My family - my parents, sister and her fiance - was gathered around our dining room table on New Year's Day, facing approximately 700 pounds of Chinese takeout, when my father was distracted by several significantly overweight people on the television who were running up a very steep hill in pairs. Actually, some were crawling at various points, others were crying, a soap opera star was involved, and in general the whole scene was fairly disturbing.

Zan was bugging me last week about showcasing more "fitness" bloggers, (bugging me is a good thing, not a bad thing - in case you were wondering), and she's right. We do need to showcase fitness bloggers more often. What better time than the weekend after Thanksgiving? I love, love, love Goddess in Training - what's not to love with a graphic like that... heh. She has a post with a LOL cat, a lesson for parents everywhere, and lots more. I have a pair of black cargo pants and a t-shirt that I love – and cannot fit into! They’re my 1st goal outfit. I’d need to be about 110kg to fit into them.

Why is it that some weeks are incredibly slow for health news and others are so full that you can never cover it all in just one post? Today I would love to ramble on and on about each of the following health issues but since I only have one post, I'm going to link you to a lot of bloggers who are doing the rambling for me.

One of the most interesting things about being a Health & Wellness Contributing Editor at BlogHer is checking out new (to me) blogs that are added to the BlogHer Blog List every day. There are tons of them and I really do visit them all, at least once, and a lot of them I subscribe to immediately. Here are some of my recent favorites, are they your favorites too?

Monday afternoon, four Democratic presidential candidates (Clinton, Edwards, Richardson, and Kucinich) participated in the LIVESTRONG Cancer Forum, moderated by Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Much like the CNN/YouTube debate last month, this forum addressed the concerns of "real" America, not "corporate" America. I applaud that.

It's been an interesting week or two in the world of health. I've saved so many blogs in my reader that I had a very hard time selecting just a few to feature. If I left you out, I'm sorry, I ended up just closing my eyes and clicking. I'm not kidding. I'm scientific like that. From the news... The Cleveland Clinic has not only banned smoking it's going to test potential employees for nicotine use. As an employer and health care system, the Cleveland Clinic recently announced a no-smoking policy that will begin Sept. 1. That includes outside the buildings. One enterprising resident near the clinic lets employees smoke in his yard for $1. The not-for-profit multispecialty academic medical center will begin screening potential employees for nicotine as a part of the standard health and wellness screening during their preplacement physical exam. An applicant who tests positive through the urine test will not be considered for employment until he or she has quit for two weeks. Current employees who smoke will not be fired.

I have a feeling I am going to take a lot of heat for this post. I’m going to tell you all about braces and orthodontics, but I’m also going to talk about my personal opinion, and that always seems to get me into some hot water. Be gentle.

Apparently Wednesday was "World Reiki Day", I guess I "sort-of" missed it. But, since Reiki really does deserve to have a whole week of awareness...I'll officially declare this "World Reiki Week". Can I do that??? Hope so. Okay, now that that is settled, let's talk about Reiki.