My coworker Laura came into work yesterday with the latest in office workout equipment: Pedal Excersiser. It fits beneath your desk, so you can pedal away while you're typing. My entire day is spent sitting at my desk, so this really appeals to me. 

While several of my coworkers have taken to standing at their desks with makeshift computer stands, none of us has gone so far as the treadmill desk. This might be a better option for the non-sweating portion of the population. Otherwise, your cubicles will have the lingering aroma of a gym locker room. 

Ladies Homes Journal has tips for practicing Yoga at Your Desk, although I can't imagine doing most of these in the workplace unless you're prepared to be mocked.

When my hair was longer, I had a lot of fun going on YouTube for hair tips. Here are a few of the videos I tried or thought about trying: 

1. Sock Bun I ended up purchasing a bun plumper-upper at Target that worked really well. It's the thin-haired girl's best friend. I wore it to the salon, and the stylist thought I had thick hair. Woohoo!
2. Messy Bun Celebrity chic.
3. Pony Tail with a Bump  A bump-it for free! 
4. Little Twists across the bottom of your hair One of my coworkers rocked this style recently. I don't think I have the guts to pull it off.
5. Curling your hair with a flat iron  I still haven't been able to figure this out, but I'm working on it.

Visit BlogHer for more fun hair tips and enter the current Life Well Lived Sweepstakes!

And the giants of the gridiron paraded onto the stage in their GQ's-got-nothing-on-us suits, looking incredibly sharp and not at all like the sweat-flinging, Gatorade-chugging, mud-splattering men we see charge down the field each week.

They were charming, they were eloquent (or they weren't), but most of all, they were a reminder that (brace yourselves, hardcore fans), life does exist outside of football. The most "awww"-inducing moment of the night was Matt Birk reading to his kids and winning the Walter Payton award in honor of his very successful children's literacy program.

The moments worthy of the most cat calls? Any time Aaron Rodgers walked across the stage. MVP status, that's all I'm saying.

After completing my first fantasy football season, I am very excited to watch my first Super Bowl with knowledge of more than a few players' names and games. Commercials, I am so over you and your pre-releases and teaser ads. Where is your mystique? Give me some good ol' football anyday. 

Here's to the year of the quarterback!

Of course, you can't bowl with a group without coming up with creative nicknames. Our monikers ranged from "Million Dollar Meg" to "Honey Bear." I hauled out my engraved bowling ball ("Fuego") and personalized bowling shoes (okay, so the company's name happens to be my nickname). And I'll tell you what I told them: my game level does not match my equipment. I even took bowling as a class in college! You'd think I'd be getting strikes left and right, but not so much. I'm lucky to break 100. Oh well! It was a really fun way to spend an afternoon.

The only downside was we missed Richard Street (of Temptations fame) serenading our office: 

It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

(Excerpt from "Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou)

Why Women Need Fat authors William D. Lassek, M.D., and Steven J.C. Gaulin, Ph.D., would agree with Maya that a woman's hips are part of what makes her phenomenal. Their work explores how the low-fat trend in recent decades has not been in the best interest of our health. Comparing how Americans eat vs. how other countries do, and how we eat versus how we ate 50-60 years ago, reducing the fat in our diets has harmed us much more than helped us.

So why do women need fat? In their research, Lassek and Gaulin looked at why men are attracted to certain physical characteristics in a woman (legs, thighs, bottom). These are areas where women store more fat, specifically omega-3 DHA, a good fat that benefits our brains. When and if women have children, this DHA helps their babies develop healthily. A low waist:hip ratio is also viewed very favorably.(Apparently, this child-birthing ability makes us hot). 

The solution, then, is not dieting. It's reducing our intake of bad fats (such as omega-6 found in soybean oil, corn oil, many processed foods) and increasing our intake of good fats (omega-3). To help your body find its natural weight (its set point), cut down on commercially fried foods (tortilla chips, French fries) and processed foods and increase omega-3 rich foods, such as meat from grass-fed and free-range animals, fish, and seafood, along with supplements like fish oil.

The book concludes with helpful tools in calculating your natural weight and BMI, as well as tips on what foods you should be eating. It's hard not to appreciate a book that concludes with the chapter "It's Not Your Fault If You're Heavy, But You Don't Have to Be This Heavy." :) Basically, you may not ever be an ultra-thin model-type by following their guidelines, but you will be healhtier and, more than likely, thinner. What's not to love about that?

For more on Why Women Need Fat, visit: http://www.blogher.com/bookclub/now-reading-why-women-need-fat and join the discussion!

And for my book-loving buddies, they're also having a Life Well Lived Moments Sweepstakes! Share the well-lived moments you're looking forward to in 2012 for a chance to win a Kindle fire and an Amazon gift card. What's not to love about that? 

Here are two quotes that inspire me to live life well:

“When it's over, I want to say: all my life 
I was a bride married to amazement. 
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. 

When it is over, I don't want to wonder 
if I have made of my life something particular, and real. 
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, 
or full of argument. 

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.” 

-Mary Oliver

“I want to see beauty. In the ugly, in the sink, in the suffering, in the daily, in all the days before I die, the moments before I sleep.” 

-Ann Voskamp 

                                    My mom made us dresses to match with our Cabbage Patch Dolls.

                                        When we were living on opposite ends of the country...

  My brother's wedding day!

                                              My cousin Kirsten's rehearsal dinner

My own favorites that came to mind were: 

http://iruninheels.typepad.com/blog/2008/05/my-true-hollywo.html

http://iruninheels.typepad.com/blog/about-me/

http://iruninheels.typepad.com/blog/2008/12/a-21st-century-woman.html

http://iruninheels.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/im-29-single-and-im-okay-with-that.html

http://iruninheels.typepad.com/blog/2008/02/another-valenti.html

It's hard to believe that I've been blogging here for five years! I started out writing a blog to keep friends and family in the loop after moving from Chicago to L.A. And now here I am back in the middle of the U.S. and blogging from Oklahoma.

Since 2011 is almost to a close, I can't help but reflect on the past year. I uprooted my life and left a state, a church, a community, and friends and family members very dear to me, and I began again in my hometown which was familiar and foreign all at once.

I never expected that a new job would come with wonderful coworkers who I look forward to seeing every day.  Or that running into one of my brother's friends would result in me joining the Assoc. Board of the Philharmonic (and getting to see Ben Folds perform with them!) And whoever said you can't go home again never met my parents. I am so thankful for their willingness to house me during this phase of life. (Getting to hang out with their shih tzu and pug doesn't hurt either!) 

Here's hoping 2012 is filled with more of the same!