Carla Birnberg

Carla Birnberg is an award winning author and fitness expert. A former personal trainer, she owned a boutique training studio, Head2Heel, in Chapel Hill, N.C. Carla also competes in both bodybuilding and fitness including a third place finish in the 2001 NPC House of Pain bodybuilding show. Her writing can be seen on Yahoo!Shine, in the Atkins Nutritional monthly newsletter, Experience Life Magazine, Austin Monthly Magazine and as a monthly health column in Good Life Magazine. Carla's blog, MizFitOnline, has been selected to serve as part of Oprah's Virtual Digital Blogging Network and is ranked by Austin Monthly Magazine as one of the top 3 health blogs in the city. Carla is also the author of the book The Whole Megillah: Miztvahs, Matzo Balls & Everything in Between (Bluegrass Publishing, May 2007). Her writing for the Austin American Statesman includes feature stories and advice columns for elementary schoolers and tweens. She's also the author/creator of the Twisted Tales serial, for which she won an award for creativity from Cox Newspapers. Carla holds a B.A. in English Literature from Kenyon College and a masters in education with a focus on counseling from the University of Pittsburgh.

It’s with a little embarrassment that I admit I’m an avowed NON walker-for-exercise. I walk when there’s a destination involved and rarely for the sheer sport of it. But it’s so easy — all you need is a pair of shoes and a place to amble — and walking for as little as 30 minutes a day reduces the risk of heart disease, breast cancer and colon cancer. And walking for 15 minutes, if researchers in the U.K. are indeed correct, lessens chocolate cravings.