Pennsylvania's Lincoln University has instituted a requirement that first-year students who arrive on campus with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher must either lower their BMI below 30 or take a one-unit course called "Fitness for Life" in order to graduate.The Chronicle of Higher Education provides some details on the university's reasoning:

Over the holidays, it's a tradition to focus on food and festivities, and to put working out lower on your to-do list.  Way lower, like maybe just above organizing your sock drawer.  Who has time for the treadmill when you need every spare minute for shopping, cooking, fretting, decorating, partying, wrapping presents, lighting candles, and engaging in epic family arguments over trivial events that happened 20 years ago?Yet you know if you let exercise slide you’re going to feel guilty. 

I'm not a huge fan of scales. I'd like them a lot better if they were only used as tools to assist people in maintaining a healthy lifestyle or to help medical professionals treat patients. Unfortunately the scale is more often used as a weapon to harm ourselves and others (and the harm is done primarily to women.)

Is it possible to eat cookies and lose weight?  Well, Dr. Sanford Siegal would certainly like you to think so.  After all, at $56 for a week's supply, Dr. Siegal is going to make an estimated $18 million this year selling his weight-loss cookies.   It's called The Cookie Diet, and if you like cookies it may sound like a great way to lose weight.  But is it?

I'll let you in a secret: I Strength Train.

What's an actress to do when the part of Laurie in Oklahoma! or the chance to disrobe while weightless in space have gone to a younger woman? If you are Florence Henderson or Jane Fonda, the answer is to keep shining with as bright a light as ever.

One of the best things about being a contributing editor for BlogHer, is being able to showcase other women bloggers.  So today, I thought we could take a look at some blogs about nutrition, weight loss, and fitness. In no particular order, here are eighteen health and fitness blogs that I think you might like.  I hope you enjoy checking them out as much as I did. All You Can Do Is Tri...

I know triathlons are all the rage these days but have you heard of these triathlons for kids?Sarah Bowen Shea from Marathon Moms had an article in the New York Times this week called "See Jane Run, Bike and Swim". She talks about Children's Triathlons which features athletes ages 3 - 15.

The other day I started thinking about school tests and standardized test and suddenly a nightmare memory popped into my head: the mile run for the Presidential Physical Fitness Test.

If I were outdoors and happened to see someone leaping over park benches, dangling from tree branches, and balancing precariously on things that most people wouldn’t think to bother with, I’d probably think they were a little bit crazy. Or at least I would have thought they were crazy before I heard about a sport called parkour.

I love Tai Chi. I enjoy the classes, the movements, and the benefits. I don't want to be a martial artist. But I do like staying limber. Tai Chi helps with that. I need to improve my balance. Tai Chi helps with that. I need weight-bearing exercise for my bones. Tai Chi helps with that.

I don’t like to take pills if I don’t have to. Normally this aversion is fine; I haven’t had any ailments or deficiencies in quite some time that have required me to take any pills on a daily basis. I do take a daily multivitamin and other vitamin supplements (if I remember), and I’m on birth control, but that’s generally about it.