Summer is a fantastic time to take advantage of great weather and get active outside. While training for my half marathons, I would often hop on a treadmill at the gym and stare at a television for an hour as I got my training miles in. It was convenient, comfortable and cozy. But when I strapped on my shoes and ran the trails at Lake Katherine in Palos Heights, my senses went into overdrive. After a while, it got much easier to take my training runs outside where the scenery changed and I could see lots of wildlife rather than a gym full of lingering body odor and grunting muscleheads. This …

The activity that I have most utilized in my weight loss journey is running. Although I may not look like the running type, I've been able to train for and run four half-marathons (as well as countless 10K and 5K races) in the last two and a half years.  Despite two surgeries thanks to a high school soccer injury, my bad knees have been able to withstand the beating I give them because I have shoes that support my feet and help alleviate the constant pressure.  Before I even started training for my first race in May of 2009, I visited Mel Diab over at Running for Kicks in Palos Heights. Mel …

You would think eating your fruits and vegetables would put you on the perfect path to health and wellness, right? Well as I found out on this week’s stop around Palos, you might not be getting all the nutrients you need from those greens. Unfortunately I’m not the biggest fan of vegetables – I can be a picky eater at times. I don’t like peas; I don’t like green beans; and I only eat cooked carrots – raw ones make me cringe. And don't even get me started on tomatoes! So for people like me, it’s critical that we get those nutrients from other sources like multivitamins and supplements. …

Most people may think that in order to get in shape and lose weight you need to spend hours on the StairMaster burning off calories while bench pressing the equivalent of a horse. While making time for a good calorie burn is important to reaching your fitness goals, focusing on nutrition and an overall healthy lifestyle is equally important – if not more so. In last week's column I mentioned that over the last two and a half years I’ve run four half marathons. When I started my journey to healthy living and ultimately smaller clothes, I figured that all my race training would automatically …

Healthy. Fit. In Shape. What do these words mean to you? Do they describe yourself, someone you know or maybe even someone you want to be? Getting healthy and fit is on the minds of many of us, yet some of us don’t know where to turn or how to start. Over the next couple of months, I’ll be taking you around the Palos area and showing you different ways that you can get started, or continue, on the path to health and wellness.  Better yet, I'll take the journey with you! Personally, I’ve been trying to lose weight for the past couple years. I’ve tried many different tactics from running half …