We've Moved!

In case you haven't heard, Fit Bottomed Girls got new digs with loads more content and fun features. So hurry your fit rear over to www.FitBottomedGirls.com right now, and don't forget to update your bookmarks and fave links list!

Thanks! —Jenn & Erin

Photo grabbed from awnisALAN on Flickr.

The Shake Down Before the FBG Makeover

As you might have heard, FBG is about to get one heck of a makeover this weekend. This whole place is gonna be different with new features, more frequent posts and easier navigation so that you can easily find the content you want to read the most. We're totally psyched.

But while all this exciting makeover action is going on, we wanted to give you a heads-up that the site might be a bit wonky this weekend. So if you see anything unusual or can't load a page for the next day or so, that's why. And we promise we'll be back—and better—before you know it. In the meantime though, we leave you with this hilarity to watch and crack up to over and over again: Ellen trying the recently FBG-reviewed Shake Weight. Enjoy, and we'll see ya on Monday at www.fitbottomedgirls.com with our new look!

—Jenn

Can't see the video? Click here.

Treats that Trick

Like most holidays, Halloween offers the opportunity for overindulgence on sweet treats. After all, it’s centered around candy. Whether it’s the kids bringing home too much candy or being too prepared for trick-or-treaters, it can be all too easy to give into the candy corn and bite-size Butterfingers. We always preach moderation in all things, so you can enjoy some Halloween candy and not blow your diet. Here's how to keep Halloween from haunting you!

1) Be conservative. When purchasing Halloween candy, don’t buy a truckload. “But I have a million trick-or-treaters in my neighborhood!” you say. That doesn’t mean you need to buy enough to feed an army. Don’t be afraid to run out of candy toward the end of the evening. If you do, just turn off your porch light. The little goblins will just skip right over to the next house, no hurt feelings.

2) Get rid of it. If you do happen to over-buy candy, get rid of it before you can consume it. You don’t necessarily have to throw it away (but feel free to do so if needed!). Take it to work to share or put it out of sight and limit yourself to a treat every day or two. You can even freeze it so that it's difficult (and literally hard) to eat more than one or two treats at a time.

3) Don’t eat your kids’ candy! Don’t use checking your kids’ candy for razor blades as a cover for testing each treat they got in their plastic pumpkins. Limit your kids to a couple of treats a day, and then restrict yourself from sneaking bites from their loot. And if you do eat too much of their candy, challenge them to a game of Burn-the-Halloween-Calories Tag.

4) Avoid small pieces. This can seem counterintuitive. After all, what’s wrong with a jelly bean here or a candy corn there? This is what’s wrong: It can be so much harder to know how much you’re eating when you’re popping small bites of candy for an hour. If you can’t resist the candy corn or Hershey’s Kisses, make sure you measure out the appropriate serving size and enjoy every bite. And then quit.

5) Get the fun size. I know this seems contrary to No. 4, but allow yourself the fun-size candy bar. Back in my trick-or-treating hey-day, it was always awesome to hit those houses that gave away the full-size candy bars. If your kids happen to hit the jackpot with those, avoid them. A fun-size Milky Way has 150 calories. Not enough to break the bank, and it’s still a nice treat. The full-size candy bar has 260 calories—quite the caloric punch!

Need some ideas for FBG-approved Halloween candy? Here’s our short list!

1) Twizzlers. Four cherry-flavored twists come in at 150 calories. And because they’re so chewy and long, you really feel like you get your calorie’s worth.

2) Tootsie Pops. Clocking in at just 60 calories, the Tootsie Pop will give you a long-lasting burst of sweetness with a chewy center. If you need a chocolate fix, this is your best bet. How many licks does it take?

3) Jolly Ranchers. Three small pieces of original Jolly Ranchers will only cost you 50 calories. You’ll get lasting fruit goodness and won’t go overboard.

Don’t let Halloween pass you by without having a bit of a sweet treat. And don’t forget that walking the kids around the neighborhood counts as exercise! —Erin

Photo grabbed from Juushika Redgrave at Flickr.

Fitness Items to Toss in Your Suitcase

If you're about to hit the roads for the holidays or for business and are wanting some new fitness toys to take with you, we sure do have the post for you. (I don't know about you, but while I love resistance bands and a jump rope, after using them on my last 17 trips, I kinda want something new.) We recently compiled a list of 10 nontraditional must-have fitness items to pack in your suitcase for your next trip. Whether it's business or pleasure, you are now free to get fit (in a fun and new way!) around the country.

Fitness Items to Toss in Your Suitcase
When on the road for business, the last thing on your mind is probably fitness. You’ve got meetings to attend, a trade show booth to watch and a boss to keep happy. And there’s no worse buzz kill than coming back to the hotel, tired from the long workday, only to be faced with your regular, boring workout. You’re traveling and away from your everyday life, so why should your workout be exactly the same as usual? Use the time away from home as an opportunity to mix things up! Click here to continue reading...

—Jenn

Photo grabbed from Matt & Nayoung on Flickr.

Cheap Eats, Doggie Diets, and Wiggly Workouts

Low-cost overeating, counting kibble calories, and hula-hoop hullabaloo.

Penny Pinchers
It doesn’t take much dough to pack a caloric punch. In fact, according to a recent study, it only took about a dollar in change for kids to make an almost 400-calorie snack food splurge at a neighborhood convenience store. In the study, low-income kids in Philadelphia spent just over a buck on their favorite snacks: chips and candy. Researchers tracked purchases by fourth through sixth graders and found that about half of the kids went to the convenience stores daily, while some went twice a day. Kids will be kids, but parents can reinforce good habits by packing nutritious lunches—and taking away pocket change!

After-school splurge.


Pet Health
As the weather gets cooler and the sun goes down earlier, it can be difficult to keep up with Fido's daily walks. But watch out for creeping winter pounds if your walks get shorter! As a pet owner who recently helped her dog shed a few unwelcome pounds, trust me, doggie weight loss is no easy chore. Especially when the doggie looks at you like she's STARVING about two minutes after a meal. For tips on puppy fitness and to find out how to help Spot maintain his svelte figure, read on dear pet pals, read on.

Enough, Scruffy.

Hot Hula Hips
It seems that all that's retro is now hip again, and of course, hip with a fitness edge. Once just a goofy pastime, hula-hooping has gained serious fitness cred with weighted hula hoops, instructional DVDs and classes. The hoop has even meshed with Pilates at some gyms for a hooperific-ly unique class. What's really amazing is that an hour of intense hula-hooping is equal to an hour run on a treadmill. Wha!? Sign me up! Now I'm off to dig out my old Skip-It to start the next fitness craze.

Hip to be square.

Photo grabbed from JasonRogersFooDogGiraff eBee, klynslis, and SharonaGott at Flickr.

FBG: Redesigned, Relaunched!

Exciting developments are afoot at FBG headquarters! Jenn and I have been working diligently behind the scenes and are excited to announce the coming redesign of FitBottomedGirls.com! As of next week, FBG will have a totally fresh look and easy-to-navigate design. We'll even be posting twice several days of the week to give our readers more reason to come back and see us throughout the day!

As is our custom when we're really excited about something, we've got a countdown clock ticking at left, slowly counting down the minutes until the launch. We know you can hardly contain your excitement, so check out the image if you want a sneak peek. (If you click on the image you can see the preview bigger and better!) Make sure you check back in on Monday, November 2, and let us know what you think! We hope you love it as much as we do. —Erin

I Ran Like a Girl

Spur of the moment, I had the opportunity to attend Nike's Global Running Summit and run the oh-so-popular (and rightly so) Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco. As Tish has already pointed out, Nike knows what's up. They wine you, dine you, dazzle you with new products, and let you pound the pavement for 13.1 miles. It's fitness bliss at its best—and sorest.

In future posts, we'll review some of the new running gear that I tried out, including Nike's new Lunar running shoe offerings. (It's amazing what technology and thought goes into new products.) But for now, I want to give you a recap of the half marathon, or what I like to call "The Biggest Challenge of My Running Life Thus Far." (I know; it's probably a little lengthy to catch on.)

The 13.1 miles of the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Fran were as beautiful as they were challenging—a start at Union Square, hills, breathtaking scenery, hills, Fisherman's Wharf, hills, Alcatraz, a MILE-LONG HILL, amazing cheering spectators, more hills, the Golden Gate Bridge (it was covered in fog, but I could feel it), hills, running along the Great Highway between forest and ocean, a few more hills and a finish line with handsome tuxedoed men handing out Tiffany boxes filled with "Run Like a Girl" pendant necklaces. It. Was. Awesome. And hilly. But so totally worth it.

I was even close to tears a few times because the landscape was so amazingly and almost unfathomably beautiful. Plus, I was running with more than 20,000 women from 50 states and 25 countries who raised more than $14 million for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. See? That alone makes you feel a little verklempt, right?

Despite the hills...and the near-crying...and the walking on hills twice...I took 2 minutes off my previous and only half marathon time. It's awesome to see how this full marathon training is really getting me more fit with faster times. Sure, I got passed by about 3,000 people (seriously not exaggerating here), but I saved enough in my energy tank that, near the end, I passed at least 20 or so of those people with a final hard push. There's nothing better than sprinting to the finish line once you have it in sight.

Immediately after the race, my muscles were tight (heeelllooo warm bath), and the two days after the race I was SORE. My legs were heavy as to be expected, but my traps were incredibly sore, even to the touch. I never get sore there after my long runs and I felt like I was pretty relaxed during the race, so I wondered what was up.

And then I realized the one thing I did differently this race than any other time that I run: I texted. A lot. I had the "brilliant" idea to text my husband during the race, so he could (graciously) upload my texts to Twitter and Facebook. (Ironically enough, Twitter was down during the entire time that I ran. Bastards.) It was a fun way for me to let my friends, family and readers know how I was doing, and, honestly, it gave me something fun to focus on. Plus, it reminded me how much support I had out there. All warm and fuzzy stuff.

What's not warm and fuzzy is that apparently when I text while running, I clinch my shoulders up to my ears in order to keep my upper-body steady enough to text amidst the jostling of jogging. And my body isn't used to that. Hence the insane soreness. I even have the proof in the race photos, where the photographer got a photo of me texting. My loved ones got a kick out of that, and, truthfully, so did I. At least I look happy texting.

What did I learn, you ask? Three things. One, if I'm going to text during a race, I need to train for it. Two, "running like a girl," the official motto for this girl-power race, really means running like a bad-ass, and it results in jewelry from Tiffany. And three, I could really stand to add more hills to my training. —Jenn

Want to win a souvenir from the race? Leave a comment with what you do "like a girl" (laugh, kickbox, dance, etc.) by next Monday, and we'll select one lucky reader to win a cute Nike Women's Marathon vinyl mini backpack that is perfect for the gym!

Disclosure: Nike paid for the trip and race registration, but in no way is this post or our review of the event sponsored, influenced or paid for by Nike. We're honest, yo!

FitLinks: Week of Oct. 19, 2009

A few of the links we're digging from around the web!

Don't fret about an extra pound or two. Carrying a little bit of extra weight can have its advantages. —NeverSayDiet

Want a dream home gym? Me too! Share your fitness stories and enter to win great fitness prizes! —Life Fitness

Fight the funk with a Mediterranean diet. —Newsmaxhealth

Want a true boot camp workout run by real Marines? If you're in the Big Apple, check out Warrior Fitness. —Warrior Fitness Boot Camp

Journal your fitness goals. A lesson on where to begin. —fitness4her.com

A Year Ago on FBG

• Fitting in human exercise at the dog park.
• Jenn tests a heart-rate monitor.
• A tummy-toning video review. (A year later, I still use this DVD!)
  

—Erin

Photo grabbed from re-ality at Flickr.