What can I say – the guy knows how to put on a show. For almost 3 hours Wednesday night I got to see Bruce Springsteen play a mix of his old time favorites, material from his latest album, and even a cover of a song by The Clash – London Calling. Highlights of the show included Thunder Road (my all time favorite song – here’s a You Tube link to a 1975 performance of Thunder Road performed at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr - a classic), Thundercrack, Red Headed Woman, The Rising, and watching Max Weinberg’s son take over on the drums for the second half of the show. Jay is only 18, and he is not only a talented drummer, but brings an incredible energy to his performance.

I am always amazed at the passion with which Bruce performs, you can just tell that he absolutely loves what he is doing. He’s 59 years old, and he’s got the same energy he had 30 years ago. Where does that energy come from? Part of the answer is obvious, from his love of performing and from the crowd, but apparently he works out and eats right. If he didn’t take care of his body, there’s no way he’d be able to run around the stage for 3 hours, climb up pianos, and do his famous knee slide. (Somewhat embarrassing story: After seeing one of Bruce’s concerts a few years ago, I went into Villanova early the next morning and found an empty classroom and tried to replicate Bruce’s knee slide. Let’s just say I haven’t tried it again…)

Anyway, who among us wouldn’t love to have the energy that Bruce has, whether you’re 29 or 79. It all comes down to having a passion for life and treating your body with respect.

Studio Updates

Some reminders:

On May 9 and May 12 we will be having Open Houses at our Frazer studio. There will be free health assessments, refreshments, and door prizes. You can see the details here.

On May 20 from 6:30-8:30 at Terrazza (right across the street from our Newtown Square studio) we will be hosting a seminar offered by Dr. Joe Capista. The topic for the seminar is “It’s All Mental: Harnessing the Power of your Mind*Body*Spirit to Achieve Total Health Fitness”. For over three decades, Dr. Capista has dedicated himself to the study of the power and impact of the mind and spirit in creating your reality. Putting into practice these teachings, Dr. Capista has built a multi-million dollar dental practice located in Broomall, Pennsylvania. Williamsburg Dental is recognized as one of the most successful dental practices in the entire United States. Dr. Capista’s success philosophy is simple; combine your deepest passion, develop solid business principles while striving for balance in all areas of your life. Dr. Capista travels throughout the United States sharing his messages with audiences who are eager to learn proven success principles. We will be sending out more info as the date gets closer, but mark the date on your calendar now!

In celebration of Mother’s Day,  the local Fitness Together studios are putting together a team for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. This event takes place on Mother’s Day, May 10 at 8:15 in the morning. You can find details about the race here; to register as part of the Fitness Together team, here is the link.

Finally, I wanted to make you aware of our Mother’s Day special. If you are a mother, grandmother, stepmother, godmother, or even a fairy godmother, just let us know and we will take 5% off any training package. This offer expires May 9, so please talk with Chris or Sam about the offer, or send me an email if you have any questions. There is nothing better than giving someone you love the gift of health.

To your health and happiness,

P.S. For those of you who recall my “Crybabies” newsletter, yes, there were some tears shed during Thunder Road..

P.P.S. I have archived all of the previous Wellness Wednesday newsletters at http://www.ftmainline.com/blog/ Just click on the Wellness Wednesday link on the right hand side. You can also read about my 30-day raw trial which started this week.

This will be my third time to go raw for at least a month, but this time I wanted to see what the effect of sharing my 30 -day trial with the readers of this blog would be. I figured it’s a way to hold myself accountable by providing periodic updates on my progress.

Based on past experience, the hardest part is going to be making sure I have the right food available, particularly bananas. So my plan is to buy a case of bananas once a week, a few days in advance of when I plan to eat them. There’s nothing worse than having a case full of green bananas that you can’t eat, and there isn’t any other food around the house. In those situations, I usually end up eating way too many nuts just to make sure I get enough calories. I think once I am able to establish a routine, things should be fine.

So my first day was a success. I started the day with a green smoothie (7 bananas, heart of romaine lettuce, a cup of frozen strawberries, and a cup of frozen blueberries). For lunch I had several oranges, sitting on the steps of the church at Villanova, enjoying the warm weather. For dinner, I had another green smoothie, with 8 bananas, a heart of romaine lettuce, and a cup of frozen pineapples. Why so many bananas? I find it’s the easiest way to get the requisite number of calories while on a raw diet.

My dining room for the next 30 days...

If you want to read about another person’s (Steve Pavlina) 30-day trial of being on the raw diet click here. If you want to read about the general diet approach I plan to follow, you can visit Doug Graham’s site. I will post my progress periodically over the next 30 days.

Tara Parker Pope has done it again, posting another wonderful article to her “Well” blog at The New York Times web site. This article is titled “What Are Friends for? A Longer Life”, and looks at the many health benefits of friendships.

Tara notes that researchers are only now starting to pay attention to the importance of friendship and social networks in overall health. A 10-year Australian study found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends. A large 2007 study showed an increase of nearly 60 percent in the risk for obesity among people whose friends gained weight. And last year, Harvard researchers reported that strong social ties could promote brain health as we age. Other research has shown that people with strong friendships are less likely than others to get colds, perhaps because they have lower stress levels.

Bella DePaulo, a visiting psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose work focuses on single people and friendships, notes that in many studies, friendship has an even greater effect on health than a spouse or family member. In a study of nurses with breast cancer, having a spouse wasn’t associated with survival.

While many friendship studies focus on the intense relationships of women, some research shows that men can benefit, too. In a six-year study of 736 middle-age Swedish men, attachment to a single person didn’t appear to affect the risk of heart attack and fatal coronary heart disease, but having friendships did. Only smoking was as important a risk factor as lack of social support.

One of the things I like most about Fitness Together is the strong relationships that form between client and trainer. I believe those relationships are a critical part of the success our clients achieve in terms of their health and fitness goals, and those successes are just as rewarding for the trainer. Under such circumstances, it’s no wonder that strong relationships are formed.

I know that I could always use more friends, so in a shameless appeal to increase the number of friends I have, please add me as a friend in Facebook by going to my Facebook page (a work in progress to be sure…). I look forward to hearing from you!

Studio Updates

We have a few big things coming up that I wanted to make you aware of.

On May 9 and May 12 we will be having Open Houses at our Frazer studio. There will be free health assessments, refreshments, and door prizes. Any new client who signs up at the Open House will receive $200 off any training package of 40 sessions or more; sign up for 80 or more sessions and you also receive a gift certificate to a day at the spa! You can see the details here.

On May 20 from 6:30-8:30 we will be hosting a seminar offered by Dr. Joe Capista. The topic for the seminar is “It’s All Mental: Harnessing the Power of your Mind*Body*Spirit to Achieve Total Health & Fitness”. For over three decades, Dr. Capista has dedicated himself to the study of the power and impact of the mind and spirit in creating your reality. Putting into practice these teachings, Dr. Capista has built a multi-million dollar dental practice located in Broomall, Pennsylvania. Williamsburg Dental is recognized as one of the most successful dental practices in the entire United States. Dr. Capista’s success philosophy is simple; combine your deepest passion, develop solid business principles while striving for balance in all areas of your life. Dr. Capista travels throughout the United States sharing his messages with audiences who are eager to learn proven success principles. We will be sending out more info as the date gets closer, but marking the date on your calendar now!

In celebration of Mother’s Day, the local Fitness Together studios are putting together a team for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. This event takes place on Mother’s Day, May 10 at 8:15 in the morning. You can find details about the race here; to register as part of the Fitness Together team, here is the link.

Finally, I wanted to make you aware of our Mother’s Day special. If you are a mother, grandmother, stepmother, godmother, or even a fairy godmother, just let us know and we will take 5% off any training package. This offer expires May 9, so please talk with Chris or Sam about the offer, or send me an email if you have any questions. There is nothing better than giving someone you love the gift of health.

Enjoy the warm weather that is on the way!

To your health and happiness.

This was somewhat of an emotional week for me, and not because of the April 15 tax deadline. When my youngest son Pat told me that Harry Kalas had died, for some reason it hit a nerve, and I must admit that some tears came to my eyes, and I’m not really sure why. When I told my wife about this, she told me that perhaps I needed to start hitting the weights a little bit harder…

Anyway, as fate would have it, Tara Parker-Pope just posted an article yesterday to her New York Times “Well” blog, titled “In Defense of Crybabies“. While the posting does not delve into any of the psychological benefits of crying, it does offer her readers a chance to share their thoughts about the subject, and it is nice to know that I am not alone. One posting in particular caught my eye where a reader stated, “I cry at music concerts by children or young adults when the performance is particularly outstanding or moving. I have cried when an excellent middle school violinist played a solo,… I have also cried at college awards ceremonies. The common thread seems to be young people, excellence, …”.

The reason why this seemed to stand out is that I recently went to see a grade school production of Cinderella, and I must admit it got to me while they were signing “It’s Possible”. I love the performing arts, and I am always impressed with what music teachers can do with raw talent, a few weeks of prep time, and an absolute passion for what they do. The results are incredible. I am lucky enough to have tickets for the upcoming Springsteen concert, and I am sure that when he sings a couple of my favorite songs, I will get caught up in the moment, especially for Thunder Road.

Tara’s blog posting had some great You Tube links, and I thought I would share some of them with you. While I realize this week’s newsletter has little to do with fitness, I hope the following videos bring a smile (and perhaps a tear) to your face!

1. Susan Boyle, the unemployed 47-year old woman who wowed both judges and audience on “Britain’s Got Talent.”

2. Matt Harding’s great dance video (watch it in HD for an even better viewing experience).

3. An “impromptu” fully choreographed performance of a classic song from “The Sound of Music” performed at an Antwerp train station – great stuff!

4. And even though it’s not mentioned as part of the blog posting, I can’t provide a list of You Tube videos without linking to my all-time favorite – “Charlie Bit Me”.

Studio Updates

We just finished our March Madness promotion, and Karen Bogosian of the Newtown Square studio is the winner of our “Greatest Number of Sessions Trained” contest. Karen trained 14 times during the 4 week period, and has won 2 free weeks of training – congratulations (although she may actually prefer two weeks off)! Several other clients trained 12 times during the same period and as a result have won two free sessions. Jeanette Salvey of Newtown Square won our “secret” contest, which turned out to be the “Greatest Time Improvement in 1,000 Meters Rowing”. Jeanette showed a significant improvement from her first time on the erg until her second time 4 weeks later. Jeanette’s prize is that she gets to train Dan for one session – it’s payback time! It is also worth noting that Jim Wagner had an impressive time of 3:30 for his 1,000 meter row. Thank you to all who participated in our promotional contests!

The studios are seeing a significant increase in activity, both among existing clients wanting to increase their number of training sessions each week, as well as in new clients becoming part of the Fitness Together team. It is a great time for such increased activity, since working hard now will allow you to see the benefits this summer.

The local Fitness Together studios are putting together a team for the Mother’s Day Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. This event takes place on Mother’s Day, May 10 at 8:15 in the morning. You can find details about the race here; to register as part of the Fitness Together team, here is the link. Please note that Dick’s Sporting Goods is having on-site registration at its stores in Exton and Plymouth Meeting this Saturday, April 18, from 10-2.

We will be having an Open House at our Frazer studio on Saturday, May 9 from 10-2 and again on Tuesday, May 12 from 4-7. There will be free health screenings, prizes, refreshments, and special discounts for new clients. Please mark the dates on your calendar. We’d love to see existing clients, former clients, and lots of new faces at the Open House!

Finally, we want to let you know that we will be offering special training packages in celebration of Mother’s Day. Be sure to contact the studio to find out the details. There aren’t many gifts better than the gift of health.

To your health and happiness.

P.S. No tears were shed while writing this week’s newsletter…

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always thought there was a certain appeal associated with living to at least 100 years old. As a result, I try to do certain things which I believe will enhance the likelihood of that happening. While you may not be interested to hear what my thoughts are on the subject, I thought I would share an interesting article that Forbes.com just had a couple of days ago entitled “How To Live To 100″.

Here is a summary of their recommendations:

1. Pick your parents well.Having good genes helps. Researchers estimate that 25% of variance in life span comes from genetics and the rest from environmental factors, including diet and exercise. But genes may be more determining in cases of extreme longevity. “For most of us, it is 80% environment and 20% genetics, but for centenarians it is probably 80% genes and 20% environment,” says Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

2. Then live right. Thomas Perls, a geriatrician at Boston University Medical Center has found that people who make it to 100 tend to have staved off serious disability until well into their 90s, either by avoiding disease or by limiting its consequences. “With healthy behaviors, you are adding years to your life, and you compress the time with which you experience disability,” Perls says. “Instead of the older you get, the sicker you get; it is the older you get, the healthier you’ve been.” Jay Olshansky, a biodemographer at the University of Illinois adds, “The only control we have over the duration of our life is to shorten it, and we do that all the time.”

3. Exercise–into old age.Regular exercise is one of the strongest predictors of a long life. Olshansky says “It’s the closest thing we have to a miracle cure.” Regular exercisers generally live five to seven years longer than inactive people, according to a 2006 study of 5,000 Danes. Researchers have been finding lately that the benefits of exercise continue well into old age. In one clever experiment scientists at the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, Calif., put 25 healthy older adults on a six-month weight-training regimen that increased their muscle strength by 50%. The researchers concluded last year in Plos One, a scientific journal, that the training partly reversed the aging process.

4. Avoid obesity. Being obese in middle age roughly doubles mortality rates, depending on the study. (A note on mortality rates: This does not mean that overweight people’s remaining life expectancy is only half; it just means they’re twice as likely to die within a given period.) “There are no obese centenarians,” Olshansky says, and he estimates that life expectancy in this country could decline in coming decades if Americans continue getting fatter and the diabetes epidemic widens. Obesity is linked to diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer. Whether being overweight but not obese will kill you is more controversial. Two studies in the New England Journal of Medicine, including one of 527,000 American patients, factored out the effects of smoking, which tends to keep the pounds off, and they found that even being moderately overweight (a BMI above 25) increases the death rate by 20% or so. The lowest death rates were toward the upper end of normal weight. Very thin people have a higher risk of succumbing to respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, one of the studies found.

5. Don’t smoke, drink (a little vino). A lifetime of smoking subtracts an average of 10 years from your life, according to a British study that followed doctors for 50 years. If you quit by age 50, you gain six of those years back. Moderate drinking, by contrast, appears to be beneficial (particularly red wine, according to some research). Downing a daily cocktail or glass of wine may protect the heart by raising levels of good cholesterol slightly or by some other means. A million-person analysis published in the Archives of Internal Medicine combined the results of 34 previous studies and found that light drinkers had up to an 18% lower death rate over the periods of the studies, typically 10 years, while heavy drinkers had a substantially higher risk of death. (Several kinds of cancer are linked to alcohol consumption.) The lowest mortality risk was found at four drinks a week.

6. Eat your veggies, hold the steak. Researchers furiously debate the merits of low-fat versus low-carbohydrate diets. But there’s no disagreement that diets high in fruits and vegetables are a good thing. They are consistently associated with longer life, in numerous epidemiological studies. A 2009 study in Archives of Internal Medicine that followed 547,000 older Americans found those who ate the most red meat had a 31% to 36% higher risk of dying over 10 years. Fruits and vegetables have another benefit beyond nutrients, points out Bradley Willcox, of the Pacific Health Research Institute: They are full of filling fiber and water, making overeating more difficult. In that longevity hotbed Okinawa, a popular saying is “Hara hachi bu”–eat only until you are four-fifths full. Older people there tend to eat up to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, Willcox says. Sweet potatoes are their main starch, with half the caloric density of bread. (Note – if you think 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day seems like it would be tough to do, I would strongly recommend you look into smoothies. My usual breakfast smoothie consists of 6 bananas, a cup of blueberries, a cup of strawberries, a heart of romaine lettuce, and a handful of baby spinach. This one meal has 10 servings of fruits and vegetables! On a good day I will have two such “green” smoothies.)

So there you have it, the secrets to living to 100. While living to 100 is not completely under your control, you can still make certain lifestyle choices that will help you to live a full, healthy life. And as you can see, it’s never too late to start changing your lifestyle, since the benefits from the recommendations listed above start working as soon as you implement them.

May you live long and prosper!

The New York Times recently had an article about an affliction that is often ignored, but is nevertheless a serious problem for a growing number of individuals. Consumer psychologists have labeled the condition as hyperopia, the medical term for farsightedness, because it’s the result of people looking too far ahead. They’re so obsessed with preparing for the future that they can’t enjoy the present, and they end up looking back sadly on all their lost opportunities for fun.

Hyperopia seems to affect a wide range of people in some circumstances, to judge from clever experiments with people shopping for bargains and redeeming prizes. Splurging on a vacation or a pair of shoes or a plasma television can produce an immediate case of buyer’s remorse, but that feeling isn’t permanent, according to Ran Kivetz of Columbia University and Anat Keinan of Harvard. In one study, these consumer psychologists asked college students how they felt about the balance of work and play on their winter breaks.

Immediately after the break, the students’ chief regrets were over not doing enough studying, working and saving money. But when they contemplated their winter break a year afterward, they were more likely to regret not having enough fun, not traveling and not spending money. And when alumni returned for their 40th reunion, they had even stronger regrets about too much work and not enough play on their collegiate breaks.

“People feel guilty about hedonism right afterwards, but as time passes the guilt dissipates,” said Dr. Kivetz, a professor of marketing at the Columbia Business School. “At some point there’s a reversal, and what builds up is this wistful feeling of missing out on life’s pleasures.”

Dr. Kivetz discovered that people will find ways to “precommit to indulgences, based on a lottery experiment he conducted with Itamar Simonson of Stanford University.The experimental participants, who were all women, were given a ticket for a lottery drawing to be held three months later, and asked to choose in advance which prize they’d prefer if they won: $85 in cash, or a voucher for an $80 massage or facial at a spa. They were reminded that they could simply use the $85 in cash to buy the spa treatment (and have $5 left over), but even so, more than a third of the women chose the voucher for the spa.

Similar results turned up when the researchers asked men and women to pick other kind of prizes or to redeem points earned in frequent-buyer programs. When choosing between cash and “hedonic luxuries” like bottles of wine, dinners or vacations, a substantial minority chose the luxuries even though the cash was a better deal.

“If I took the cash,” one person explained, “it would end up going into the rent.” Another wrote of her decision: “That way I’d have to pamper myself and not spend the $ on something like groceries.”

Other experiments showed that people will work harder for luxuries than for more practical prizes – and the more effort that’s required, the more they feel entitled to a self-indulgent reward.

Dr. Kivetz’s advice for shoppers? “Don’t be too hard on yourself,” he said. “Obviously you need to be responsible and conserve your savings. But it’s been a depressing winter, and there’s nothing wrong with indulging yourself a little. This is a chance to reassess the quality and the balance of your life and to think how you’ll feel in the future. As long as you can afford it, it’s not a bad thing to be enjoying yourself.”

I think a lot of this research could be applied to an individual’s health. While it is important to make a commitment to doing the right things that lead to health (exercising, eating lots of fruits and vegetables, getting a good night’s sleep, etc.), you can make that process a lot more enjoyable by occasionally rewarding yourself for all of your hard work. So go ahead and treat yourself to a day at the spa or a full body therapeutic massage, your future self will thank you!

To your health and happiness.