Yesterday was Valentines day, which is the holiday invented by Walmart in 1906 to sell as many stuffed, chocolate covered, red tinted plastic products as possible in the name of love. My boyfriend cooked me a tuna steak at home, while dressed as cupid in a rubber diaper and wings, and I wondered to myself, "Why didn't Walmart push for this to be a quarterly holiday?" In the theme of love, let me present my after-valentines day ways to love your heart. My top 5 heart-healthy tips:

1. Don't smoke. This is the obvious tip, we all hear it all time, and I'm sure we are aware of the effects of smoking on the body. However, it is by far the easist way to keep your heart healthy, and also the quickest way to hurt it. When you quit smoking, within one year, your risk of heart disease is cut in half.

2. Engage in 30 min of exercise on most days. At the minimum, aim for 30 min of exercise at least 4 days a week. I would like to see everyone pushing for 60 minutes, 6 days a week. It seems harder than it is. If you can't get in 30 consecutive minutes, do 10 minute activities, 3x in a day. So... household chores, running after the kids, walking the dog, taking the stairs, etc. can easily add up to 30 minutes in a day.

3. Keep a heart healthy diet, low in fat, cholesterol and salt. An easy way to control the quality of your diet, is to stick to whole grains and fresh foods. Avoid processed foods and even more specifically PACKAGED foods. These are going to contain high levels of sodium and those scary trans fats. Here's a good plan of attack when your foods do come with wrappers: obsess over labels!!! BUT ignore the calorie content. Go farther down and check for trans fats, saturated fats and sodium. All these numbers should be low or non-existent.

4. Maintain a healthy weight. The more your body is shaped like an apple (lots of fat around the middle), the more stress you put to your heart and other vital organs. Some of us are "lucky" and our junk goes straight to the trunk, however others of us (specifically men) are quick to lose their waistlines. Good rule of thumb, (although not every body fits the norm) for women, a waist with a circumference greater than 35 inches and 40 inches for men, is crossing into the danger zone.

5. Regular health screenings A lot of what is happening internally to the body does not always manifest itself externally. Be sure to have your blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes screenings done regularly. Even if you are thin as a rail!!

Love you body, love your self and start by loving your heart!!!!

Today's blog is featuring a fantastic new initiative here in NYC, that I am delighted to be a part of. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and the Dept of Health have joined forces to introduce, BeFitNYC, which provides free and low-cost fitness to all five boroughs of NYC.

I have blogged before about my feelings towards fitness trends (check back to my "Fitness Trends" blog!). They come and go, they are specific to different groups and classes, and they are often unrealistic, which has a direct relation to their lack of longevity. My company, Urban Escape Fitness, is built on the idea of living the "lifestyle" as opposed to wacky dieting and unfunctional exercise trends.

BeFitNYC is providing us an opportunity to join different activities in our neighborhoods for free, with fellow New Yorkers. By surrounding ourselves with locals who are involved in the same interests, we can create a familiar network of support to help on that daily fight for a fit lifestyle. Not to mention that the chances of regularly being a part of workouts that are no cost and nearby are much higher. Notice some shots from a recent event held in in Washington Square park. All ages, shapes and sizes are a part of this initiative, and our hope is to spread the word to even more. This month, I am holding a free class outside in Washington Square, hoping to bring some new faces to the movement, and teach some of my methods for equipment free, bodyweight training to help with the idea of working out "anytime, anywhere" in the city.

"Bodyweight Bootcamp" will be held on September 24th, in Washington Square, starting at 10am. The class includes core, cardio intervals, bodyweight strength training and yoga. After class, I'll spend some time sharing my favorite fitness tips, and also a little Q&A. Helping me lead class is my good friend and awesome fitness blogger Lauren, check out her blog "Gympressions", for more great reading. Go to the BeFit facebook app, to sign up for our class on Sep 24th, and also view other classes available for everyone to attend. I encourage everyone to go for the double whammy, after attending my class on Saturday, head out for the "Largest NYC Zumba Party ever" which will take place Sunday, September 25 at 1:30 pm at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark, home of the Staten Island Yankees, Staten Island. My last, but most important piece of information about that day: its my 28th birthday Saturday, my present to all of you is to host this class, and your present to me is to come and have a blast!!!!!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Solstice in Times Square. Picture this: 630am on a Tuesday morning, taking the train to Times Square (the one place in NY that non-tourists avoid in the same way as Papaya Dog and the financial district at night) for a much hyped yoga class. I'm not going to lie, part of my motivation in attending was the promised yoga mat and gift bag for the first group of 1000 people, which I was sure I would make it into easily. Then I arrive, and somehow there is already a sprawling and bustling group of laughing, chatting and energetic people, dressed in their yoga apparel finest. After a pause of surprise, my next emotion was excitement, before beginning my walk for multiple blocks in search for the end of the line.



We can all admit that throwing a huge yoga class in Times Square, among all the lights, traffic and people is a pretty cool idea, that needs no further justification. But the Solstice is more than an exciting "Mind over Madness" yoga class. The Solstice has held its place as an important time in the human calendar across hundreds of cultures and thousands of years. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, and the turning point for longer days rather than shorter, also known as New Years Eve. Yesterday was the Summer Solstice, and the longest day of the year. On this day we are the closest to the sun, and at the peak of our creative energy. The two solstices are at complete opposition with each other, much as the idea of an indulgent night of celebration perfectly opposes an early am of empowering yoga!!









































A huge part of the Urban Escape Fitness theory is finding ways to do things in your daily life to have an "escape" from the hustle and the grind, especially those of us in NYC, where our daily stressors are somewhat magnified. The Solstice celebration yesterday meant a lot to me, because it felt like a large family of people who are trying to do just that, find an escape in the heart of all the madness. I almost missed the cutoff of the first thousand, and my free gift bag was at risk, but it made me feel great that there are so many of us out there trying to live the lifestyle. We are all out there fighting the battle, trying to keep our quality of life high, sculpting our bodies strong and forming a healthy mind. Good for you NYC, I'm proud to call this city home.

Hello summer. Along with this amazing weather, I've developed an equally amazing workout. My thought process was to take movements and exercises we've been doing all winter, and spruce them up for training outside. My demo photographs were shot at the Tompkin's Square playground, or what some call the prison yard. If you can't make it outside to the playground, there are alternate ways to perform each exercise. Email me for customized suggestions for alternate locations.

Exercise 1 Elevated Reverse Plank

Start w feet propped up, lock the core, then lift off the ground by extending hips, ending in a straight line from shoulders to feet.



Exercise 2 Single Arm Plank Knee to Elbow

Set up in a full plank position, then transition to a one-arm hold. Pull the opposite knee up towards the holding elbow.



Exercise 3 Single Leg Mountain-Climbers

Starting point:



From starting position, hop forward towards hands, then return to start.



Exercise 4 Cobra Plank

Start from a normal straight-arm plank position. Bend arms while keeping elbows in tight next to the body and hold. Be sure to hold the plank with the same integrity you would in the normal straight arm style.



Exercise 5 Bodyweight row w/ leg raise

Start hanging, then pull body up towards bar. While holding body up, lift leg while maintaining a straight core position, then lower. Repeat lift and raise opposite leg.

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(**NOTE: Without a focus on core, this bodyweight row has no more excitement than a normal row. Lock straight before your row and leg lift, then keep it tight until you get back to the bottom!!)

It was no mistake that I only supplied the exercises and left off the reps, rest and frequency for this workout. Depending on factors such as goals and fitness level I am going to recommend differently. Send me an email or a comment and I'll hook up all the necessary info.

The thought started while looking at a flyer for an new healthy Asian fast food restaurant. Listed as the restaurant's desirable features were "organic" and "vegan options". But also listed was MSG. In my head rings "oooooh noooo" and "thank goodness they don't use that!". But my very NEXT question was "why"? We are always aware of additives to avoid (or add), but do we also understand why?

So let's start with the infamous MSG. What is it and why don't we want to ingest it? Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) was initially used as a food additive in Asian sauces. In 1907 they decided to manufacture MSG in an isolated form, then introduced it in the US in 1947. The big concern is that MSG has caused brain damage in mice, but the more relatable concern is that MSG downplays our appetite suppression. This causes you to feel hungrier and eat in excess. Aside from that, ever noticed how excellent Chinese take-out is for no apparent reason? There's a good chance, that at some point, we have all ate a ton of somewhat crappy takeout, thinking to ourselves: "It's so good, I HAVE to finish". Assuredly that was thanks to our sneaky little flavor enhancer MSG. Knowing what we are dealing with, I won't go out of my way to have MSG, but I won't skip a meal just to avoid it. I'm not here to tell everyone only eat this and never eat that. It's just important to be educated about what goes into your body so that you can make your own intelligent decisions.

So what other mystery additives are out there? And what do they "add" to our food experience? How often do you have:

Artificial coloring?












High-fructose corn syrup?









Aspartame?













Sodium benzoate?













Sodium nitrite?








Trans fat?









Read the full article at WebMD.com. Very need to know!!

And make sure the decision is your own to indulge or to PUT DOWN THOSE CHOPSTICKS!!!

Simplicity. A cliche idea we like to use to describe elements of our lifestyles that are anything but. So. New goal in this eternal battle for the yin of physical and mental perfection, neatly yang-ed with happiness and wellness. I am trying to acheive simplicity in dieting. Here's the thing: I preach about living a realistic lifestyle of healthy eating and exercise, and not so much the whole "I'm on diet because I feel fat." Which I admit to having said. Out loud. Multiple times. :)

But, with the whole theme of being realistic, we have to admit that we all have not so "skinny" times when we go on vacation and live it up, or work 24 hour days and stress eat. Which might cause a little unexpected weight gain (no sarcasm at all...) I've found that the key to being where you want to be physically is to sometimes get aggresive. Work really hard for a few months, and keep the diet tight. Focus. Be a little extreme, don't cut ANY CORNERS!! Then you can maintain, which is much easier than losing.

I'm returning from a long vacation in a steak and potatoes country, and with the warm breeze of summer in the air, I'm hitting up a 6 week lockdown and tighten up plan. For 6 weeks, I'm going to follow my Ten Simple Diet Rules, (adding 2 additional rules every week) and go high intensity on workouts. GUARANTEE: by May 18th I'll be beach ready.

So I took my normal guideline poster off the wall...



And wrote out my Week One Rules:
1. Abs everyday
2. Aim for 5 small meals a day.
3. Yoga on Wed.
4. No beef or pork.
5. No drinks w calories except coffee, whiskey and green juices.
6. 5 days in the gym (Yoga doesn't count). 3 are cardio and two are strength. One strength day is endurance and two cardio days are high-intensity intervals (my FAV days). ALSO 2 a days are always ok to me, if I feel like I have the energy for an extra 20 min cardio.
7. High intensity when working out WITH clients.
8. Workout in tight clothes.
9. No food after 10 pm (I work late so this is a real challenge for me).
10. One healthy treat a day or a glass of red wine.

Here's the key when writing your personal guidelines: look at your lifestyle, and the things about it that you think will impact your weightloss the most. For example, I don't have enough time during the day and often catch up with a big meal when I get home late. Also, going high intensity when training with clients gives me a great opportunity for extra calorie burn.

Meal choice updates and exercise ideas on TWITTER...

And in closing. My blurry, sad, pale, loosly clothed BEFORE pic :)

Recently I decided to take some time off from the NY grind and travel. Davram and I went to Argentina to study spanish and backpack. After this experience, I am officially adding rest and relaxation, as well as travel and exploration, to my quickly growing list of recommendations for health and wellness!!! Therefore, my post in celebration of my return to blogging is all about the importance of rest for our mental AND physical bodies.



Living in NY is counterproductive to any attempt we make at sleep or rest. We work long hours, and when we aren't working there is always a plethora of extracirricular activites to engage in, social gatherings to conjour at, and personal errands to run. Forget NY, this is the case no matter where you live, or what you do. We all know it's not a good thing to "burn the candle at both ends". Obviously. Because you run out of wax. But why? I mean, "you're only young once" and you can "rest when you're dead".

Let's start with the obvious reasons. Sleep is not just to give your feet a rest from your heels, or your eyes a break from the computer. Sleep is the time when your body shuts down most of its functions, so that it can spend energy on repair. Sleep can be compared to your body going on vacation. A few of the top benefits:

*Helps to repair your body.
*Helps keep your heart healthy.
*Reduces stress.
*Improves your memory.
*Helps control body weight issues.
*Reduces your chances of diabetes
*Reduces the occurrence of mood disorders.

Full article explains the WHY :)

We all know how much we need sleep, is it truly impossible to fit it into our schedules? Maybe a little bonus lesson to help...

During my short career in professional body building, I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of sleep. I had entered into the figure category of the competition, which involves looking lean and mean, yet feminine and curvy at the same time. During the first few months, I was DETERMINED to cut the body fat early and coast into competition with smooth sailing. I worked out multiple times a day, ate the bare minimum, and still worked 12 hour days in between. Then I would find a few hours a night for sleep. After the first six weeks, I discovered that with all that hard work and suffering, NOTHING was changing on my body. That of course to me meant, eat less, work harder, get up earlier for an extra workout, etc, ridiculousness, etc. Finally, I broke my foot. Super painful stress fracture in my left foot that put me up in bed for a week. Discouraged and exhausted, I started to sleep. And then I started to lose weight. With minimal exercise, strict diet and lots of rest, there came a turning point!! The weight started to fall off.

When you don't rest, your body becomes desperate for energy. Desperate bodies hold onto everything they can, by burning your metabolism low and saving fat for emergency fuel. Same as a dehydrated body, which holds onto as much extra water weight as it can. Our bodies want to always be prepared. Like little Boy Scouts.

So,think about that tonight during your decision between "one more" online episode, and calling it a night ;)

SLEEP HELPED ME CROSS THIS BRIDGE:

Recently I discovered a chocolate pudding that was going to be my new favorite indulgence for dessert. I have made it known that my weakness of what is otherwise healthful and balanced eating is my borderline addiction to sugar, more specifically sweets in the corn syrup family. My normal diet involves a spoonful of agave nectar in my coffee (as a substitute for the sugar packet), and a pint of coconut milk ice cream in the freezer (to replace my Ben and Jerry’s fix).



I am choosing not to reveal the source of my unexpected dessert binge so that I can protect my followers from the evil of knowing where to get the most perfect bowl of chocolate pudding. In my mind, as I’m sure with most of you, when I think of pudding I think of Jello-Instant, which is “chocolate flavored”, low-fat and made in 10 minutes on the stove-top. This devilish pudding, however, is made from real milk chocolate and heavy cream, and whipped slowly from scratch to form a thick, flavorful, mousse-like calorie trap. Yet somehow while eating it I convinced myself it was a professional version of the chocolately, low-fat goodness I love.

Why am I expending such energy describing what I am cautioning against? Simply because I made the mistake of devouring around 2 servings (approx. 4 cups) of this devilish chocolate treat over the course of 2 days, assuming that slapping an extra half mile onto my run each day would neutraulize my bodily dessert sabotage. Yet, upon inquiring the chef, we calculated that each serving of pudding had around 1100 calories. Do the math. That means I consumed 2200 calories in pudding. This is on top of the rest of my intake for both days.

Let me give a basic rundown of how calories work. The average person burns 2,000 calories per day. That is the number on which we base most nutrition labels. So when a label reads you are eating 30% of your daily value, it is basing that number on that average. Future blog will break down the science and numbers involved in caloric intake. For now lets understand that a pound of fat is 3500 calories.



Or not much less than 2 days worth of gourmet chocolate pudding...

Be realistic. Own your calories. You know what is healthy, and what you should not put in your mouth. Think of your diet as one of your most important responsibilities. You owe it to yourself to make informed decisions about what you put in your body. As they say: "You are what you eat!" So... EAT WHAT YOU WANT TO BE!?!

This blog is the much anticipated conclusion of my top ten anatomy red flags. Starting off with number 6 on the list...

6. If you have created an injury to a muscle, recommendations are to perform gentle stretches as soon as a week after the tear or strain in order to prevent fibrous scar tissue from forming. That scar tissue will hinder your movement later down the road.

Down-dog position ranks at the top of my favorite stretch list because it covers muscles in the entire body:



7. The part of the body that we all stress but no one understands is the knee. There are multiple ligaments grown in strategic places to stabilize what is one of the most dynamic joints in our body. Most knee injuries occur when the knee flexes and rotates, and the meniscus (medial knee) travels forward too fast to control.

These are super basic, yet effective to the necessary muscles: good old wall squats!! (Hint: add some shoulder raises or external rotations to the wall while holding so you can multitask)



8. Aside from muscle and ligament elasticity, it is the shape of your hip bones that determine hip mobility (hello weird flexible people that can do splits on command). Bottom line, do not try to raise your leg higher than it is meant to go.

I LOVE pigeon pose as a safe route to stretch the hips. Get in it then try to go to your "happy place" and relax.




9. When doing core exercises, the game plan is different from doing squats and deadifts. During a leg movement like a squat, you need to hold the back in an arch so that you can protect it. When doing a crunch, you want to have a rounded spine so the back will relax and the abs will engage.

As a HUGE pilates fan, I think the pilates roll up teaches you how to engage the correct muscles during core exercise. Learn the correct technique for a rollup and it will carry over into your routine.

10. Most important rule to follow for your anatomy when working out is that every exercise is like a pair of shoes, they won't fit everyone for every purpose. Create an exercise plan that caters to your personal strengths and weaknesses. Work your strengths while improving your weaknesses.

While recently nosing through a friends kitchen, I found my new favorite cookbook!! The title is "Fast & Healthy Recipes", and the recipe ideas are timeless (it was published in '95). The book includes many creative meal options using a large variety of ingredients, which we can all appreciate in the somewhat unexciting world of "healthy" cooking.

I tried the Warm Stir-Fried Salad for a late lunch over the weekend. Warm salads are a great summertime meal, blending cool and crisp with warm and hearty. Trying this quick and yummy recipe will get you instantly curious about the rest of the book.

WARM STIR-FRIED SALAD

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 tbsp fresh tarragon
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 8 oz)
2 in piece ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 Napa cabbage
1/2 chicory lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
1 cup unsalted cashews
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into fine strips
salt and pepper

1. Chop the tarragon.
2. Cut the chicken into fine strips and place in a bowl.
3. To make the marinade, mix together in a bowl the tarragon, ginger, soy sauce, sugar and seasoning.
4. Pour the marinade over the chicken and leave for 2-4 hours.
5. Strain the chicken from the marinade. Heat the wok, then add the oil. When the oil is hot, stir-fry the chicken for 3 minutes, add the marinade and bubble for 2-3 minutes.
6. Slice the Napa cabbage and arrange on a plate with the chicory. Toss the cashews and carrots together with the chicken, pile on top of the bed of lettuce and serve immediately.

You can prep this meal ahead of time by marinating the chicken and chopping the veggies, which will let you make a super quick dinner when you're ready. I always like to know about the foods that I'm eating, so I did some research on tarragon, which is in the marinade, because I rarely eat it. It does a lot of great things for the body including healing of the stomach and liver, and aid of digestion. Check out this link to a complete article about the benefits of tarragon.

As a health professional, I am always trying to freshen up and study the latest research. However, this week I decided to go back and review the material that I’ve already collected on my bookshelf.. I singled out two books which focused on anatomy and dove in, then read from beginning to end. When I was finished, it turned out to be pretty cool to go back through what I learned before having experience as a trainer and reprocess what lessons are actually key for the majority of clients I train.

This blog goes through some key points in anatomy we all should remember.

1. No matter what any trainer tells you, doing incline presses will not tone the breasts or prevent their sagging. Our breasts are made of adipose (a.k.a. FAT tissue) and that fat simply rests on top of the pec majors. My personal experience is that good posture will enhance your breast appearance.

Try reverse flys on a stability ball, great exercise for posture:



2. Your triceps brachii (muscle in the back of the arm) is the muscle that jumps in to help when your lats fatigue, so if you have arms that keep on shaking when you wave goodbye, take up rock climbing.

(Chelsea Piers has a great wall to climb, check out the website!)



3. Back pain is the most common problem of the lumbar spine, the painful cramping limits movement that might tear or increase tearing of the small deep muscles.

My favorite stretch is the baby cobra, for lower back mobility:

4. Disc herniation is a serious concern for any person performing weightlifting. The cause is almost always incorrect back position. After a heavy workout, stetch the back by hanging from a chinup bar, this will allow the muscles to relax and recreate the space between the vertebral discs.

5. During lifting for the lower body the hamstrings are the muscle most often torn or injured. As with any muscle injury, they are usually injured due to an improper warmup.

One of my favorite warmups is the inchworm, click for a full explanation of exercise.


Cutting this blog in half, last of the top ten to come!

5-Minute Pyramid Super Ab Workout

I created this ab workout to cover upper and lower abs, obliques and eractor spinae, which means we leave no section of core untapped! The workout is four different movements. As we work through the pyramid we start with each exercise once, then twice, etc. until we get to a set of ten of each (the top of the pyramid). Then we make our way back down to a set of one. This workout is simple and breaks the sets up in a fun (and distracting) way! Each exercise can be done in the advanced or modified version, advanced is with straight knees and modified is with knees at a 90 degree angle. Here is a picture of the starting position for each:



Here are the four movements:

1. Upper Abdominal Crunch: hands placed behind head, elbows wide, exhale as you lift both shoulder blades from the ground

2. Lower Abdominal Leg Lift: allow the upper body to be in a relaxed position, with arms spread in a T, exhale as you tuck the belly button towards the spine and lift legs towards chest

3. Oblique Twist: hands are placed behind the head, legs are lowered at a 45 degree angle, exhale as you twist the upper body bringing the elbow towards the opposite knee

4. Tick Tock: upper body returns to the T position, with legs extended straight up from the hips at 90 degrees, inhale as you lower the legs towards the floor to the left, exhale as you lift them back to neutral position, and repeat to the right. Below is a picture of the advanced and modified version of this exercise.



Remember to concentrate on core activation, use the cue of “belly button pulled toward spine”. As you climb the pyramid and abs begin to tire, be cautious of straining the lower back. Take breaks and relieve back tension as needed.

Your abdominal muscles are the fastest to recover in your body, which means you can do this 5 minute series everyday!!

As a fitness professional, I constantly ask myself: "Am I with the current trend in fitness"?

My thought process when predicting the future involves analyzing the past. So let's look back. The basic idea of fitness started very simple. Men went to drab, sweaty, testosterone-filled clubs called gyms and women went to spas where they did exercise only to keep themselves attractive to their husbands. This was all starting around the 50s. Exercise slowly evolved from this mode until the 80s with the introduction of group exercise by Jane Fonda and other self proclaimed "fitness gurus". I have to hand it to Jane, she helped to make exercise trendy. Since that time we have still continued on that path (not necessarily wearing leg warmers and butt thongs, although I have seen those recently in gyms). When a new trend emerges in fitness, it quickly catches on. When a system claims to be "groundbreaking" or a few celebrities endorse it, people start to jump on the wagon.

The good news is that we are finally coming around. The baby boomers, who seem to be the majority of our spending and decision-making population, are beginning to age and realize the consequences of lifestyle. Because our vision is shifting to long term results and goals, the focus of personal fitness is now defined by health more than appearance (hopefully this means that eventually fitness trainers will have to be educated and not just look attractive). Slowly but surely, we are beginning to consider the status of our bodies, when we measure the quality of our lives.

I know better than to personally make predictions, because we never really know what will happen next. So here is the top 10 fitness trends for this year as expected from the American College of Sports Medicine(ACSM). Now this is a trend in the right direction...

While in the health food store, I walked by a sale on noodles which caught my eye. A sale on food usually means either something is going to expire or no one is buying it. I decided to try them once and decide if it was a good idea later. Shirataki noodles are thin, clear and gelatinous. Originally from Japan, today they are popular in health food stores because they are very low carb and calorie, and most are gluten free.

Having never cooked w them before I decided to keep the recipe simple. I cooked a simple stirfry of chicken, broccoli, peppers and green onion. The noodles are cooked just like regular pasta, boiled in a pot. Tossed it all together with a soy sauce concoction, and loved the final result.

I did my online research and found a site that has created 101 Shirataki noodle recipes!!