I still get a lot of attention for having grey hair. Pretty much every single day, a woman comes up to me when I’m out and about to tell me, “Oh, I love your hair…wish I was brave enough to do that.” Well, we all know why it is considered “brave” to not dye one’s hair when it’s grey and you’re female. Because grey hair tells the world, “I’m aging.” There’s an unwritten rule that says we...
I wake up early. I love hot beverages and have an aversion to air conditioning. I’m obsessed with dogs and trees. In fact, as a child, I drew the same thing over and over again – a dog walking through a landscape of tall green trees! I bring this up as a reminder for you to work with what you are. You have built-in preferences, inclinations and personality traits, many of which are non-negotiable. For me, going to a 5am workout is nice, but...
There are so many subtle things we can do to help ourselves look good, feel great and shine bright, so many action steps we can take for empowered wellness. One that I’ve been borderline obsessed about lately is stretching throughout the day. I think between stress, cold weather, and lots of sitting around, our bodies lose space. Here’s what a lack of space in the body looks like: 1. feeling and looking shorter and stockier, 2. pain when...
A man carrying a long ladder walked between me and my students midway through the very first aerobics class I ever taught at age 18. It was awkward to say the least! Since then, so many unplanned, quirky things have occurred during my classes, from power outages to chipmunks scurrying over people’s bodies while they were lying in shavasana. When I was working for Club Med in the nineties, someone sat down on their mat...
I want to go way back to the day I met Pilates. It was in the mid-nineties and at the time I was fully invested in the workout world, teaching aerobics classes. These classes were all standing, lots of jumping, double knotting sneakers, and moving fast, like a tiger was chasing you. Pilates Mat couldn’t have been more opposite. First off, in Pilates we left our shoes at the door. This was revolutionary to me....
I just listened to a podcast discussion between a celebrity stylist and a magazine editor. The topic was beauty tips. The entire 90minute show was spent discussing skincare creams and potions, eye masks and exfoliants. Beauty, according to these two women, seems to be all about maintaining youthful skin with products. Look, I like a good serum as much as the next person, and it’s true what they say – hydrated and nourished skin looks and feels...
‘Tis the season for parent-teacher conferences and while there is a Zoom option, I really like having them the old fashioned way, in-person. It’s nice to sit face to face with each teacher, in each classroom. The conferences are set up like this: parents are booked for 10minutes with each teacher, and then there’s five minutes between each appointment to travel from classroom to classroom. We follow the same order as the child does in...
I bet you have a pessimistic friend or family member. This is a person who tends to think about the worse case scenario, or perhaps they offer a negative comment here and there. Sometimes this person is super funny and pessimism is part of their humor. They crack you up and their words are benign to your psyche. Other times, this person is bad for your health. (Not kidding!) I’ve recently distanced myself from a...
“Detox” is a buzzword that’s been buzzing for a long time. Some might think it means some sort of drug rehab. Others may think it’s a serious liver cleanse. However, “detox” should be part of our everyday. It simply means getting rid of unwanted stuff, and you know what? If you’re exercising, you’re detoxifying. Here’s how: 1. Exhalation Every exhale is detoxifying. The amount of inhaled air contains (approximately) 21% of oxygen and 0.04% of carbon dioxide, while...
Thankfully, my “throwing my back out” era is well in the past but when I was living through it, it got a little scary. My son, Luca, was about 2 years old the first time it happened, and then almost an exact year later, it happened again. Both times, I was outside, it was cold, and I was awkwardly carrying a heavy object. Both times it happened in an instant – I felt my lower...
