More than 40,000 people will run the ING New York City Marathon this Sunday. Among them will be working mothers chosen to represent all five of New York City's boroughs in the 2009 Foot Locker Five Borough Challenge Team. The women, some running the marathon for the first time, all have unique stories, but share the bonds of being fit, working mothers balancing all the demands that come with those roles. The team of five was also joined recently by another woman, Beth Segaloff, who recently lost her fiancé, Captain Ben Sklarver, just three weeks ago when he was deployed in Afghanistan. The women will run together for the first 13 miles, and then anyone can break away for the second half. The woman with the best time will win a trophy, and bragging rights. But none of these women are part of this team to brag. Instead, they find peace, motivation and solace in their commitment to running. That's Fit recently met the team, along with mom and marathon Olympian, Magdalena Lewy Boulet, to find out how, and why, they have made running such a critical part of their lives.

Renee Zellweger always looks trim but lately, she's been looking pretty fit too. And Dave Letterman is noticing.

The Late Show guy asked the beautiful actress recently how she looks so good, and Renee revealed her secret: Running.

FitSugar has the scoop on Renee's love of the run. Could it be an addiction? Therapy? Or both? Read here to find out.

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Running a marathon is challenging under any circumstances. Running a marathon while pushing your spouse in a wheelchair is incredible. But doing so for many marathons and on daily runs that now total more than 12,000 miles ... that's just awe-inspiring.

In 1987, Lynn Parks was preparing for her wedding day when she was in a horrific car accident. Seven months later she awoke from a coma to see her fiancee, Jamie, by her side. During the years of therapy that followed, Jamie began taking Lynn on his many runs around the neighborhood and on races.

It was said Lynn would never stand or walk -- but seven years after her accident, she walked down the aisle and married Jamie. It was said she would never have children -- but in 2000, Jamie and Lynn welcomed their daughter into the world. Both Jamie and Lynn always dreamed of competing in the Boston Marathon and in 2008, they finally did.

Discovery Health channel is featuring Jamie and Lynn's inspiring story this Sunday. I'm going to be watching ... in fact, I've already got a reminder set on my TV. How about you?

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From tubby to trim, awful to awesome, head-case to hubba hubba, Britney Spears has been on a crazy journey over the last few years, but she's made a pretty spectacular comeback. She's looking great, her career seems to be back on track and she hasn't done any bizarre publicity stunts in ages. Does Spears credit her recent sanity to a good shrink or a stint in rehab? Nah -- in a recent interview, she admitted that dancing is the best therapy.

"Everybody has a world that they create around themselves. If I have a lot of nervous energy, when I start dancing it goes away and I just feel emotion. It's like a rollercoaster," says the songstress. "People think that if you go through something in your life you need to go to therapy, but for me art is therapy because you are expressing yourself in such a spiritual way."

Britney's definitely on to something here -- dancing is good for the soul and body. Plus it's a really fun way to get fit.

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Renee Zellweger is a busy lady, but she makes time to hit the gym six days a week. However, she says it's not necessarily to stay fit -- it's because she uses it for therapy.

Zellweger says, "The gym is my therapy. I've got to get stuff out. The perk of going and spending time by myself and getting my head straight and thinking through what might be bothering me is that I get fit. That's not the goal, but it's a nice by-product."

I don't know -- I'm sure she gets some great mental benefits out of her workouts, but I'm pretty certain she's intent on burning calories, too. That girl is awfully thin. However, I'm sure many of us can relate to using our workouts as stress relief -- I definitely can. How about you?

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Martha recently posted about how exercise can help stroke patients recover. A new virtual reality program that is undergoing clinical trials in the UK and in Canada helps the recovery process a little more.

A researcher at Portsmouth University in the UK created a treadmill that's linked to a virtual reality system. The system helps people recovering from strokes, traumatic falls, and those living with osteoarthritis to build up their endurance, increase their range of motion, and improve their gate.

The system displays scenes -- cityscapes, forest trails, mountains, etc. As the patient is walking on the treadmill, the scenery changes. The system gives them the motivation to walk -- and it also encourages them to virtually pick up objects which aids in balance. In addition, the motion of the scenery is adjusted so the patients walk faster and more smoothly, almost without realizing it.

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Gaining weight at any age and stage of life boosts a woman's risk of developing breast cancer after menopause, says research from the National Cancer Institute. This may come as a surprise to some who think lifestyle plays no role in the development of cancer. But as many as 20% of cancer deaths are due to being overweight or obese. Clearly, weight does matter. If you're tipping the scales in a dangerous direction, then, you'd be wise to drop a few pounds in the name of cancer prevention.

Other lifestyle factors that deserve your attention are as follows.

Hormone Replacement Therapy. It slightly increases a woman's breast cancer risk, according to the large Women's Health Initiative. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends the smallest effective HRT dose for the shortest period of time.

Exercise. Women who exercise more than six hours a week cut their risk of invasive breast cancer by 23 percent. It's never to late to start. So lace up your athletic shoes today.

Alcohol. Even small amounts of alcohol spike breast cancer risk. Taking folic acid in addition to consuming alcohol helps, but cutting down on drinking is your best bet. An equivalent of one glass of wine per day is all you should drink. Less is better, if you can manage it.

Vitamin D. A supplement with at least 1,000 IU of the vitamin is recommended.

Five easy steps -- lose weight (OK, maybe this one's not so easy), limit HRT, exercise, cut down on drinking, and supplement with vitamin D -- and you'll be on your way to good breast health.

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I was watching the Olympics the other day and saw a piece where a reporter went and received acupuncture treatments. It was interesting to hear about this particular practitioner who was influential in acupuncture's acceptance into Western culture. After the piece, the reporter mentioned that Nastia Liukin, gold medalist in the women's all-around gymnastics competition, has weekly acupuncture treatments.

She's not alone. Acupuncture is widely used as a method to aid and speed healing from sports-related injuries. Though the thought of multiple metal needles being inserted into your body is daunting, to say the least, proponents of the traditional form of medicine sing its praises. In addition to aiding in healing, acupuncture is said to help athletes by boosting energy, improving circulation, and ensuring the body gets the most out of nutrients. In addition, acupuncture is said to help improve the quality of sleep and boost immunity.

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A crash diet at age 19 left Richard Simmons bald, says the fitness guru. Which is, in essence, why he has such crazy, curly hair today. Sound strange? It is.

Simmons said he had 4,000 hair follicles transplanted after his unfortunate hair loss 41 years ago. The result? That massive head of hair he has today.

Simmons' story comes up as part of a larger story featured in USA Today about hair transplants that require the transplantation of only 120 follicles, and not the current standard of 2,000. Hair regeneration therapy is the name of this hairy breakthrough, and Intercytex is the company trying to market it. Studies show 11 of 19 men who have tried the procedure have successfully grown hair six months after treatment.

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On Monday, I graduated from my rehab stint. Physical therapy rehab, that is. There was no big ceremony or anything. Just me and my therapist reviewing my progress over the past five weeks. It was pretty enlightening, what we talked about, and I left the clinic feeling both successful and motivated.

When I first walked through my rehab clinic doors, I wasn't sure anything could be done to fix the tightness, the limited range of motion, the sometimes pain I felt in the area of my left arm. It had been three long years since I'd had surgery to remove a breast cancer tumor, after all, and almost that long since radiation zapped the whole cancerous area. Both are to blame for what I was experiencing and the way I considered it, if my problems weren't solved long ago, there was little that could be done now.

I was wrong.

My therapist took tons of measurements when we first started working together. I moved, bent, stretched, pushed, and pulled so she could record numbers of all sorts. Then we spent weeks on our tasks. She massaged and manipulated and broke down scar tissue, stiffness, knots. Armed with weekly exercises, I stretched and strengthened by body at home. Together, we achieved victory -- my improved numbers prove it. I'm responsible for 50 percent of the success, my therapist tells me. She takes credit for the other 50 percent.

Before I left my final appointment, my expert shared a few parting words. Here they are.

• My posture is better. She could tell the moment I walked in the door. Must be the exercise in standing tall she'd given me during one visit and my new awareness of the poor posture I'd been carrying with me all these years.

• I should be sleeping on my back, not on my side. Back sleepers enjoy better alignment and less rounding of the shoulders -- one of my posture problems. My assignment from this moment on is to sleep on my back with one relatively flat pillow under my head. I should make sure my pillow fills the gap between my neck and my bed. I should enjoy the benefits of this technique immensely, says my therapist.

• Keep at it, says this same gal who streamlined all my at-home exercises and told me precisely what I need to do to hang on to the results the two of us have achieved.

I turns out I'm perfect at something. I'm perfect at having poor posture. Not only do my shoulders round forward -- likely the result of typing on the computer all the time -- but my back sways pretty good, my stomach pushes out, and I look a few inches shorter than I really am. I'm a pro at this stuff and am making no great progress at actually standing up as erect as I can. Old habits die hard.

The physical therapist who is treating my radiation-damaged muscles is the one who noticed my tendencies and she keeps sending me home with tips and techniques for straightening up. I'm trying -- not as often as I should, I will admit -- and I hope one day to actually measure at the 5 foot, 7 inches I report as my height. All I need to do is practice this posture exercise, a new one she gave me today -- it involves a blue band thrown over a closed door and me pulling it towards my body with locked elbows and hands turned outward -- and everything else she's mentioned over the course of our last four sessions together.

One more therapy session remains. Then I'll be on my own, armed with the knowledge to become perfect at something new: Standing tall.

A while back, the physician that has been caring for my lower back injury suggested I go do Pilate's to help strengthen and stretch the muscles that are stuck in a chronic spasm. Now, I've been teaching fitness for 18 years and have been exposed to almost every type of training and equipment under the sun. I'm embedded in it. Strangely though, Pilate's and Yoga are things that have never interested me. I understand the benefit to doing those things, and have recommended them to others. I've just never wanted to pursue them myself. I'm a fighter; literally. If you don't believe me click here. I like to move fast, go hard, sweat, grunt, and pant like a lunatic. I like to GO, GO, GO! The one time I took yoga, I wanted to slit my wrists. The few times I used the Pilate's Reformer, I thought it was interesting....but not anything I'd want to pursue.

So last week I show up at the Gainesville Health and Fitness Center, and the advanced Pilate's mat class was just about to start. Feeling guilty for not following up on my doctor's advice from months ago, I half-heartedly asked the perky front desk chic if there was any room in the class. Yep. There was. And she handed me a little butterfly thing with a number on it to hold my place.

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A research team recently conducted a study on some antidepressant medications. The team found that, except for with the most severely depressed patients, the meds weren't much more help than the placebo sugar pills they used for control. The particular meds they studied were fluoxetine (found in Prozac), paroxetine (found in Paxil), venlafaxine (found in Effexor), and nefazodone.

Researchers caution that, if you're taking antidepressants, by no means should you stop taking them without consulting your doctor. Some drug manufacturers think the study was too limited and produced flawed data. Antidepressants can take a long time to work for an individual and there may need to be tweaks and changes in the prescriptions until the right medications are found. If you're dealing with depression, your best bet is to work with your doctor and/or therapist on medication help and to also take natural measures to manage your depression. Check out the gallery for some ideas.

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My son has a serious case of cabin fever. All of his warm weather gadgets are calling his name and he's finding it hard to resist. Particularly (for some reason) his inline skates. When he asked if he could take them out for a spin, I thought about the snow and ice outside and said something to the effect of "Absolutely, positively, no way." Visions of ice and hard chunks of snow causing amazing crashes were running through my head. The reality is that the sidewalks are pretty clear right now and it probably would have been OK. But I'm a mom. And with that title comes a healthy dose of worry.

A little worry is a good thing. It's protective and helps us make good decisions. But for some, worry can spiral out of control. Constant worry that is disproportionate to the risk can be immobilizing, stressful, and emotionally draining. If your worrying mind is a little overactive, you may have a condition called Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

Therapy can help those with GAD learn to cope with and manage their worry. The therapy includes helping people face their anxieties, analyze whether they're realistic, and to get to a point where the worry is almost old-hat. Most people with GAD are fully aware their worries aren't always realistic, but it's difficult (if not impossible) to just shove their fears aside. Therapy and, if necessary, medication, can help GAD sufferers regain control.

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I'm a Yankee Candle junkie. Every time a coupon arrives in the mail, I head right out and redeem it. Burning scented candles is one of my favorite feel-good practices. A little aroma therapy is just what I need to warm my spirits.

Today I bought three news flavors -- black cherry, peach, and vanilla cupcake. The cupcake one -- which smells exactly like its intended scent -- is what inspired me to write this post because it hit me as potentially odd that I grabbed this mouth-watering candle when I don't consume sweets (headaches and a desire to eat healthy drove me away from them). And then I realized: Smelling vanilla cupcakes is enough. I don't need to eat them. I guess it could have gone the other way -- my candle could have sent me right to the bakery for the real deal -- but it didn't. And as I sit here right now, cupcake aromas swirling around me, I am completely satisfied.

If scents alone do the trick for your sweet cravings, check out Yankee Candle and all this delicious fragrances this company has to offer.

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