That's Fit

Reporters at a recent press conference in Spain were nothing but stunned when actor Colin Farrell appeared at the event looking shockingly thin.

Why the major transformation for this Hollywood bad boy?

"I lost weight because my role demanded it," said the 31-year-old of his upcoming film, Triage. "It was all very healthy."

It was a few sentences from the Scott Anderson novel that inspired Farrell's drastic slim-down: He went to the bathroom to shave. Once his beard was gone he saw that his face had become drawn. He pressed at the hollows beneath his eyes, the pronounced nubs of his cheekbones.

Farrell, not willing to fess up to his weight-loss secrets, plays a war reporter in Bosnia in this new film and spent five weeks perfecting his character.

Here at That's Fit, we're forever grateful for the service, courage and sacrifice made by the heroic men and women who serve as military, law enforcement officers, and firefighters. We're so grateful, that we'd like to dedicate some features to both showing our heroes off, and learning a little bit in the process as well. If you serve your country courageously, are a veteran or know someone who does, please return this form completed to Fitz along with a photo and we'll share your story with the world.

Name:

Age:

Heroic occupation:

If you're in the military...where are you?

How often do you exercise?

What type of exercise do you do?

Sesame Workshop, which produces the youth-oriented 'Sesame Street' television program for the PBS network, said that it will begin selling a DVD soon that is geared towards kids living in military families.

The DVD will have a touch more emotional compassion along with more emotional lessons instead of academic letters and numbers, according to production officials. Insured vets are the target market here, as they return and explain war to their kids.

This comes on the heels of a similar DVD released last year under the Sesame Street label that was geared specifically to open up family discussions about military deployments. With more than a million U.S. kids having parents in the military, these DVDs sound like excellent tools that can easily be relatable to those impressionable kids.

In honour of Independence day and the troops that risk their lives for our freedom, here's an inspiring story from eDiets about a soldier in Iraq who takes time out his busy, frightening days to exercise.

When Sgt. Joe Chiarella arrived in Iraq, he was determined to keep in shape, and he and his fellow soldiers built a makeshift gym using spare plywood, old gear and sandbags. As the war continued, they found themselves constantly adding to their 'gym' by welding pieces together, upholstering their benches and giving their equipment a fresh coat of pain. Joe takes a little time out of every day to work in a workout, because he knows it's important to keep in shape.

A story like this kind of makes our excuses for not going to the gym a bit petty, don't you think?

It's amazing to me how we advance science and technology, curing diseases and illnesses left and right, and still somehow some of the oldest ailments on Earth, like the bubonic plague, still come around to haunt us.

This comes up because although the threat of bio-terrorism is nothing new, researchers are now looking into the possibilities of both the bubonic and pneumonic plagues being used as weapons. Because they are so easy to "make" (it's as simple as growing bacteria), distribute widely (aerosol-type weapons), and deadly they just might be the new attack ammunition of choice for terrorists.

So at least we're aware and working on the situation, but in the meantime keep your bio-masks at the ready...jk.

Sometimes when life throws you a bunch of difficult situations to handle and you think you will never get through it all, your inner strength may just need to take a vacation to let you know your body and mind need a complete rest before you totally shut down. Stress. The silent killer. Oh boy was I there the last few weeks and this past weekend my inner strength said it had had quite enough to deal with and was time for a vacation. I had hit that brick wall and it knocked me flat on my big girl pantie butt. Health issues, financial issues, sick family members, computer problems, relationship problems, and the loss of a dalmatian that has been a child in the family for 13 years. No willpower in the world was going to drag me out of bed. I am not a violent person but finally when I did make it out of bed, I just wanted to hit something and cry.

Then it dawned on me all of the articles I had read on boxing and how it relieved stress and not to mention was a good cardio work out. Well I didn't want to go to a gym all puffy eyed from crying for two days and start beating the crap out of punching bags in public. People might think I was waging a war inside toward someone. And actually I was waging a war inside with life's situations that somehow creep up on you when you reach that soon to be 50 mark and responsibilities seem to triple. So I stuffed an over sized pillow case full of towels and blankets and hung it over the door of my closet and whala a punching bag and a huge stress reliever. When I was completely out of breath, I sank to the floor and let the weight of the world fall to the ground. Nothing had been resolved any more than it was 15 minutes before that, but it felt like it had.

Just getting rid of some of the stress let my inner strength back in to start dealing with everything that I faced. I miss my dog "Cally" just like losing a family member but now I am able to focus on the memories we had with her and not just the pain of losing her. I got a letter saying I was accepted into a health program that will give me financial assistance for medical care, and after three weeks of trying to figure out a computer problem, my best friend finally figured out my computer problems with me over the phone and that allowed me to get back into the server to blog. I should have made that make shift punching bag years ago and now I am a firm believer of lightweight boxing and doing something to get rid of stress.