Give Back and Get Fit!

Being skinny is not just about looking skinny. I mean.. yeah, ok from a literal perspective it indeed is..but challenge your brain to think beyond that and think of it as a metaphor. What can you do to rid yourself of the daily toxins that pollute your environment and thereby, flaunt a skinny self free of pollutants that are genuinely bad people, negative energy, selfishness, insincerity (otherwise know as fake peeps), and inconsideration?

First, recognize these people and understand that they cannot add to your life. Next, free yourselves of such people and seek thos who are sincere, who are kind-hearted, generous, thoughtful and helpful.

It's kind of like that commercial where kindness is shown to be contagious. It really is. Which brings me to my next point.. doing good things for the world, those who surround you and yourself (since the latter two are both part of that world...duh).

This doesn't mean you have to organize a beach clean-up every weekend, attend Habitat for Humanity of be a big brother or sister, although those are wonderful options of getting involved and giving back to the community! But start little and let it become habitual and part of your life.

So... for example, I hate running but I do it as part of my exercise routine anyway. I do about 4-5 charitable runs a year and I don't always raise a lot of money (people do grow tired of my constant requests for donating), but even my participation raises awareness and that is one small step for cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's and whatever other cause I run for. So I give back and get fit. Yay!

If your joints are old or you just detest running.. you can still give back and get fit in other ways! You can volunteer to help beautify a school (LA Works is the place to contact if you like doing this), a local Eagle Scout with his final project, or those in need means a lot of squatting, toning, stretching and twisting while you heavy lift, paint, and garden.

Learn it. Love it. Live it.

While Working Out.. Avoid the Following

1) Farting while you run. I know it's hard to avoid and I know everyone is listening to music anyway but it's sooooo unfortunately disgusting, passively aggressive in its confrontational ways and and unfortunately a reality you must cease to end!

2) Body odor... an aroma of herbs most notably onion, garlic and gross with a sniff of dirty towels and unmistakenbly atrocious and breathtaking (in the bad way).

3) Prancing around naked in the locker room. I know it's not a big deal to YOU but standing there and talking about your fake breasts and commenting that you might have gotten them too big and then suggesting others feel them to see how real they are (no win here because they were sooo big, fake and high) is not okay. Standing there and blowdrying your hair with your boobs hanging out.. also not okay..at least put on a bra. Having full on conversations naked with your bush staring me in the eye.. also not okay. I know people are naked in locker rooms.. that should be for a brief second.. not for the entire duration of your primping.

4) Filling in your water bottle while others are in line. I learned this one the hard way. As I stood there filling up my huge water bottle, a big SIGH came from the girl in back of me who pivoted and went towards the other water fountain. I pondered about the situation for a moment... realizing, I should have been the bigger and more generous person, stepped back, and allowed her to take a sip before proceeding to fill my bottle. A simple act of kindness... a large impact of gratitude and generosity could have occurred had I not been mindless and unthoughtful.

5) Picking your wedgie while you work out. Mellvilleeeees are annoying when you're working out and who cares if anyone sees me ... errrr sorta. Because on the flip side, I crack up when I see it. Pick good underwear, no underwear or go into the locker room (where based on #3 plethora of inappropriateness is already occurring) and pick your wedgie there!

Miam to Muffin Tops In My Belly but Nay to Them On My Body!

...for my body is a temple and this temple shall not be adorned with rolls of muffin tops. Instead, it shall be scaled with concave textures indicative of what humans call .. a pack.

A muffin top is the top part of a muffin, the part that potrudes from the wrapper, that plumply sits atop a muffin tin and the scrumptious part that melts in your mouth as you tell yourself, only this muffin top will I eat today... only to subsequently scarf the rest of the bottom down in about 5 seconds shortly thereafter.

Miam is a common French expression synonymous with the American expression, "yum!" When eating muffin tops, I declare "miam!" because yummy are they ever! But muffin tops on females, a strange and common new look due to too much on the love handles and too small of a pant size is beyond disgusting.

Do you want to look like this?

So how does one avoid a muffin top?

Here are my recommendations for the day.

1) Avoid excessively easy breakfast foods. This means, the quick and easy Starbucks breakfast item that is sweet, delicious and packed with carbs such as muffins, bagels, pastries, doughnuts, krispy kremes, cheese danishes, chocolate croissants, etc.

2) Work on your obliques.

For a beginner, I'd recommend trying the ballroom dance move where you do an 8 motion with your hips.

For someone more intermediate, lay on your back with your knees up and feet near your rear and come up high enough where your shoulders are off the ground but your backbone is glued to the ground and reach right, then left, repeat again and again.

For the advanced, you can try the pretzel!

To do the move properly, get into the above position. You don't need a ball.. you should actually use your hands to hold yourself up. Tuck your hips - meaning that motion of tilting your hips under, as if to suck in your stomach and lean forward.. that feeling of your hips tucking in is what you want throughout this exercise. ove you back knee far away from the line of your front leg so that it is truly behind you and in the shape of a weird looking human pretzel. Now, you can do an assortment of exercises - including lifting your knee, or pushing it back, or just keeping it up. You will feel this in your obliques almost immediately!

For the lazy, just do the twist so your obliques feel it.... do the twist!!!

4) Try on jeans and make sure they aren't so tight that your muffin top shows. Bigger jeans that fit appropriately will do wonders.

5) Love your body and listen to the 4 rules above and avoid muffin top!!