I write consumer watchdog/investigative health and fitness related stories for Tribune Co. publications. My content is also used in most other major newspapers around the country. I produce the blog "Julie's Health Club" www.chicagotribune.com/julie.

10 things about me:

1. I started my career at the Chicago Tribune as a sportswriter. During those years, only one naked athlete jumped up and down behind me while I conducted an interview in the locker room.

2. Pre-motherhood, I traveled to Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, Cambodia, Vietnam, Zambia, Tokyo, Europe and the Philippines. Now I just go to Target.

3. My great-grandfather, Laban Deardorff, invented the Deardorff portrait camera.

4. I played in the Class AA girls high school state basketball championship for Wheaton Central High School. It remains one of the best experiences of my life.

5. I started keeping a journal in 4th grade, after reading "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" and "Harriet the Spy." I've kept one ever since.

6. My husband is my role model for fitness and good nutrition.

7. I've been a vegetarian since 1985.

8. I could live on chocolate. I also love avocados, broccoli, blueberries, eggs, spinach and quinoa.

9. After college, I worked for the nation's first and only sports newspaper, The National.

10. I've delivered a 9.2-pound baby without pain meds and completed two Ironman triathlons. Both events changed my life.

My family, travel, sustainability and insomnia. Also, yoga, meditation, reading, running, triathlon, strength training, nutrition, Spanish, audio books, maternal, child and environmental health.

A 'free play' experiment 5/17/2012
As free play declines, children lose more than fun. One mom tries to let go. My friend Kendra recently conducted a short but nerve-wracking experiment with her two boys, ages 7 and 9. “Go out and play,” she told them. “Don’t come in until dinner time.”

Skechers to pay $40 million for false toning shoe claims 5/16/2012
If you bought Skechers Shape-ups or the company’s other toning shoes but still, somehow, have a flabby rear end, here’s your chance to apply for a refund.

Fatigue supplements are actually misbranded drugs: FDA 5/4/2012
A commercial website for people suffering from symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia is rife with numerous illegal and misleading treatment claims, according to a recent warning letter sent to Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

New therapy could reduce diabetes-related amputation 4/26/2012
Jim Keenan wasn't particularly alarmed by a small blister that developed on his heel. Five days later, the 62-year-old's foot was so seriously infected doctors feared they might need to amputate his lower leg.

Five minutes with Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee 4/25/2012
Like other 50-year-olds, Jackie Joyner-Kersee aches a bit the day after a vigorous workout. And she has noticed that her vision isn’t what it once was.