That's Fit

Sounds impossible, doesn't it? Who in the world ever thought of going to Disney and eating healthy? Crazy talk, right? Wrong! Your loving online Fitzness Expert (me) who has extremely high standards on what I put in both my children's mouth and my own can spend a day at the Magic Kingdom or EPCOT and eat as well as I would in my own home. Disney has made grand efforts to improve the healthfulness of the foods they offer, and has even gone overboard with an abundance of fresh fruit stands located throughout each theme park.

I just spent a week at Walt Disney World in Florida and returned home half a pound less than I was the day before vacation. Want to eat right while enjoying the magic with Mickey Mouse? Read on.

• Mickey makes mealtime easy on the fitness fan. Every restaurant I ventured through offered several menu options based on lean grilled meat, veggies, and/or fruit. Even the children's meals come standard with side items like: grapes, carrot sticks, and unsweetened applesauce. They also come with bottled water or skim milk. Sweet! Parents would have to go out of their way to substitute french fries and soda for their children instead of the healthy stuff. Eww! You the fitness fan, certainly wouldn't do that!
• Sit down dining restaurants offer Egg Beaters cooked without oil in lieu of regular scrambled eggs. I enjoyed this perk while dining with Minnie and Goofy at Disney's Yacht Club Resort.
• Resort dining facilities offer endless refrigerators full of fresh fruit, veggies, yogurt, dried fruit, nutritious snack bars and more.
• Seek out healthier desserts. Anywhere they are served, Disney has made efforts to make reduced fat, low sugar or fresh fruit treats available.

My son is a picky eater. But, surprisingly, he likes a lot of vegetables. Carrots, celery, and cucumber rank as some of his favorite snacks. (Lucky, aren't I?) Even so, there are plenty of veggies that he shies away from. I think most parents struggle to get their kids to try different vegetables and, better yet, enjoy them. HealthCastle has some ideas on getting your kids to eat more veggies:

• Make it fun. Serve ants on a log or make a smiley face out of veggies. Let your child top their own individual pizza with their choice of veggies.
  
• Hide them. Serve cut veggies with ranch dressing for dipping. Add vegetables to casseroles, soups, and pasta dishes.
  
• Be creative. Prepare vegetables in different ways or even just slice them differently. Sometimes a subtle change makes all the difference. (For example, my son won't eat asparagus spears, but when I cut off just the tips for him he gobbles them down.)
• Don't give up. Don't force your child to eat their veggies (it's a sure-fire way to make them HATE vegetables). Instead, be prepared to offer the new vegetable over and over and over until your child is willing to really try it and give it a chance. It takes some kids 10-15 times before they'll really entertain a new food item.
• Buy a kid-friendly cookbook. There are several on the market that have sneaky ways of incorporating vegetables into meals.

Take one look at Dancing with the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba and it's clear the girl is doing something right to maintain her sleek dancer's body. Whatever could it be, aside from the dancing, that is?

Inaba credits yoga and a diet inspired by her island upbringing for her trim figure.

"I was born on Hawaii and I'm Japanese, so I was raised to eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables and protein, whether it's soybeans or fish," says Inaba. Smart girl -- with some smart moves. Check them out in the gallery below.

It's no mystery that vegetables are good for you. The list of reasons why spans far longer than the space provided between these margins.

That's why I decided to focus on one health benefit in particular: the apparent relationship between vegetable consumption and reduced lung cancer risk. Women's Health magazine reports that people who eat at least one daily serving of vegetables lower their risk of this cancer by as much as fifty percent compared with people who ate less veggies than that.

Because they are high in antioxidants, veggies are formidable opponents for carcinogenic free radicals and tobacco smoke, say folks at Women's Health. Keep your lungs healthy by adding broccoli, spinach, and other cancer-fighting vegetables to your daily diet.

It's hard to say which day out of the six we spent a few weeks ago at the Walt Disney World Resort was my favorite, but day three really was special. It was jam packed with a variety of super fun activities that were both totally exciting and totally relaxing at the same time. The majority of day three was spent at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, where we were staying. We capped off a superb day with a glamorous evening at The California Grill, one of Disney's Signature Restaurants located on the top floor of The Contemporary Resort.

If you take your family to Disney, I highly recommend strategically placing at least one 'resort day' in the middle of your stay. The theme parks and water parks are amazing, but can be exhausting. Playing at your Disney resort still offers loads of fun, but doesn't drain. In fact, a 'resort day' is the perfect recharge for tired parents needed a break. The pools are wildly creative, the hot tubs....to die for, and the free organized activities are endless. Yes, you heard me right. Most of the Disney resorts offer planned activities for both children and adults.....FREE OF CHARGE! Whooohooooo!

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose one per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hey Fitz. I am 12 years old and am a little chunky. I have love handles and wish to get rid of them, but I don't know what I should do! I was trying sit ups and crunches, but they don't work. Now I want to know what really works and how I can keep my body in shape without body fat . Everyone says that I'm not fat nor skinny, I'm just chunky. I want to get rid of all the chunky parts, but I don't know what I should do. Please help! Jellybean

A. First of all Jellybean, I want you to change your focus. I know it's hard to be young and uncomfortable in your skin. I too, had that issue before I was a teenager and ended up with a traumatic eating disorder. Trust me ... it brought me only bad things, never good. Don't go there. Instead of focusing on your so-called "flaws", find something about your body you like. I bet your body is loaded with treasures.

As I've been leading you through the paces of enjoying the best Walt Disney World has to offer, without trashing your health and fitness habits, this is one of the easiest days to master. On our second day of vacation we headed to the holy land of wholesome family fun, The Magic Kingdom. Ahhh yes! This is the place where children squeal, Mommies well up with tears of joy on a regular basis, and Daddies shout like kids themselves on the roller coasters. It's also a place where every last visitor is likely to do a ton of physical work. In fact ... read on and you'll learn exactly how many calories we burned during this day. It's insane!

So! Our day consisted of pushing the kids in the double stroller, then watching the castle show. Did I mention each of my children weigh almost 40 pounds? Then we pushed the kids in the double stroller some more, and rode some rides in Fantasyland. In fact, before we even stopped for lunch, we pushed the double stroller again and rode rides in: Fantasyland, Tommorowland, back to Fantastyland, Mickey's Toontown Fair, Adventureland, back to Tommorowland and finally landed back in Adventureland for lunch. Then we ran circles in the water squirters at both Ariel's Grotto and Pooh's Corner to cool off for about an hour. The latter half of the day resembled the first half, except it seemed even busier.

Feeling stressed? One of the best ways to manage stress may be waiting for you just outside your back door.

When one decides to stop eating meat, it's easy enough to turn to vegetarian recipes. However, many people aren't willing to give up meat in their meals, but would be willing to cut back.

The problem with this is that using half the amount of meat but not changing up the way you look at your meal can leave you feeling hungry -- if meat is still the main dish, but you're eating less, you won't feel satisfied.

Fortunately, The New York Times had a great article on how to eat less meat without feeling like you're missing out. Seven suggestions are made -- for the whole thing, click here, or check out our gallery to get a quick overview. And remember, you don't have to be a vegetarian to give vegetables the starring role in your dish!

Today I bring to you the first day of our recent family vacation at the happiest healthiest place on earth, Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. To catch up with this feature, click here. As your online Fitzness Trainer, I'm eager to share with you the simple ways my family and I maintained and enjoyed our healthy lifestyle while on vacation. Disney has really made strides with their efforts to embrace healthy food and entertainment options. They've done a bang up job at it as well.

You'll see in this photo gallery that we started our day off at Typhoon Lagoon. Those energetic hours were followed by a ridiculously healthy dinner, scootering around our resort, and dancing our tushies off all night. It was both high-energy and a blast. Can you say "Quality Time"?

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.

Mmmmmm. Just the mention of Chef Jens Dahlmanns's name puts my mind in ecstasy. His is the name of the man who created what I'd choose as my 'last meal.' He's the premier Chef of Disney's signature restaurant The California Grill, who also oversees a staff of award-winning chefs atop Disney's Contemporary Resort. Chef Jens was classically trained in European kitchens and worked for Le Cirque 2000 in New York City and Cafe 'L Europe in Palm Beach, Florida, before joining Disney in April 2004.

We first spoke on the phone a week before I was to dine at his spectacular grill. From a fitness trainer standpoint, he gave all of the 'right answers.' Not that he was contrived, but his stance on cooking is what I would wish to hear. If you've read my features before, you'll know that I preach the importance of lean fresh foods. Read on to see how dead-on Chef Jens is to that style of eating. From a regular gal's point of view, it was just really exciting and fun to hear Chef Jens talk about food. He described white asparagus the same way most men would describe a beautiful woman. I could imagine what each item tasted like as he described them.

My experience at The California Grill was almost indescribable. Chef Jens and his staff were pampering to say the least. He greeted me with a sample of the white asparagus he gushed about, and I knew I was in for something special. The combinations of flavors and textures were to die for! I relished every bite and cleaned each and every plate that landed in front of me (highly unusual for me). The man knows how to make fresh food taste divine. The advice he gave in this interview is exactly what I, as your online Fitzness Trainer, want you to follow. Chef Jens just knows far better than I, how to make all of the healthy stuff taste heavenly.

Fitz: How much does "healthy" influence the foods you create for your menus?

Chef Jens: Healthy actually has a lot to do with our menu. First of all, Disney has set an initiative for enhancing our menus in a healthy way, so across all of the Disney parks and restaurants you'll find better choices. On my part, I'm always driven by what's fresh in the market. We create meals based on the season. At the California Grill, our menu changes according to what foods are in season. Fresh food equals leaner and "cleaner" food. I never use processed ingredients.

What smokers really need is to quit smoking. Well, if better health is a goal, anyway. Short of kicking the habit, though, there is something smokers can do to protect themselves against lung cancer: Eat three servings of fruits and vegetables per day and drink green or black tea.

That's what UCLA cancer researchers say now that they've completed their first-of-its-kind study. They found that high levels of natural chemicals called flavonoids in smokers' diets translated into a lower risk of lung cancer. This is a promising finding since 90 percent of lung cancers are caused by tobacco smoking.

Smokers most protected from the disease are those who ate catechin, found in strawberries and green and black teas, kaempferol, found in Brussels sprouts and apples, and quercetin, found in beans, onions, and apples.

My top five veggies are broccoli, peas, corn, squash, and spinach salad leaves. These aren't the five eaten by the majority of Americans, though. The overall top five in this country, according to Canyon Ranch's Connection magazine, are:

• Iceberg lettuce

• French fries

• Potatoes

• Potato chips

• Canned tomato

This is alarming, says the Ranch experts, because these foods have far fewer vitamins than other vegetables. Don't be part of the statistic, they say. Instead, make an effort to eat one new veggie per week so you'll get a wider variety of nutrients.

Calorie. When you're trying to lose weight those three little syllables can sound a bit sinister. But calories really aren't the bad guys. Basically, a calorie is just a unit of energy. They give us the fuel we need to keep going. But did you know that when you cut calories you can actually boost your energy? Since calories are our main source of energy, it may seem counterintuitive that reducing them can boost our energy. But the trick -- even though a calorie, is a calorie, is a calorie -- is eating high quality foods that benefit your body.

When you aren't eating healthfully, you're likely to get extra calories from refined carbs (sugary foods, white bread/pasta/rice, etc.) and greasy foods. Those are choices that pack a hefty calorie punch and (though you may get an initial rush from sugar) ultimately leave you feeling sluggish. Slow-burning, healthful foods will keep your blood sugar stable and keep you energized throughout the day.

Whole-grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean protein are all good choices for energy-boosting foods. Some top picks include: