In today's economy, not everyone can afford a gym membership. But fitness isn't just for the wealthy. Parks and other public access areas can help bridge the gap between those whose wallets bulge and those who just have wallets.

Research has long shown that living near green spaces -- parks, manicured boulevards, gardens, etc. -- can improve health. Recent research shows the benefits of green spaces are greater than originally thought. The open spaces help residents release stress, and they promote physical activity.

If you're feeling the budget crunch, a local park might be just the place to score some free fitness opportunities. You may be lucky enough to have a local park that has areas specifically designed for fitness. If not, there's still plenty you can do. Check out this post for ideas.

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Martha recently told us that British comedy star Ricky Gervais is OK with being called fat. Go ahead, call him a fatty, he says. Maybe it will make him more ashamed of his overweight status. Maybe it will get him into a gym, for goodness sake -- a home gym, that is.

Gervais, 47, says he never works out in public. In fact, he and his girlfriend just bought a place in New York with a gym in the basement. His favorite workout: "My favorite thing in the world is to come home, have a swim, put my pajamas on and open a bottle of wine," he says. "That's it for me."

Maybe it's the mirrors found in gyms that drive Gervais to his basement. Once a fan of staring at himself in the mirror, he now finds the practice quite disappointing.

How about you? Like public gyms? How about mirrors?

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Despite media attention and public service campaigns, obesity in the US has risen over the past year. No states had a decline in obesity and 37 states reported increases in obesity. At least 20% of adults are obese in every state except for Colorado. As recently as 1991, no states had an obesity rate that exceeded 20%.

It's clear that more public campaigns are needed to halt this harmful rise in public health. Better food choices and nutrition programs in schools as well as an increase in physical education opportunities. More public opportunities and programs for fitness. Walkable communities that promote -- not hinder -- an active lifestyle. The options are limitless, really. But public programs and campaigns will never take the place of personal responsibility. While an infrastructure that encourages a healthy lifestyle is necessary, people also need to take control of their own health.

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I typically like to address my Stress Less installments to everyone, but this one is for parents of preschoolers who are potty training. That's because I've noticed potty training tends to cause the most stress amongst my fellow parental cohorts. I'm not going to offer magic tricks for how to get your kids to use the potty. But I will aim to ease minds about doing so in public restrooms.

I actually find it strange that parents allow their kids to romp without a care on pesticide laden grass in public parks, identified as such with those handy little flags, but freak out if their child touches anything in a public restroom. Fifty percent of American women won't sit on a seat and they teach their kids to do the same. But in an ABC News test, the toilet turned out to be the cleanest thing in the public restroom. As the subsequent report points out, you're not going to get germs from your backside. You're going to get them from your hands.

There really is little need to worry anyway. At least not about genital herpes or HIV. But you might worry about staph infections. It's possible to contract an infection from potty seats, but it's not as likely as you might think. The bottom line: as long as you wash your hands after a trip to the bathroom, you and your kids will likely never acquire anything by way of the public potty.

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When it comes to fitness opportunities China is doing something right. I recently read a blog post that discusses the public fitness centers that are available there and how many of the people that frequent the sites are older. In some cases -- like for one 82-year-old woman -- they spend hours each day taking advantage of the free community fitness equipment.

When I think of the public parks in my community, they're very kid-oriented. Which isn't a bad thing, of course, but what about the adults that live in this community? There are basketball hoops which are obviously appropriate for any age, and there is a sidewalk running around the perimeter of the park for running or walking. Other than that, the equipment is of the playground variety.

This makes me wonder, if fitness equipment geared toward adults was provided in local parks, would you take advantage of the opportunity? I know I would. When my son and I visit our favorite park in the area, I often circle around the park to try to squeeze in a little fitness while he's playing.

[via SmarterFitter]

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Do you panic about public potty seats? Many people do. I get it. Just imagining how many sets of buns have been planted on the same exact toilet seat I must use is enough to stir up a little health scare in me. Is anxiety about sharing toilet seats warranted, though?

Well, kind of.

Don't worry about genital herpes or HIV. These diseases can't survive outside the body, says D. Scott Smith, M.D., chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Medical Center in California. But you might worry about staph infections. There's a slight risk of picking one up -- you'll know you have one if you develop a mild skin irritation. And if your hands come in contact with germs in a filthy bathroom and you touch your eyes, nose, or mouth, the bacteria can enter our body and cause diarrhea.

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There's nothing glamorous about colorectal cancer, says Ugly Betty's Vanessa Williams. It's the second leading cancer killer in the United States, for goodness sake, which makes it a pretty unattractive disease. There is an upside to this cancer, though: More people are surviving it than ever before.

Check out this video clip, a public service announcement featuring Williams and these important tips.

• Colorectal cancer is treatable and preventable.
  

• You should begin screening for colorectal cancer beginning at age 50 and even earlier if you have a family history of the disease.
  

• Screening can detect this cancer when it's highly curable.
  

• Screening can lead to the removal of polyps before they become cancerous.
  

• New treatments are allowing people with advanced disease to live long, productive lives.
  
  

Talk to your doctor about getting screened if you are nearing that 50 mark. Family history may dictate you have a chat even sooner. And as a supplement -- not an alternative -- to your own cancer screenings, take this AOL Are You Avoiding Cancer? quiz.

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The Food and Nutrition Department here in my area has adopted a Wellness Policy for the county, a policy that extends into the public school system. This is good news for me since my oldest child is in first grade at one of our city's elementary schools. So what exactly does this Wellness Policy do for Joey and his public school counterparts? Among other things, it influences the way these kids eat while at school. Here's how.

Fryers have been removed from all schools. All food items are now baked. And a strict standard has been implemented for all snack items. Snack calories have been limited to 250, fat will be kept to 35 percent of total calories -- except for nuts and seeds -- and each snack will have a max of 35 percent of its weight from sugars, excluding fruits and veggies. Trans fats will be eliminated, and beverages will include only bottled water, eight-ounce servings of milk and 100-percent fruit juice, and low-fat and non-fat regular and flavored milk. Juices will have no added sweeteners and can only contain 120 calories per each eight-ounce serving.

I consider this a step in the right direction for sure. How about your local school system? Any similar changes taking place?

To read more about this one school system's healthy practices, click here.

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A European study has released a report on the positive health effects that have been a result of smoking bans in that region. This should come as no surprise, since cigarettes are some of the most noxious, toxic products ever to be manufactured.

More than 100,000 smokers and non-smokers took tests to measure the amount of carbon monoxide in their bodies. Since secondhand smoke can be just as deadly to non-smokers as smoking itself, it was good to see both groups included in this study.

Results of the study: carbon monoxide levels in studied smokers were four times higher than in non-smokers and were also double the amount tolerated for air pollution guidelines in most European countries. It's amazing something so small could create such health havoc, but there you are.

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I was elated to read in my first-grader's school newsletter on Monday that first and third-grade students will have their Body Mass Index (BMI) measurements calculated during the month of October. I'm not sure why these two grades were chosen, but I'm happy to see some attention paid in the public school system to the issue of childhood obesity.

After I read this exciting BMI announcement, I flipped through a few more newsletter pages and landed right on the school's lunch menu. Interesting what I found. On October 9, kids can ingest loaded fries or a chicken patty -- fried or breaded, I assume -- and on October 10, they get to pick either a hamburger or a corndog. On October 17, the options are chicken fried rice or beef nachos. Chicken nuggets make the menu on many-a-day. So does mac and cheese. And pizza is served every Friday. Now I know there are nutritional guidelines that float around somewhere near where this food is prepared and perhaps I'm jumping the gun and making claims that are not warranted -- but I can't bring myself to believe these food items are very healthy. I do know fruits and vegetables are served as side dishes so that's a plus. Still, I'm just not OK with what comes out of our school cafeteria.

My question is this: If administrators are willing to screen kids for obesity, can't they do a little preventative maintenance and fuel our kids with the good stuff? I know crappy food costs less than healthy fare, but isn't the health of our nation's children worth it? I think so.

China currently houses the world's largest population of smokers )300 million, give or take), and a recent smoking ban in Hong Kong is causing a reduction n profit for about 40 percent of restaurants in that city, according to a report this week.

This will be the largest test yet on the effectiveness of smoking bans and the resultant effects on public establishments where smoking is being eliminated.

Can businesses afford to lose revenue and therefore reduce the amount of sales tax they send to local taxing authorities? That seems plausible in the U.S., and other countries may see similar effects. But, the shrinking of those developing lung cancer from secondhand smoke would seem to counter the revenue loss problem. The only problem with a developing hypothesis like that is that it's almost impossible to correlate the two.

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A new survey has found that many Americans are confused and somewhat distrustful of the U.S. government's role in keeping those expensive prescriptions medicines safe for use.

In an age of drug recalls, death from side effects and unwavering drug marketing with questionable tactics, I am surprised a survey hasn't revealed this earlier. Do you understand the explicit details about all the drugs you're taking? My guess: you most likely do not. My question: why not?

I would say that more than 40 percent of Americans are on some kind of prescription drug (it's probably quite a bit higher than that), but those who are just don't innately trust oversight of these products -- but feel they have little choice when an ailment or sickness comes up.

[updated]

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I know that many of you out there abhor the thought of public toilets and would prefer to hold it in to the point of personal injury rather than violate your body in a bathroom used by hundreds or even thousands of strangers. I've always considered public washrooms a necessary evil and done my best to find ones that are clean (or at least not offensively dirty). At best, they're a great exercise for your thighs if you choose to hover above the seat.

No matter how much you dislike 'going' in public, rest assured that there are commodes out there that will impress even the move devoted public toilet hater. Check out this list of stunning bathrooms, located in various spots across the world. You'll find 13 bathrooms located everywhere from London to Tokyo to New York to Milan and even Wisconsin, that range from hilariously hip -- take the Stones-inspired giant red lip urinals at a Brighton nightspot-- to downright decadant (who would balk at making a pitstop at a 14 karat gold toilet?).

So the next time you're on holiday in any of these spots, make a search for fancy toilets a part of your tour. It'll help give you hope for a cleaner and fancier toilet-future the next time you're holding your nose on your way into a festival port-o-potty.

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Signs posted up on doctors walls, television coverage, health news broadcasts, and even commercials all emphasizing the new proper procedure on how to cough in public. We are now supposed to cough into our sleeve or a napkin, tissue, hanky, or something cloth to catch the germs. Coughing on the hands or just straight out in to the air can transfer germs for up to eight hours as they float about waiting to land on something or you spread them around with your hands on everything you touch.

With all of this coverage, I still witness lots of people coughing unprotected into the air or on their hands. So what will change the habits of millions of people daily? I think it begins at home with mothers teaching the proper way to cough while impressionable minds still can grasp the new concept. I also think the school systems should jump on board emphasizing the proper way to cough and protect others from spreading germs. But for us old farts out here, well...., that lesson may be harder to teach. We just need to get a better prospective on how our carelessness can affect a lot of people and build a conscious. Nothing like getting coughed on a hundred times in a doctors office by people ignoring posters plastered all around the office on the proper way to cough to realize this.

I have had friends over the years make fun of me lovingly when I raise the neck of my shirt and cough down inside my shirt saying I look so funny doing that. I felt it was the best way on a spur of the moment kind of thing when the coughing urge hits, to keep my germs from flying about. Who is laughing now?