January 2011

February’s Great Fitness Experiment: Sandbags! [Plus Creatine Experiment results]

January 31, 2011

This pic amuses me because I found it on a site under the heading of “preschool crafts”. It’s titled “Build a sand castle with tin cans.” Uh-huh, sure. You’re going to write your kid’s college admissions essay too aren’t you? “Why are you buying play sand in the middle of a blizzard?” The cashier at home depot looked at me suspiciously as if a mom with 4 kids in tow (and by “in tow” I mean “running in circles around the cart throwing paint cards at each other while the 4-year-old tantrumed next to the candy he couldn’t have”) would [...]

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Interview and Another Chance to Win my Book!

January 31, 2011

Women’s Day magazine recently interviewed me about my book and it’s up on their website now! Angela of Pretty in Orange wrote a wonderful review of my book on her blog and is giving away TWO copies! So head over there and comment for another chance to win my book:) Written with love by Charlotte Hilton Andersen for The Great Fitness Experiment (c) 2011. If you enjoyed this, please check out my new book The Great Fitness Experiment: One Year of Trying Everythingfor more of my crazy antics and uncomfortable over-shares!

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The Breakfast Battles: Do you or don’t you? [Dueling research!]

January 31, 2011

And now you’re not hungry are you? Gah. I shudder every time I look at this. Common sense vs the New York Times. This last week saw an epic showdown between conventional wisdom and the venerable Gray Lady over a topic everyone usually agrees on: breakfast. (Although now that I type that out, it’s not the first time the two have been pitted against each other – anyone else read the Modern Love column?) What is so controversial about breakfast? Whether or not to eat it, of course! In one corner, the Times piece about new research from Germany: For [...]

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How Blogging Fueled My Exercise Addiction: A Cautionary Tale

January 28, 2011

image from we heart it Wearing a gold 80′s leotard. Climbing a piece of silk 100 feet in the air. Punching until my knuckles bled. Eating beans that could have killed me. I’ve done a lot of stupid things in the name of health. I got into fitness for the dubious reason of dealing with a past sexual assault and the ensuing court case (nothing like actual running to help you run away from your problems!) so I suppose it only makes sense that my journey to health had a few seriously unhealthy pit stops. Some of them, like my [...]

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Do Boobs Make the Fit Woman? [The Controversy Over Breast Implants in Fitness Models]

January 27, 2011

Image from Natalie Dee “Knockers!” “Jugs!” “Fun bags!” “Sweater puppies!” Sitting in the darkened audience at the talent show my friend put on as a fundraiser for breast cancer research, I listened as all my friends called out their favorite euphemisms for boobs. I wanted to contribute – what’s more fun than sitting in a big room talking girlie bits with all your best girls? (And no men, we weren’t wearing panties and having pillow fights.) – but the pressure mounted as all the good ones were getting taken. Looking down for inspiration, it came to me: “Rocks in socks!” [...]

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How Audrey Hepburn Ruined My Day

January 26, 2011

Note: This is hands-down the most enigmatic post I’ve ever written, not because of what it says but because of the effect it continues to have on other people. I wrote this in February of 2009, when I was not in a very good place mentally and I thought it would be a nice little chunk of mental vomit that a few women would relate to and we’d all move on. This post remains to this day the number one post that brings people to my site from search engines. It is the most active post comment-wise in my archives. [...]

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Searching For The Cure For PMS [10 ideas to try, 1 to skip]

January 24, 2011

Unsolicited uterus update! My problem is I have a wicked case of PMS. (No, I’m not pregnant but I scared you didn’t I?) Aren’t you glad you didn’t ask? Despite having my monthly, well, monthly since I was 16 – late bloomers holla! – I’m still surprised by its appearance every 30ish days. First my appetite ramps up; I’m still not weighing myself (!!!) but back when I was it was not uncommon for me to gain 3-5 pounds during the week before and during my period. Next I get overly emotional about stupid things like Teen Mom. Finally I [...]

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Jelly Bean is Doing Great! Thank you!

January 24, 2011

A huge thank-you to all of you who took the time to Facebook, e-mail, tweet or leave me a comment today about Jelly Bean’s surgery. They made me feel so loved and less anxious as I read through them while sitting in the waiting room. Her surgery went great and the doctor said he got the entire mass out with no additional damage to her skull. He said the small spot on her skull should heal up on its own now. While she’s got a pretty gnarly Frankstein scar over her left ear, she’s at home now and resting comfortably. [...]

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What Finally Made Me Seek Help for My Exercise Addiction [Plus, prayers for Jelly Bean]

January 24, 2011

I’ll be honest: fashion is what really got me into exercise. I can’t wait for unitards to make a comeback! It wasn’t the runs in the dark in the middle of winter at 4 a.m and again at 10 p.m. It wasn’t leaving my son’s hospital bed to go do a high-intensity interval class instead of showering for the first time in three days or sleep. It wasn’t when I fainted after running a marathon followed by an hour of kickboxing – can’t miss a workout! – without drinking or eating anything and then being carried down the gym stairs [...]

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My Book is Available on the Kindle! [Plus a giveaway]

January 22, 2011

Great news: My book The Great Fitness Experiment: One Year of Trying Everything is available now for the Kindle and other e-readers! Woohoo! For a chance to win a free copy, check out Diet Girl’s review of my book and giveaway! Today I’m blogging at BlogHer about The Sit Down Diet and how to Get Lean With a Change to your Exercise Routine (by lifting more weights!). Hope you guys are having a great weekend! Tune in tomorrow as I spill my guts about the depth of my previous (and somewhat ongoing) battle with exercise addiction. Written with love by [...]

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