We knew Michelle Obama had gorgeous sculpted arms of steel, but even that knowledge didn't quite prepare us for her performance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Ellen (who herself is surprisingly buff) challenged her to a push-up contest, and the First Lady wowed the audience by pounding out 25 real push-ups one after the other. And, she would have kept going if Ellen hadn't stopped her!

So what exactly do I mean by "real"?

It's been 25 days since the first of the year when we all vowed to eat right, exercise more, and make 2012 our year to rock a bikini ... or at least appear publicly in a swimsuit of some sort. How are you doing on your resolutions?

Judging from attendance at my gym, I'd say many of us are still going strong. But I know that as the chocolates of Valentine's Day start springing up, and the weeks pass by, we often leave our good intentions in the dust ... covered by a heap of chocolate wrappers. So how to prevent what feels like the inevitable from happening?

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain blasted Paula Deen via Twitter today. In a blatant barb, he tweeted, "Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so I can profitably sell crutches later."

This, of course, comes on the same day that Deen announced that she has Type 2 Diabetes and that she's signed on to be the spokeswoman for a diabetes drug. Way to hit someone when they're down, what a jerk, was my original thought after reading his tweet. He's not exactly known for his tact. But the more I consider the details, the more I think his outrage over her behavior is justified ... this time.

It's January, and the gyms are packed with the freshly-resolved. In the wake of holiday overindulgence, some of us are newly focused on our health and fitness goals for the year ahead.

Which is the politically correct way of saying what's really true: that I ate 40 million cookies, candy, crackers, and other assorted treats during the last few months and now I have some weight to lose.

Not weight, actually. Fat. I have some extra FAT on my body, and I would like to get rid of it. I keep hearing about how fat is a bad word now and it's horribly offensive and no one should say it ever, but give me a break. I ate too much and I worked out too little and I gained some pounds (of FAT) that I am now working to get rid of via exercise and another bad word: a DIET.

And damn it, I'm tired of hearing that I'm contributing to the anti-fat stigma by saying this. Or that I'm saying you're fat. Or that I have expressed any opinion whatsoever about anyone's body other than my own.

Nothing inspires me to take care of my health like watching my female relatives age. I have their genes, after all, so they're a pretty good indication of what's ahead for me. It's been a rough few years for my mother. She suffers from arthritis. Her knees ache so badly she's had to cut back on her great passion, gardening. Even standing in her front yard raking up the mimosa blossoms has become too much for her. She finally found a holistic practitioner who helped her cope with the pain, but it was just a band-aid. Just last week my mother finally faced the inevitable: She had the first of two knee replacement surgeries.

Those of you who have known knee surgery have seen that it doesn't magically transform your knees. There's months of physical therapy, a recovery that can take forever, and then you still have to do the other knee! My poor mom, I hate that she has to go through this! But -- I'd also hate to go through it myself. Can I prevent the same thing happening to my knees?

Thanks to the holidays, the roll of flesh you now see sitting triumphantly atop my waistband is composed almost entirely of butter, chocolate, and discount champagne. And yes, at the top of my list of New Year's resolutions are the words "get stronger (back to yoga)" followed closely by "STOP EATING M&Ms FOR LUNCH."

(Full disclosure: I am eating M&Ms while I write this, but it's just a mid-morning snack. Also, they are dark chocolate. M&Ms are full of antioxidants.)

So, you say you want to get back in shape for the new year, too? Come, let me guide you through seven important steps that will bring you closer to making everyone think you're working hard to get healthy again.

Throw away all those fad diet books (and their accompanying "motivational" CDs). Tune out your brother-in-law's obsessive yammering about the miracle of Atkins or South Beach or, whatever, cabbage soup. A new study has confirmed what many of us probably knew all along: It's calories that make us gain weight and accumulate body fat. And as far as our bodies are concerned, it doesn't matter whether those calories come from protein or carbs or fat or anything else, the study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, concluded. A calorie is a calorie is an extra inch on your waistline and unsightly bulge around the thighs.

The good news is that this information rids us of the false hope those fad diets present.

It's a common misconception that you need a gym's worth of equipment or a ton of space to get a good workout. I hate to break it to you, but that excuse simply isn't going to work anymore. There are some really simple exercises you can do that use nothing more than your own body weight, enough space to let you stretch out your body to its full length (that's barely more than a five-foot by five-foot square for me!), and a few minutes each day. These five exercises will get you way more fit than you think!