The best thing about living in Los Angeles is that the near-perfect year round weather makes it easy to stay active without having to be a gym prisoner. There is never a shortage of fitness oriented outdoor activities, which makes staying in shape easier and more fun.

For you locals or any of you out of towners who may be visiting L.A. this summer, I’m passing along a list of fun suggestions to keep you active, from About.com

Also, if you are looking for some family entertainment, between July 8th and August 2nd The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Zing Zang Zoom show is going on in Los Angeles, Ontario, and Anaheim. A four-pack of tickets is specially priced at $44 when *f.a.t. readers enter in the code “mom” in the Ticketmaster coupon code.

 Promotion Details:

• Code is the word “mom”
• Code needs to be entered in the “MC Promotion Box” on Ticketmaster
• Must purchase AT LEAST 4 tickets for code to be valid. Each additional ticket after 4 is still priced at $11
• Not valid on Circus Celebrity/Front Row/VIP seats and facility fees do apply.

Anyone who has ever gone on the birth control pill to see cellulite suddenly appear out of nowhere, and then seen it disappear as quickly as it came, once stopping the pill, will probably have considered that hormones play a key role in developing it.

Obviously, exercise and the way you eat have a lot to do with any development of fat on your body but there are plenty of lean, fit, muscular women that are still walking around with lumps and bumps on their butt and thighs in spite of their size 0 body. And there are just as many larger women, with pounds to shed, who only know orange peel as what covers a piece of citrus.

Therefore, there must be other factors at play than diet and exercise. I’ve uncovered one blog article, on Cincy Chic, which covers all the main cellulite contributing factors. It is well worth the read!

In my Butterfly Girl post last week, I addressed hypothyroidism and the importance of not relying solely on the TSH blood test to determine whether you have a thyroid problem. I found a great blog post, by Dr. Jeffrey Dach, which explains the reasons why Free T3 and Free T4 levels are so important. I encourage everyone to read this!!

Twelve years ago I worked in an office with a gal who desperately wanted to shed 30 pounds - and needed to- but one fad diet after another never resulted in much change in her weight. She’d give one diet the ol’ college try, then get discouraged, give up and a month or two later be on to the next one.

One day, I found her in the lunch room consuming the components of her newest eating plan, which, looking back on it, must have been what is now popularly known as The Atkins diet. She was munching on a block of cheese and some brown, crunchy protein snacky things that were the shape of a palm sized lopsided frisbee, and looked like the texture of the puffy kind of Cheetos, with none of the flavor. These things were unappetizing as sin and reminded me of those pig ears you give dogs to chew on. I can’t remember what she called them, but I was unequivocally grossed out.

As she devoured one of them, in a manner not altogether dissimilar to a ravenous lion caged too long at the mercy of a zookeeper who has been asleep at the wheel, she explained excitedly that she could have all the fat and protein she wanted on this new diet. She gnawed off a chunk from her bright orange slab of cheddar as she watched me take a bite of my homemade pasta salad. I watched her. She watched me. Both of us in mid-mastication of our food. I imagined her cheese melted in a bowl with big corn tortilla chips being stuck into it - by me- with a little salsa on the side. I didn’t tell her my fantasy, because that would add carbohydrate insult to carbohydrate injury.

As I pondered a day without carbs, let alone a few weeks or months, it dawned on me that indeed, dieting would make me feel like I was stuck in a cage; and I got the sense from the sadness in her eyes that the fat she was trying to be free from, and the food constraints she had to live under to try to lose it, were her private little hellish prison that she felt stuck in. I decided the caged lion analogy really wasn’t too far off, but it saddened me,  so as I nonchalantly pulled my brown lunch bag in front of my tupperware container of pasta to block her view, I made a mental image of her as a beautiful butterfly that was being birthed from its cocoon into a new world, for a new life,  with a new body, wearing new pretty colors.

The butterfly morphed into her, spinning around like Wonder Woman in a sexy bright patterned dress, as I toyed with whether or not I thought it could happen by eating more sharp Cheddar in one sitting than most people do  in a year. I imagined the economy of Wisconsin would be forever indebted to her. I continued to ponder: regardless of whether she could achieve Wonder Woman-Butterflydom  by eating that way, could it be healthy to not eat fruit? I felt sorry for her. How desperately she must have wanted to lose weight to go to such extremes.

As I contemplated whether I could smuggle my saran wrapped, homemade chocolate chip cookies from the brown lunch sack, into my pocket, without her noticing, and make it back to my cubicle for a little dessert snack, she casually mentioned that it was probably her thyroid causing her problem. It was the reason she couldn’t lose weight.

Knowing that the thyroid gland is shaped like a butterfly, her comment made me wonder if she had read my mind with the butterfly image. How ironic, I thought, as I shamed myself for automatically thinking that her  ”low thyroid” theory was just an excuse  to justify laziness and a lack of willpower. that was how I thought back then. But today, I know differently. There was probably more truth to her theory than even she knew, because due to the increasing number of environmental toxins that we consume everyday, the thyroid is under more assault than it ever has been before.

It is the key to vitality and healthy energy levels, and it regulates metabolism. Nowadays, more doctors are recognizing that even when someone falls within textbook “normal” ranges, symptomatically, he or she could still have hypothyroidism. It is great to get tested when you are perfectly healthy, to obtain a baseline level of what is normal for you, in the event that you one day develop thyroid problems. But if you are already having symptoms of low energy, difficulty losing weight, skin problems, depression, foggy thinking and fatigue, see an experienced doctor with regulating hormones. And when getting tested, it is key to not only test TSH level but also the free T3 and free T4 levels. If you are seeing a doctor who only tests the TSH level, you are with the wrong doctor!

So, you may be wondering if my office mate ever achieved her weight goals. I left that job too soon into her protein/cheese diet to know the final results. I just know she had moved onto Swiss by the time I left. But I can tell you that today, whenever I see a butterfly, I think of her.

It may sound counterintuitive, but a new study confirms that overweight people receive less pleasure from drinking a milkshake than normal weight people do. As does almost everything, it comes down to chemicals in the brain, as to what level of gratification one derives from food, resulting in overeating or not. 

Dr. Eric Stice, a scientist at Oregon Research Institute, conducted a study in which women savored milkshakes inside a brain scanner. Those whose brains did not perceive gratification, tended to overeat. 

Simply put, the brain scan showed that the dorsal striatum, a dopamine-rich pleasure center of the brain, lit up like a lightbulb in response to the taste of the milkshake, in lean people, but was far less active in the brains of overweight people. This, undoubtedly supports the theory that the tendency toward obesity, is at least in part, genetic.

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In their new book,The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All The Difference, Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, explore a number of examples which prove that small efforts can accomplish big things. The book is NOT a diet book, but it got me thinking about how important the message is to the dieting process.

It’s easy to get intimidated by the idea of losing any number of pounds in the double digit range. Even as ten pounds can seem overwhelming. It’s easy to convince yourself that it’s an all or nothing proposition, and that your entire diet has to become something Richard Simmons would write home about, when in fact, if even just one of your small, daily habits could change, you could see visible results quickly. 

But if you think about the challenge in terms of the small efforts needed to make it happen, compounded over time, it is not nearly the feat that it seems. Ask any distance runner if they get through a marathon race by thinking “26 miles, 26 miles, 26 miles”, they will tell you it would be hard to complete the race with that mindset. Instead, most runners focus only on the few steps in front of them at that moment.

My long time favorite spiritual writer and speaker, Wayne Dyer, has said in some of his books, that he gave up his addiction to alcohol by fighting the temptation one minute at a time. You’d be best served to approach dieting in the same manner - focusing on something small - like the amount of calories that make up a snack.

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Over the weekend my friends and I were discussing the pros and cons of artificial sweeteners  - and no, my friends aren’t nearly as nerdy as I am with this stuff, but they are becoming increasingly interested in losing a few pounds and treating their bodies right. So it dawned on me that I have never told all of my *f.a.t. readers about Stevia, the herb that is a natural sweetener!! How could I have forgotten, as this is truly a way to go from “fat” to *f.a.t. (Fit After Thirty)!

I discovered it at my health food store when I was just a hot young co-ed. Actually, I’m not sure I ever was one of those, but I should have been for as healthfully as I ate. (I know you regular readers are thinking, geez, she read the fiber diet book in high school and she hung out at the health food store in college, what a geek!) I’m not denying it, but the good thing is it allowed me to have years of experience with the natural sweetener, so I could pass along that information to all of you! 

Stevia is a South American herb that has been used as a sweetener by the Guarani Indians of Paraguay for hundreds of years. The leaves of this small, green Stevia rebaudiana plant have a delicious and refreshing taste that can be 30 times sweeter than sugar. It has been available in liquid and powder form for many years, and is a God send for diabetics. The reason is, because stevia does not spike blood sugar levels. This is why it is a good diet aid for all of you!

I know it sounds too good to be true, so for all of you naysayers, put your positive cap on while you read the next few sentences. It has zero calories, zero carbs, and is even believed to lower blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and even improve digestion. You can bake with it, mix it in drinks and sprinkle it on cereal, just as you would sugar.

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Okay, so you’re ditching work early to head out to the Cinco De Mayo Happy Hour Bash at your local El Torito, or other Mexican restaurant! What can you expect to be consuming in calories for the evening, and how do you plan accordingly so you aren’t having to spend ten hours on the treadmill to make up for it, you ask? Well, I have the answers for you here! 

We’ll start with the most important item first:

Margarita: 153 calories, 7g carbs, 0g fat - be sure to multiply times the number you drink!!

Enchilada - with sauce and sourcream: 210 calories, 13g of fat and 9g of carbs in each enchilada

Taquito - 256 calories, 14g of fat and 22g of carbs in each taquito (5.3 oz)

Beef Taco - 200 calories, 9g of fat and 21g of carbs in each taco (3.5 oz)

Steak Taco - 270 calories, 16g of fat and 20g of carbs in each taco (4.5 oz)

Chicken Taco - 270 calories, 14g of fat and 21g of carbs in each taco (4.8 oz).

Taco Salad with shell - 780 calories, 36g of fat and 78g of carbs in each salad (1 lb 3.2 oz)

Guacamole - 150 calories, 13g of fat and 8g of carbs in each serving (3.5 oz)

Tortilla chips - 140 calories, 7g of fat and 19g of carbs in each oz (1 oz) or 11 chips.

Taco size flour tortilla - 90 calories, 2.5g of fat and 12.g of carbs in each tortilla

Corn tortilla - 52 calories, 7g of fat and 10.7g of carbs in each tortilla (0.8 oz)

Hot Salsa - 20 calories, 0g of fat and 3g of carbs in each serving (3.5 oz).

So you work your butt off getting your body beach ready and in total Fit After Thirty shape. You lift weights and train your butt off and get flat abs and a tight rear until you successfully achieve a body you can be proud of. But in all your enthusiasm to strut your stuff in your hot bikini, you forget to use enough sunscreen and so you become a burned lobster. Sound familiar? (After this weekend, it sounds familiar to the lower quarter of each of my left and right butt cheeks and it also sounds familiar to the two inches of lower back above my bikini bottoms.) Yes, my sunscreen application needs improvement!!

You want a hot bod, yes - but not the sunburned kind of hot bod! So what do you do if the sun ends up adoring your sexy, fit bod more than you want it to? Here are my top ten sunburn home remedies to soothe, ease pain, prevent peeling, and heal skin!

1. Oatmeal bath or oatmeal applied as a paste - soothes and helps ease pain

2. Apple Cider Vinegar applied from a spray bottle or with soaked towels - soothes and removes heat.

3. Aloe Vera gel - Cools and soothes and helps heal

4. Vitamin E oil - hastens the healing, and helps prevent peeling

5. Calendula ointment - soothes and helps heal

6. Black tea spritzed or soaked in clothes

7. Hemorrhoid cream - contains cortisone to soothe inflammation

8. Emu oil - a wonder oil for many types of skin irritations and inflamations

9. Tomato puree or tomato juice soaked in washcloths - the lycopene helps diminish sun damage. You might try lycopene pills as well, taken internally.

10. Ibuprofin taken internally - anti-inflammatory and pain reliever - though I always recommend using in conjunction with some of the above topicals.

And in order to prevent this again, here are sun protection options I recommend:

Anthelios sunscreen - it contains Mexoryl XL and SX which means you won’t have to reapply as often. It also blocks both UV A and UV B rays. 

Big Sun Hat 

Beach Umbrella - perfect for sitting under on the beach

GiddyUp, Girls!! Remember playing horsey when you were little? The grown up version is now here.

Do you remember when you were a little girl with a mad crush on Lee Majors’ character, Heath Barkley, on The Big Valley TV show, dreaming of riding behind him on his horse, hair blowing in the wind, as the two of you trotted off into the sunset? NO? Was I the only one?

Well, okay then  - have you ever envied the lower body shape and tone of female equestrian riders in their riding breeches?  Did you watch Nicole Kidman in the movie Australia and just wish you could have the feeling of freedom of riding a horse like that?

Have you ever gone horseback riding and realized what great exercise it is when every muscle in your butt and thighs was sore for the next three days? Well, now you don’t have to own a horse and have three acres of land to enjoy the benefits of horse riding.

This fitness gadget pretty much takes a child’s innocent fantasy about Heath Barkley into the adult world-and turns it R rated. Watch Ellen Degeneres try the igallop: