(This is the seventh in a series of interviews with the top women fitness bloggers I could find!)

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 !