What’s Your Locker-Room Body Image?

Posted by Katie Gutierrez Painter Categories: Advice, Celebrities, Editorials, Entertainment, Health

Shortly before I got married last May, my amazing mom—who knew I’d been wanting to get back in shape—gifted me 20 half-hour sessions with a personal trainer. Fast forward five months. I received a call from 24 Hour Fitness; it seemed they checked their records and I still had 18 of my 20 sessions remaining. (Oops.) Did I want to come in and use them? Damn, I thought. But my summer of blissful post-wedding eating had taken a toll—ten pounds, to be exact—on my figure. I’ve always been pretty small, so that increase made a major difference in the way my clothes fit and the way I thought about my own body. So I said grudgingly, “Okay. I’ll go in tomorrow.”

Since then, several things have happened, all amazing in their own right. (1) I weigh the exact same as I did in September… but my body fat has dropped by 6%. I’ve gone from the “Acceptable” to the “Lean” range! (2) I’ve committed to participating in a triathlon in May… How did that happen? (3) I renewed my training sessions—twice—and am now in another class three days a week to prepare for the triathlon. All in all, I’m working out seven days per week—crazy! (4) I can do awesome man-pushups, and I feel strong and powerful. (5) My skin is clearer… a happy surprise, to be sure!

Of course, to be fair, half my pants still don’t fit, and I’ve been sore every day for, oh, five months.

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15 Little Ways to Live Happier and Healther—Starting NOW!

Posted by Katie Gutierrez Painter Categories: Advice, Entertainment, Fashion, Health, How To, Humor, Relationships

It’s the tenth day of the new year, and how many of us have already strayed from our resolutions? That may be because those goals we make each December 31 often revolve around breaking bad habits or spontaneously forming new, better ones. Who among us hasn’t vowed, at least once, to eat healthier, to work out three times a week, to drink less, to read more, to be spontaneous, and so on? While these resolutions may be noble, they’re also decidedly vague. (After all, doesn’t eating only one bowl of ice cream after dinner count as “eating healthier”?) So why not give yourself a chance to actually achieve your goals by making them smaller and more realistic? Below, 15 little ways to live healthier and happier—starting now.

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