What the HECK was I thinking?! A few girls from the Boot Camp class this morning convinced me to sign up for the Y’s 8 week fitness challenge. As if I didn’t have enough things on my plate, now I’m committed. In all honesty, I’m excited. I think this is what I need to get my butt in gear on my yearly goals. I really have been getting lax on my diet and I can feel old eating habits creeping in.

Many of us want to know "how much exercise is do I need?" and probably more to the point is, "how little exercise can I get away with doing, to maintain or improve my overall health and fitness?" (well, I'll at least speak for myself!)

Do you use your home to workout? There are many ways to accomplish some aerobic, resistance, strength and stretching exercises without leaving your home, whether you use Wii Fit or follow along to exercise tapes/DVDs...to just including your daily/weekly chores (gardening, vacuuming, lawn mowing, dusting, etc.) as exercise.

I recently read an article in the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter regarding a Do-It-Yourself Home Gym that I thought was great!

Here are the four items you need to create your own Home Gym:

We all know walking is great exercise. It helps the heart and lungs, it builds strong muscle and it's good for our bones!

It's also a good social activity. We can walk with friends, catch up with our lives and if you are like me, walking can lead in just the opposite direction. It can be a time to be alone, with no-one talking, no little fingers tugging at me and no-one asking me what's for dinner! I can smell the air, listen to the geese and feel the breeze. Just me and me.

I can also feel my waist line getter smaller and my legs becoming leaner. And who doesn't want that benefit?

Uh-oh - I guess Empowher might be attracting the wrong crowd!

File this under News of the Weird but a study has shown that most criminals are in great shape!

It was windy. Wizard of Oz windy. I saw a witch go by on her bicycle. Even though she was a witch, there must have been some good in her because she was riding in the Tour de Cure, helping to raise money for diabetes research. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and let her pass me.

It was hot. Africa hot. Every time I inhaled, my nose hairs ignited, like a hundred tiny matches.

On my 40-mile cycling tour through Rochester's southern farmlands I passed: