When was the last time you said, “I love you” to your body? Has it been too long? Then take a moment this Sunday, Oct. 12, to appreciate your body exactly as it is. You’ll be in good company because…
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October 9th, 2008 — , Body Image, NOW, National Love Your Body Day, self-acceptance from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Bad Body Habits
October 7th, 2008 — , Body Image, breaking bad habits, defining beauty, mothers and daughters from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
When it comes to bad habits, I’ve got my share — maybe more than my share, if you ask my husband. But lately, I’ve been thinking about my bad body habits…you know, the things I keep saying or doing that…
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October 6th, 2008 — , Body Image, News, changing, fit in real life, weight maintenance from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Dear Friends: As most of you know, last week marked the end of my first year of maintaining my weight loss on my own — without the help of a trainer, a nutritionist and a life coach. Just for old…
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Fear (Part Two)
October 3rd, 2008 — , Motivation, fear of success, raising the bar, weight loss, weight maintentance from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Well, this is it…the end of my look at the five biggest challenges I’ve faced in maintaining my weight loss this year. Yesterday, I talked about fear of failure and how it creates a level of pressure that can be…
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October 2nd, 2008 — , Motivation, control, fear of failure, pounds, the scale, weight maintenance from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
I’m rounding out my list of top five challenges to weight maintenance with a challenge so big it needs to be broken into two parts — fear. Specifically, fear of failure. Fear of failure was huge for me during the…
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October 1st, 2008 — , Motivation, Shape magazine, Weight Loss Diary, challenges, consciousness, healthy eating, meal planning, stress eating, time management from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
When I thought about how I wanted to describe the third challenge I face in maintaining my weight loss and keeping on track with my healthy lifestyle, the best word I could come up with was “Overwhelm.” Sometimes it’s stress,…
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September 30th, 2008 — , Motivation, challenging workouts, changing fitness routine, inertia, laziness, weight maintenance from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Yesterday, I mentioned that I’d be reflecting on the five big challenges I’ve faced during my first year of weight maintenance. The first post was all about guilt. Today’s challenge? Inertia (or, a really fancy way of saying “laziness.”). It’s…
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September 29th, 2008 — , Motivation, Shape magazine, Weight Loss Diary, guilt, healthy intentions from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
This week marks the one-year anniversary of the end of my weight-loss program as Shape magazine’s Weight-Loss Diary columnist. Ironically enough, it’ll end with a weigh-in, since I have a doctor’s appointment scheduled later in the week. Now that I’ve…
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September 26th, 2008 — , calorie counts, chocolate, dark chocolate, fundraising, health benefits, healthy eating, will power from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
When my walking buddy came over for our walk yesterday, she came bearing eight — count ‘em, eight! — candy bars. Her talented kid is selling them for school to raise money for one of her camps or programs. Really,…
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September 25th, 2008 — , ER, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, Kaiser Family Foundation, Motivation, TV, health information from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Have you seen this new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which showed that viewers of the TV show Grey’s Anatomy absorbed health information included in a recent episode featuring an HIV-positive pregnant woman? Researchers found that in the week…
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September 24th, 2008 — , Not eating, healthy eating, metabolism, skipping meals, weight gain from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
It’s been a crazy morning, people — beginning with early orthodontia and a deadline. It’s 11 a.m. right now and guess what? I haven’t eaten a thing yet today. That’s a no-no. I learned that during my year with Shape….
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September 23rd, 2008 — , Cortland, Empire, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Macintosh, Macoun, apple butter, apple picking, apples, applesauce, healthy eating from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Melissa Kirdzik, my dietitian during my year as Shape magazine’s Weight-Loss Diary columnist, is back today to talk about one of my favorite fall treats: Apples. Here’s what she had to say on this tasty subject: Apples are an excellent…
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September 22nd, 2008 — , Working Out, functional fitness, push-ups, upper body strength from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Like many married couples, my husband and I have an agreed-upon division of labor. He (usually) takes out the trash and I (usually) do the grocery shopping. We mix and match tasks now and then, but for the most part,…
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School Picture Day
September 19th, 2008 — , Body Image, body changes, photographs, school pictures from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Remember school picture day? Agonizing over the perfect outfit to wear, what to do with your hair…it was all planned down to the last detail. As I watched my daughter get ready this morning, I flashed back to my own…
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September 18th, 2008 — , Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, MizFit, Oprah Show, Tracy Anderson, Working Out, heavy weights, ligth weights from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
I happened to turn on the TV yesterday afternoon while I was prepping chicken for dinner and I caught Gwyneth Paltrow on the Oprah Show, talking about how hard she worked — and still does work — to get herself…
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September 17th, 2008 — , Motivation, Shape magazine, fear, fitness, healthy lifestyle, weight loss from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
As I sat here this morning, staring at a blank page with nary an idea, I was reminded that fear can be its own motivator. The very thought of not being able to come up with something to write about…
Have You Gotten Sweaty Lately?
September 16th, 2008 — , Mark Patinkin, Working Out, consistency., effort, fitness, improvement from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
I’m always looking for ways to boost my workout and this morning, while reading my newspaper, I came across this great observation from local columnist Mark Patinkin. He wrote, “If I’ve learned anything about sports, it’s that there’s a direct…
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September 15th, 2008 — , Choices, Lori Hall Steele, Motivation, Musings, effects, fundraising from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
This weekend, I experienced a lovely reminder of a valuable lesson I learned while writing Shape magazine’s Weight-Loss Diary column: I am the sum of the small decisions I make every day. When you’re trying to lose a significant amount…
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September 12th, 2008 — , healthy eating from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
It’s day seven of the new school year and I’m already sick of my not-so-favorite chore: Packing school lunches for my kids. I’ve been pondering why this task gets on my nerves the way it does and the best I…
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Appreciating Good Health…and Friendship
September 11th, 2008 — , ALS, Lori Hall Steele, Lou Gehrig's Disease, Lyme Disease, Motivation, Musings, Save Lori's House, Working Out, friendship from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
During this morning’s walk, as I pushed my body hard up a good-sized hill, my mind didn’t run its usual litany of complaints about pain or feeling tired or even “Why am I doing this to myself?” thoughts. All I…
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September 10th, 2008 — , Body Image, Eve Ensler, The Good Body, The Vagina Monologues, body confidence, body flaws from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
I can’t tell you how badly I want to see Eve Ensler’s (she of The Vagina Monologues fame) new play called The Good Body. It’s all about women’s obsession with physical perfection. That’s a topic I can relate to; actually,…
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September 9th, 2008 — healthy eating from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
…and it is cake. Yesterday was my husband’s birthday, so I baked him his favorite — marble — cake and whipped up a batch of my homemade decorating icing (my mom’s recipe). It’s a decadent treat and one that we…
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September 9th, 2008 — , cake, conscious action, healthy eating, mindful eating, temptation from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
…and it is cake. Yesterday was my husband’s birthday, so I baked him his favorite — marble — cake and whipped up a batch of my homemade decorating icing (my mom’s recipe). It’s a decadent treat and one that we…
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September 8th, 2008 — , Coffee, Exercise, Pavlovian respone, Science Daily, Working Out, calorie burning from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Conventional wisdom says that water is the best post-workout drink, but it’s no secret that I don’t love it. My drink of choice after getting sweaty? Coffee. During my entire year as Shape magazine’s Weight-Loss Diary columnist, I’d drive directly…
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September 8th, 2008 — , Coffee, Exercise, Pavlovian respone, Science Daily, Working Out, calorie burning from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Conventional wisdom says that water is the best post-workout drink, but it’s no secret that I don’t love it. My drink of choice after getting sweaty? Coffee. During my entire year as Shape magazine’s Weight-Loss Diary columnist, I’d drive directly…
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September 5th, 2008 — , Working Out, bicycling, fitness contradictions, smoking, workout mistakes from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Every once in a while, you see something — or someone — at the gym who makes you want to run over and say, “What are you thinking?” You know what I’m talking about…bad form with too-heavy weights, slumping over…
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September 4th, 2008 — , Motivation, planning, scheduling, school year, structure from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
I love the break of summer, but I love the feeling of getting back into the routine of the school year. For one thing, my fitness schedule is much less haphazard. I go from working out whenever I can squeeze…
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September 3rd, 2008 — , Musings, first day of school, new school, organized, planning, scheduling from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Shhh…what’s that sound? Oh, that’s right — it’s silence. It’s been so long since I’ve heard it that I almost didn’t recognize it. In case you hadn’t guessed, today is the first day of school. To me, the first day…
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September 2nd, 2008 — , Gold's Gym, Motivation, gardening, taking action, weight loss from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
This weekend, I finally tackled the long overdue task of pulling weeds from my flower beds. It had gotten so bad that you could no longer tell purposeful plants from overgrown green stalks, and my husband threatened to take the…
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August 29th, 2008 — , High School Musical, Motivation, Shape magazine, Weight Loss Diary, family support, healthy changes, healthy eating from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Yes, it’s true: I have that cheesy High School Musical song stuck in my head this morning. But the fact that I can’t stop humming its annoying chorus has me thinking about what those words actually mean. When it comes…
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August 28th, 2008 — , Working Out, cycling, double workout sessions, heavy weight, legs, momentum, mommy guilt, slow and heavy workout from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Yesterday, I decided to go slow and heavy for my leg workout during my strength-training session. I haven’t done that for a while and I’d forgotten how hard it is (If you’ve never tried slow and heavy, it’s pretty much…
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August 27th, 2008 — , 100 calorie packs, Chips Ahoy, Cooking Light magazine, Eat to Live, Melissa Kirdzik, Snickers, healthy eating, pre-packaged snacks from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, 100-calorie packs are here to stay. Are you a fan? Environmental and cost issues aside, I do like the idea of using pre-packaged items to control calorie intake. After all, a pre-measured package is an…
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August 26th, 2008 — , Body Image, Softball, Working Out, baseball, fast pitch, pitching, throwing from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
A heated debate has been raging in our house this week about the use of the term T-LAG. As we sat down to a post-baseball practice dinner of pizza, my husband launched into an explanation of the mechanics of throwing,…
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August 25th, 2008 — , Body Image, MizFit blog, Shape magazine, Weight Loss Diary, maintaining weight loss, scale from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
As I approach the one-year anniversary of the end of my time as Shape magazine’s Weight-Loss Diary columnist — and, boy, that went fast! — I can’t help but wonder what the scale says today. I know…really, it’s not important….
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August 22nd, 2008 — , Body Image, Caroline Heldman, ESPN.com, Laura Boswell, Ms. Magazine, Olympic athletes, Playboy from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Sitting with my daughter the other night, watching some silly entertainment wrap-up show, a brief piece came on about female Olympic athletes…specifically, female Olympic athletes who’d chosen to pose for Playboy magazine’s “Women of the Olympics” pictorial. We watched together…
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August 21st, 2008 — , Kids, cereal bars, deception, healthy eating, nutrition, picky eaters, vegetables from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Yesterday, when my son went into the pantry looking for a snack, he returned with a whole-grain cereal bar from the box I bought a few days ago. “These are good, Mom,” he said casually, after ripping open the wrapper…
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August 20th, 2008 — , Staples, Working Out, connecting with kids, mothers and daughters, walking from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Yesterday, I wrote about my frustration and disappointment when Monday’s evening workout plans fell through. But because I’m all about the yin and yang, I have to share what happened last night. My husband and son were off at football…
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August 19th, 2008 — , Cardio, Working Out, exercise plans, schedule interruptions from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Don’t you hate it when your exercise plans don’t work out? Mondays are my dance class day and I was feeling pretty crummy yesterday, so I decided to strength train in the morning and skip cardio, knowing that I had…
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August 18th, 2008 — , Challenge, Dara Torres, Working Out, comfort zone, exercise intensity, fear from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Watching the Olympics this week — and seeing all these athletes push themselves to the absolute limit — has got me thinking about the quality of my own workouts. My goal for August was to up the intensity on all…
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August 15th, 2008 — , Body Image, Chinese singer, Olympics, bikini waxing, lip synching, moms from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
By now, you’ve all probably heard about the Olympic lip-synching brouhaha, in which one little girl’s voice was used during the opening ceremony, while another “prettier” little girl was sent out in her place to be the public face in…
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Ask the Dietitian: Sugar Vs. Stevia
August 14th, 2008 — , Melissa Kirdzik, Shape magazine, Stevia, Weight-Loss Diary column, alternatives to sugar, artificial sweeteners, healthy eating, sugar substitute from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Melissa Kirdzik, the dietitian who helped me lose 26 pounds as Shape magazine’s 2007 Weight-Loss Diary columnist, is back today to answer a question about sugar versus Stevia, an alternative to artificial sweeteners. Q: I love sweets, but I know…
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August 13th, 2008 — , Intro to Human Nutrition, Melissa Kirdzik, O magazine, Shape magazine, University of California at Berkeley, healthy eating, online courses from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
I love this time of year. There’s a hint of fall in the air, stores are running huge back-to-school sales and the kids are counting the days until school starts…not really, but hey, it’s my fantasy. I’ll admit I feel…
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August 12th, 2008 — , Body Image, University of Michigan, good health, scale, study, weight from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
It’s no secret that I’m not a huge fan of the scale. I never liked it much, but I’m really done with it after spending a year practically chained to it while writing Shape magazine’s Weight-Loss Diary column. Once a…
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August 11th, 2008 — , Musings, Working Out, breakfast, calorie count, healthy snacks, outlet shopping, protein from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
This’ll be a short post today; my husband and I both have the day off from work so we’re taking off for what’s become an annual ritual — back-to-school outlet shopping. We make a day of it: We enjoy the…
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August 8th, 2008 — , Beijing, Nadia Comaneci, Olga Korbut, Olympic games, Working Out, gymnastics, uneven bars, vault from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
I am a geek of Olympic proportions. I admit it. Friends roll their eyes and clench their teeth, knowing they’ll have to endure me in the coming days. My children will start off enthusiastic, then quickly resort to whines of…
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August 7th, 2008 — , Body Image, Jenny Craig, My Ideal Size, Shape, Valerie Bertinelli, commitment, confidence from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
Have you seen the new Jenny Craig “My Ideal Size” campaign? The company’s having a contest (the prize is appearing in a commercial with Valerie Bertinelli) in which contestants — all Jenny Craig clients — are asked to name their…
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August 6th, 2008 — , Working Out, building endurance, circuit training, hip pain, intervals, knee pain, running from Dara Chadwick @ Fit In Real Life
It’s day three of my August campaign to kick my workout up a notch and this morning, I’ve already done an hour-long full-body weight and cardio circuit workout. My knees are quite sore from yesterday’s walk with running intervals, which…
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