That's Fit

Kim Cattrall, Hilary Swank, and Mariska Hargitay have something in common, and I'm not talking about their wildly successful careers or their overflowing bank accounts. It has to do with health, a drink, and the color green.

The "green drink" is their collective beverage of choice and here's what it's made from: Cucumber, celery, fennel, chard, kale, parsley, and apple. Full of antioxidants and only 50 calories for an eight-ounce glass, this energizer can be yours -- get the recipe for this fresh juice here.

So why the allegiance to this green concoction? Because all three women follow the nutritional wisdom of Oz Garcia, author of the new book Redesigning 50: The No-Plastic Surgery Guide to 21st-Century Age Defiance. Learn more about this nutritionist to the stars here -- and see if this guy has what it takes motivate you in healthy directions.

In my December interview with Oprah Winfrey's health expert, Dr. Oz, I harassed him about not doing real pull-ups with a bar. (He was using the Gravitron). I gave him a bit of a ration, detailed in his Celebrity Fitzness Report interview, and he promised to get a bar and start doing them. He was very inspired viewing this video of Anthony Field of The Wiggles performing an amazing pull-up routine. So, I emailed Dr. Oz some links on where to get pull-up bars etc. and harassed him only a teeny bit more.

Well, Friday I randomly sent him an email asking "how are the pull-ups coming"? His awesome response was that he just filmed an Oprah show and demonstrated 21 pull-ups on air! Hooray for Dr. Oz! The show will air tomorrow, Tuesday February 5th and I'm looking forward to it. I'm so proud of him!

Dr. Mehmet Oz makes an appearance in the February 2008 issue of Reader's Digest and dishes out some heart-y facts.

• The heart is the body's metronome. This means it gives our bodies a rhythm that lasts until the day we die.
  
  

• Did you know male and female hearts are different when it comes to heart disease? Dr. Oz says they are. Female hearts are affected more by emotion, says the good doctor. Their arteries are more likely to spasm under emotional distress. Men's arteries, in contrast, tend to be rigid.

• The heart is selfish, in a good way. Before sending blood to the brain, lungs, and elsewhere, it sends blood to the coronary arteries. Essentially, it feeds itself first so it can keep pumping, no matter what. Dr. Oz says mothers would be wise to adopt this selfish tendency so they don't sacrifice their own health to benefit their children.

Kinda yes. Kinda no. Dr. Oz recently became worried about all of the plastic he and his family of six were using while drinking tons of bottled water. Instead, he became creative and ordered some vodka infusion jugs that are handmade from 100% recycled glass. The bottles are fairly large and quite pretty. He fills the jugs with both water and some sort of fruit slices like lemon or lime.

The jugs end up looking like a decorative piece, and because they're gorgeous...end up reminding his four children to drink lots of water. Since he's such a fan of the jugs, Dr. Oz told me he was going to give them out as gifts this year. I wonder if his buddy Oprah received one for Christmas.

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.

I'm thrilled to death about my guest this week, Dr. Mehmet Oz., vice chair of surgery and professor of cardiac surgery at Columbia University. I, along with millions of others met Dr. Oz a couple of years ago when he started appearing on the Oprah Winfrey show as her health expert. Kind of like the way she introduced Dr. Phil; except that Dr. Oz is truly brilliant in a non-subjective kind of way, easy on the eyes, and easy to understand.

I've been teaching fitness for almost two decades and have earned a Master's Degree in Exercise and Sports Sciences. I'm always hungry for new and relevant information. Rarely I find it. But, Dr. Oz always teaches me something new. He breaks highly advanced medical concepts down, so that everyone can understand them and how they affect our lives.

Dr. Oz is a major force in the push for real deal, gimmick-free healthy living. Mehmet is one of Oprah's favorite things, and a host of his own talk show on the Oprah and Friends radio network. He has a series on the Discovery Health Channel called You:Staying Young. He also happens to have best selling books out: You:Staying Young and You:On a Diet. I'd like to shrink down small and run around in his brain for a while to absorb all that he has to offer; either that or be his apprentice for a week. Since I probably can't do that, I invited him for an interview. Enjoy it. I did!

Fitz: How did you make the transition from cardiologist to wellness guru?

Dr. Oz: I spent the first few years of my career doing general medicine; you have to learn all other aspects of being a doctor before becoming a cardiologist. I got a great education on how the entire body works. Medicine is somewhat of a narcissistic profession, and I've spent a lot of my life keeping myself healthy. I saw the lifestyle mistakes others were making which led them to me, and I started to feel kind of guilty for not sharing what I knew about health and fitness. The stuff I've been pursuing my whole life! I lettered in eleven sports; everything from water polo to football. I love how you feel after working out; there's a lot to learn in life from pushing your body.

Fitz: How old are you?

Dr. Oz: I'm 47.

Fitz: Do you have children?

Dr. Oz: I have four kids. Ages twenty-one, seventeen, thirteen, and eight.

I spoke with Oprah Winfrey's health expert and best selling author, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the other day. I have to say, the man is not only brilliant....he tells a really funny story too. We were talking about his personal fitness habits when I asked him if he has ever had an issue with his weight. This is what he told me.

Dr. Oz: Yes, but only once! I was in the sixth grade at a new school and it was a point when I wasn't involved with either community or school sports. I went to the school cafeteria and found this sandwich called a "fluffernutter". Have you ever heard of that? It's a sandwich with peanut butter and marshmallow inside. I had never tried this thing before, but once I did I was like "Wow! I want another!"

I just spoke to the health expert for the Oprah Winfrey show, Dr. Oz, as I'll be featuring him in an upcoming Celebrity Fitzness Report. Fortunately for all of us, we spoke for almost an hour and the man filled my brain up with so much great information that I'll be sharing it with you for a long time to come.

Dr. Oz's tips for staying fit over the holidays:

1. Never walk around a holiday party with both hands full; one with a drink and one with food. Keep a hand free to greet people and you'll cut lots of calories.

Dr. Oz was once again on Oprah this week. As usual, he had a ton of new and interesting, traditionally gross-ish research to share. Floating poop ranks right up there in all three categories.

Recently a study was conducted where the subjects were placed on a highly controlled yet moderate diet, which was low in calcium for one week. At the end of the week, each subject 'contributed' some doo in a jar as their sample to be analyzed. (Imagine doing that!) The next week, subjects were placed on the exact diet except this time tweaked it to provide the subjects with 1200 mg of calcium each day, which is ideal for adults. At the end of the week, once again they had the pleasure of providing a sample.

The poo samples were frozen, dried, turned into a pill, and then crushed (hate to be that scientist). The samples were then analyzed. The study showed that by the end of week two, the high calcium week...the subjects samples contained 100% more fat than the previous week. Which means, calcium is an excellent transporter of fat. Ideally, we'd prefer to expel the fat we consume rather than absorb it. This in the long run, will help lead to weight loss.