By Tina Haupert

Growing up, it was easy for me to be active. I started ballet classes when I was 3 years old, and by the time I was 8, I was playing soccer. All through middle school and high school, I participated in team sports—soccer, tennis, basketball, and track and field. I loved being active, so fitting exercise into my life was easy. I never saw it as a way to burn calories or to maintain my weight; exercise was just plain fun!

Fast forward to my post-college days. I started working 40 hours a week, which meant sitting behind a desk, working late nights at the office, and spending too many overindulgent happy hours with co-workers (hello, beer and nachos!). In just a few months, I gained 20 pounds.

At first, I didn't realize that I was putting on weight. But when I had to buy a whole new wardrobe (true story!), I knew that something needed to change. I cleaned up my diet and started going to the gym more regularly. Eventually though, that new get-in-shape motivation wore off, and spending hours at the gym each week began to feel like torture. It was nothing like playing soccer after school or taking a hip-hop dance class with my friends each week.

So instead of giving up on exercise altogether, I had to find ways to incorporate it into my life and even try to make it (gasp!) fun. Here's what I did:

I make it a priority
I no longer “squeeze in” a workout. Exercise is one of the most important items on my to-do list. I try to make some sort of activity happen every single day, no matter what it is. If I have an especially busy day, I'll incorporate fitness into my chores. For instance, walking my dog for 45 minutes or doing an hour or two of yard work kills two birds with one stone!

 

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I have a flexible definition of the word "exercise"
Taking a Body Pump class or going for a 5-mile run are a couple of my favorite ways to exercise, but not all of my workouts are this "traditional." The word "exercise" is a loose term for me. It fits a lot of activities in my life, including hiking in the mountains, taking a bike ride, playing an impromptu game of tennis with my husband, walking to the grocery store and back, or even helping friends move into a new house!

I don't focus on the number on the scale
When it comes to exercising, I don't let the bathroom scale dictate my workouts. My goal isn't to fit into size zero skinny jeans, but to maintain my weight and feel good about myself. To me, being in good shape means feeling healthy and being active. Plus, the extra activity lets me enjoy dessert without guilt every day!

I remind myself that exercise is fun
It's not always easy to psyche myself up for a workout. Just like everyone else, I am not motivated on some days and don't feel like doing anything except sit on the couch, catching up with my DVR. Even though I've committed myself to fitness, I still struggle with these feelings. But now I've found different ways to motivate myself to exercise. I remind myself of the simple pleasures I receive from fitness. A run on the treadmill might sound boring, but to me it's a time to myself, a time to let my mind wander. Similarly, strength training with free weights may not sound like fun. However, the anticipation of listening to the great workout playlist that I made for lifting weights makes me look forward to my session. It all comes down to making exercise fun!

Read Tina’s daily food and fitness blog, Carrots ‘N’ Cake.

This at-home workout is a fun, easy way to get in a strength-based sweat session—no matter how busy you are.

I love to dance, though I rarely get to do it. This is likely why, even though I have rhythm, it can take me a while to catch on to the steps. So when the newest Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) DVD, Cardio Dance for Weight Loss, came across my desk proclaiming “Perfect for beginners! No partner needed!” I couldn’t wait to get home, pull the rug back in the den, and bust a move.

The DVD offers samba, salsa, and swing routines, led by two long-time DWTS instructors: Kym Johnson (she partnered with singer Donny Osmond and football player Hines Ward to take first-place finishes in seasons 9 and 12, respectively) and Mark Ballas (who helped Olympians Kristi Yamaguchi and Shawn Johnson bring home the coveted mirror ball in seasons 6 and 8).

First, the good part: These routines will make you sweat, even if you don’t get the steps quite right. You’re constantly in motion, so your heart rate gets up and stays there. And it’s fun…some of the time.

Why just “some of the time” you might ask? For each style, Kym and/or Mark teach three multi-step combinations in just 15 minutes, and I found myself wishing again and again that they hadn’t tried to cram so much into just a short period. You’re given very little time to learn a step before moving on to the next one—not a good set-up for beginners, and something that caused me to mutter “slow down!” to the TV in frustration every couple of minutes. Seriously, cutting the number of steps in half would’ve been a game changer for me.

What's more, there’s limited specific instruction, and both coaches assume you know terms like “kick ball change,” “locking,” and “pas de bourree.” I don’t. Granted, the warm-up cleverly doubles as an intro to a few of the basic steps for each dance style, but those basics only get you so far.

Don’t get me wrong: The routines are fun and lively, and I can totally see how a more experienced dancer would enjoy the heck out of this DVD. As for me, I’ll be on the lookout for a more beginner-friendly dance forum. Maybe a return to Zumba is in order….

Product: Dancing with the Stars: Cardio Dance for Weight Loss
Category: DVD
Pros: The lively routines will get you sweating in no time—they make for an excellent cardio workout.
Cons: The routines are too complicated and fast-moving for beginners to master easily.
Cost: $13.49 at Amazon.com
Extra tip: Wear shoes with smooth bottoms so you don’t wrench your knees.

Walk your way to a better memory
Exercise may improve memory as well as or better than medication in older people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study included 138 people over age 50 who had memory problems, but not outright dementia. Half of them walked or did other types of relatively vigorous exercise for 50 minutes, three times a week, and half did not. By the end of the six-month study, the exercisers had about a 1-point memory improvement on a test with a 0 to 70 point score compared to non-exercisers. Yes, it doesn’t sound like much. However, the Australian authors point out that it beats medication, which does relatively little to improve memory in at-risk people. So why is exercise beneficial? It’s unclear, but it may improve blood flow in the brain. However, getting people to exercise—particularly those who are older or who may have arthritis or other health problems—is tough, according to a JAMA editorial. But fear of Alzheimer’s disease “may help motivate older individuals and society to become more physically active,” writes Eric B. Larson, MD. (Read more about the health benefits of exercise for senior citizens, as well as tips for working out.)

If diamonds really are forever, you can be too
You may have heard about the "Bling Is Dead" movement—basically, a backlash in hip-hop circles against the so-called "blood diamonds" harvested in war-torn African nations. Now, as Reuters reports, a Swiss company is making bling from the dead. For as little as $7,500, the chemists at Algordanza (which means "remembrance" in the local Swiss dialect) will take your loved one's ashes, extract the roughly 2% carbon content from them, and subject the purified residue to intense heat and pressure. A couple months later, a cut, buffed, and polished synthetic rock is yours to take home. "Some people find it helpful to go to the cemetery and grieve, and they leave their grief in the cemetery," Algordanza chairman Veit Brimer told Reuters. "There are some people who, for whatever reason, do not want to have this farewell." The company's biggest market so far is Japan, where land is scarce and cremation is common. Meanwhile, U.S.-based LifeGem takes a different approach: It makes diamonds from the carbon-rich hair of deceased loved ones, pets included.

Kids burn more calories with some video games than others
It appears that stamping out ninjas—virtually, that is—burns more calories than dispatching them with a joystick. In a study that parents around the globe should love, University of Hong Kong researchers discovered that children who play an active video game that involves bowling, action, or running burn four times more calories and have higher heart rates than they do playing a conventional video game. The children, aged 6 to 12, used a gaming system called XaviX, which has a mat that allows virtual running and walking on the streets of Hong Kong, in addition to activities like “stamping out ninjas,” according to the report in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. While encouraging, the study is just a “drop to the bucket of research” needed to figure out how to combat obesity in U.S. children, according to an editorial.

You’ve come a long way, baby
Women who smoke can achieve equality with men—in terms of heart attack, that is. In a study of Norwegian heart-attack patients, women who didn’t smoke tended to have their first heart attack at an average age of 81, and male smokers tended to have a first heart attack around age 72. However, if they smoked, women tended to have their first heart attack at 66 and men at 64, according to a study presented at the European Society of Cardiology. So men lost an average of six years of a heart-attack-free life, while women lost 14 years (after taking into account other risk factors). "Smoking might erase the natural advantage that women have," Robert Harrington, MD, a professor of medicine at Duke University and spokesman for the American College of Cardiology, told the Associated Press. Estrogen is thought to protect women from heart disease before menopause, and smoking may cause earlier menopause, the researchers say. (Take Health.com's quiz: What Kind of Smoker Are You?)

Surgical nano-bots on the march
Johns Hopkins University engineers have unveiled a nano-sized surgical tool that could make minimally invasive surgery even more precise. According to the MIT Technology Review, the hand-shaped, copper and chromium "micro-gripper" (at work in this video) can be controlled remotely by magnets outside the body. The gripper's tiny "fingers" respond to chemical cues or temperature changes and curl around tissues, cells, or tumors that need extracting from the body. The gripper is a mere 500 micrometers in diameter with its claws extended (about the width of 8 human hairs), and 190 micrometers when clenched. David Gracias, the biomolecular- and chemical-engineering professor at Hopkins who led the development of the gripper, says the goal is "to have a machine that you can swallow, or [to] inject small structures that move and can do things" on their own. No word yet on what sort of indigestion a battalion of nano-surgeons duking it out inside your gut might cause.

(PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES)

If you've had your eye on a new Fitbit (or you were thinking of giving one as a gift this year), you're in luck. The bestselling fitness tracker is *seriously* marked down for Black Friday—so you'll be able to monitor your heart rate, steps, sleep, and workouts for a lot less. Here are all the Fitbit Black Friday deals we've seen so far, including discounts on new models like the FitBit Versa and FitBit Charge 3. We'll continue to update this list as new sales are announced, so keep checking back.

Black Friday Fitbit deals at Target

• Fitbit Versa ($149, marked down from $199 on target.com). Target has the popular Fitbit Versa for $50 off, available in four different band options (we love the periwinkle and rose gold). This is one of the pricier Fitbit models out right now, but it's well worth the splurge, thanks to a slew of cool features like syncing up to smartphone calls, personalized on-screen coaching, and the ability to make payments. This deal begins at 5 p.m. EST on November 22.

• Fitbit Alta HR ($79, marked down from $129 on target.com). This sleek, slim model is great for minimalists who don't want too bulky of a tracker on their wrist. But not to worry: The small-but-mighty gadget still delivers all the useful health insights you'd expect from a Fitbit.

• Fitbit Charge 3 ($119, marked down from $149 on target.com). The Charge 3 is an impressive tracker: 24/7 heart rate monitoring, more than 15 different exercise modes, smartphone notifications, and a seven-day battery life.

Black Friday Fitbit deals at Walmart

• Fitbit Versa ($149, marked down from $199 on walmart.com). Walmart also has the Fitbit Versa for $50 off. The sale will begin at 10 p.m. on November 21 and includes both the black and rose gold models.

Black Friday Fitbit deals at Kohl's

• Fitbit Versa ($149, marked down from $199 on kohls.com). Yet another Versa sale! This is one of Kohl's Door Busters and will be available starting midnight CT on November 23.

Black Friday Fitbit deals at Jet

• Fitbit Versa ($179, marked down from $228 on jet.com). The special edition Fitbit Versa will be $49 off at Jet.com starting at midnight EST on November 22. We love the water-resistant, lightweight design on this model.

• Fitbit Charge 3 Advanced Heart Rate + Fitness Tracker ($119, marked down from $149 on jet.com). Not only is this gadget waterproof, it's actually swimproof up to 50 meters, so you can use it to monitor your laps in the pool. This sale also begins at midnight EST on November 22.

Black Friday Fitbit deals at Amazon

• Fitbit Versa Smart Watch ($149, marked down from $199 on amazon.com).

• Fitbit Alta HR ($79, marked down from $149 on amazon.com). Three of the six available band colors are marked down to this low price.

• Fitbit Charge 3 Fitness Activity Tracker ($119, marked down from $149 on amazon.com). This is another great deal on the Charge 3. Amazon also has the band in gray and lavender, but the black and rose gold bands are the most heavily discounted.

• Fitbit Charge 2 Heart Rate + Fitness Wristband ($99, marked down from $149 on amazon.com). You can save $50 on the large band device and large band for the Charge 2 today.

RELATED: The Best Amazon Black Friday Deals You Need to Know About