You see, there was this thing I heard about called CrossFit. I'd heard it was performed in a box or a cage, or something else intimidating-sounding. I saw great results from many of my friends, but I was also turned off by some of the cult-ish behavior I'd seen from regular CrossFitters. So what did I do? I ventured over to my gym, Washington Sports Club , and tried a free intro class. There was only one other woman who was taking the intro class with me, so I had the opportunity to ask tons of questions (which, of course, I did). First, we were given a quick pep talk and a primer on how some CrossFit workouts actually, well, work. I asked questions pertaining to whether the CrossFit instructors at my gym actually focus on form, or whether they just emphasizes maxing out. Contrary to what I'd heard about CrossFit, the instructors at my gym actually focus on form, and demonstrated this focus by going over the proper form of each exercise -- including variations on each e...

I love, love, love pesto sauce! The only problem is that they often contain too many calories! I found this great pesto recipe on myrecipes.com , which was taken from Cooking Light  magazine -- a great magazine with great, tasty, healthy recipes. The recipe has great flavor, though I would suggest using half the salt, if not slightly less. The other modification I made to the recipe was that I put the salmon and pesto on a bed of arugula, which turned out AWESOMELY! I would put this pesto on sandwiches, salads, and plenty of different fish. Give it a try, and tell me how you liked it! Did you make any changes? ...

There's been quite a bit of buzz lately about the collision of the worlds of technology and fitness. For example, this week, Under Armour purchased MapMyFitness (an awesome app I started drafting a review of  weeks  ago). This opens up the door for other fitness brands to begin merging and/or collaborating with tech companies that manage the apps people like me use on a daily basis. But I digress... The real news is that I BOUGHT A FITBIT! Not only did I buy a fitbit ZIP , but I got an awesome deal on it! There is an amazing Living Social coupon that expires in 2 days where you spend $25 to get $50 to spend at Brookstone . The ZIP normally costs $59.99 before taxes, so you can see that I got a pretty sweet deal after all was said and done! I was already using the fitbit app  for my phone, so I was quickly able to sync my new device with my existing account. I'd conducted a fair amount of research on the fitbit before I purchased it. The three main things I look ...

I've always found it to be helpful for me to put my goals down in writing. I realized that I should treat my fitness goals the same as any other goals I'm currently working on. November is an easy month to lose track of fitness goals. Thanksgiving is one of the main reasons, but there are so many other opportunities to cheat on your health during this month. People at work start bringing in baked goods, spiced pumpkin is an intoxicating aroma that comes in so many sugared, breaded, creamy forms, and the days start getting colder and darker. A few years ago, the Cleveland Clinic posted these great tips  on how to avoid gaining crazy weight during the holidays. They're great, and motivated me to come up with my own list of ways I'm going to avoid weight gain this month. Not only will this help me avoid the weight gain, but it should  keep me on track with all of my other fitness goals. Eat more breakfast!  This has been the worst thing for me my entire life. I'...