This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light Pure Fitness. Have you ever tried to do something that you thought you’d never be able to do because it was too hard? I have. Er, I mean, I AM. If you follow along on my personal blog, Suburban Scrawl, you know that I have been in training for the past eight weeks to do my first 5K, which will be at the BlogHer conference in New York City, in less than two weeks. I don’t consider myself a runner. In fact, before I started this training, I hated running. Truth be told, I still don’t like it very much. However,…

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light Pure Fitness. You know, back in 1940’s and 1950’s America there was probably very little talk about keeping waistlines under control: those were the days of the regular “meat and potatoes” meals (followed by incredibly rich desserts) and all kinds of other goodness that doesn’t fly too much today. As time went on, Americans did indeed begin to talk about waistlines, weight, and overall health. It became clear at some point, decades ago, that maybe we could do a little better for ourselves, health-wise, if we came up with artificial (i.e. NOT REAL, or chemical) sweeteners to use in our food,…

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light Pure Fitness. My inspiration comes from many different sources, depending on exactly what I’m doing. For example, my husband inspires me to keep plugging away at my dream of being a successful–and busy–writer. My kids inspire me to attempt to live in the moment. Who inspires me to reach my fitness goals? Well, that has changed over time. I was never “into” fitness as a youngster, and didn’t start thinking about it too much until my twenties, when I began taking aerobics classes. I absolutely adored Mary, one of my instructors. (I’ve written about her on Suburban Scrawl.) She gave a…