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Jessica Biel is one who always looks tone and healthy. She is no stranger to showing off her … um … assets. Her trainer, Jason Walsh explains her workout.

Jason recommends a 30 minute interval-training regimen, four days a week.

Monday and Friday
Warm-up: Light cardio on the treadmill, bike or elliptical. (5 minutes)
Circuit work: Alternate 10 reps each of 2 strength-training moves (choose from walking lunges, bent-over dumb bell rows, squat to press, plank, hanging leg lifts and back extensions) with one minute of moderate cardio; repeat three times. Alternate one minute of cardio with another two exercises; repeat three times. Alternate one minute of cardio with last two exercises; repeat three times. Beginners use 5 - 10 pound weights; veterans, 15-20 pounds 18 minutes.
Intense Cardio: Alternate one minute of high speed (3.5 to 5 mph on a treadmill) at moderate resistance (an incline of 3 -5) with one minute of low speed (2.5 mph) at low resistance (incline of 1 or 2). Repeat set three times. Six minutes.
Cool down: Low speed walk. one minute

Tuesday and Thursday
Same as above, but substitute strength training moves: Squat jumps, pushups, sit-ups, wide-grip lat pull downs, side bridges, side bridges and crunches on the fitness ball.

Wednesday
Rest

Saturday and Sunday
45 minutes of your favorite sport.

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There are plenty of ways to tell if you have an unhealthy diet. But how do you ultimately discern if yours is healthy or not? According to Everyday Health, here are the seven signs you have a healthy diet:

- You don’t skip meals. This is a big no-no — especially if it’s breakfast!
- You eat lots of fibre, found in beans, fruits, veggies and whole grains
- You choose meats that are leaner — like chicken, fish and turkey — and you don’t eat the skin.
- You get your RDI of calcium and vitamin D every single day, either by eating low-fat dairy or taking supplements
- You eat foods that are fortified with vitamin B12
- You choose healthy snacks like nuts, dried fruit and low-fat cheese over chips, cookies and other junk foods.
- You drink lots of water — 64oz a day to be exact.

So, is your diet a healthy one? Why or why not?

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Best diet intentions are often waylaid by the workplace environment. Vending machines are stocked with sugared soda and teas, candy and snack bars, fried chips, and little else. It seems like daily someone has a birthday or some other special day that must be celebrated with cookies and cakes. Someone drops off donuts or bagels or the Girl Scouts are selling cookies. How many times have you bought candy from co-workers collecting for their kids’ sports teams or clubs?

Most workers are “trapped” at their desks, sedentary at their computer terminals, never leaving their seats except for an occasional break or to take a quick lunch. A study in the August 2005 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that those workers who sit more weigh more, and those who sit longer have a 68 percent increased risk of being overweight or obese.

Although creating a healthy work environment helps both worker productivity as well as lowering company costs, whether or not your company makes it convenient or easy to eat right and stay fit in the office, YOU can take charge of your health at work, as you would at home. After all, you’re spending at least as many or more waking hours at work than at home. Make them healthy hours.

The National Institutes of Health Obesity Education Initiative’s Guide to Behavior Change recommends that you take a close, unwavering look at your habits and see where and when you overeat. This may be the most important thing you can do to accomplish weight loss. If you usually grab that donut when the office manager brings them in on Fridays, avoid the kitchen. If the vending machines are too tempting for you, then avoid them and bring your own snacks. As you control what you eat and change your “grab-and-go” habits, you’ll look better and feel stronger.

1. Eat breakfast. People who eat breakfast do better on tests, have better concentration and energy, and are less likely to overeat during the day. If you don’t like to eat first thing in the morning, have a convenient snack when you get to work. If I’m running late, I bring dry cereal and stir it into a cup of nonfat, sugar-free yogurt. A couple of hard-boiled eggs and a piece of fruit are convenient, nutritious and satisfying.

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Gisele Bunchen went mountain bike riding recently. It’s no wonder she has an amazing body … this is a great form of exercise.

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Victoria’s Secret model Marisa Miller is on the cover of Fitness magazine’s November 2007 issue. In the interview, she talks about her healthy eating and exercise habits.

On why she exercises: “I’m comfortable with the curves I have. I like having a woman’s body…It’s not like I’m exercising to be skinny—I’m the girl who needs curves. I like my butt and boobs!”

Miller’s workout secrets: “I’ve tried everything. I love surfing: it’s spiritual and physical…I also like Spinning. It’s good toning for your rear and legs. I’ll put in one of my favorite Guns N’ Roses music video DVDs and start pedaling. I find it’s so much easier to work out when I can distract myself with something visual.”

On her biggest dietary weakness: “Definitely ice cream.”

On what she stays away from—most of the time: “Processed stuff. Recently, I came back from a long trip and [my husband had] gone grocery shopping—which was nice, but it was all TV dinners and Cap’n Crunch. I said, ‘Honey, is there a fruit or vegetable anywhere in the house?’ And he’s like, ‘I got canned peaches!’ God bless him, but he doesn’t make it easy for me.”

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Most of us are aware that restaurants and food manufacturers have adopted the bad habit of supersizing meals, drinks, and snacks. What may surprise you is this: We’re doing the same thing at our dinner tables. Food package, dishware, and even recipes have evolved to encourage us to eat more than we need. And it turns out that we are not good at pushing the extra portions away: Studies show that the more food we’re given, the more we eat.

So how do you know how much is enough?

A portion is the amount of food you choose to eat. There is no standard portion and no single right or wrong portion size.

A serving, however, is a standard amount set by the U.S. government to provide advice about how much to eat or to identify how many calories and nutrients are needed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s nutrition labels and MyPyramid from the U.S. Department of Agriculture are good sources for serving sizes.

For example, a portion for you might be a sandwich made with two slices of bread and some meat. According to MyPyramid, that portion would equal two servings from the grain group and two servings from the meat group.

Tip: If you don’t follow serving sizes, and instead make your own portions try trading in your 11-inch plates for 9-inch ones and you’ll eat 18% percent few calories.

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These days, iPods are a a standard fixture at the gym. Everyone has them and everyone uses them to fuel their workout with heart-pumping tunes.

But did you ever wonder what tunes your favourite celeb listens to while they work out? Reese Witherspoon reveals a few tunes on her playlist. They include:

- Soak Up the Sun, by Sheryl Crow
- Buttons, by The Pussycat Dolls
- Walk On, by U2
- Sweet Home Alabama, by B.A.M.A.
- Stop This Train, by John Mayer

Some of these are certainly not on my iPod, but to each their own. What’s on your playlist?

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If you have a yard and a tree, chances are high you will be spending some quality time this fall with a rake and your front lawn.

Raking leaves is not only necessary for keeping your grass alive, but the dried leaves are great to use as aeration in your compost pile or bin. As if that’s not enough, it’s also a great way to get some fresh air and exercise.

An hour of raking leaves burns about 290 calories. This is awesome, but it’s tough work your muscles aren’t used to doing. That means you can end up being completely sore the next day, in places you never knew existed. Since your body is not used to doing this type of motion, you could even risk throwing out your back.

Want to hear some tips for preventing strained muscles and next day soreness? Then …

- To prevent sore arms and an aching lower back the next day, be sure to stretch your arms, shoulders, hamstrings, and back before and after grabbing a rake. Wide Squat will stretch your hips and lower back, and Gate will stretch the sides of your body and your hamstrings. You can even use the rake to help you stretch. Do a Wide-Legged Forward Bend, and instead of holding your feet, hold onto a rake behind you. This will give the backs of your legs, lower back, and shoulders a killer stretch.

- While you’re raking, make sure to switch which arm is dominating so you work the muscles on both sides of your body equally. Switch sides often to prevent overworking a certain group of muscles.

- Also be conscious every time you lean over to pick up piles of leaves to put in the brown bags. Use your very best squatting technique and bend your knees, don’t round your back. This will seriously reduce the strain on your lower back while working out your legs. Try to bend at the knees to reduce the strain on your lower back.

- There’s nothing wrong with taking breaks often. Use your breaks to drink water and stretch your muscles.

- Don’t do too much. No one said you had to rake all 3 acres of your lawn in one day. Break it up over a few days, or better yet, get a friend to help.

- After an afternoon of raking, take a nice hot shower or bath to loosen up your muscles. You can even do these shower stretches in the water. They feel amazing when your muscles are all warmed up.

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The Grey’s Anatomy star, Katherine Heigl, has turned to trainer Harley Pasternak to slim down for her wedding. Until recently, Katherine Heigl wasn’t exactly a health nut. “I hate dieting. I hate the whole thing!” the 5-foot-9 Heidl once complained.

And exercise? The very idea of it made her cringe.

“It’s the most boring thing in the universe,” she said. “I have a hard time motivating myself to pretty much doing anything that takes any extra energy.”

But suddenly, she got the motivation she needed: A nearly naked love scene in the movie Knocked Up, coupled with her impending nuptials, sent the 28-year-old Heigl running to LA trainer Harley Pasternak, creator of the 5-Factor Diet.

“When I started with Katherine she was beautiful,” Pasternak, says the man behind Jessica Simpson’s amazing bod, “but now she’s even more of a model of health.”

Katherine started with the program’s food-delivery service, but “she’s been independent with it,” Pasternak says. “She quickly picked up the concept, and now she does it on her own and doesn’t worry about counting calories.” (In fact, Pasternak never weighs a client or counts calories, though he says the range starts at 1,300 calories a day.)

And the concept behind 5-Factor Diet is simple; The magic number is five. Every day, Katherine eats five meals that fulfill five criteria – and she can even cheat once a week. Says Pasternak, “It dispels most of the myths of dieting. It’s a diet you see yourself doing for the rest of your life.”

Katherine Heigl’s brand-new anatomy Pasternak makes going to the gym easy. Katherine hits her trailer during lunchtime for 5-Factor Fitness – 25-to-50-minute workouts that begin and end with cardio and mix arm, leg and ab moves in between.

Katherine looks great and more importantly, feels great. “I used to have back pain,” says Katherine. “Suddenly, my body is supporting itself the way it’s supposed to. I wake up and say, ‘My God, I can’t believe this is my body!’”

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The post-workout cool down is just as important as the pre-workout warm up, but many of us skip it — especially if we are short on time. Read the following five things and hopefully they will inspire you to make the time.

1. Cool down by walking or jogging for five to ten minutes. This slowing down helps to cool your body temperature and allows the body to remove the waste products from muscles that were worked.

2. Stretching is an essential component of the cool down. Not only does stretching muscles post workout help increase the range of motion of your joints, but it also continues the cooling down of your hot body.

3. The cool down helps prevent delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), the nemesis of fitness freaks. Post-workout pain often discourages fitness newbies and they lose their drive. So if you are new to the fitness world, don’t cut your cool down short.

4. Cooling down decreases your chances of fainting in the locker room. Abruptly ending a cardio workout can cause blood to pool in your extremities leaving you dizzy and light headed or causing you to faint. It also helps your heart rate gradually return to normal.

5. A cool down helps you end on a calm note by decreasing the adrenaline in your blood stream.

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