Kimberly Garrison

Less food. More life. It's that simple.

AS I WAS preparing food for the photo shoot for this column, I turned on the television and was astonished by the morbidly obese children I saw on "The Maury Povich Show." I stood with my mouth agape as a 5-year-old boy who weighed an unbelievable 212 pounds was paraded around the stage.

The children were photographed in the green room shoveling food into their mouths, then brought out half-naked - like circus freaks. Some of their parents were searching for answers, while others proudly boasted about their child's size and appetite.

What in God's name are we doing to our children? Are we in such denial that we can't see that we are setting them up for disease, disability and premature death?

Nutrition and exercise programs must become our nation's No. 1 priority or I fear we may eat ourselves to death.

Here's the latest Philly Fitness and Health Podcast. Kimberly interviews Kathleen OHara, who lost her son to violence and went on to write the book A Grief Like No Other. Kathleen tells her story and talks about the toll this type of grief takes on the health as well as the general effect of violence in our culture. Be fit, be strong and be your best with Philly Fitness and Health.

IT'S A BIRD, it's a plane, it's superwoman Lynn Doyle.

This wife, mother, soon-to-be grandmother, lifetime fitness enthusiast, philanthropist and host of CN8's Emmy-winning show "It's Your Call," literally does it all. But how?

Recently, I chatted with the 49-year-old broadcast journalist (who's also married to Michael Doyle, president of Comcast's Eastern Division and the founder of CN8) about her career, family, girlfriends and her latest labor of love - training for the "Breast Cancer 3-Day" walk, which begins tomorrow. (Find out more about the walk at www.the3day.org.)

Q. Lynn, where are you from originally?

A. Baltimore.

Q. What's your background, and what led you to pursue a career in broadcast journalism?

A. I always wanted to be a reporter, and I actually began my career at 17 as a newspaper stringer [part-time reporter]. I spent seven years at [the now-defunct Essex Times in Maryland] a newspaper, and eventually became the editor.

In my capacity as a newspaper editor, I built relationships with the community leaders. One of the community leaders bought a cable television show, and that's how I got into the cable industry. I also went to school for mass communications because I always wanted to be a reporter.

Q. So when did you officially join the cable industry?

A. Back in 1982. It's been a long time.

Q. Talk about being prepared when opportunity knocks. What has inspired you to train for the breast-cancer walk?

THURSDAY, OCT. 12, 2006

THURSDAY-TUESDAY, OCT. 12-31, 2006

Here's the latest Philly Fitness and Health Podcast. Kimberly interviews Jefferson Phillips of Body Challenge Fitness Center, whose five-dollar-a-day specials and a special ladies-only gym are helping to make fitness more accessible to the people of North Philadelphia. Phillips started in Barbados as a bodybuilder and tells how he came to Philly and started up his own business. Be fit, be strong and be your best with Philly Fitness and Health.

To learn the answer, and get tips for longer, healthier lives, Dr. Ian Smith gets a house call ...

A FEW MONTHS ago, I received an e-mail from New Jersey reader Darrell S. Rainey asking me to write more about the health concerns of African-American men.

Rainey said that a lot of what he reads about fitness isn't pertinent to him. "I have always thought the BMI [Body Mass Index] chart did not pertain to people of color," he wrote. "It does not take into consideration body structure, general health, environment, societal concerns or basic genetics."

If he weighed 175 pounds, he wrote, he would not be able to "maintain the required 'man bulk' for walking the street."

Rainey concluded, "I believe there are legitimate differences in the makeup of Caucasians and African-Americans, enough to warrant me generating a standard for 'them' and for 'us.' "

Inspired by Rainey's letter, I made a "house call" to one of the nation's leading African-American physicians, Dr. Ian Smith.

You have likely seen Smith on VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club" or ABC's "The View," or as medical correspondent for NBC's "Today" show.

Maybe you've read his articles in Men's Health, Time or Essence, or one of his books, including his latest, "The Fat Smash Diet."

What you may not know about this Danbury, Conn., native and graduate of Harvard and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine is his deeply compassionate and passionate commitment to the health of Americans and, in particular, African-Americans.

Last week, I had a delightful chat with the down-to-earth doctor, who lives in Manhattan, about the health crisis facing brothers and what we can do about it.

Here's the latest Philly Fitness and Health Podcast.This week Kimberly talks to Angela Dawson, who shares her story of going from working at a funeral home to creating a line of hip-hop fitness videos for children under the name of NekNak Fitness. Be fit, be strong and be your best with Philly Fitness and Health.

New fitness regimen KoBu combines cardio & strength training.

MANY OF YOU may be surprised to know that I'm a big fan of martial arts. I simply adore actor Bruce Lee, and martial arts movies like "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" and "Kill Bill" are some of my all-time favorites.

While watching these movies, if only for a moment, I get to live vicariously through the female characters who have mastered their inner goddess, as well as their inner warrior.

The idea of developing my inner warrior is quite appealing to me, so I was fascinated to learn about a new fitness practice called KoBu Power.

KoBu Power is rooted in the ancient Japanese disciplines of kobudo and kenjutsu. It is the brainchild of Michael Graves, 33, a seventh-degree black belt karate instructor and the owner of Mahato Karate School in Claymont, Del. KoBu is a set of choreographed martial arts movements set to music that are performed with a padded steel body bar weighing 4 to 36 pounds.

THURSDAY, NOV. 2, 2006

• 3:00 a.m. KEMPER PARK BIKE RIDE: 13-14 mph, 15-30 miles. I will be riding the month of November from Kemper Park, located on Valley Rd. between Street and Bristol Rds. in Warminster. Ride will accomodate the slowest rider, even if it's me. No ride in rain or snow. Contact David C. Atkins at 215-675-4597.


• 8:00 a.m. THE NORTH FACE ENDURANCE 50: Delaware Marathon Course, entire 26.2 mile certified route of a classic marathon course, complete with a rolling road closure, vehicle escort, and aid-station support, Wilmington, DE. Call 510-618-2811.


• 6:30 p.m. TRAIL RUNS: Thursdays Runs consist of approximately 4 to 5 miles of unique trails varying in degrees of difficulty, but all within the serene confines of the Wissahickon Valley. NO FEES, no shirts, no pants required. All runners, speeds, skill levels welcome! Fun food and Cash Bar afterwards courtesy of the Valley Green/Wissahickon (meet in front of Valley Green Inn). Call 215-849-9080.