That's Fit

Yooooooohooooooo...That's Fit readers! I want you! I need your help inspiring the millions of other folks visiting this site each month in efforts to become educated and inspired. We all love success stories. We all love to hear from others in the same boat we're in. You have a story to tell.....and I want it!

All I need you to do is answer the questions below and email them along with a photo to me. Try to keep the photo of yourself around 200 pixels. It's easy, fun, and a great opportunity to change the life of someone else.

Name:

Age:

Occupation:

How often do you exercise?

What type of exercise do you do?

What gets you to workout, even when you're feeling lazy?

What's on your MP3 player?

Favorite healthy food?

Favorite not-so-healthy food?

Greatest fitness accomplishment?

Best fitness advice?

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A few weeks ago I posted Hey Smokers! This is what your friends won't tell you. and boy did I get some feedback. You know, I wrote it kind of harshly...it is true. It's just one of those things that stick in my craw. This is a blog and AOL welcomes us to be opinionated. It is what it is. I hate smoking. Smoking is not one of those deals that effects just the person doing it; everyone surrounding the smoker is affected. But, what inspired me to write the article was all of my friends who are former smokers.

Across the board, they all are disgusted by smoking now. They also say that they "had no idea how offensive they were being, how gross it smells......even from far away, and also how nasty it looks". Go talk to someone who has already kicked the habit. They probably had no idea how offensive they were. Look, my job is to promote fitness. Most of the time I do it with a happy face, cheerful voice, and congratulating air. Every now and then it's time for straight talk. That's what that blog was all about.

Some people respond to loving hand holding. Some people respond to the harsh truth. If you visit the comment section of that blog, you'll see the suspected replies of "Gee it's my habit, and it's not hurting anyone but me." "I've tried to quit but it's an addiction, none of the remedies actually ever work, woe is me, blah blah blah". I even got cursed out a few times. Oh well. Some accused me of 'hating them'. Nope. I hate smoking. Lots of terrific people smoke, and that's also pretty frusterating.

A common challenge of exercise is figuring out how hard you should work. There are a few options to calibrate the ideal effort you should be putting forth, but most require too much math to make them great mid-workout options. I like the Keep It Simple Stupid version called the Talk Test.

For the average healthy individual who is trying to improve overall fitness, including cardiovascular and lung capacity, these are the rules.

• If you can have a full blown conversation during an aerobic workout you should be working harder.
• If you can't talk at all, even to scream "help!", you are working too hard.
• If you are huffing and puffing, but still have enough wind to tell your partner or trainer, "I can't wait to get this over with"...your pace is juuuuuust right.