It’s no secret that biking to work is great for the earth and a great workout all at the same time. But if you’re not willing to compromise your fashion sense, maneuvering a two-wheeler in a dress might be easier said than done. Here are three ways to make it work.

1. While you shouldn’t wear a dress that’s short enough to leave you feeling exposed as you ride (and that’s probably not work appropriate anyway!),  longer fabrics run the risk of getting caught in the spokes. In Europe, bikes come with what they call a skirt guard, but they’re pretty impossible to find in the US. So make one yourself with a piece of tulle.

2. Unless you’re a total pro on the bike, you might want to leave the heels at home and opt for flats instead. Heels can get caught on the pedals so if you have to stop fast you could end up crashing…which would definitely ruin your look.

3. Even though it’s fine to dress up for your bike ride, you should only take it so far. If you don’t feel like you can move freely in the top and bottom you choose, you’re setting yourself up for a long and labored ride.

Every athlete and fitness addict has their favorite post workout snack or drink–maybe it’s a protein shake, a sports drink or a granola bar. I was always partial to cottage cheese or a handful of almonds, but now I’m going to put another item on the list–milk.

Milk helps rebuild muscles. In fact one 2007 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compared the effects of three different drinks on building muscle and burning fat after weight lifting workouts. Milk drinkers saw the best results after training five days a week for 12 weeks. The moo juice helped them build 60% more muscle than the carbohydrate drinkers and 40% more than the soy drinkers. And they lost almost 2 pounds of body fat.

So the next time you need to nosh after the gym, reach for a muscle-building glass of milk. Or mix up a smoothie. Try this recipe filled with antioxidant-packed acai juice, green tea, blueberries and more.

“You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.”

–Olympic Swimmer Michael Phelps

US Olympic swimmer Dara Torres is 41 and FIT! ‘Nuf said.

Drool over her abs for a minute, marvel over her bio, rock out to her playlist and then plan your weekend around the Olympics schedule. Coverage of the opening ceremony starts at 7:30 p.m.

While you continue to admire the amazing athletes and their fit bods, do some crunches during the commercial breaks.

When you’re traveling it can be tough to stick to a healthy diet. And when you’re traveling to a country where you don’t speak the language it can be even harder! How are you supposed to make a healthy choice when you can’t read the menu? That’s why I love Budget Travel’s Menu Decoders.

If you’re lucky enough to travel to the Olympics in Beijing, use their China version. It’s a good reference of Chinese to English translations for food terms, destination staples, drinks and popular dishes. You might want to stay away from dishes with the word guòyóu (flash fry in hot oil) and gravitate to shucài (vegetables) instead.

When I head to Portugal later this summer, I’ll have a menu decoder to follow too. So I can be sure to choose cozido de grão com vagens á alentejana (chickpeas with green beans) instead of migas à alentejana (fried bread with pork and/or beef). You can also read up on eating in Barcelona, Morocco, Prague and France. That said, I fully support breaking your diet abroad–sometimes you’ve got to try the local fare even if it doesn’t fit your usual low-cal plan–but all in moderation, right?

Recently I asked our contributing personal trainer and coach Jason Onserud (remember his great rundown on how to create a resistance training program?) to talk about the best ways to warm up before you start strength training. Here’s what he said…

First of all you should know why it’s important to warm up. It’ll help improve the performance of your session and in turn the result of your hard work. Warming up helps reduce the chance of injury and wear and tear on your joints too.

Start with a cardio warm-up: Complete 10 minutes of a low intensity exercise at 50% of your maximum heart rate. If you aren’t tracking your heart rate, this is a pretty easy pace–think a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. Try jogging, biking or skipping rope. This will increase your heart rate and actually warm up your body and muscle temperature as well as your mind. Read the rest of this entry »

I just heard about an environmental festival that’s going on this week in Mammoth Lakes, Calif. Outdoors in Mammoth is a two day family festival on August 5th and 6th packed with events centered around our environmental impact and the theme ‘Summit to the Sea - Everything is Connected.’

All of the activities are outside and bring eco issues to life from experiencing geothermal heat and discussing energy sources to going on a nature walk with the region’s native people to see how they lived sustainably in the mountain community. And Jean-Michel Cousteau (yes, he’s the son of Jacques Cousteau) who has spent his life exploring the world’s oceans and working to protect them will also be a featured speaker.

Even if you can’t make it to Mammoth this week, it’s great to see events like this that bring young and old together to learn what we can do for the enviornment and why it needs to be done, all while enjoying what nature has to offer.

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”

- Ella Fitzgerald