Get fit, lose weight without spraining your wallet

'Tis the season to drop the excess poundage that started accruing on Thanksgiving Day.

Anyone interested in an intense month-long fitness program might consider Paragon CrossFit's Bootcamp, which will take place iccn Chapel Hill Community Park on Estes Drive at 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. "They can try it out the whole week January 5," said Darryl Pierce, the owner and strength and conditioning coach. "If they want to commit, the new camps begin January 12."

CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many SWAT teams and tactical operations units, military special operations forces, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide, according to Pierce.

"The CrossFit model of training stresses constant variation so that your body can never get used to your training regimen," he says. "The key thing that differentiates CrossFit from other workout programs is the intensity level. It's not comfortable. The other week we were working out at 7 a.m. and it was 22 degrees. It's not comfortable; it's not supposed to be comfortable."

The cost is $135 for unlimited classes for 30 days or $175 for a 20-session pack.

Every Saturday at 11:30 a.m. there is a free workout at the track at UNC's Fetzer Field, Pierce adds. For more information, go to www.paragoncrossfit.com.

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• Speaking of martial arts, Chapel Hill/Carrboro Tai Kwon Do, 102 Brewer Lane in Carrboro, is offering a January special: a month of classes and a uniform for 20 bucks. For more information, call 933-7778 or go to www.chapelhillkicks.com.

• The Duke Center for Living Health and Fitness Center at Fearrington Village is offering $50 off enrollment for the month of January. The center is a satellite campus of the health and fitness center at Duke, which began as the Duke University Preventive Approach to Cardiology. It is particularly well suited for mature health and fitness enthusiasts. For more information, go to www.dukefitnessfearrington.com.

• Carolina Fitness at 503 W. Main St. in Carrboro is offering $10 off its basic membership rate. It saves you $10 every month, says manager Alex Velazquez, which makes it $29.99 a month "for classes, equipment, showers, large bath towels." If you commit to a year and pay up front, the discount gets bigger. "If you pay for a year up front, you get six months free," says Velazquez. For information, call 960-9910.

• It's out with the old and in with the new at 402 W. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill, where Modern Times is becoming Limelight, slated to open mid-January. Limelight, a new concept from Modern Times owner Hillary Fisher, will offer a combination of new and consigned clothing, fashion and home accessories.

Fisher and her staff hand-pick all items and will only take goods that sell well alongside the new collections, the goal being "a consignment shopping experience that doesn't involve digging through old, irrelevant pieces," she says.

Shoppers will be able to buy new items from contemporary labels such as Michael Stars and Free People, but they may also find like-new Marc Jacobs shoes, a Nanette Lepore suit and designer denim at a fraction of the retail cost.

Modern Times has been a fixture downtown for more than 25 years, and Fisher plans to keep her other Modern Times location at University Mall.

Limelight is currently accepting consignment appointments for spring items.

• University Mall will hold its annual winter Sidewalk Sale Friday, Jan. 9, Saturday, Jan. 10 ,and Sunday, Jan. 11. The theme is "It's All About Change" -- the change shoppers will have left over when they take advantage of discounts on select merchandise and the change you can donate to local nonprofits that will be at the mall Saturday to inform you of all the ways they contribute to our community.