I brought my running shoes to St. Louis for Memorial Day weekend, even though they took up a good chunk of my bag. I'd like to think I'd pack my gear no matter what, but I had a specific goal in mind with this trip: run a lap around Francis Park.

This park has been a part of my life since kindergarten. My grade school is one on corner, so we often used it for activities like soccer practice, field day and fifth grade tree journals (don't ask).

I did it! I ran a 5K, and it went better than expected. I only stopped once, just long enough to drink a cup of water. I will say the Jazzercise really helped me. I had zero stamina before I started it, and going consistently to class is what made me want to add something to my routine.

But I probably wouldn't have started running if it wasn't for my roommate Kaitlin. Full disclosure: Kaitlin happens to be a licensed personal trainer in addition to a fellow intern. Yes, I'm pretty lucky, but you could get the same benefit from any (relatively patient) friend. Or group of friends!

Read on for four ways my workout buddy helped me, plus three online resources for finding a group.

I grew up surrounded by books, and by far most of them belonged to my dad. I really thought that was just how everyone's house was. But in recent years, my mom has been trying to reclaim the house a little, joking that she'll just start giving them away to anyone who visits.

For me, reading is a big part of being well and living healthy. Others include helping others, saving the planet, saving money and yes, decluttering a bit. So I was excited to read a post on Alternative Consumer about an Atlanta-headquartered company where you can do it all: Better World Books.

On the surface, Better World Books is an online used book seller - a.k.a a place to save a little cash. You, or my dad, can also print out a pre-paid shipping label and sell or donate books to them. And some of the money raised goes toward literacy programs around the world. They also keep books out of landfills and use Carbon.org offsets to offset the shipping. It's really a win, win, win, win.

I didn't bring many books with me when I moved to Birmingham a few months ago, but I'll definitely check the site out next time. I'm already browsing though: You can actually plug in your zip code to buy books donated from a local library, and they'll get a little cash out of it.

Let us know: Have you used Better World Books? What are some other companies or programs that work double duty by helping you and others? Where do you donate your books or other goods?

Related Links:

Words To Live By

Reading Teaches Kids Healthy Habits 

Charity Made Easy 

Welcome to our new feature, The Goal Post. Life in the South isn't always slow-paced, and with family, work and community as priorities, it can be hard to keep up with it all. Every two weeks, I'll look at a different way to set goals and stay motivated, especially in terms of fitness.  I'm always looking for ideas, so please leave any advice in the comments!

It's official: last week I registered for my very first 5K! I should probably emphasize that this is huge for me. I always liked the concept of running, but I never could pull it off. In grade school, I was always one of the last  people to finish running the mile in gym class every year. And now here I am: all registered for the UAB's Dollars for Scholars 5K/10K on April 24.

I'm not super-competitive, but I'd heard that committing to something like this is great for motivation, and so far it's been true! . 

Here's what I've figured out:

• Commit to something. It's best if it's on a certain date, like my 5K. I only have so much time to prepare, so I can't keep rescheduling runs. I'll be embarrassed (and out $20) if I'm not ready by April 24th, and no one will move the race date for me.
• Tell people about it. I'm pretty sure posting it on a blog of a well-known magazine counts, but I've also told family, friends and co-workers.
• But do it for yourself.  I remember one particularly terrible clarinet recital. It was a commitment on a set day, but I hated practicing and apparently didn't care a ton about the outcome. Not good!
• Push yourself.  Registering for the 5K has helped me A LOT with this. There have definitely been times I've run farther or been more diligent about scheduling a run because my goal is so tangible.
• But not too hard.  My goal is just to finish the race. If that means running and walking, I'm 100 percent OK with it. Just months ago, I couldn't even imagine doing that. And I've already got my eye on a May race, so this isn't my only shot to run the whole thing.

I could see this applying to other things, such as a book club. You'd have scheduled meetings, and it's hard to contribute if you don't read the book!

(Just a friendly reminder: I am not a physician, nor a fitness expert of any kind. I'm just sharing my goals, and what's helped me. Always check with your doctor before beginning any sort of exercise routine.)


Related links:

Maintain the chain: easy tips for exercise motivation 

Fall fitness: running for the rest of us

Race Time: Run Your First or Fastest 5K or 10K from Health.com

Let us know: Have you ever committed to something to achieve a goal?  What are some other ways you stay motivated? Are there any great 5Ks and 10Ks in your part of the South?

Baseball season is almost here, and stadium offerings go well beyond peanuts and cracker jacks. I just found out Regions Park, home of minor league team the Birmingham Barons, is offering a brand-new Healthy Hits Menu. Choices include grilled chicken sandwiches and wraps, salads and fruit.

You could argue that the regular less-than-healthy foods commonly found at baseball games are part of the experience, and that's often how I feel too. Still, it's great that there are options for those who want to eat healthy, have dietary restrictions or are just looking for a change of pace.

Some minor league teams have a knack for drawing crowds and national publicity with outrageously unhealthy fare, as is the case with the West Michigan Whitecaps and their new Fifth Third Burger. It's 4,800 calories dwarf the 1,000-calorie "Baseball's Best Burger" (a Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburger), released in 2006 by the Gateway Grizzlies, a team near my hometown. CBS postulated that the Grizzlies' burger was the world's unhealthiest. My how times have changed!

Here are two fun baseball food resources from last year:

• Looking to eat healthy at your local Southern ballpark? Check out this list of ideas from Forbes.
• And if you're traveling to one of the 30 major league baseball stadiums, take a look at this interactive graphic from the New York Times last June.  At each stadium, they chose one food to order and one to avoid. Note that these aren't necessarily diet-friendly, it's nice to know which snacks are worth the calories.

Let us know: How do you stay healthy at baseball games and other spring activities? Are there healthy options in your area? What are your favorite stadium snacks?

Related Links:

Summertime Snacks

Rickwood Classic: Minor League Baseball at Its Best

Tail-Trimming Tailgate Menus from Cooking Light

One of my favorite ways to experience a new city is to climb something. Towers, churches, whatever. It's relatively inexpensive and a way to make a place into an activity. So when my sisters came to visit me, I knew we should visit Vulcan. Vulcan is the world's largest cast iron statue and Birmingham's contribution to the 1904 World's Fair. You can't go all the way up to his head (as one of my sisters hoped), but you can climb up the base to an observation deck. I felt very secure, and apparently so did the several toddlers up there, though those afraid of heights might not enjoy it.

Now I didn't sprint up those stairs - in fact that's not allowed. But just the short walk up was a nice small way to get my heart rate up. An article in the New York Times last month mentioned climbing stairs at work during a lunch break or finding a stadium that's open to the public. (As always, check with your doctor before beginning a new workout.) If you really fall in love with stairs, there's tower running. The Empire State Building Run-Up is a well-known race, but there are events around the world. Some here in the South include Stair Climb Miami, Climb Atlanta and the Big D Climb in Dallas.

Sometimes though, it really is all about the small steps (no pun intended). And regardless of your fitness level, little activities can be great when you have to balance aspects of your life. For example, I was entertaining my sisters, who I don't see very often. I wanted to show them some Southern hospitality, plus it would have been no fun to ditch them while I exercised. This was a nice way to balance the two.

Let us know: What are some of your favorite small ways to be active? And how do you balance fitness and family or other obligations? Where do you run your steps?

Related Links:

Healthy Steps

Pair Up Everyday Activities with Fitness

Downtown Houston City Park

I am not an exercise person.I've never been athletic, and I didn't make working out a priority at all in college (Who did?). But now that I have a fairly regular work schedule, I decided to change that. I chose to start with Jazzercise for two important reasons: 1) There's a class offered in my office building, so I can just walk right down after work. 2) There was a promotion going on, so the cost was reasonable.

I'm now proud to say that since I started seven weeks ago, I have missed just one class. Only one other person in my class can boast the same thing, and it's a big deal to me given my humble fitness beginnings. This reminded me of  a post I read on lifehacker.com a little over a year ago about Jerry Seinfeld's motivation technique.

Jerry wanted to make himself write one joke per day, so he put a calendar on his wall and put a big red x on every day that he did it. The idea is that after several days you see a chain, and the goal is not to break the chain. It's actually a pretty compelling idea, especially because once you miss one day, it's easier to skip another.

You could easily adapt this to any size calendar, actual or virtual. There's also a Web site called dontbreakthechain.com , where you click on days to turn them red. You can view up to a year of dates at a time, and it calculates how many days non-stop you've met your goal.

My Jazzercise classes are only two days per week, so they don't lend themselves as easily to this strategy, but I could create one for exercise in general, even if it's just a long walk.

Some other goals I thought of are eating fruits and vegetables, meditating and reading.

Question: What are some other ways you could use this strategy for wellness?

Related Links:

Walking: A Great Way to Relax

Exercising Through the Holidays 

Amy's Workout DVD Picks