There are many important and necessary components to being healthy, but the one I want to focus on today is general fitness.

I searched the blogosphere for the best fitness blogs written by women that I could find – I’m sure I missed some though – so don’t hate me if I don’t include you here! Many of them also took time from their busy days to answer some interview questions from me over the last couple of weeks.

The following blogs – in no particular order – are written by women who we can all learn from. They all write from an unique perspective that is both realistic (at least for some of us) and not based on fear, fads or fantasy. Please take some time and visit their blogs:

• Crabby McSlacker of Cranky Fitness

– who understands that fitness isn’t always fun! Her tagline cracks me up: “Because most health and fitness advice is too damn cheerful”. Read Crabby’s interview.

• Lauren of laurensfitness.com

– who wants to give people quality information about fitness and to help them avoid all the nonsense out there, some of which can be harmful to your health. Read Lauren’s interview.

• Sally of InDenialHealth.com

– who tries to motivate and encourage ‘change with good humor and sound advice’. Read Sally’s interview.

• Spin Diva of Family In Shape

– who is “passionate about teaching others how to reach their fitness goals and bring the kids along with them”. Read Spin Diva’s interview.

• Monica Shaw of SmarterFitter

– whose tagline is “Less diet, more brain” and wants her web site to “help people make smart fitness decisions based on hard data”. Read Monica’s interview.

• JoLynn of The Fit Shack

– who believes the mind, body and spirit are all involved with making the change to a healthy lifestyle. Read JoLynn’s interview.

• Kelly Mills of Fitness Fixation

– who writes about fitness realistically and with a sense of humor! Read Kelly’s interview.

• Angie Schumacher of Women’s Diet and Fitness

– whose blogging comes from the heart and her passion of providing women to build a long and healthy life! Read Angie’s interview.

• Sally Parrott Ashbrook of Aprovechar

– who writes about a combination of self-care issues with an undercurrent of how to “embrace your life to find or create joy, pleasure, comfort, and meaning within it”. Read Sally’s interview.

There are lots of great women fitness bloggers around! Here are a few more that I wasn’t able to interview:

The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl, Half of me, Amelia Burton, Fitarella and Losing it – Getting fit

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Please enjoy and visit their blogs too!

Sally Parrott Ashbrook writes at Aprovechar where she’s decided to “take the full measure of my life to live it the best I can”.

Sally answered some questions about her blog recently:

1) Why did you decide to start your blog or how did you start it?

I had always tried to force myself into habits that I thought would lead me to weight loss and better fitness. A variety of influences converged to flip my way of thinking around in January 2007; I had this epiphany that if I focused on self-care as a whole, the weight could come off naturally and I’d be a happier, more self-actualized person in general. I felt giddy with the idea that I could reach goals I had long struggled with if I just took good care of myself. I started a private blog (one without my name and identifiers attached) to keep myself accountable, to give myself shared space to work through some of my emotional issues concerning weight, and to share my basic philosophy with others. By the summer of 2007, my worldview was pretty revolutionized by living out that concept of self-care. After I was diagnosed with food allergies and then celiac disease, I decided to out myself and write publicly about those issues in addition to fitness, food, and weight loss. Even though it doesn’t seem like a big deal now, for me to publish my full name along with my weight was a big deal for me initially! I talk about the concepts underlying my blog more in my first post on my blog.

2) What do you think is the biggest obstacle that keeps women from engaging in a regular fitness routine and/or from living a more healthy lifestyle in general?

I think the biggest obstacle probably varies from woman to woman. For me, there have been a few basic obstacles that I had to surmount.

One was that I had a long-held belief that weight loss and fitness were all-or-nothing/success-or-failure activities when that just isn’t true. My usual way of dealing with exercise and weight loss was to jump headfirst into a program, get mad at myself for small failures, and then give up on it eventually. With my self-care, I took what was for me a radically new approach. From a diet perspective, I changed my diet gradually to a focus on fresh, local, organic vegetables, whole grains, and generally lean proteins. I didn’t (and don’t) count anything or specifically restrict anything, and I let myself have indulgences while I was (and am) still getting the maximum pleasure from them (which truly is usually just the first 1-4 bites). Exercise-wise, I started out walking daily after work; then a couple of months later, I started doing Couch to 5k 3-4 days a week. Now I usually work out 4-6 days a week for about an hour at a time—and I usually really enjoy it, but there’s no way I could have sustained that many work-outs at the beginning. Taking a gradual approach and letting my comfort level be my guide—but reminding myself that I was doing it for my own well-being—has kept me motivated and engaged in a way that none of my previous efforts did.

On the flip side, another obstacle I had to overcome was the idea that engaging in my own health was always going to be easy and pleasurable. I’ve written a good bit about finding the joy in what life has to offer you, and I do think that’s important. But I also think it’s important to recognize the opportunity cost of whatever you choose to focus on in your life. The fact is that our resources (money, time, energy, etc.) are finite. We really can’t have it all, and we will run ourselves ragged if we try. If we choose to focus on making health—and not just weight loss, which can come at the expense of health, but an overall healthy lifestyle—a priority, it will take time that we then cannot use for other activities. If we take an hour to make a homemade, healthy, tasty meal, that hour can’t be spent on cleaning house or watching tv or whatever else. If we take time to go work out, that means we may have a bit less time for our spouses or friends. I think finding support in that effort is important—for example, someone insisting she’ll make one healthy meal for the family instead of one for herself and one for others. (I heartily believe that if a mom is working on a lifestyle makeover, the family could probably use one, too!) But changing habits requires enormous reserves of energy (if not time as well), and I think it’s important for our overall health to recognize if the time and energy just aren’t there at the moment. I had a reader write to me and ask for advice about how she could eat healthier and exercise while she was coping with raising two kids alone and caring for a parent who had terminal cancer. In that case, while she could certainly work to make some small changes in the right direction, her energy was really already divided up into elements of her life that were very important, and it may just not have been the right time for her to try to divvy up her energy further to put a lot of it into being serious about weight loss.

And that brings me to my last primary obstacle, which was a huge one: I had to learn to take care of myself emotionally in order to live a healthier life. I used to mentally abuse myself about my lack of willpower, my lack of natural athletic ability, etc. I also used to eat, blindly, when I had emotional needs that were going unmet for some reason. I’ve discovered that when I treat myself empathetically, my life goes much more smoothly. I’ve cut out the negative self-talk, and if it starts up, I stop myself and remind myself that I’m doing the best I can and that I have much to be proud of—and I mean it. When I get a craving for food at a strange time or place, I stop, close my eyes, and ask myself what it is I really want. If it really is a cupcake I want, I might get one later that day. But more often than not, what I really want is a good night’s sleep, or a hug from my husband, or a friend who will listen while I rant. These days, when I stop and focus on what I need, I then try to figure out ways to fulfill that need. Sometimes that can be hard (like if I am at work and am craving a nap), but I talk to myself about getting what I need and remind myself that I will give myself what I need as soon as possible. (And I have left work a couple of times to go home and sleep when that is what I was desperate for!) When I am making sure my life is more emotionally fulfilled, the craving to overeat largely dissipates.

3) What do you consider to be the most unique or helpful thing about your blog?

My blog is an unusual combination of self-care issues, including weight loss, fitness, locavore eating, food allergies, and other things. The undercurrent of it is how to embrace your life to find or create joy, pleasure, comfort, and meaning within it. Readers tell me that they value that I’m willing to express what’s going on in my head and heart openly while also working to keep a focus on the positive. My goal is to be a support system for people in general but specifically for women who are working to take control of their health and their lives to create and maintain good lives for themselves. And, of course, as someone who maintains a gluten-free, egg-free, soy-free, dairy/casein-free diet, I want to be a resource for people who are seeking out how to have healthy, engaged, pleasurable lives as they cope with celiac disease and food allergies.

Thanks for interviewing me!

Thank you Sally for taking the time to answer my questions!

Please take some time and visit Sally’s blog: Aprovechar !

Angie Schumacher is a Certified Personal Trainer and writes a very informative blog at Women’s Diet and Fitness.

Angie answered some questions about her blog recently:

1) Why did you decide to start your blog or how did you start it?

About a year and a half ago, I got involved in an online group called Body For Life- Women Only, a google group. I had hit a plateau and was having a hard time trying to make changes in my body. I was online searching for anything and everything that would help me find the “answers”. I found myself being overwhelmed with the information and still not knowing what to do. It was then that I thought to myself that I be there are lots of other women out there with all the same problems…too much information and not knowing what to do with it. So I decided to take what I DID know and put together a website, just for women, to help them get all the health and fitness information they needed all in one place. I put together www.womensdietandfitness.com and decided to do a blog along side, to be able to interact with my website readers and thought it would also be a good way to keep them updated on the latest information. Hence, the blog: www.womensdietandfitness.com/WDF

2) What do you think is the biggest obstacle that keeps women from engaging in a regular fitness routine and/or from living a more healthy lifestyle in general?

I think all women have their own thing, whether it be lack of motivation, their busy lifestyle or just not feeling like they are important enough and taking care of everyone else first! What I always say is, “If you take care of yourself FIRST, you will be able to take care of everyone else so much better!” A lot of women think that it takes hours to workout and lose weight or whatever their goals may be, but in all actuality, it can take less than 45 minutes 3x per WEEK! Split that up into 6 days and you only need about 15-20 minutes per day! Now who doesn’t have that???

3) What do you consider to be the most unique or helpful thing about your blog?

Unique? Well I don’t know if I would consider it unique, but it does come from the heart and my passion of providing women to build a long and healthy life!

Please take some time and visit Angie’s blog: Women’s Diet and Fitness !

Kelly Mills writes at Fitness Fixation – fitness with a sense of humor!

I asked Kelly a few questions about her blog recently:

1) Why did you decide to start your blog or how did you start it?

I started Fitness Fixation for several reasons, but one of the main ones was that I was dying to see more humorous writing about fitness and exercise from people who still managed to cobble together a workout schedule. I just got tired of reading the sort of preachy, faux-girlfriend-y, chipper fitness articles I found in most magazines. “You can shed pounds by doing leg lifts while you pump gas!” That kind of crap. The truth is that exercise is hard and sweaty and you often feel like *thrpppth* while you are doing it, but there’s also big rewards that come with being in shape and I wanted talk about all that at the same time. And I also figured people might take some comfort in the fact that I am not a born jock, I was totally un-athletic for most of my life, and fell in love with exercise totally by accident. It’s easier to see possibility when the person you are talking to knows what it is like to feel hopelessly unfit and convinced they’ll never enjoy physical activity. Plus I needed a forum to do lots of swearing.

2) What do you think is the biggest obstacle that keeps women from engaging in a regular fitness routine and/or from living a more healthy lifestyle in general?

I suppose the easiest answer to this is many women don’t feel they have the time to exercise, but in truth we usually manage to make even a little bit of time for the things that make us happy. I actually think it might be more that the payoff isn’t good enough, and lots of women only think they *should* do an hour on the stairmaster rather than *wanting* to do an hour on the stairmaster. And I don’t blame them, it sounds really dull to me. I got into running because I have this really forceful friend who convinced me to wake up at ungodly hour and run with her, and this happened to coincide with me having an infant at home and I was just dying for time for myself and some adult conversation. From there I eventually got lots of benefits out of running–stress relief, weight loss, time for myself, feeling better in every way, etc.–and then found more physical activities I enjoyed. I’m still always fighting my own inertia, but now it feels worse not to exercise than to just do it and I know I’ll be over the moon when I’m done. And my activities, like kickboxing and crazy weight training classes, make me feel strong and badass so I drag myself to them even when I feel lazy.

People sometimes tell me they admire my discipline, but there’s not much nobility to it. If I don’t work out, I feel like crud, and if I do it, I feel better. It’s quite self-serving. Maybe women just need to be a little more self-serving. Hell, I’m just guessing. Women are all complicated, you know.

3) What do you consider to be the most unique or helpful thing about your blog?

Fitness Fixation is primarily unhelpful and if you don’t like the f-word, you’ll detest it. And lots of it is just me whining about fitness stuff and ranting and being very neurotic and grumpy. But sometimes other people write for me, and they are smart, and the commenters are often quite funny, and I can guarantee you I don’t pretend to know any more than I do and I’m very much myself there. So if you are into that sort of thing, you might like it. Oh, and I talk about hoo-hoos and other subjects that remain taboo in other places and yet are endlessly fascinating for someone like me with the sense of humor of a twelve-year-old. Plus we give out free makeovers. I totally made that last part up. The only thing given out free on Fitness Fixation is a bad attitude. But that is in unlimited supply.

Please take some time and visit Kelly’s blog: Fitness Fixation !

JoLynn writes at The Fit Shack where she believes the mind, body, spirit are all involved with making the change to a healthy lifestyle.

I recently asked JoLynn some questions about her blog:

1) Why did you decide to start your blog or how did you start it?

Wow, this could turn into an entire post when you get into why and how I started it, so I’ll keep it short – I decided to start The Fit Shack after reading some inspiring posts online from Probloggers and combining that with my passion for spreading the word on processed foods, that was my initial reason.

I’d already learned through my experience with the 6-Week Body Makeover lifestyle plan that when you go back to basics (whole foods) that not only do you lose weight, but you also have tons of energy; hence my desire to inspire and inform my readers of how great life can be once you get off of those processed, dead foods.

In the beginning I was mainly focused on informing and inspiring my readers to get off the processed foods filled with sugar, white flour, additives, excess sodium, and other gunk – the foods that bog you down, slow your metabolism, cause food cravings, and do not help you lose weight.

2) What do you think is the biggest obstacle that keeps women from engaging in a regular fitness routine and/or from living a more healthy lifestyle in general?

I think that the biggest obstacle for women is that many women do not treat themselves as well as they treat the people in their life that they love. Somewhere along the line women picked up the thought that it is “selfish” if you put your own health and fitness first, when in actuality you are doing everyone else a favor by doing so!

The fitter, stronger, and healthier you are, the more you have to give to others. Therefore you are cheating your loved ones when you don’t take care of yourself first, because when you’re in poor health you are limited in the amount of care, love, and time you can give to them.

3) What do you consider to be the most unique or helpful thing about your blog?

I approach weight loss from a complete mind-body-spirit perspective, which makes my blog unique since I am not simply giving out diet advice – I don’t believe in diets and I do believe in creating a healthy lifestyle that brings all of these pieces together. I also put a lot of focus into the mindset that is needed to be successful and stay motivated to live a healthy lifestyle.

Additionally I freely share my own experiences with emotional eating, sugar addiction, weight loss motivation and such, all at the same time walking a balance between professionalism and engagement. The Fit Shack is a family friendly blog and I am very focused on giving a positive and inspirational message at all times.

Thank you for interviewing me today Trisha, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Thank you very much for participating JoLynn!

Please take some time and visit JoLynn’s blog: The Fit Shack!

Monica Shaw writes at SmarterFitter where you can find “Less diet, more brain”. Her web site is “designed to help people make smart fitness decisions based on hard data”.

I asked Monica the following questions about her blog:

1) Why did you decide to start your blog or how did you start it?

Smarterfitter.com grew out of my personal interest in fitness and food. I’m a science nerd who likes to know the details. I’s not enough to know that “flax seeds are supposed to be good for me, so I’ll eat them.” I want to know why flax seeds are special, and furthermore, I want to read the science behind the claim. The more I know, the smarter my choices, it’s plain and simple. Writing about all this stuff is a great way for me to remember the things I learn and share it with a community of like-minded geeky folk. “Wait, I’m not a geek!” some might say. Anyone who wants to understand the logic behind the choices they make is a geek in my book. Science geeks, art geeks, DIY geeks, archaeology geeks… all geeks are welcome at smarterfitter.

2) What do you think is the biggest obstacle that keeps women from engaging in a regular fitness routine and/or from living a more healthy lifestyle in general?

I can’t speak for all women, but I know that the biggest obstacle for me is having the willpower to overcome challenges in my environment. The modern world makes it tough to lead an “active life”, with cars being the main mode of transportation and packaged-meals being the main delivery device for food. This is changing, but ever so slowly. I’m lucky enough to live in London, a big city where it’s possible to get almost anywhere by bike or on foot. But there’s still pressure
all around. Social events almost always take place at the pub, a fixture on almost every street corner in London. Turning down a pint or a bowl of hot chips is tough in a society where drinking is the norm. It makes us feel either deprived or like a social outcast. Ick. Nobody likes that. Maybe the real obstacle is less about willpower than it is about perspective. I’ve certainly had to change
my perspective on my environment by learning to embrace the things that encourage good habits rather than fuss over all of the negative influences. It’s a similar mantra to AA’s serenity prayer:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

I’m not religious, but there’s some truth to that. Still, there’s no avoiding onslaught of tempting cake and chocolates that arrives with every coworker’s birthday. But if we create the right environment and get our habits straight, it’s a lot easier to avoid overindulgence and love ourselves for making the choice that we know will make us happy.

3) What do you consider to be the most unique or helpful thing about your blog?

As its name suggests, smarterfitter is all about using our brains to get fit. My hope is that smarterfitter encourages people to make smart, rational choices based on real evidence rather than false promises for “rapid weight loss” or some similar claim. That was the goal in starting the blog, though I should really listen to my readerson this one. Most people tell me the best part about the blog is the food. I’m a vegetarian and my meat-eating readers say the recipes give them good advice for cooking with veggies (I forget that this isn’t obvious to many!). So much for my geeky intentions. But that’s okay; food is my obsession and I love to write about it. I’m just glad other people like it to.

Please take some time and visit Monica’s blog: SmarterFitter!

Spin Diva has a very informative blog called Family In Shape. She is an AFAA Certified Personal Trainer/Group Fitness Instructor and attends the University of Maryland University College. Her blog’s goal is to inspire families with ideas to help them lead a healthier lifestyle.

I recently asked Spin Diva a few questions about her blog:

1) Why did you decide to start your blog or how did you start it?

I decided to start a blog for several reasons. First, I really love to learn all that I can about health, fitness, wellness, food and exercise, etc. I can’t guarantee that it will all stay in my head the first time around, but I figure the more I read the more I’ll learn. Second, I like to share what I do know and what I have learned from other experts in the field of health and fitness with my readers. What’s the point in learning all this information if I’m not going to use it to help someone else? Finally, I like to write. I find that when I put on paper the thoughts that creep into my mind, I am able to focus and sleep better. My mind is clear of all my crazy thoughts and ideas. I took the opportunity to start blogging when I was asked to be a guest blogger on the Time4Learning web home school blog. This opened up other opportunities and then I participated in an online blogging course which lasted 6 weeks. This was the beginning of my current blog, Family In Shape, which focuses mostly on fitness and nutrition. Still I find myself wanting to talk about things other than health and fitness, therefore I created a blog called Early Morning Peace. This is where I just talk about anything that pops into my mind.

2) What do you think is the biggest obstacle that keeps women from engaging in a regular fitness routine and/or from living a more healthy lifestyle in general?

Motivation. This is the key to everything we do. From getting up in the morning, to cooking dinner and showering. You have to be motivated enough to commit to work towards your goals. I’m a Personal Trainer/Group Fitness Instructor, an online college student, military wife, mother of four busy kids ages 17, 14, 6, 19 months. My goals are to get my degree, to live a healthy lifestyle, to teach my children well and live long enough to see great grand children. The list doesn’t end there. Without motivation I would never reach my goals. We (women) give, give, give and somewhere along the way we stop taking care of ourselves. But you have to be motivated enough to dig a little deeper and push yourself a little harder everyday. Sometimes we have to say no to the world and yes to ourselves, even if only for one hour each day. I wish I could reach through my blog and inject that drive, that energy that tells someone, “go for a walk, take a bike ride.” Since I can’t physically do this, I hope I can provide enough information for people to become motivated and take back control of their wellbeing.

3) What do you consider to be the most unique or helpful thing about your blog?

One of the things I like about my blog is that its very non-technical. When I train people I talk to them so they can understand me, not so they can see that I know the name of a particular muscle. I’m not there to impress anyone, just to help them improve their health and reach their goal. The same goes for my blog. Sometimes something happens in my life that I can share with others and usually I find solutions which I also share. I am an optimist and see the glass as half full. For every negative event, there is a positive result and that is what I try to share with my readers. Just because I gave in to the cookies and milk monster cravings doesn’t mean that it’s all over and I should throw in the towel. My blog gives clear ideas for fitness, nutrition, ways to relax and have fun. I also like to include the kids in many if not all of the activities. Children learn from our own leadership–if we live a healthy lifestyle they will carry that on through their lives. I may not ever be a size 6 but while I exercised, ate healthy foods, limited not so healthy foods, etc… my kids were watching and learning. That to me is better than being a size 6–which I haven’t been since I was 16 I am most excited when someone leaves a comment saying that I’ve helped them make a change for the better.

Please take some time and visit Spin Diva’s blog: Family In Shape!

Sally has a great blog at InDenialHealth.com. She uses humor, experience and good advice to help motivate and encourage people to change to a healthier lifestyle.

I asked Sally the following questions about her blog:

1) Why did you decide to start your blog or how did you start it?

Actually, my blog started out life in another form as a health and technology site. This came about due to my profession as an e-health administrator. What we started to notice was that our stories on health and trying to find motivation were really popular. Our technology stories eventually gave way and we made the big decision to start a new site with a new name and new direction. This coincided with me getting older and realizing that I’m finding it harder to stay motivated with my health journey. In actual fact, aging is probably one of the most important motivational factors we have to getting fit and healthy but for most women it’s put on their list of *Must Do’s*!

2) What do you think is the biggest obstacle that keeps women from engaging in a regular fitness routine and/or from living a more healthy lifestyle in general?

Themselves. Women put everyone and everything before their own wants and needs. Kids, partners, work, home and family are all more important to them and that’s why we are so amazing!

Unfortunately, we are wired this way as part of a primal instinct to protect. This can be very challenging living in a modern world and I think many women put the thought of their health in the back of their minds and just hope that nothing bad happens. And it works for a while, until it doesn’t anymore. The irony is that the very best thing we can do for our family is to make sure we are well, happy and healthy.

3) What do you consider to be the most unique or helpful thing about your blog?

Our blog is a little different in that we recognize for many people, being healthy or coming to terms with a health condition can be challenging and often people try and live in denial, hence the name!

We hope that indenialhealth.com can provide information that is helpful to others without all the hype that you often find on health related sites. Our wish is that we can really connect with people who are either coming to terms with the need to be healthy or those who are still working towards making positive change.

Please take some time and visit Sally’s blog: InDenialHealth.com!

Lauren blogs at laurensfitness.com, plays professional volleyball in Europe and is a Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer from Australia. She is also beginning a Masters Degree in Strength and Conditioning.

I recently asked Lauren a few questions about her blog:

1) Why did you decide to start your blog or how did you start it?

Currently I can’t personal train because I play Volleyball full time in Europe. I missed it, and I wanted to be able to do it again in some form. I find there are a lot of misconceptions and a lot of terrible info out there. I want to make sure people get some correct information on body and fitness, and hopefully open up their mind to a few more concepts. Not to mention bust some myths as well, there are a lot still going around the fitness industry that boggle my mind!

2) What do you think is the biggest obstacle that keeps women from engaging in a regular fitness routine and/or from living a more healthy lifestyle in general?

Simply realizing that you can always find time to exercise. 30 minutes 3 times a week is all you need to get some gains. Time is used as a factor for women not being able to exercise, but in reality it is just a matter of changing their mindset around to find the time and schedule it into their routine.

3) What do you consider to be the most unique or helpful thing about your blog?

Probably the rehab stuff that I talk about on the blog. I find that is my most popular area, and one that is a little more hard to find. I’m finding people are getting a lot of use out of my fascia release and soft tissue posts. It’s an area that a lot of people don’t even know exists, but can bring them a wonderful pain free and mobile existence!

Please visit Lauren’s blog at laurensfitness.com!

Crabby McSlacker and Merry Sunshine write an excellent fitness blog called Cranky Fitness. Crabby knows how difficult sticking to a healthy lifestyle can be and offers lots of practical advice to make it easier.

I recently asked Crabby a few questions about her blog:

1) Why did you decide to start your blog or how did you start it?

I have a LOT of opinions about health and fitness, and my family and friends were getting really tired of hearing them.

Sample conversation:
Mom: “Guess who I saw a the grocery store today, do you remember Alice who used to live…”
Crabby: “Coffeemate??? Mom, when did you start using Coffeemate in your coffee, don’t you know it’s full of transfats?”
Mom: “So Alice ended up divorcing her husband and went back to college and you know what she’s doing now?”
Crabby: “It says “Fat Free,” sure, but just look at all these hydrogenated oils in the ingredients! How can they get away with…”

Anyway, my family and friends seem relieved that I now have Cranky Fitness, which is probably a better outlet for my griping.

2) What do you think is the biggest obstacle that keeps women from engaging in a regular fitness routine and/or from living a more healthy lifestyle in general?

The biggest obstacle is that living a healthy lifestyle is a pain in the ass.

Unfortunately, despite all the cheerful magazine articles, it’s really hard and time consuming to get in shape, shop for and cook with healthy ingredients, force yourself to eat broccoli instead of brownies, get enough sleep, avoid products that will kill you eventually… the list goes on and on. Sure, some aspects are fun sometimes, like eating a ripe peach or going on a beautiful beach walk with sunny skies and a cool breeze, but that’s the exception, not the rule. It sometimes takes going to the gym when it’s the last thing you want to do, or eating a healthy salad instead of a cheeseburger. It’s not always fun and easy, and so why would you stick to it unless you’re extraordinarily motivated? Most people just aren’t.

3) What do you consider to be the most unique or helpful thing about your blog?

Well, while we do try to provide useful information occasionally, we’re quite irreverent and whiny and silly and opinionated. Whether this is “helpful” or not is debatable, but I can certainly say we’re unique! Oh, and we have the BEST commenters–often that’s where useful information can be found when we’re just spouting off and being goofy.

Please take some time and visit Crabby and Merry’s blog: Cranky Fitness!