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Read MoreMessenger of Change (Part 1)
Biologically speaking, we are the only animals to retire or even think of the notion of not working and relaxing and perhaps for some… boozing it up, until they take their last breath. Well perhaps not everyone takes this road of debauchery, but I’ve seen my fair share here: sitting in public places, drunk as a skunk and looking older by the moment. I often wonder why they are not taking better care of themselves and instead seem to foster this attitude of “chasing death” instead of “chasing life.” It’s no wonder that we as Americans were only producing 10 centenarians for each 100,000 people ( 2005) as compared to the citizens of Okinawa (between the Japanese Islands and Taiwan) who had 699 people out of a population of 1.3 million. What is the radical difference in our cultures? Is there an immortality gene that they have which isn’t replicated in our DNA? Not really. If you look at Okinawans who have moved away and have adopted the lifestyle of their new country, you will see them quickly developing a lifespan in close relation to their neighbors. That suggests that the longevity results more from the way the Okinawans live and not to some genetic predisposition. What can they teach us? A lot! Stay tuned! The Okinawans do not have an easy life and usually work from an early age into their graves. Their work is not sedentary in that they have traditionally maintained active lifestyles while physically doing manual labor, farming, gardening and (spear) fishing well into their eighties, nineties and beyond. According to Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s research in 2005, he postulates that more activity such as movement and not exercise is primarily responsible for longevity . But that was then and now we have the latest research from Younger Next Year in the chapter entitled “ The Biology of Growth and Decay” by Dr. Henry S. Lodge/ Chris Crowley. They take us backstage to look at the actual mechanisms of their latest research of the new biology that will forever change your thinking about aging. Did you know that the muscle cells in your biceps are completely replaced, one after one, day after night, about every four months? Your blood cells every three months, platelets every 10 days, bones every couple of years in an active process of destruction/construction or growth/decay in which you want to hypertrophy more than atrophy. In other words, exercise is the master...
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Read More2013 Resolutions? Disillusioned?
In my 25 years as a personal trainer and fitness instructor, I have always looked forward to each new January, the month when couch potatoes get off the couch and go to the gym in droves. We in the industry always see an influx of new students right after the first of the year. But as everyone in my business knows, after January 15, ninety-five percent of the newbies never return, while a mere five percent remain firmly committed. Why the disparity, when losing weight tops the chart at number one as the most common of all New Year’s resolutions? Disillusioned with your resolution? Why? Time certainly can’t be the factor, when the majority of you are retired. Lack of resources is understandable, but not if you live here and experience Body Sculpting, the best bargain in this pueblo. If you lack motivation, I promise to “crystallize” you into your best shape possible, in a non-threatening and always entertaining environment. In fact, my goal every class is to keep your enthusiasm rolling so you’ll never lose interest! Are you ready to take the plunge? Are you willing to start over again? January is behind us as the month of love embraces us. Isn’t it time to love yourself by taking better care of your health? Why not start by transforming your body? After all, it’s what we most neglect. Wouldn’t you enjoy losing inches while toning up your flab? Can you imagine being so strong you could run up and down your stairs without getting winded? What about bruising less because your bones are getting stronger? Are you constantly worried about tripping and falling each time you hesitantly walk across the cobblestone streets? Is your waist-to-hip measurement increasing year after year? If you can answer Yes to the aforementioned questions, why don’t you do something about it? My Body Sculpting classes are just the solution to your 2013 resolutions. I designed each class with an emphasis always on core, balance, stabilization, and strength training – ideal, in fact, for the student with chronic back problems, one of the most common ailments of the retiree. There is no need to feel intimidated as you train in a private studio alongside your peers. My classes are ever-changing and improving, according your needs and wants. This year I have added the following classes to my Body Sculpting repertoire: PiYo (Pilates-Yoga), TRX, Hip-Hop Sculpt, Cardio-Ball and Basic Back Rehab. So re-start your engines,...
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Read MoreLet’s get Crystallized
If working out were an easy thing to do, then most of us would be in the gym getting healthy and looking fit. The reality is we often find exercising an unpleasant task; monotonous, boring and sometimes even painful. Without proper guidance, few of us find much joy in what we do at the gym and can inevitably lose sight of our goals. The time has come for you to find a fitness routine that is rewarding and effective. Crystal Calderoni will transform your time at the gym into something you are going to look forward to. Her positive energy and lust-for-life is contagious and as a personal trainer with more than 20 years of experience, lights the way for her clients and students better enabling them to get back to their original and authentic self. Crystal assesses a clients current physical status, helps establish realistic training goals, and designs effective and safe individualized exercise programs. On a solid foundation, she helps you build a personal relationship with fitness that will motivate you for years to come. “Let’s get Crystallized” was coined by several of her students to describe their altered effects from participating in her highly effective workouts. Crystal, her given name and the process of crystallization were the perfect metaphor for the message she imparts to every student or client she works with. Vamos a Crystalizarnos Si ejercitarse fuera una cosa fácil de hacer, entonces la mayoría de nosotros estaría en el gimnasio poniendose en forma saludable. La realidad es que nos ejercitarse a menudo es una tarea desagradable, monótona, aburrida ya veces incluso dolorosa. Sin la debida orientación, pocos de nosotros encontramos mucha alegría en lo que hacemos en el gimnasio y se puede perder inevitablemente la vista de nuestros objetivos. Ha llegado el momento para que usted encuentre una rutina de ejercicios gratificante y eficaz. Crystal Calderoni va a transformar su tiempo del gimnasio en algo que usted a estado buscando. Su energía positiva y la lujuria para la vida es contagiosa y como entrenadora personal con más de 20 años de experiencia, ilumina el camino para sus clientes y estudiantes que les permita volver a su ser original y auténtico. Crystal evalúa el estado físico actual de los clientes, ayuda a establecer metas realistas de capacitación, diseños de programas eficaces y seguros de ejercicio personales. En una base sólida, que le ayuda a construir una relación personal con la aptitud que le...
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Read MoreLove Yourself to Life
I really enjoyed reading the August 3 weight-loss article written by my colleague, Liz Montes, in which she drives home two salient points which are key to maintaining any successful weight loss battle: AEROBIC: regularly maintaining a cardio program of moderate (30 minutes of brisk walking/swimming x 5 days per week) interspersed with vigorous (1.5 hrs jogging/aerobic class) intensity. ANAEROBIC: Strength training twice per week (using machines or any other weight-resistant object.) She mentions BMR (basic metabolic rate) and shows how the relation between our ancestors (hunters/gatherers) and our modern day metabolisms are intertwined inextricably by the myriad of cellular activity much like furnaces which need nutrients to burn more efficiently at higher rates; which is like saying people who have higher metabolisms are burning more calories in a more efficient manner. The inverse is also true: those who sit, read, eat, drive their computers all day and shirk exercise completely are lowering their BMR; making it less efficient to burn calories and storing more fat at any given moment. This all makes sense but where am I going with this? I Find it inconceivable that so many people I meet or train/teach have no idea what their BMR means nor how many calories their bodies (high-performance cars) need daily to either: maintain their weight, gain a pound of muscle or lose a pound of body fat. Everyone these days knows exactly how to diet and take care of their bodies (I would say 80% of all my past/present clients fall into this category ) but when it comes to reality, their bodies represent neglect, abuse, ignorance and a lifestyle of destruction or non-use. If most people see themselves as healthy (taking all of their prescribed meds) whilst still combating diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, having body fat levels which exceed 30%, waist to hip measurements which are beyond the recommended levels for coronary heart disease, what does this say about the way most of our population is living? In DENIAL!!!!!! This is the heart of the matter, the meat of the problem and that is why I am on a mission to change the way people see themselves and to take their lives into their hearts again! We can’t keep putting us off. I finished the breakthrough book Younger Next Year: Turn back your biological clock by Dr. Henry S. Lodge/Chris Crowley which focuses on the next third stage of life: living like 50 until your 80 and beyond. ...
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Read MoreCancer: Embracing Your Twist of Fate
Communicating as we do from time to time via Facebook, catching up on the trivial, arcane and sometimes the trials/tribulations of life as we live it, has continuously bound Wendy and I together although separated by countries and borders. Borders never existed between us. If we didn’t reach out or “touch in” within a block of months, as soon as we emailed, our dialogue was as fresh and provocative as the first time we met, as most of my experiences have been with Wendy. I had only seen Wendy one time in the last seven years since moving to San Miguel de Allende and that was for my 20-year-high-school reunion. We ate Sushi together with Kenneth of course and I introduced them to my novio at the time, Greg, outside of my social obligations. Kenneth and Wendy seemed to have it all as a partnership: their graphic-design/paper printing business in which each one literally fed off one another’s talents and energies. Their modern townhouse, which incorporated Wendy’s latest artwork and of course the penchant Kenneth and she had for decorating and design. Their relationship was a match made in heaven and the fact that they stayed together for such a long time without inviting a judge or court into the matter was proof that “open relationships” of a different nature anchored in true admiration, love and one’s life purpose could be measured by time after all. I flew away knowing she was in her prime and was maximizing life and her opportunities: winning scholarships, grants and numerous art awards, exhibiting her Quirky’s and paintings in museums and art galleries galore, which kept her forever creating in that surreal mind of hers. I have never worried about Wendy, I feel it has always been the other way around in our relationship, but this is her story not mine. Up until now….. Dominique Sachse, Ch. 2 News stellar-celebrity- anchor and long-time- friend since elementary school, (we even dressed the same in our Wiggle jeans with satin lips on the pockets) announced her wedding plans for the week of May 17-20th; a media frenzy and extravaganza taking place in the city where I could visit and stay with Wendyloo! I was delighted that I could finally pay homage to Domi and Wendy during the same trip and so I reached out to Wendy on FB and suddenly learned that my possibility to see Wendy as she once was, was now a fleeting...
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Read MoreYou’re Never ALONE but ALL One
Here I am again, in my solitude and thoughts, trying to avoid feeling anything which provokes the inevitable from happening. The inevitable is that I have just turned 43 (January 23) and I am still single with no kids, (SWNK), I am paying off someone else’s mortgage, I am still working full-time (and not more efficiently.) I am fiercely independent, obstinate and extremely open-minded while at the same time I live under constant emotional turmoil; dying inside because I feel like what and who I am is not good enough. I want more but I can’t be filled with less. Quite simply… I am feeling DESPERATE and super-needy. I feel “blacklisted from the private parties and jet-streaming adventures of the “rich and famous” here. I am ever becoming the hermit I’ve always feared of becoming and shirk having to pretend I share something in common with them. Frankly, I don’t know why I am sitting in my own self-pity vying secretly to be someone else, comparing my insides to “their” outsides, never measuring up to what I think there standards are. This leads me to ask myself, “what are my own self standards? On a superficial-societal entrapped body, I look 10 years younger for my age. My energy is boundless and I have inquired a certain intensity from my father which naturally provokes controversy yet I am grounded in my soul (not 100% of the time though.) I have never been known to be a psychologically-crazed nut-job like a lot of women are who are able to adapt this certain manipulative tendency that entices men with loads of money to lavish and support them by playing “needy and dependent.” Now I have envied the lives of these manicured madams. At least they have something to show for “it” (thinking like a business woman now,) like real estate, property or rentals and I am still trying to carve my own way without help, on my modest income, trying to find my pie in the sky, as they say. Trying to be the change I want to see in this world (Mahatma Gandhi) and realizing that my time’s running out. I am all one (alone). No one has saved me from myself thus far. I am not getting any younger, what I’ve been doing up until now has not delivered me to my destiny,,,,, yet. I am more aware of this fact which has been festering and gnawing with an unceasing...
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Read MoreLearning my Karma the First Time Around
As a personal trainer, fitness instructor, hip-hop dancer/entertainer, choreographer and overall fitness buff thoughout the outset of my career, I knew i had run out of goals to achieve and was wondering…. What is going to sustain me now? I need a passion to provoke my need for speed and propel me to challenge myself. But what or where will this impetus come from? Well, it came from a desire to challenge myself in ways that I was driving and motivating my students/clients though exercise, diet and change. Yes, once again, I was going to hyper-focus all my life, energy and self-dicipline into training for the Ms Fitness Pageant, which was being held in my hometown, just eight months away. I was being encouraged by boxing coach, supplement guru and brainiac from World’s Gym, Steve, who proved to have a life-long impact on the way I chose to deal with the unforseenable consequences of that event in ways movies only capture the re-enactment of what really happens “behind the scenes” but which really happened to me. Let me preface, I embarked on a journey which felt like exercise bulimia towards the end of my 8 1/2 month training regime. My daily schedule at the beginning involved training/working out clients 30 hr per week with a light training schedule for me which included taking gymnastics and training on weights 5 days per week with a 5 day per week cardio program (that was easy as i was teaching 15 aerobic classes per week.) I didn’t have to start dieting down until the last 14-12 weeks of the show, so I was basically doing the same routine, albeit i had my training/stretch coaches lined up and was attempting to become gym savvy since i was never an adept gymnast and knew this was my weakest catagory. James Haran, Pilates instructor with the Houston Ballet Company worked over all my stuctural defects and boy were there alot of imbalances to adjust. Each month, counting down to the event, would be new hours of torture and sacrifice. No one gets a free ride the first time around, you are your own sponsor, which means, everything you earn will be used for the creation of swimsuits, costumes, music, choreography, classes, nutrition counseling, tanning, supps and any other useful catagory which may enhance your chance to win top three in the Texas regionals. Assuming that when I read the rules and spoke to the promoters, whom convinced me that this was going to...
Most Recent Articles
You’re Never ALONE but ALL One
Here I am again, in my solitude and thoughts, trying to avoid feeling anything which provokes the inevitable from happening. The inevitable is that I have just turned 43 (January 23) and I am still single with no kids, (SWNK), I am paying off someone else’s mortgage, I am still working full-time (and not more efficiently.) I am fiercely independent, obstinate and extremely open-minded while at the same time I live under constant emotional turmoil; dying inside because I...
Read More
Learning my Karma the First Time Around
As a personal trainer, fitness instructor, hip-hop dancer/entertainer, choreographer and overall fitness buff thoughout the outset of my career, I knew i had run out of goals to achieve and was wondering…. What is going to sustain me now? I need a passion to provoke my need for speed and propel me to challenge myself. But what or where will this impetus come from? Well, it came from a desire to challenge myself in ways that I was driving and...
Read MoreAbout Me
Free-spirited and with a tireless work ethic, Crystal continues to pursue her passion in the dramatic arts while maintaining a steady career as a personal trainer.