The May issue of Fitness is great. It starts out with an article about why women should strive for healthy vs. thin, and the model on page 29 actually looks like a real person. They are also soliciting stories from healthy women sizes 10-16, to show that full-figured can still mean healthy, fit, and sexy. One of my favorite articles, though, is on page 77. Entitled “Color Your Diet Healthy,” it discusses why produce comes in a wide range of colors, as well as the health benefits associated with each hue. Here’s a quick list of recommended foods in each color:Green: kiwi, broccoli, romaine lettuce, kale, spinach, brussels sprouts, cabbage, honeydew, avocado.Red: tomatoes, red onions, watermelon, red grapes, radishes, cranberries, strawberries, red bell peppers.Yellow: yellow bell peppers, grapefruit, pineapple, lemons, squash, yellow corn.Orange: carrots, apricots, mangoes, oranges, pumpkin, cantaloupe.Blue: blueberries.Purple: plums, eggplant, blackberries, purple grapes, raisins, prunes, figs, purple onions.White: jicama, pears, bananas, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions, garlic.I’m always a little concerned about how well-rounded my diet is, but this alleviated some fears. I regularly eat at least one food from each group except blue. I don’t like blueberries. To me they are bland and flavorless, but I guess I need to keep trying. I also need to up my intake of purple foods. Overall, though, I’m not doing too badly.

I was reading Yahoo! this morning, and the site featured an interesting little article on the best and worst foods for your teeth. Now, I’m a certified dental hygiene freak; I love to brush my teeth, I like going to the dentist, I try to floss pretty regularly. So I was excited about the info in this article. Except for bread, I don’t indulge much in the “bad” foods, and I regularly eat a lot of the good ones. Yay!

Somewhere in America right now, a student’s science fair project is demonstrating cola’s ability to eat through tooth enamel. It’s not pretty. But soda isn’t the only food that does a number on your grin. Here are some of your smile’s worst enemies — and best friends.

THE ENEMIES LIST
Soda, fruit juice, and sports drinks: Not only are they sugary, they’re acidic, and that creates a perfect home for the bacteria that cause cavities and gum disease — especially if you tend to sip on one or another of these drinks all day (who, us?). Acid-neutralizing saliva just can’t keep up.
The realistic fix: Nobody’s saying go cold turkey, but for all-day swigging, choose water. Reserve these pick-me-ups for once-a-day use. And buy some straws — sipping through them (try this trick) shrinks teeth-exposure time.

Sticky stuff: We’re not just talking gooey caramels or fruit rollups. Bread, crackers, chips, sweet rolls, and other refined carbohydrates are nearly as likely to cling to teeth as a Tootsie Roll — and they hang on for at least 20 minutes. Not good.
The realistic fix: Try to say no to sticky sweets and carbs when you can’t brush afterward. Alternatively, slosh some water around in your mouth or chew a stick of sugarless gum that’s sweetened with xylitol. The gum helps remove sticky food particles from your teeth, and xylitol curbs cavity causers and increases healthy saliva.

YOUR SMILE’S BEST FRIENDS
Cheese, please: Eating a bit of cheddar (or whatever) at the end of a meal helps protect teeth. It stimulates the production of cleansing saliva, plus the calcium in cheese helps harden teeth.

Crunchy things: Crisp apples, celery and carrots are nature’s little toothbrush alternatives. Not only do they help rid your mouth of food particles but their rough, fibrous texture actually scrubs away as you chew, slightly brightening your smile.

Have a cuppa: Drinking tea after eating can help destroy the germs that cause cavities, gum disease, and phewy breath. That goes for both green and black teas.

Shiitake mushrooms: These delicate, delicious flavor-boosters contain lenitan, a plant substance that’s anything but a lightweight: It fights both tooth plaque and the bacteria that live in it.

Wow, breaking up with the guy who brought sexy back has done wonders for Cameron Diaz. Not only has she found time to go on a couple of Hawaiian vacations, she’s also putting in hours at the gym. Of course, Cameron was never fat or out of shape, but this is the best she’s ever looked. The soft brown hair color is great, especially with all the cute headbands. Her body is ripped and she’s clearly oozing endorphins. Nice. She’s definitely a fitness inspiration.

Let me start off by saying that I subscribe to three fitness magazines. As the serials processor at my library branch, I easily have free access to all of them, but I happily pay to subscribe, because I am obsessed with fitness information. I’m not a model of health, but I do know a lot about nutrition. Anyway, every spring Self magazine offers up the Self Challenge, a three-month exercise and healthy-eating program that virtually guarantees you’ll lose weight if you follow the plans. It offers cardio and strength programs, meal plans, calorie counters, a food and exercise journal, forums and more. It really is pretty cool. Every year, thousands of women sign up, and I tried it for the first time last year. I didn’t actually lose any weight, but that was because I didn’t keep the food diary (I HATE to count calories. Hate it!) or do enough strength training. This year’s challenge started on the 26th, and I’m trying to do better. This week I’ve kept a pretty strict food journal (I may have left off an oreo or two, but I’m not fooling myself) and I’ve done one cardio workout and one strength workout. I’m going to try to hit the gym today, and I also try to just be active in general. I have a pretty active job, despite what you might think; yesterday my co-worker and I shelved five shared carts, and went for a walk in the park on our break. I think I might also try to clean off the back porch or the garage, so that will be a little extra workout. At any rate, I’m in this for the next 12 weeks, so we’ll see how it goes! It helps that the weather is finally warming up–it’s supposed to be 71 degrees today. Yay!

So, here’s the list of diet modifications I’ve put in place:

1. Check portion sizes and then eat them. Don’t overeat.
2. Switch from 2% milk to 1%.
3. Replace my cinnamon applesauce with a natural, no-sugar-added kind.
4. Avoid trans-fats and high fructose corn syrup whenever possible.

On a side note, I don’t know why, but I’ve chosen the above fitness model as my source of inspiration. She has a totally different body type, and I know I’ll never really look like that, but I’m just drawn to her long, shiny hair and cute board shorts. And the pineapple.

My whole "lose 21 pounds by the end of the year" thing got derailed a few weeks ago when I got really, really sick. I’ve since recovered, but I just haven’t hopped back on the fitness bandwagon yet. I think I’m on my way, though. I’ve been reading an interesting fitness book, and today we joined our local L.A. Fitness, which offers lots of classes (yoga, cycling, pilates, etc.), a pool, lots of machines and free weights, and affordable personal training. We’re going to start going in the mornings before work (ugh), so I guess I need to work on my whole night-owl thing. My bedtime simply cannot be midnight if I’m getting up at 5:30 every day. But here’s to good health, which is what I really want for my birthday (well, that and smaller thighs).