you might want to occasionally check out my other blog -- "Runner's Notes." I don't update this blog as often, but I sometimes post some cool health/fitness links or information.

Today, I have a question from a reader who started run/walking at Barb Filutze's Beginning Runners Training Program last summer. And, she's still at it. She's questioning her dedication and wondering if this is a permanent change for her...and well, it's obvious to me that it already is. She's hooked.

I just blogged an update on the Iroquois Elementary runners on my "Runner's Notes" blog...it's a great story...with some really touching photos. Check it out here.

Tuesdays are "I Tried It Tuesdays" where I'll tell you about something I recently tried -- an item, a movie, an activity, etc.

Today's topic: Clear Image Aligners (clear retainers to straighten teeth)

I have a loooooooong, sordid dental history. It started with some genetic abnormality that caused me to be born with three sets of front teeth (two pairs of adult teeth), which resulting in oral surgery when I was child and two rounds of braces -- once in grade school, again in college. Most recently, I have some really awful (but really effective) gum surgery that involved a skin graft from the roof of my mouth being used to repair a gum problem on my front teeth.

Well....so...anyway..you go through all that & you want some nice teeth. Unfortunately, one of my front teeth was starting to twist and overlap the other. Most people didn't notice, but I did and was extremely self-conscious about it.

My personal trainer put me on this two-week "jump start" diet that eliminates salt & sugar in all forms. No fruit. No diet pop. No dairy. No coffee. No alcohol.

No shit.

I've been on this diet less than two days and chances are good that I won't make it to day #3.

I can live without sugar and caffeine -- been there, done that. I can even live without chocolate -- went for years without it. But, salt? I had no idea how much flavor it added to my life.

I have always justified my sodium intake by the fact that I run and, therefore, sweat a lot of sodium every day. My body must need it, I figure. My blood pressure is normal (low even), so it doesn't appear my salt intake is affecting my health, so...I have never attempted to watch my salt.

Now that it's been banished from my diet, I have a whole new respect for people on low-salt or no-salt diets. I don't know how you do it.

Life without salt is just tasteless and boring.

My only consolation is that, for me, it's temporary.

Could be two weeks, could be two hours...depends on how good I am at talking my way out of this diet.

You may remember me whining about the diet my personal trainer put me on last week. I don't do diets...I don't do self-deprivation (been there, done that...never going there again).

It took several days of pouting and feeling sorry for myself and scowling at my husband every time he opened a bag of chips or ate cookies right in front of me ("I KNOW you are not going to sit here & eat those, in front of me, ARE you???"), but I've made it a full week now and am seeing serious results. Different scales say different things, but I believe I've lost somewhere between 3 and 4 lbs. This, even with occasional cheating (a caramel rice cake here, graham cracker there, vodka-and-diet-coke here, handful of pretzels there).

Tuesdays are "I Tried It Tuesdays" where I'll tell you about something I recently tried -- an item, a movie, an activity, etc.

Today's topic: Garmin Forerunner 205 wrist GPS

What it is: It's a little GPS receiver that you strap right onto your wrist, but it's not the kind of GPS that gives you directions, rather it records valuable information. Like mileage, your pace-per-mile, how many calories you've burned, how long you've been walking/running. It's sort of like an electronic pedometer (only waaaay cooler).

Skin cancer rates among young women have increased 50% since the 1980s. You can read about it here.

I say "no duh" because you can't help but notice that most teenage girls are freakishly tanned -- even in the dead of winter. (Every time I see a girl walking into a tanning salon or baking herself at the beach, I think the same thing -- "Honey, you are going to be really sorry when you're 35.")

The percentage of increase in skin cancer, however, is....completely shocking. It should be noted that the increase is only for women. The rate of skin cancer among men has remained stable.

Yet another instance where young women are, literally, killing themselves to try and meet the standards of American beauty.