Why 'National Geographic' is better for your workout ...

According to this article, it's unhealthy to read magazines that feature ultra-fit, sexy, cut, toned, in-shape people while you're working out.

The reason being that inundating yourself with these images erases the feel-good high you get as a result of your workout because your subconscious is telling you that no matter how much or how hard you work out, you'll never look as (good, healthy, sexy, etc.) as the people you've been ogling and envying for the last 45 minutes.

I propose that this carries over to exercise DVDs with (for the ladies) petite, size-2, ultra-thin, super-toned women with their high-pitched, Southern-accented, cheerleader-quality voices urging us to "hinge-and-row, hinge-and-row" (I'd like to smack the girl on my "Firm" DVDs) or (for the fellas) ripped, cut, six-packed men swinging their guns all over the screen while they boom in their uber-manly voices to do one more set of reps.

How the hell are we, mere mortals that we are, supposed to feel after trying to keep up with Ken and Barbie, who somehow manage to not even break a sweat, while we're gasping for air and wringing out our spandex? And at the end ... there they are, bright-white smiles flashing, dabbing their still-dry (but magically glowing) faces with a terrycloth towel and sipping their water bottles while we're crawling on our still-flabby thighs to turn off the television.

If that doesn't kill an endorphine high, I don't know what will.

I'll take a middle-aged, imperfect-looking soccer mom on a workout video/DVD any day (my Weight Watchers videos) ... I can manage that look. And she sometimes looks like she's about to pass out from the pain, too.