Zumba: One of the Craziest Workouts Twitterers Have Tried
Zumba Helped This "American Idol" Contestant Lose 80 Pounds
Zumba's Express Diet: Lose 9 Pounds in 5 Days?

Zumba: The word definitely sounds more like a festive tropical energy drink than a workout and I'll admit, until recently I'd never heard of it either. But if trend tracking is to be believed, this Latin-themed aerobic dance workout -- sometimes called zumba dance -- may be on the way to your gym even as we speak. As of July 2009, classes were being offered at over 40,000 gyms in 75 countries. And spinoff genres--among them Country Line Dancing Zumba, Aqua Zumba, an even Zumba Gold for seniors are gaining ground.

The Zumba story's a pretty winning one: Back in the 1990s, Alberto Perez, a young aerobics instructor teaching in Cali, Columbia, arrived at his class only to realize he'd forgotten all his tapes. Luckily, he had plenty of salsa and merengue tracks in his car -- he grabbed them, and proceeded to improvise the whole class to those beats. People loved it and there was, he says, just no going back. In 1999, he paired with some enthusiastic backers and brought the concept stateside, where it became something of an American Dream fitness story. Zumba's landed everything from book deals and videos to a partnership with Kellogg's (it's been featured on the back of their cereal boxes as part of a fitness campaign for the Hispanic market).

Not only is it easy to make healthy appetizers, but with little effort, you can impress your guests and enjoy taste and nutrition.

Dips

• Trade those chips for some whole wheat pita, or better yet, fresh veggies, and serve up some hummus. Traditional is universally appealing, or try some black bean hummus -- one of our favorites!
• If you've got to have that onion dip, try this healthy version, made with tofu and fresh garlic and onions and parsley.
• Substitute plain yogurt for the sour cream in the creamy pesto dip, and you've got a simple dip with some basil-y pizazz.

Salsa is such a wonderfully healthy condiment on its own, and makes a wonderful addition to grilled chicken and fish, brown rice and quinoa. Steer clear of the traditional corn chips, if you can, though!

Do you sometimes get tired of the same old tomato salsa? I've found three unique salsa recipes to put a little spunk back into your salsa meals.

The first celebrates a favorite food of mine: the avocado. Epicurious' Asian Avocado Salsa lends a different twist to traditional salsa, with ingredients like soy sauce, sesame seeds and oil, jicama, and watercress. With a powerhouse main ingredient like avocado, this one is sinless.

Summertime is both one of the easiest times to get in shape, thanks to motivational beach bikini's and outdoor-friendly weather, and one of the hardest, thanks to summer barbecues full of fattening buffet meals and sugary homemade desserts. So how can a person reap the benefits of warm weather, outdoor sports, and skimpy clothes without the downside of fattening foods and too much partying? One solution is to throw a barbecue or two yourself and make all the favorites (like coleslaw, potato salad, and baked beans) but make them healthier by leaving out the unnecessary fats and sugar. Nobody will even notice the difference, seriously!

Barbecue favorites, the healthy (and tasty!) way:

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Did you have fun at the Memorial Day party you attended? I hope so. And what about the food - how was it? I hope great. Did you try any of the chips and salsa dip? If so, I'm sure they were delicious. All that crunchiness, the flavor of the salsa, and the 10,000 microscopic bacteria ... yummy.

Not that I'm pointing fingers at you necessarily, but chances are someone double-dipped at your Memorial Day party. And, more likely than not, someone will do it again at the Fourth of July party you attend, too. While double-dipping may seem more like a fairly innocuous, Seinfeldian faux pas, an article in the most recent issue of Women's Health demonstrates otherwise. Pointing to a recent study in the Journal of Food Safety, the article states that as many as 10,000 bacteria are transfered from a mouth to a bowl of dip when someone dips their chip too many times.

As for sharing beers, I can only imagine how many germs are swapped. Oh well, good thing you're usually with family and friends at these sort of events!!

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Cinco de Mayo is less than two weeks away, so get ready for the celebration. There's a cool restaurant called Tortilla Flats that I usually visit on Cinco de Mayo, but I'm not sure if I'll be making it there this year. Either way, I'll still be sure to sip on a few Coronas and enjoy some salsa and guacamole. These foods, at first blush, may not exactly seem like the most appropriate choices for someone who writes about health and fitness. However, thanks to some research from The Journal of Nutrition and Penn State University, I feel I can enjoy this fare without feeling like a hypocrite.

Staring first with the beer; Penn State researchers found that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol can help thin the blood, thus preventing against the formation of heart attack-causing clots. So, barkeep, crack me open another one of those Coronas, if you don't mind. And yes, I'd like to run a tab.

As for the salsa and guacamole, eating these two foods together actually makes for a healthier meal than eating each separately. Allow me to explain. In order to fully benefit from the beta-carotene, leutin, and lycopene found in abundance in salsa, you should eat a good source of fat at the same time. According to the journal article, fatty acids help dissolve these cancer and heart disease-fighting components in your intestines, increasing their rate of absorption. And, since avocados (the primary ingredient in guacamole) contains a high amount of healthy fat, it's the perfect compliment to this spicy topping.

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Are you thinking about upping your magnesium intake after reading yesterday's post about strong bones? If so, here's a snack, right from the pages of HEAL magazine, that you might try. It contains a recommended magnesium component: Avocado. Even if you're not so concerned with magnesium but just want a tasty treat, give this recipe a try.

Avocado & Corn Salsa

3/4 cup frozen corn, thawed
1/2 cup quartered grape tomatoes
1 medium avocado, diced,
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
2 teaspoons lime juice
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or not)

Toss all these ingredients together in a medium bowl, serve with tortilla chips, and there you have it. Rest assured, each of the eight 1/4 cup servings in this dish won't break your health bank with their 50 calories, 3 g fat, 5 g carbohydrates, and 37 mg sodium.

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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: John Alvira

Age:54

How often do you exercise? Four days a week.

What type of exercise do you do? Nordic Track

What gets you to workout, even when you're feeling lazy? Always knowing that it benefits me, and that I will see results after.

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Hola! I just made some of my favorite party dip tonight for a get together tomorrow and thought I should share it with you. I make my Fat Free Mexican O-Layered Dip often and it's always a crowd pleaser. It only requires a few simple ingredients and is quick and easy to just throw together. Add some lean meat to it and you can enjoy it as a meal.

Have a looksy here at the recipe, give it a try and let me know what you think! I love great food, and have had great success substituting the fattening parts for equally tasty not so fattening parts. Adios!

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Want to get in shape and have fun doing it? How about dimming the lights, finding a dance partner and doing the salsa?

Ballroom dancing is a form of dancing that many people enjoy for the fun activity benefits alone -- and salsa dancing is no exception to this. Dancing can burn calories, lower blood pressure and can give you a workout that rivals that boring treadmill that may be gathering dust somewhere in your home.

Have you tried this form of dancing? If so, do you like it? Enjoying an exercise is a great way to stay on top of it -- hence, long-term commitment to fitness without even calling it "fitness." Perhaps those New Year's resolutions need some fine-tuning?

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There's nothing precise about this salsa recipe. But there's everything healthy about it. And that's why you should give it try. It goes like this:

Cut up watermelon into chunks -- big chunks, little chunks, you decide. Then cut up a few fresh peaches into similar-sized pieces. Add some diced jalapenos to suit your desire for spice, some cut up bits of cilantro, a sprinkling of onions, and a dash of Light Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing -- which you could also leave out entirely. The juices from the fruit may do just the trick in exchange for less fat and calories.

Now mix it all up, and use your fruity salsa as a dip for the healthiest tortilla chips you can find (try blue chips from your grocery store's health food section), for a topping on your favorite fish, for a dressing on your yummy salad, or for anything your little heart desires. It doesn't really matter where your salsa lands. It's sure to spice up just about anything -- and in only the healthiest of ways.

I've never seen a single episode of Dancing With The Stars, so to me, Mario Lopez will always be AC Slater. But even so, Slater looks great -- even better than he did during his time at Bayside High, I would say. In an effort to get people moving, Lopez recently did a video for People.com on some of his favourite fitness moves. His workout MO? Keep it fun with ... what else? Dance moves -- salsa in particular.

Lopez also encourages the use to of weights in your workout routine. With an inexpensive set of dumbells, he says, you can do a whole range of exercises that will keep you trim and toned.

To watch the video for yourself, click here.

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What do you think of dancing? Me? I think I fall perfectly in to the 'two left feet' category of dancers. I have a good sense of rhythm but lack and body coordination to move to the music in a way that doesn't resemble a frog in a blender. And I'm clumsy. Really clumsy. But nonetheless, I love it. I love letting the rhythm, take control of my body and I love letting go. Luckily, I'm not easily embarrassed because I would probably never show my face on the dance floor again.

Okay, enough about my (lack of) dancing skills. Dancing is the latest craze in fitness routines, don't you think? And why not? It's a great way to sculpt your body and if you incorporate some sort of cardio action to it, it's a great way to burn calories too.

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Mexican food is definitely a fan favorite, but tends to be atrociously heavy in fat and calories. It doesn't have to be though, and getting the taste you like without the love handles to match isn't such a challenge.

The ingredients on almost all Mexican meals are mainly the same. Meat, beans, veggies, rice, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, salsa and some version of a tortilla shell. Give or take a little bit of each ingredient, the meals don't vary much. Cooking at home or ordering out there's a few adjustments you can make to keep things more healthful than not.

First, choose a lean meat. Doesn't matter which one, just make it lean; not cooked in oil. Black beans or fat-free re-fried beans are your next choice. Beans are high in protein, but also high in calories so avoid too much. Fill up on those veggies, just make sure they are grilled, not sauteed. My favorite Mexican restaurant will grill mine dry, grease free. Pile on the fresh veggies like lettuce and tomatoes freely.