For years, yoga instructor Alice Van Ness has started her classes with a simple request - that students turn their cell phones off.

She brought that policy with her to Facebook, where she began teaching a weekly class at the company's Menlo Park campus in March. But it proved to be a hard policy to follow for at least one employee, who began tapping away on her phone in the middle of class. And after Van Ness shot her a disapproving look, the instructor found herself out of a job.

The 35-year-old San Carlos resident was fired last month after managers at the fitness contractor she worked for explained that saying "no" to Facebook employees is a no-no.

"We are in the business of providing great customer service," said her termination notice from Plus One Health Management. "Unless a client requires us to specifically say no to something, we prefer to say yes whenever possible."

But when it came to the Facebook employee using her cell phone - at the front of the room, in the middle of class - Van Ness refused to bend over backward.

"Hello - this is only Facebook," said Van Ness, whose firing cost her a teaching gig at Cisco too. "We're not talking about the U.S. government here. We're not talking about Russia is about to bomb us. We're talking about Facebook. Something can't wait half an hour?"

Facebook declined to comment. Representatives for Plus One Health Management did not respond to requests for comment. In its termination notice, the company suggested the Facebook incident was part of a pattern of strict behavior on Van Ness' part; she had previously asked a Cisco employee not to take photographs of the class while it was in session.

The incident highlights a growing tension in health studios, where students come to leave the world behind but often find themselves incapable of not checking their text messages, e-mails and - of course - Facebook. As smart-phone usage has grown, many studios have posted prominent notices asking students to leave them outside the studio.

But at a yoga class on a corporate campus, setting aside job responsibilities entirely, even for a few minutes during the work day, can be a stretch.

"Sometimes if you're in the tech industry, or have a serious attachment to your phone, you can't let Facebook go for an hour," said Michelle Michael, who owns Balance Yoga Studio in Woodinville, Wash., near Microsoft and other tech companies.

Read more here:
Yoga teacher fired over cell phone ban at Facebook

NEW YORK - Can't touch your toes? Laugh it off.

Laughter yoga, unlike Pilates yoga, water yoga, aerial yoga and other offshoots of the ancient eastern practice of uniting body and breath, doesn't aspire to sculpted arms and bendy backs.

People take part in the 'Pinoy Laughter Yoga' event outside the Manila City Hall recently. Reuters/Romeo Ranoco

"You may not lose fat, but you will lose the idea that you're fat," said Sebastien Gendry, founder and executive director of the American School of Laughter Yoga.

"People come because it's the exercise they can do and it makes them feel good," said Gendry, who founded the school in 2004. "It's the easiest form of yoga. They can't twist, they can't bend, but they can do this."

A blend of yogic deep breathing, stretching, and laughter exercises that cultivate child-like playfulness, Laughter Yoga was developed 17 years ago in Mumbai, India by Dr. Madan Kataria. Laughter Yoga International now claims 600 clubs in 60 countries.

More here:
Laughter yoga cultivates merry mindfulness

Instructor Victoria Wells, foreground, led the yoga class at the Lexington Senior Citizens Center. The six-week yoga class began at the request of some members of the senior center.

Herald-Leader

For the mind, yoga instructor Victoria Wells turns on a soothing play list from her iPod. For the spirit, she reminds everyone to get rid of negative thoughts. And for the body, she rolls out a rubber mat, and announces, "Now let's get those lungs going."

And in step, her class at the Lexington Senior Citizens Center begins the exercise that Wells calls "the perfect blend of everything physical and mental."

Just like its participants' hamstrings, yoga's age limit is becoming increasingly flexible, and members are posing to the beat by taking the senior center's new yoga class.

The multi-purpose community center offers activities including a book club, aerobics and tai chi for Fayette County residents ages 60 and older, but several members recently requested that yoga be added to the mix, manager Sean Wright said.

"People were looking for smaller groups, more of a personal connection with the instructor and more of a broad wellness experience," Wright said. Class attendance grows each time but averages about 20 people.

Wells, who is certified in yoga and senior group fitness, said she was thrilled to start the class after hearing the feedback.

"I'm so happy that everything fell into place," she said, adding that yoga is one of the best ways for seniors to stay active.

"People need to realize they have to take personal responsibility for their health," she said. "And this is an awesome way to do that."

View original post here:
Yoga is a hit at Lexington senior center

Put me in, coach! Meagan ONan is ready to help others develop a gameplan to reach their dreams from her new office in downtown Columbus. Photo by: Luisa Porter/Dispatch Staff

At the age of 30, Meagan O'Nan is living her dream. And, in a quiet office built on serenity, she's working to help others live theirs.

Having grown up in Starkville, she traveled around the world and lived in Colorado and Florida for three years each, before returning to Mississippi.

She moved to Columbus three months ago and now is offering life coaching, through North Mississippi Acupuncture, located at 413 4th Ave. S., No. 17.

"In my opinion, life coaching is threefold," she explained. "Through life coaching, I give people easy-to-use tools that empower them to acknowledge and create what it is they truly want, practical ways to help them become a confident decision-maker and let go of past setbacks and disappointments (and) a clear plan of action to achieve their wants and desires."

Excerpt from:
Monday profile: O'Nan thrives in role as life coach

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhNjUhc2XW8

09-07-2012 08:05 Your family fitness is our goal. Total Health and wellness is what we stand for. For more health and wellness related articles, videos and resources visit our blog.

See the original post here:
Total Health And Fitness - Video

International Competition Searching for World's Best Personal Trainer Closes July 31

SCHILLER PARK, IL--(Marketwire - Jul 9, 2012) - Life Fitness, the global leader in commercial fitness equipment manufacturing, and FitPro North America, a premier provider of high-quality educational resources for fitness professionals, today announce the final call for entries in the 2012 global Personal Trainers to Watch competition. Designed to reward personal trainers who demonstrate a passion for helping clients achieve a healthy lifestyle, the Personal Trainers to Watch program has been expanded for the first time to accept entries nominating personal trainers from around the world.

Participants across the globe have until July 31, 2012 to visit http://www.LifeFitness.com/PersonalTrainers and nominate a personal trainer deserving of the top prize: $5,000 toward a personal training business; a select piece of Life Fitness equipment; a one-year membership and continuing education course package from world-renowned educational resource PTontheNet; and international media recognition as the world's 2012 Personal Trainer to Watch.

"Response to this year's Personal Trainers to Watch program has been tremendous, with a high-calliber entry pool representing personal trainers from all over the world -- from Canada to Australia to China," said Chris Clawson, president of Life Fitness. "We encourage people to continue recognizing and supporting the personal trainers they see taking strides toward a healthier world by nominating a trainer today."

A panel of five esteemed industry experts will determine one grand-prize winner and 10 finalists based on pre-determined criteria including trainers' community involvement, client testimonials and industry accolades.

"Seeing the numerous ways this year's nominees are helping their clients succeed in their health and fitness goals is truly inspiring," said Andy Jackson, global commercial director for FitPro. "We are proud to recognize these leaders as part of the Personal Trainers to Watch program, and look forward to further enhancing our winners' knowledge base and training opportunities through the resources we offer."

Last year's winner, Nicole Nichols, was pronounced America's Personal Trainer to Watch for her work as a trainer and expert at SparkPeople.com, an online fitness community. She has since gone on to release a fitness DVD and secure national media coverage for her work. Nichols is part of the 2012 judging panel that will decide this year's top personal trainers.

Join in the conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag #PTtoWatch. For official program rules, please visit http://www.LifeFitness.com/PersonalTrainers. Nominations are limited to one entry per person. Entries must be received by July 31, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Winners will be announced globally in November 2012.

About Life Fitness Life Fitness is the global leader in providing commercial fitness equipment. The company manufactures and sells strength and cardiovascular equipment under the brand names Life Fitness and Hammer Strength and distributes its equipment in more than 120 countries. Headquartered outside Chicago, in Schiller Park, Ill., Life Fitness is a division of Brunswick Corporation (NYSE: BC).

About FitPro FitPro North America is the premier provider of high quality educational resources for fitness professionals, including personal trainers, group fitness instructors, coaches, fitness managers and health club owners. Specializing in continuing education and expert resources, FitPro North America was founded on the premise that a well-educated fitness professional will inspire clients and succeed.

View original post here:
Life Fitness and FitPro North America Announce Last Call for Entries in Global Personal Trainers to Watch Program

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --U.S. News & World Report announced today the launch of a blogging network featuring advice from leading thinkers in diet and fitness. A considerable expansion of U.S. News's Health and Wellness offerings, "Eat+Run" will provide readers with concrete tips to separate fads from facts and bolster good health.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100603/PH13717LOGO )

"In a world increasingly flooded with information, and misinformation, the need for clear and trustworthy insight has never been more important," says Kimberly Castro, Managing Editor of U.S. News's Money and Health sections. "We take seriously our historic mission to provide readers with 'News You Can Use,' and Eat+Run delivers on our commitment to service journalism and helping our readers thrive."

With its roster of luminaries in diet and fitness, Eat+Run is poised to inspire readers with pithy and practical guidance and reflects U.S. News's increasingly robust health coverage. The company recently added Best Diets to its portfolio of rankings, which includes, for example, Best Hospitals and Best Colleges.

Among those who will be blogging for Eat+Run are physicians, academics, registered dietitians, fitness experts, celebrity trainers, and an organic farmer.

For updates and more information, follow Eat+Run on Twitter at @eatandrunUSN and visit the new network at http://www.health.usnews.com.

About U.S. News & World Report U.S. News & World Report is a multi-platform, digital publisher of news and analysis, which includes the digital-only U.S. News Weekly magazine, http://www.usnews.com, and http://www.rankingsandreviews.com. Focusing on Health, Money, Education, Travel, Cars, and Public Service/Opinion, U.S. News has earned a reputation as the leading provider of service news and information that improves the quality of life of its readers. U.S. News & World Report's signature franchise includes its News You Can Use brand of journalism and its "Best" series of consumer guides that include rankings of colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, mutual funds, health plans, and more.

Link:
U.S. News & World Report Launches "Eat+Run"

Beloit, Wisconsin (PRWEB) July 09, 2012

FatWallet, the preferred online shopping resource for millions of savvy consumers, presents a hot summer Health & Fitness Deals promotion running through July 15. Shoppers will find big savings on vitamins, nutritional supplements, workout gear, exercise equipment, and sports apparel. FatWallet currently lists hundreds of health and fitness bargains from popular retail stores like Puritans Pride and Under Armour who are also offering shoppers the added savings of increased cash back rewards for FatWallet members during this promotion.

"FatWallet is a one-stop shopping web site where I can find all the best coupons, discounts, and shopping tips," said FatWallet member Lee Willhite. They really take the work out of looking for the best deals.

Stores featuring health and fitness related summer deals and coupon codes in July 2011 experienced an average 32% increase in sales from FatWallet shoppers compared to July 2010. This is a great time of year to look for sales and clearance on health and fitness related merchandise, stated FatWallet spokesperson, Brent Shelton. Smart shoppers will take advantage of this reduced pricing coupled with even more savings of Cash Back rewards from FatWallet. Summer shoppers will also find hundreds of fast-selling seasonal bargains in the FatWallet Hot Deals forum and the popular Todays Best Deals where savvy members and expert staff list only the best values found from all over the internet each day.

_____________ About FatWallet: As the preferred online shopping resource for millions of savvy consumers, FatWallet.com works closely with hundreds of retailers like HP, Newegg, Walmart and Amazon to publish thousands of special offers, discounts, coupon codes and Cash Back rewards to its members. The much celebrated FatWallet forums represent the pulse of an evolving online marketplace where smart consumers gather to share and learn. Voted One of the 50 Best Small and Medium Companies to Work for in America by Great Places To Work, FatWallet ranks as one of the top 600 internet properties in the nation. (Quantcast)

For more deals like this, follow FatWallet on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/fatwallet or like us on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/fatwallet.

Read this article:
Online Shoppers Work Out the Best Summer Savings on Health and Fitness Deals at FatWallet.com

The last five years have been tough for those in retirement. Portfolio valuations have been hammered, annuity rates have plunged and uncertainty has ruled the roost. There's no sign of things improving any time soon, either, as the eurozone and the UK economy look set to muddle through at best for some years to come.

A great way of protecting yourself from the downturn, however, is by building your retirement fund with shares of large, well-run companies that should grow their earnings steadily over the coming decades. Over time, such investments ought to result in rising dividends and inflation-beating capital growth, especially if you keep the shares within a tax-efficient ISA or SIPP.

It's no coincidence that the world's most successful investor, Warren Buffett, prefers such companies, and recently invested in a large FTSE 100 (Euronext: VFTSE.NX - news) (UKX) company that fits the bill perfectly (you can find full details in this free report).

In this series, I'm tracking down the UK large caps that have the potential to beat the FTSE over the long term and support a lower-risk income-generating retirement fund. I'm going to kick off the series with a look at SSE (Frankfurt: A0RFBG - news) , the UK's third-largest electricity utility and a share that's a big favourite of income investors, thanks to its superb dividend record.

Defensive performer

Utility shares are traditionally 'defensive' shares -- shares that are popular during times of economic volatility, such as we have seen in the last few years. SSE has benefited from this defensive bias and from the attraction its dividend policy holds for long-term investors looking for a reliable income. As a result, it has massively outperformed the FTSE 100 over the last 10 years:

If you are building up a retirement portfolio, total return is a useful metric for measuring the performance of your stock, as it captures the effects of share price changes and reinvested dividends. These two ingredients combined are what make it possible for equity portfolios to regularly outperform cash and bonds over the long term.

The trailing 10-year average total return highlights just how valuable SSE's stability and strong dividend performance is for retirement investors. Despite SSE getting left behind in the rebound rally of 2009, it didn't crash in 2011 and its trailing total return over the last 10 years is double that of the FTSE 100.

What's the score?

To help me pinpoint suitable investments, I like to score companies on key financial metrics that highlight the characteristics I look for in a retirement share. Let's see how SSE shapes up:

Follow this link:
Is SSE The Ultimate Retirement Share?

(MoneyWatch) COMMENTARY The topic of retirement already causes many people to lose sleep at night, as they realize they don't have enough money saved up to retire any time soon. Making matters worse is the understanding that we may need to help our parents with long-term care in their final years, placing another emotional and financial burden on our finances and families.

Then another troubling reality hits: We may need the same special care in a few decades.

Several heart-wrenching stories have appeared in the news of late describing the travails of baby-boomers struggling to cope with aging parents. (If you haven't experienced these challenges first-hand, I encourage you to read "A Life Worth Ending" in New York Magazine, "The Long Goodbye" in Time Magazine, and "Preparing for a Future That Includes Aging Parents" on National Public Radio's website.)

These reports give you an up close and personal look at the challenges we'll all face, either with our parents or for ourselves down the road. The stories sounded all too familiar to my wife and I, as our families scrambled in recent years to help my father and her mother receive the care they needed in their final years. Our experience provided a wake-up call to plan ahead in order to address this challenge for ourselves in the years to come.

Long term care for aging parents could reach $300,000 per person: How to cope Should you buy long term care insurance? Don't let Alzheimer's and dementia spoil your retirement

A long-term care event -- either with your parents or yourself -- can easily destroy anyone's retirement plans. The cost of paying for long-term care at a nursing home for a few years -- which insurance firm Genworth recently calculated at more than $80,000 per year -- could pay to send a grandkid to Harvard or fund a nice retirement.

Since we're on a roll, let's get all the bad news on the table. Recently, major insurers such as MetLife (MET), Prudential (PRU), and Unum (UNM) have stopped selling new policies for long-term care insurance, citing low interest rates, growing life expectancies, and uncertainty surrounding the prevalence and duration of Alzheimer's and dementia. The Obama administration also announced last year that it was shelving implementation of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program because of problems in designing a financially viable program to pay for long-term care. If feds couldn't solve this problem, what are our chances?

OK, I've got your attention. Now what? Well, you can't just sit around and brood about it. One of my favorite quotes comes from singer Joan Baez: "Action is the antidote to despair." So what can we do to take action, either for ourselves or our parents?

There are only two things we can do: (1) Take steps to reduce the odds of needing long-term care, and (2) prepare a plan for paying for the costs in case we need such care. Much easier said than done, of course, but that's the plan.

If you're now facing these issues with your parents, the die has already largely been cast. It's most likely too late to buy long-term care insurance, and your parents can't go back and retroactively save more money to pay for the care they need. But they can still take steps to improve their health, regardless of their age, and you can make the best use of existing financial and family resources.

Go here to see the original:
Facing the national retirement nightmare