Let’s say your job is to take off at a sprint, get moving about 20 mph and slam yourself full speed into a brick wall — 60 times in a single afternoon. We’d give you a helmet and lots of padding to protect yourself. Because of the toll this would take on your body, we’d make you do it only once a week. And we’d reward you handsomely.

This is it. This is the year you finally get in shape, shed those pounds or meet that fitness pledge you made at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31.

But do you have to build the new you in a hot, stuffy gym, cheek by jiggly jowl with a dozen other sweaty resolutionaries awaiting their turn on the elliptical machine?

I’m not saying my co-workers are fat. In fact, a fair number of them are toothpick skinny — including, unfairly, the guy who brings in his latest cupcake creation every other day. Many of them are also super-active, always running, biking and yoga-ing in their free time.

Listen up, ladies, because it’s confession time, and as you may know, this is not my gender’s forte. So let’s get this over with: Although we are bigger, stronger and faster than you are, we must acknowledge that when it comes to flexibility, most of us are pretty much outclassed. We aren’t built like you, and we don’ t bend like you do.

When people ask me to list my favorite healthy foods, quinoa always tops the list. And not just because the National Restaurant Association named it the hottest trend in side dishes in 2010.

My boys think I like quinoa because when it was first discovered it was named “the mother grain.” Yes, I am proud to be a mother myself, but check out all the real reasons I love quinoa (pronounced “KEEN-wah”).

Diverticulitis program A “Lunch and Learn” program on risk factors, testing, diagnosis and treatment. Thursday, noon-1 p.m., Calvert Memorial Hospital, 100 Hospital Dr., Prince Frederick. 410-535-8233. $10.

Overeaters Anonymous meeting “Meditation and Writing” session. Thursdays 7 a.m., St. Benedict Monastery, 9535 Linton Hall Rd., Bristow. 703-361-0106, 703-754-9237 or www.oanova.org. Free.

Grief support group Thursdays 7 p.m., Occoquan Bible Church, 3700 Old Bridge Rd., Woodbridge. 703-878-4673. Free.

Breast-feeding support group For mothers and babies. Thursdays, 10-11 a.m., Inova Fairfax Hospital, Inova Fairfax Women’s Center, seventh floor, 3300 Gallows Rd., Falls Church. 703-776-6455.

Parkinson’s aquatics exercise class Thursdays and Tuesdays, 10:30-11:30 a.m., Woodlands Retirement Community, 4320 Forest Hill Dr., Fairfax. 703-378-7221. www.parkinsonfoundation.org. $10; care partners, $5; registration required.

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