under our breaths. But distraction is a good method to relieve pain. People use this method without even realizing it when they watch TV or listen to the radio to take their minds off of worry or their pain. Distraction may be used to manage mild pain or used with medicine to help manage episodes of severe pain.

Any activity that occupies your attention can be used for distraction. I personally play the guitar to "take my mind off of pain". Distractions could be doing needlework, model building, painting or diving into a good book. Use your hobbies as a way to focus and distract your attention off of pain. Listening to fast music through a headset or earphones keeps your attention on the music and tapping out a rhythm will help hold your attention away from the pain. Playing video games can be a way to keep your focus off of pain. Distraction can also be internal such as singing mentally to yourself, praying, counting or repeating yourself with statements such as "I can cope" or demand the pain away with statements over and over like "pain leave my body."

Of course the best distraction of all to me is to pop in a favorite movie in the DVD player and get focused on the screen.

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Andy Garcia has been physically active his entire life, playing basketball and baseball as a teen, even with hopes of possibly turning professional one day. Life had a different direction in store for him, however, and today he's a Hollywood celebrity starring in blockbuster movies like The Untouchables, The Godfather: Part III, and the Ocean's trilogy. At 51 years old he's staying active and looks great, which he attributes to his Pilates workout routine. He says the core strengthening he gets from his Pilates regimen is not only great for keeping in shape, but it's been the best thing for relieving some of the back and disc problems he's had over the years (not to mention his golf game).

I don't think many men consider Pilates a masculine way to be healthy and strong, but hopefully Andy Garcia can help change that stigma a little! And for more fun celebrity fitness habits check out our regular feature "We love to gawk at fit celebs."

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My first reaction to reading about the world's smallest wearable TV was something like "how desperate are we to watch TV? Now we have to wear it and take it with us everywhere?" Yep, apparently having videos on an iPod wasn't enough, after all you do have to hold the iPod to view it. That's too hard! We want to wear our televisions! On our faces!!

This is both really cool and really ridiculous at the same time. The only handy feature I can think of is if they make a version to be used during walking or jogging -- it could be the perfect "excuse buster" for that couch potato type who can't pull themselves away long enough to get up and exercise. Just be sure to watch where you're going.

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