HealthyLife April 2013

body. mind. spirit.

5

FU N

boredom buster workouts

april 2013

Tired of Being Tired?

Drop Those Last

Find Your

10

POWER HOUR!  special insert!

healthyHOME •N ew Life for Old Wood •D o you know what you’re eating?

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www.healthylifect.com Publisher Michelle McAbee Editorial Janet Reynolds, Group Executive Editor Rebecca Haynes, Editor Brianna Snyder, Associate Editor Design Krista Hicks Benson, Design Director Tony Pallone, NY Division Design Director Colleen Ingerto, Emily Jahn, NY Division Designers Contributing Writers Kristi Barlette, Wendy Carlson, Beth Cooney, Stacy Davis, Laurie Lynn Fisher, Sandra Diamond Fox, Alison Grieveson, Valerie Foster, Carin Lane, Merci Miglino, Lee Nelson, Colleen Plimpton, Cari Scribner, Emma Tennant, Linda Tuccio-Koonz, Melinda McGarty Webb Contributing Photographers Wendy Carlson, Alex Farnum, Dru Nadler, Colleen Plimpton Circulation John Truitt, Circulation Director

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Business Ray Koupal, Chief Financial Officer If you’d like to receive free home delivery of HealthyLife magazine, sign up online at www.healthylifect.com or call (203) 330-6435.

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HealthyLife is published by HEARST Media Services, 333 Main St., Danbury, CT 06810 The entire contents of this magazine are copyright 2013 by HEARST Media Services.

No portion may be reproduced in any means without written permission of the publisher.

HEARST Media Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Hearst Corporation.

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april ’13 body

26 Busting Fitness Boredom 5 workouts to try now

30 In it for the Long Haul

Why more women runners are going the distance

36 The Keys to the Kitchen Kingdom

Aida Mollenkamp answers all your cooking questions

41 Losing the Last 10

How to drop those stubborn last few pounds

46 Tired of Being Tired?

Learn how to find the culprit and restore energy

26

50 The Doctor’s in the House

Concierge medicine comes with care, convenience — and cost

 special insert 

healthyhome 58 Window Shopping Shop Smart, Shop Local for ecofriendly goods for your home

60 Refurnished Living

The American Dream

62 What’s in Your Corn Flakes?

Probably GMOs, or genetically modified organisms

66 Something Old is New Again

Reclaimed wood adds beauty and history to home renovation

73 The Magic of Mulch The first step to helping your garden stand out

66

Gardening with the Birds a lecture by Colleen Plimpton

s Don ’t m is E E R F our sem in a r!

1 p.m., Sunday, April 28 The Gardener’s Center and Florist 1396 Post Road, Darien pre-register at www.healthylifect.com/seminar

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mind

80 Finding Your Power Hour... … and making the most of the time

85

85 Don’t Be Afraid

You CAN overcome a phobia

89 Electronic Mishaps

Protecting your medical records in a paperless world

spirit

96 The Creativity Puzzle

Putting together the pieces to get your juices flowing

98 Ommmmm

Why daily meditation can make you happier — and healthier

100 Magic Wands

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Woodbury New Milford

New Fairfield

every issue 102

Southbury Brookfield

12 contributors’ page

Danbury

Newtown Bethel

14 what’s on the web 16 editor’s note 18 news and views 22 fit and fab 35 did you know?

45 your body: an owner’s manual

Oxford

Redding

Ridgefield Georgetown Wilton

Easton Weston

New Canaan

The Spleen

79 ask emma

A Room of Your Own

Cover credits: Clothing provided by Lyn Evans Potpourri, Ridgefield. Hair and makeup provided by Christie & Company, Danbury; Lisa Reiss, stylist; Laura Denny, makeup. Model photographs taken at Young’s Nurseries, Wilton. Photo by Dru Nadler.

Darien

95 my word essay Coffee Clutch

102 cover model Q&A Up Close with Torie Burke

90 East Ridge | Ridgefield, Connecticut | 203.438.5555 ridgefieldvna.org | Follow us on Facebook Staff Drop-in Site: 385 Main Street South | Southbury, Connecticut 203.264.3250

talk back

The story behind the story from our contributors The GMO fight Valerie Foster  I always read labels, but after reporting the GMO article, I realized that some ingredients I thought were OK are anything but.

Who knew that soy and corn — which are in just about everything that is processed — are GMOs unless it’s organic. Label reading has now taken on a life of it’s own. Find Valerie’s story on page 62.

On beating phobias Let your creativity flow!

“I love the idea that creativity is about allowing yourself to be surprised!”

Merci Miglino  To embrace that you don’t know where the process will take you! It’s such an adventure! See Merci’s story on page 96.

The beauty of age Losing those last 10 Beth Cooney  When your goal weight eludes you by one jeans size or a few pounds it can be incredibly frustrating.

The truth about shedding the last 10 pounds is that it takes scrupulous attention to detail, certainly lots more than the first 10 pounds. The takeaway from my chat with the experts: Try harder and don’t give up if your goal is a healthy one. To read Beth’s story turn to page 41.

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Wendy Carlson  I live in an old house with a lot of reclaimed wood, but what I learned in writing this story is that there are so many different varieties of old wood, some more expensive than others. Also, what gives wood its beauty and character — the richness of color and texture — is that the lumber was harvested from old-growth trees, proving once again that some things really do get better with age! To learn about using reclaimed wood, read Wendy’s story on page 66.

 What time of day do you get the most accomplished?

Patricia: the morning!

if I am out of bed early! I

Sandi: When I have a

love that feeling of getting

friend to run with.

things done early in the

Loredana: Vanity:)

day... Makes for a much

Cathy: My 3 kids.

when there’s so much to

Jennifer: It’s my time to

accomplish. Did I mention

disconnect, reconnect,

Linda: In the morning until

I am a Type A ?!!!

and rekindle my time

about 3 pm when my kids

 For the runners out there: what motivates you to hit the pavement (or trails)?

with me.

Morning!

Sheilah: Definitely the how much I can get done

healthylife

Sandra Diamond Fox  I’ve always been a morning person, and had assumed my power hour was first thing in the a.m. But I’m realizing as I get older that I’ve become much more productive — with regard to my writing and other projects — in the evening. See page 80 for Sandra’s story.

longer day, which is good

Evette: Only in the

morning. It is amazing

12

Finding your power hour

We asked, you answered!

get home

@healthylifect

Lee Nelson  I have a friend petrified of spiders.

She’s been that way since I met her in 7th grade. It has always amazed me how she turns from this calm, sweet person into a hysterical woman the minute she sees a spider or even a spider web.

There is help for her phobia as there is for anyone who fears something so much that it hinders their life. Lee’s story is on page 85.

Krista: For vanity and sanity! And the challenge.

It never seems easy, but is always rewarding.

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on the web

www.healthylifect.com HEALTHYLIFE

BLOGS Marathon Mom Follow local mom of four, Sandra Diamond Fox, as she goes through an 18-week training plan for her firstever marathon.

HealthyLife’s April cover model, Torie Burke, got ready for the shoot by having Torie’s her hair and makeup done at Christie & Company in Danbury. Here, makeup artist test Laura Denny works on Torie’s eyes. Follow shot.

Torie through her day on our website.

only on our website!

➺

Look for green home goods found around Fairfield County by writer Melinda McGarty Webb.

LEAN ON ME

THE ➺ MAGIC WAND

Learn more about proper mascara application from our exclusive video.

healthylife

Freelance writer and good-health enthusiast Beth Cooney scans the web to bring you the latest info and tips for healthy living.

Window Shopping

Go to our website to find out why reliability can make or break a friendship.

14

Healthy Tips

EXTRA ➺ RECIPE! Get the recipe for Curried Chicken Soup with Roasted Peanuts, from the Aida Mollenkamp’s Keys to the Kitchen: The Essential Reference for Becoming a More Accomplished, Adventurous Cook.

Photos: Behind the scenes, Rebecca Haynes, Test shot, Krista HIcks Benson; Mascara, Colleen Ingerto; Friends,, Ronnie Kaufman/Larry Hirshowitz/GettyImages; Sneakers, © Blasbike/Dreamstime. com.; Chicken Soup, Alex Farnum/Chronicle Books.

➺

Behind the Scenes

PRESENTS…

healthy

home

FREE SEMINAR

SEMINAR SERIES

GardeningwiththeBirds!

With Colleen Plimpton A popular garden author, lecturer, instructor and coach, Colleen is a member of Garden Writers Association, the Federated Garden Clubs of America, Tri-State Hosta Society, Mad Gardeners, the Nature Conservancy, The Garden Conservancy, Highstead Arboretum, the Connecticut Horticultural Society, the New York Botanical Garden, and many other

groups. The Bethel resident’s award-winning one-acre ornamental garden has been on numerous tours, and serves as a living classroom laboratory where she teaches composting, composition, color and many additional how-to’s of gardening. She runs a garden coaching business, and teaches gardening at the New York Botanical Garden.

To pre-register, go to healthylifect.com/seminar Space is limited, so please pre-register.

FREE SEMINAR

Sunday, April 28, 2013, 1 pm The Gardener’s Center and Florist

1396 Post Road - Darien, CT 06820

Gardening with the Birds!

Do you want your garden to come alive this year with the color, sound and sight of songbirds? Attend popular garden lecturer Colleen Plimpton’s seminar Gardening with the Birds and learn how to plant for, feed, house and otherwise attract a wealth of avian visitors. Also included in the talk will be advice on dealing with salt water incursion as well as answers to general spring gardening questions.

editor’s note

Oh, to be a runner

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Photo: Krista Hicks Benson

I

have so much admiration for those dedicated runners out there who tackle marathons.

Maybe that’s because I’ve always wished I was one of them.

Way back in my high school days, after implementation of Title IX, I was one of the members of our first girls’ cross country team. I wasn’t very good and did it because a couple of my friends were runners and needed more bodies to fill a roster.

Today I’m more of a power walker than a runner, although I’d love to be the latter. Something about running — shortly after starting my brain goes into a “when can I stop?” mantra that doesn’t go out of my head until I do just that. But I’m like the Energizer Bunny when I walk — I can keep going and going.

Anyway, I admire runners and wish I was one. So I enjoyed our story on page 30 about the popularity of marathons among women. For any of you with marathon (or shorter race) aspirations, check it out — it includes a list of some of the area’s upcoming events. Also, check in with our Marathon Mom blogger, Sandra Diamond Fox. She’s training for her first marathon and posting about her experience three times a week. You’ll find her blog on our website (www.healthylifect.com) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/HealthyLifeCTmagazine).

How much do you enjoy reading HealthyLife? Are there story topics you’d love to see but haven’t? Do you have a favorite feature? Do our layouts draw you in and make reading easy?

Now’s your chance to tell us what you think. HealthyLife’s first reader survey is up and waiting for your answers. You can even put yourself in a random drawing to win a $500 gift card just for participating. Find the link on our website (see ad on next page). We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for reading!

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No purchase necessary to enter or win. Reader feedback sweepstakes sponsored by Hearst Media Services Connecticut, LLC. Beginning April 1, 2013 at 12:01 a.m. (ET) through April 30, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. (ET) go to surveymonkey.com/s/HealthyLifeSurvey and complete and submite the entry form pursuant to the on-screen instructions. One (1) Grand Prize winner will receive a $500 American Express Gift Card. Odds of winning depend on the total number of eligible entries received. Open to legal residents of the State of Connecticut age 18 and over. Void where prohibited by law. Complete rules available at healthylifect.com.

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news and views — compiled by beth cooney

Moms Pay the Price at Work cleaning) may sacrifice when it comes to workplace career advancement.

A new study out of the University of California finds that all else being equal, female professionals are less likely to pursue promotions and job advances when they’re chief executives at home. “It appears that being in charge of household decisions may bring a semblance of power to women’s traditional role, to the point where women may have less desire to push

A New Wrinkle for Overactive Bladders

BOTOX IS NOT JUST FOR BANISHING WRINKLES from

the faces of Hollywood celebrities. Injections of the botulism derivative, which also have been used to treat migraines and stop profuse sweating, have recently been approved by the FDA for the treatment of overactive bladder.

Overactive bladder is a condition that occurs when the bladder squeezes too often or without warning. Often common in women who’ve had babies or who have gone through menopause, its symptoms include leaking urine and feeling the sudden and frequent urge to urinate.

In a statement announcing its approval of Botox as a treatment for the disorder, the FDA noted that clinical studies have found that when the drug is injected into the bladder muscle, it causes it to relax, increasing storage capacity and reducing episodes of incontinence. Injecting the bladder with Botox is performed using cystoscopy, a procedure that allows the doctors to see the bladder interior during the injection process. source: tinyurl.com/hl13botox

18

healthylife

against the obstacles to achieving additional power outside the home,” says UC Berkeley psychologist Serena Chen, a co-author of the study.

While household decision-making power was highly valued by men and women, women reported that highlevel domestic duties made them less likely to pursue career advancement at the office. This was not the case with men, whose professional goals were not affected by their domestic roles. source: tinyurl.com/hl13domestics

Pollen Exposure and Asthma IT’S WELL ESTABLISHED that there’s a connection between certain allergies and asthma in children, but new research takes the connection a step further. It suggests that a mother’s exposure to pollen during pregnancy may play a role in childhood asthma.

Researchers at Sweden’s Umea University studied data gleaned from more than 100,000 pregnancies and births in the Stockholm area.

They found when women were exposed to heavy amounts of pollen during the last 12 weeks of their pregnancies, asthma hospitalization rates for their offspring were especially high. (The analysis was adjusted for exacerbating factors such as smoking and fluctuations in A mother’s seasonal pollen rates.) exposure to Researchers have several theories on why pollen during asthma rates seem to be higher in children born pregnancy to these mothers. One possibility is that the exmay play posure somehow triggers an immune system rea role in action in the infant in utero. Or, they suggested, childhood it’s also possible that pregnant women who have asthma. a severe reaction to asthma may suffer complications that can affect their children such as premature births, a known risk factor in childhood asthma. Further research into the cause-and-effect relationship, they say, is warranted. source: tinyurl.com/hl13asthma

Photos: Dreamstime.com; Woman at work, © Monkey Business Images; Lily, © Lepas; Man and Woman, © Nyul; Berries, © Zhekos.

MOMS WHO DO THE HEAVY LIFTING at home (think cooking,

The Sleep-Love Connection

LONG-TERM COUPLES in a romantic rut often complain their partners take them for granted and don’t express appreciation for all the loving things they do on a typical day.

The culprit for that indifference? It just may be sleep deprivation, according to a new study out of the University of California.

“Poor sleep may make us more selfish as we prioritize our own needs over our partner’s,” says Amie Gordon, a UC Berkeley psychologist and lead investigator of the study, which she conducted with UC Berkeley psychologist Serena Chen. Their findings were recently reported at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychologists. More than 60 couples, with ages ranging from 18 to 56, participated in the study. In one experiment, participants kept a diary of their sleep patterns and how a good or bad night’s rest affected their appreciation of their significant other.

In another experiment, they were videotaped engaged in problem-solving tasks. Those who had slept badly the night before showed less appreciation for their partner. Overall, the results showed poor sleepers had a harder time counting their blessings and valuing their partners.

How to remedy that? “Make sure to say to say ‘thanks’ when your partner does something nice,” suggested Gordon.

“Let them know you appreciate them.”

Oh, and try to get a good night’s rest. source: tinyurl.com/hl13couples

BERRY Good for Your Heart ONCE AGAIN, science is giving us a reason to nosh on blueberries and strawberries. This time nature’s sweet treats, which have been linked to everything from the prevention of cancer to the onset of dementia, are now being praised for their ability to prevent heart attacks. That’s good news for women, who can still claim heart disease as their number-one health risk.

A new study, recently reported in the journal Circulation, gleaned its data through the famed Nurses’ Health Study, which has examined the health of a large group of young and middle-age women spanning an 18-year period. In this study, women’s diets were analyzed and correlated to the number of reported heart attacks. The data found that women who ate the most blueberries and strawberries were 32 percent less likely to have heart attacks than their peers. This number remained high even when the berry eaters were compared to women who otherwise ate copious amounts of fruits and vegetables.

Researchers believe the results may be attributable to high levels of compounds in berries that can potentially clear arteries of plaque buildup that can cause heart attacks. Considering that berries are a delicious low-calorie snack, what better way to eat to your health? source: tinyurl.com/hl13berries continued on page 20

healthylifect.com

19

news and views

On Your Dime

New Guidelines for

Lung Cancer Screening

IS YOUR COLLEGE STUDENT an academic slacker? Or

BECAUSE IT’S OFTEN DIAGNOSED IN LATE STAGES, lung cancer is among the

most devastating and fatal of all cancers.

One reason it’s been so difficult to detect is the lack of simple, low-risk tests that can spot it in its earliest, most treatable stages. Now, new recommendations from the American Cancer Society have the potential to lead to earlier diagnosis for some high-risk groups, most notably heavy, long-term smokers ages 55 and beyond. The new guidelines were published recently in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

There are some risks associated with CT scans because they are a type of x-ray and involve some radiation exposure. The tests also can turn up false positives, which may lead to unnecessary follow-up tests, biopsies and, in some cases, dangerous complications. For that reason, the ACS is only recommending these tests be done routinely on former heavy smokers and current smokers. The American Cancer Society’s new screening guidelines include current smokers and those who have quit within the last 15 years.

While the group says the screenings will save lives, there’s still a long way to go. Lung cancer kills about 160,000 Americans each year. source: tinyurl.com/hl13lung

Flu Vaccine Protects Unborn Babies

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have those high school honor roll grades slipped into a category that’s more B-minus than A-plus?

The reason, according to an intriguing new ps ych o lo gic a l study out of the University of California, may have to do with who is bankrolling the bills. And if the answer is mom and dad, chances are your child may be officially in the coasting category. It turns out that college students whose parents significantly underwrite their highereducation costs are more likely to have their grades slip than those young adults who pay their own way or rely on grants, loans, work study, veteran’s

AFTER THIS YEAR’S devastating flu epidemic, this news should be especially interesting to pregnant women, women planning to conceive, and their doctors: A new study out of Norway suggests that two groups especially vulnerable to flu exposure — namely pregnant women and babies in the womb — truly benefit from being vaccinated.

Many people get nervous about taking preventive vaccines for diseases and viral illnesses such as the flu because they worry about exposure to the small amounts of virus contained in the shots intended to build protective immunities.

benefits and scholarships. (Researchers noted these funds are increasingly difficult to access.)

The study did have a silver lining that may have some tuition-burdened parents breathing a sigh of relief: The parent-supported students included in the study had lower grades but higher graduation rates than their self-supporting peers.

“Students with parental support are best described as staying out of serious academic trouble, but dialing down their academic efforts,” UC researcher and sociologist Laura Hamilton wrote in the study, which recently appeared in the American Sociological Review. source: tinyurl.com/hl13school

But researchers funded by the Norwegian Institute for Public Health found in a comprehensive study of pregnant women in their second and third trimesters that mothers receiving the flu vaccination did not have higher rates of infant mortality and there was some evidence that receiving the vaccine may have improved the infant’s odds of survival.

The study, reported in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, involved a comprehensive look at expectant Norwegian mothers during a 2009 flu pandemic. source: tinyurl.com/hl13flu

Photos: Dreamstime.com; Baby, © Teraberb; Books, © Micah Olson; Blackberry, © Coldsilence; iPhone © Dmyla.

continued from page 19

Brown Eyes Have It

WHEN IT COMES TO WINNING people’s trust, it’s the brown-eyed girls (and boys) who come out on top over their blueeyed rivals.

Czech researchers, studying the impact certain facial features such as shape and eye color had on making an impression, found there were certain traits that made others rate strangers shown to them in pictures as trustworthy. When it comes to eyes, they found that it’s brown eyes (not beguiling blues) that were rated high on the trust meter.

But the researchers noted it was not brown eyes alone that seemed to elicit trust.

Rather, it was overall features (including face shape), coupled with brown eyes, that study subjects noted were appealing, specifically rounder, softer features, rather than thinner, angular features.

The study was reported recently in the journal Plos One. source: tinyurl.com/hl13faces

Blackberry vs. iPhone:

The Health Winner Is ...

SINCE THEY HIT THE MARKET, users have debated ad infinitum the relative merits of owning a BlackBerry or an iPhone.

Now the health community is weighing in. And in the case of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, they’ve declared a clear winner for your health. Drum roll please, it’s the iPhone that gets the doctors’ organization’s thumbs-up for being relatively free of allergens in its materials.

Specifically, the ACAAI cited BlackBerries as potentially dangerous for the presence of nickel, a known allergen than can cause rashes and flaky patches along the cheek, chin and ears when it

is pressed against the face. “Approximately one-third of all Blackberries contain nickel, but neither cobalt nor nickel was detected in iPhones or Droids,” allergist Dr. Tania Mucci, lead study author, says in an ACAAI press release.

The organization notes that Blackberry users with known allergies should limit long conversations, use their phones for texts and e-mails, and reduce time spent handling their phones if they notice symptoms. The ACAAI also suggests using plastic phone cases and earpieces for further protection. The findings were reported at the ACAAI’s 2012 annual meeting. source: tinyurl.com/hl13phones

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Standard crunches will get a boost when you use a stability ball.

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body Busting Fitness Boredom 26 Did You Know? 35

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The Keys to the Kitchen 36

Tired of Being Tired? 46

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exercise

Busting Fitness

BOREDOM 5 workouts to try now by beth cooney

I

f you follow the advice of just about every expert on planet fit, then you know by now that it does a body good to tweak your workout routine. And while you’re out there mixing it up, it probably wouldn’t be such a bad thing if you had a little fun to stimulate the mind and body in the kinetic process.

“A change of pace is good for everyone,” says Nancy Hammett, owner of Sound, Mind & Body fitness in Milford and an expert in Neuromuscular Integrative Action (NIA), a form of low-impact aerobics that combines elements of tai chi, yoga and dance for an invigorating and graceful workout. As devoted as Hammett is to the program, she’s always looking for new workouts that will inspire and motivate her students. This explains why Hammett recently began to offer Drums Alive, an invigorating workout that involves percussively pounding on a fitness ball. “It fits with my concept of what mind-body fitness is about. Sometimes something different challenges you physically and mentally.”

To that fresh end, HealthyLife searched Fairfield County for the latest in new workouts bound to invigorate your current routine. Some are so new your favorite fitness studio may not be offering them quite yet, but ask around. Chances are they’ll be playing soon at a workout space near you.

R.O.P.A. Short for Resilient, Outstanding and always Performing with Attitude, R.O.P.A. classes are designed to, well, whip devotees into shape by combining high-intensity rope work with alternating dance moves. “It’s like Zumba on steroids,” says personal trainer Stefanie Tropea of Norwalk’s Punch Kettlebell Gym, who teaches R.O.P.A. to a group of enthusiasts twice a week. The workouts, the brainchild of Art of Strength founder Anthony DeLuglio, have been featured on popular television shows such as The Biggest Loser and Dr. Oz. “It’s fun because it’s strength training with a little cardio and some of your



 HOW IT WORKS: Participants use

a combination of weighted and freehanging ropes to twist and pound and movements such as slamming heavy ropes on the ground. This is accompanied by a variety of dance moves and body weight drills set to music. “It’s the ultimate judgmentfree class because you are encouraged to add your own flavor,” explains Tropea, who adds the results are “low-impact, but very high-intensity.”  WHERE TO TRY IT: Punch is cur-

rently the only Fairfield County gym offering a certified R.O.P.A. program, but you can also buy DVDs online.

Hula Hooping



Photos: Woman with dumbbell, © iStockphoto.com/Corey Sundahl; Woman with ropes, Courtesy of R.O.P.A.; Woman with hula hoop, © iStockphoto.com/Diane Labombarbe.

own flavor added in,” says Tropea.

Inspired by a video she saw on YouTube, Stamford-based fitness instructor and personal trainer Amy Irish started experimenting with an oversized hula hoop. “It was kind of like doing Cirque du Soleil tricks in my bedroom,” Irish says. She realized she was really onto something.

Fitness hula hooping is a trend that’s definitely not kids’ stuff, says Irish, who began teaching classes throughout Fairfield County a few years ago.  HOW IT’S DONE: Adult-sized

hoops are used to execute a variety of movements and tricks around the waist, arms and even off-body to work the core and elevate heart rates for what Irish describes as a mild-to-moderate cardio workout. “I kind of liken it to a chal-

lenging Pilates class,” says Irish.

“It’s not like running for miles, but it will do amazing things to tone and strengthen your core that’s more intense than you might do in a typical (mat) Pilates class.” And, of course, just like that childhood pursuit, “it’s fun and different than anything else you’re probably doing.”  WHERE TO TRY IT: Irish teaches

classes privately throughout Fairfield County (sometimes offering single-day workshops) but her most frequent classes are offered through Stamford Continuing Education.

HealthyLife also found classes at the Fairfield YMCA as well as The Girl Spot in Trumbull and through a Danbury-area meetup group. Also, check out Hoopdancers of SW Connecticut online or Irish’s site, Lucky Hoops.com for news on hoop workouts throughout the county. continued on page 28

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exercise continued from page 27

Piloxing



 HOW IT’S DONE: Upper-body-fo-

cused boxing moves — with a heavy emphasis on arm work — are alternated with standing and mat-based

Pilates floorwork. “It’s not as heavy on the kicks as you see in some boxing classes,” explains Kelly-Camlin, adding this makes it appealing to many boxing novices. By alternating with Pilates moves, “it becomes great interval training, which just really revs up your metabolism.” Participants wear light, boxing-style gloves and follow an instructor-led choreographed routine..  WHERE TO TRY IT: Piloxing is cur-

rently offered in Fairfield County at Kelly-Camilin’s studio in Stamford’s Springdale section and Flair Fitness in Darien. You also can purchase do-ityourself DVDs at Piloxing.com.

Drums Alive Ever notice how drummers in rock bands work themselves into a frothy sweat? That’s because the percussive action of rhythmically pounding those drums requires lots of cardio energy and stamina. When fitness enthusiast Carrie Ekins suffered a devastating hip injury and was recovering, she began pounding on boxes with drumsticks and quickly realized she was getting a serious workout.

Drums Alive was born and the workout is being touted for its abilities to foster physical, social and emotional well-being. “It’s almost like a spiritual experience when you’re done,” says Betty Kelly-Camlin, who offers Drums Alive classes at Bodywise by Betty, her studio in Stamford’s Springdale section. Nancy Hammett of Sound Mind & Body fitness is

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a fan of Drums Alive’s accessibility to workout enthusiasts who are injured or have limited mobility. “You could do it from a chair and end up as sweaty as if you’d been dancing for an hour.” It’s an amazing way to beat up some sweat.  HOW IT’S DONE: Drum to the left.

Drop your sticks and dance around your drum or run from left to right and tap away at your neighbor’s drum. Drums Alive workouts elevate your heart rate and stimulate your

brain waves by forcing you to learn simple patterns, change them and beat away calories and stress. The props include plastic drumsticks, fitness balls and risers in which the balls are stabilized. “Like dance, it’s one of those workouts that’s great for your mind as well as your body because it forces you to learn patterns,” says Hammett.  WHERE TO TRY IT: Like Spin-

ning and Zumba, Drums Alive is a trademarked workout that requires specialized training and certifications.

While several fitness studios in Connecticut offer it, the only two in Fairfield County at press time were Milford’s Sound, Mind & Body and Bodywise by Betty. But you can go solo too. Drums Alive also sells DVDs, props and has YouTube videos that give excellent demos of what’s involved.

Photos: Piloxer, © Maxim Timokhin/Dreamstime.com; Drums Alive, Courtesy of Drums Alive; CrossFit, © iStockphoto.com/kali9.

There are Pilates devotees and boxing fans. Both workouts have their merits. So why not combine them in a peanut-butter-meets-fitnesschocolate kind of way? That’s what Swedish dancer and celebrity trainer Viveca Jensen did when she launched Piloxing. Like so many fitness trends, Piloxing, which pairs core-toning Pilates work with alternating boxing moves, has its roots in Hollywood.



CrossFit

Perhaps the most popular of the workouts featured here, CrossFit is the highly competitive, strength-oriented program that has become the buff darling of fitness enthusiasts who want to take it to the next level.

Shawna Kelly, an already-fit interior designer from Fairfield, began taking CrossFit Classes at BK Athletics in Fairfield several months ago and calls it transformative. Her most recent achievement? Weighted pull-ups. “I thought I was fit already,” says Kelly, who calls CrossFit “the leave-it-all-on-the-floor kind of workout that just pushes you to the absolute limit.”  HOW IT’S DONE: A bit like a military style multi-sta-

tion workout, CrossFit enthusiasts don’t rely so much on machines and props (although some weights and equipment are involved) as they do their own body weight to execute a variety of intense calisthenic movements — think lunges, pull-ups, squats, cleanand-jerk type movements and interval sets. There are levels of training and accomplishment that CrossFit athletes can use as goals to push themselves. Super serious enthusiasts even compete in CrossFit games and competitions held throughout the United States.

At the novice level, Kelly compares her workouts to “really hard middle-school gym class.” Except, she adds, “it’s more fun.”

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The curious can check out the training system on the blogs of many local CrossFit gyms and on various YouTube demonstrations.

HL

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fitness trend

In it for the

LONG HAUL why more women runners are going the distance by valerie foster

M

arathons. Just the word makes some people run for the couch. But not the 250,000 Americans who spend hours each year training in anticipation of crossing that 26.2-mile finish line, or the more than 1.6 million who run 13.1-mile half-marathons, according to Runner’s World magazine.

Take Fairfield resident Meg Capodanno, the mother of three, past president of the Osborn Hill PTA, religious school teacher and part-time nursery school teacher, who gets up at 4:45 a.m. daily to get her run in before anyone else wakes up. “I claim this time for myself and I go,” Capodanno says. She’s been running for 25 years, and this year’s Boston marathon will mark her 25th marathon.

“Running is such a part of me now, that I don’t feel right if I don’t run. Running makes me a better wife, mother, teacher. At night, I look forward to starting the next day with a run.”

The runners we spoke to echoed Capodanno’s sentiments over and over again. And in every case these marathoners are busy people. Their common denominator: Running is not just sport; it’s one of the most important parts of their lives, a priority that they have to fit into their busy schedules.

And they are not alone. Distance races are no longer all-boys clubs, something that was not the case a few decades ago. All eyes were glued to the TV in 1984 when American Joan Benoit Samuelson won the first Olympic women’s marathon in Los Angeles, becoming a role model to women. Today, many quotes are attributed to Samuelson, but two stand out:  “ Years ago, women sat in kitchens drinking coffee and

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discussing life. Today, they cover the same topics while they run.”  “ Those long runs cleanse my system, physically and mentally.”

According to Running USA, women made up 41 percent of marathon finishers in 2010, which was four times the amount of women who crossed the finish line in 1980.

Women half-marathoners have more than tripled since 2000, with women making up 59 percent of finishers in 2012.

But why do they run? Our runners gave many reasons:  Although none are elite runners, they say that each race is a chance for them to achieve a personal best.  Whether they began running to lose weight or just to stay in shape, all say running, especially when they are training for a race, has kept their bodies lean and their energy up.  Unlike other sports, training for a race is free — all they need is a good pair of sneakers and comfortable clothes.  They can run at any time — before and after work, before the kids get up or after they go to bed, in the middle of the day.  It’s a mental vacation from the stresses of life, a chance to either zone out or work through problems.  For some it’s social: They run with friends or a club.  For moms, it’s an opportunity to be a role model.  The excitement of a race environment: Meeting other runners, swapping running stories, encouraging newbies and being cheered on throughout the race by perfect strangers.  And finally, crossing the finish line, and the sense of accomplishment they all feel, no matter the time they achieved.

THE ALL-IMPORTANT TRAINING Like running styles and ability, everyone has their own way of training. Lauren Bosse of Bridgeport was bitten by the running bug three years ago, and has completed one marathon (in Philadelphia in November). Bosse runs for the American Cancer Society, which provides some perks in return for fundraising: free coaching, training and running partners. She also runs twice a week with the running club Nike Westport, which also supplies coaching and training tips. Others, like Ann Decker of Stamford, just bought a book and followed the prescribed training schedule, a plan that has gotten her through 17 marathons. And then there’s Diane Keenan of Wallingford, who has been running since fifth grade and works out her own plans.

Jeff Palmer of Weston has been running forever. The president of the Pequot Running Club, including 23 years as director of the club’s Thanksgiving Day Race in Southport, he’s run six marathons, equally divided between the New York City Marathon and the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. But now, at age 68, he admits he has been totally beaten up by running. When he was training, it was not unusual for him to run 80 to 90 miles a week. “Now

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fitness trend Check out our blog:

Marathon Mom

Follow local mom of four, Sandra Diamond Fox, as she goes through an 18-week training plan for her firstever marathon.



Want to run a half marathon or marathon of your own? Take a look at our list of races on page 33.

I run just for the heck of it,” he says. “Today, I ran five and a half miles. It is a life skill as long as you can continue to do it.”

His advice to any runner is to train smart. “If somebody is training for a marathon or halfmarathon, they should find and follow a program that will work for them,” he says. “Each week, increase your speed and distance by 10 percent.”

With that equation, he says it takes four, five or six months for most runners to be ready for a marathon. Spring and fall, and warmer winter days, are ideal training months. Summer is hard because of the heat and humidity.

When training, most marathoners never run 26.2 miles, stopping somewhere between 20 to 23 miles. “Training over that has no benefit,” says Jason Twedt, retail and training facility manager at Pacific Swim Bike Run in Stamford. “By that point, you have been training well enough to get over the hump and finish the marathon.”

Although it’s different for every runner, many hit the “wall” — a devastating feeling of fatigue and sometimes confusion that can occur in the final miles of a marathon. Some cross the finish line vowing to never run another marathon. Others work past the wall, and although drained, are ready to sign up for their next event.

Twedt has run three marathons, and tells all his clients that running is a skill. “Running is like swimming and cycling,” he says. “The best way to progress and get better is to approach it as a skill.”

He emphasizes three key rules to all his clients: 1. Have fun and enjoy the journey to get to the race. This is a great time for a runner to learn about themselves.

2. Don’t over-train.

3. Take your rest day seriously and do not run.

“A rest day once a week gives your body time to heal and rest,” he says. “You will also make more gains by taking a rest day.”

MOM AS ROLE MODEL He also advises everyone to mix up their exercise routines, adding some core building and core strength exercise to make them stronger runners.

Aimee Elsner of Stamford, wife, mother of

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

two, part-time pediatric occupational therapist and student — she’s taking a class in plant-based nutrition, a subject that is important to her as a breast-cancer survivor — mixes her running with yoga, swimming and biking. Capodanno does yoga, lifts weights and bikes, in addition to walking her black lab puppy a few times a day. Decker bikes and swims. And Keenan involves her kids in her extra exercise. “Anything they want to do — biking, hiking, swimming — I’ll do with them,” she says. “And when I run, if I can’t find someone to watch them, they get on their bikes and ride along as I run.” Her kids are 6 and 8, and it’s not uncommon for them to bike six or seven miles.

With one out of three U.S. kids classified as overweight or obese, running moms become exercise role models for their children. Elsner’s two sons did Stamford’s JCC’s Kids’ Triathlon: Wyatt, 6, twice, and Nate, 5, once. “It’s a great event, and the boys really enjoyed it,” she says. “And they got a medal, which they both loved.” Capodanno’s children have a 5K under their belts.

WHY RUN? “It’s a great sport that can be done by anyone, to any degree,” says Decker. “It can fit into any lifestyle. It’s especially good for women and girls because it proves that you can make your body do things you never thought you could accomplish. Running is easy to get into. It’s easy to maintain.”

“Running is such a part of me now,” says Capodanno. “It is not just the physical. It’s my quiet time. Sometimes it is my prayerful time. As I have gotten older, I have come to appreciate the spiritual side of it.”

Elsner of Stamford sums it up: “It is the perfect sport for women. It’s a challenge against yourself. The races are so big that unless you are an upper elite runner, you are not running to win. You are running for a better time. When I beat my time, it’s amazing. But most races, I run just to finish the race, and that makes me feel so good.”

“And you get a medal to prove you finished,” adds first-time marathoner Bosse. “That medal is my most prized possession.”

HL



Photos: Dreamstime.com; Footprints, © Zelli. Race, © Michael Spring; Sneakers, © Blasbike; Woman finishing race, © Gregory Johnston; Race medals, Krista Hicks Benson.

Going the distance?

Connecticut hosts a few marathons and half-marathons in 2013. If you’ve never experienced one, standing on the sidelines can be just as exciting as running the race.

It could even be the incentive you need to tie up your sneakers and get moving, which is exactly what happened to Stamford’s Aimee Elsner. In 2001, she was a single, young adult living in New York City, needed a cheap sport, so she started running. Then she saw the New York City marathon, thought it was “cool,” and began training in earnest.

Some of Connecticut’s scheduled 2013 long-distance runs: April 7: Stratton Faxon Greater Danbury Half Marathon, 5K and kids run April 28: Cheshire Half Marathon, 5K and kids run May 5: Redding Road Race, Half Marathon, 7-miler, kids run June 2: Amica Iron Horse Half-Marathon, 10K and 5K, Simsbury June 23 : Fairfield Half Marathon Sept. 2: New Haven Road Race, 20K, 5K, kids run Oct. 10: ING Hartford Marathon and HalfMarathon, 5K, kids run

healthylifect.com

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fast facts

did you know?

compiled by brianna snyder

50 percent

Over 50 percent of people older than 64 suffer from some type of sleep disorder. source: tinyurl.com/hl13sleep

Photos: Foxglove, © Vilor/ Dreamstime.com; Tampon, ©iStockphoto.com; Illustration: © iStockphoto.com/Annarki.

1799

Foxglove

The first known heart medicine was discovered in an English garden in 1799.

Physician John Ferriar noted the effect of dried leaves of the common foxglove plant on heart action.

Still used in heart medications today, the plant slows the pulse and increases the force of heart contractions and the amount of blood pumped per heartbeat. source: tinyurl.com/ hl13heart

8

In 1977, Wesley Paul, an 8-year-old from Columbia, Mo., became the youngest person ever to complete the New York City Marathon with a time of 3:00:37. This was before the marathon began enforcing an age minimum of 16, later bumped to 18. source: tinyurl.com/hl13marathon

11,400 Approximately 70 percent of women of menstruating age use tampons.

A woman may use nearly 11,400 tampons in her life. source: tinyurl.com/ hl13period

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35

cookbook

The Keys to the

Kitchen Kingdom

aida mollenkamp answers all your cooking questions Curried Chicken Soup with Roasted Peanuts

by janet reynolds | photos by alex farnum/chronicle books

W

hether you’re an experienced cook with decades under your spatula or a relative newbie who knows a little but could really use a primer, Aida Mollenkamp’s new book Keys to the Kitchen, can help take your cooking to the next level.

Former host of the Food Network’s Ask Aida and the Cooking Channel’s FoodCrafters, Mollenkamp offers straightforward advice on everything from prepping to poaching (for the newer cook) to something she calls The Riff, a section for more experienced or adventurous cooks who want to learn how to get away from obsessively following recipes to cooking from the hip. In this section, she offers over 100 additional cooking ideas, including how to reinvent last night’s leftovers. And who doesn’t need to know that?

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Aida Mollenkamp’s Keys to the Kitchen: The Essential Reference for Becoming a More Accomplished, Adventurous Cook, photographs by Alex Farnum, Chronicle Books, 448 pages, $35

For the recipe Curried Chicken Soup with Roasted Peanuts, pictured at left, visit us online at healthylifect.com

One section, called Label Lingo, helps you figure out — finally! — the meaning behind the labels manufacturers place on their foods. What, for instance, is the difference between heritage and heirloom crops? Mollenkamp also includes a helpful drawing of pigs, poultry, fish and beef with all the sections labeled. You’ll never wonder about the difference between a Boston shoulder and picnic shoulder again.

She also explains basic tools and their purpose, certain assumptions you should make about all recipes — produce, for instance, should be ripe — and the differences between minced, finely chopped, medium dice, etc., complete with helpful drawings.

The recipes are just as clear and include difficulty ratings as well as total time and hands-on time. Each includes tips as well. “Cracked bulgur is cracked wheat that is the same size as cornmeal and is used to make tabbouleh,” she writes in the margins of her recipe for eggplant casserole with pine nut-yogurt sauce. “If you can’t find it, you can use quinoa (cook according to package directions) or leave it out.”

M

ollenkamp says she decided to write the book in part because she kept being bombarded by questions from family and friends. The Millennial generation — of which she is a member — loves to eat, she says, but generally doesn’t know how to cook well. “[In] my age group you see a lack of home economics [training] in the schools and then as a result of modern conveniences you see people marketed to that it’s a hassle to cook. I wanted to take a stand against that,” she says. “Anybody can put dinner on the table if you know some basic skills in 30 to 40 minutes.”

Mollenkamp also wants to help more experienced cooks get out of their culinary ruts. “One of the things I stand by is every time you enter the market, every time you sit down to eat or cook, you have a chance for a food adventure.”

“People who are confident in the kitchen, the majority are stuck or not comfortable going out of their comfort zone,” she continues. “I wanted to help them get beyond that. I wanted to help them riff and get beyond that.”

Mollenkamp says she gets her cooking inspiration from her life experiences. She has traveled a fair amount and grew up in Los Angeles, a city known for its multi-ethnicity. “I turn to the flavors of Latin America, the Middle East and Asian groups because I grew up around them,” she says.

The key to good cooking — and what Mollenkamp hopes readers will take away from her book — is to relax.

“It’s that riffing concept,” she says. “I hope they are comfortable enough in the kitchen that they can make the food their own.” continued on page 38

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cookbook: recipe continued from page 37

Chipotle Sweet Potato Hash with Poached Eggs and Avocado ingredients for the eggs 8 cups water 1 teaspoon vinegar (optional) 4 large eggs for the hash 1 yellow onion, diced small kosher salt and fresh pepper to taste 1 green pepper, diced small 1 pound sweet potatoes, diced small 1 clove garlic, minced 1 canned chipotle chile in adobo, minced 1 /2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth or water 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, minced or 1/4 teaspoon dried 1 medium ripe avocado, sliced for garnish sour cream, optional method for the eggs Bring the 8 cups of water to a simmer in a medium frying pan and, if using, add the vinegar. Break each egg into a separate small cup or ramekin. Gently slide the eggs into the simmering water, cooking two at a time. Cook until the whites are just set, about 3 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, carefully lift the eggs out of the water. Place in a bowl of warm water to hold their heat while finishing the hash. for the hash Heat some oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add the onion, season with salt, stir to coat the onion pieces in oil and cook until softened and translucent, about 3 minutes. Stir in the bell pepper and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the sweet potatoes and stir to coat in oil. Cook, stirring occasionally until the sweet potatoes just begin to brown, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and chipotle and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the broth or water, cover and cook until the potatoes are fork-tender, about 5 minutes.

Remove the cover and cook until the liquid has almost completely evaporated (the bottom of the pan should have a film of liquid), about 3 minutes. Stir in the thyme, season generously with salt and pepper, and stir to combine.

Serve the hash topped with 1 or 2 poached eggs for each serving and garnish with sliced avocado and, if desired, a dollop of sour cream.

38

healthylife

Tip: Fresh

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your weight

Losing the

Last

10

how to drop those stubborn last few pounds by beth cooney

W

hen Weight Watchers ambassador Daphne Mills of Danbury began losing weight, the first 101 pounds she dropped were “a breeze.” Well, make that a breeze compared to the next 10 she ultimately lost.

As Mills, a Bridgeport-based social worker with the state’s juvenile judicial branch got closer to her goal weight, the multi-pound losses she racked up week after week on the Weight Watchers scale slowed to ounces. Sometimes the scale barely budged.

“I had come so far and didn’t have that far to go, but that last little bit came off so slowly. It felt sometimes like it was taking forever.”

What helped her reach her goal weight and achieve a total of 111-pound weight loss in February 2009? “I had to give everything a jolt,” says Mills. She switched her morning breakfast from instant oatmeal to the steel-cut version, she cut down on some low-calorie (but processed) snacks, and stepped up her workouts, swapping out the first level of her introductory fitness DVD set for the “turbo” version. She took up running with a supportive co-worker. She dumped the sugar and cream in her coffee, substituting low-fat milk and flavored coffee beans. She relied more than ever on

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41

your weight How to Reach That Elusive Goal  Celebrate Every Breakthrough At her weight-loss center Bensen treats the elusive last 10 pounds like a momentous occasion that calls for a celebration. For her clients, “it’s like a New Year’s countdown. We celebrate every pound. We do a countdown and make a big, big deal out of it.” Her strategy is an acknowledgement that “the last part of the race is really hard, but it’s so exciting when you reach that finish line.”  Realize That 10 Pounds Is a Heavy Load If you start to think that 10 pounds “isn’t such a big deal,” then try this trick suggested by Bensen: Walk around carrying a 10 pound barbell, sack of potatoes or a sack of phone books for a while. “It’s a burden on your whole body, especially the joints that have to carry that weight around.” Ten pounds, for many people, also can make a huge difference in their blood sugars, cholesterol levels and other important health benchmarks, notes Bensen.  Don’t Sweat the Setbacks The closer you get to your goal the more likely you are to see slight fluctuations on the scale. So if you have a bad day or week, realize your victories may take a bit longer now that you’re closer to goal, says Mills. “I found it was really helpful to stick with people who had been through it and hit the same plateaus.“  Get Back to Basics Now is the time to pay scrupulous attention to the details. Our experts all suggested some variation of a food log and exercise journal as essential for dieters who are close to goal. Getting there may require more significant tweaks, perhaps dumping the cream in your coffee (as Mills did) or your nightly scoop of low-fat ice cream or simply keeping more copious track of what you are eating.  Change Up Your Routine If a daily three-mile walk and a yoga class or two has helped you drop pounds, now may be the time to add some more heft to your routine. “I had to do all my exercise with a lot more intensity,” says Mills, who also invested in a harder series of fitness videos and took up running. She also focused on a cleaner diet. Some of her switches included ditching regular sweetened yogurts for more protein-packed Greek varieties, more lean proteins and vegetables. She tended to avoid low-calorie processed snacks and some desserts she had allowed herself losing the first 100 pounds..  Build Muscle Particularly as we age, lean muscle mass is your metabolism’s best friend. Tropea says building muscle is essential, and women with muscles have an easier time shedding fat and often wear smaller sizes than their peers who have lower scale weights.  Consult a Pro For those folks who are do-it-yourselfers, working with a nutritionist or personal trainer can be helpful if you’ve hit a plateau. “Let me get out my tape measure and help you set some goals based on your waist circumference,” says Tropea.  Be Scrupulously Honest “Sometimes, deep down anyway, we know what we’re doing or not doing that’s keeping us from reaching our goal,” says Bensen.

“Sometimes, just owning that is a step in the right direction.”

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...losing

weight when you don’t have that much to lose often demands almost excruciating attention to caloric detail.

Photos: Scale, © Dreamstime.com; © Steven Frame; Woman with scale, ©iStockphoto.com/esolla.

her Weight Watchers support system, including leaders and friends she met at weekly meetings. “Everything needed a tweak and more intensity,” Mills says.

Indeed, whether you’ve been on an epic diet or are just trying to shed a few pounds that have gradually crept onto your frame over the long winter, losing weight when you don’t have that much to lose often demands almost excruciating attention to caloric detail, says weight-loss expert Kim Bensen. “There’s a lot of subtle sabotage and little splurges that can get in your way, too,” she says.

Bensen, who lost 212 pounds over a two-year span and has kept it off after years of yo-yo dieting, says it’s common for long-term dieters to begin to veer off course as their goal approaches. She often works closely with this close-to-goal subset of dieters at her Shelton-based Kim Bensen’s Weight Loss Center, which is adjacent to Kim’s Light Café. Bensen explains what these small-losers are often up against is both physical and emotional. “A million things can get in your way.

A lot of times it’s sloppy eating,” she says. “You’ll just be less careful than you were in the beginning and have bites, licks and tastes of things that really add up.”

Interpersonal demons get in the way, too. Chief among those saboteurs is the well-meaning friends and family who herald an accomplished dieter’s success as they slip into skinnier skinny jeans. “When people start to tell you you’re skinny, you can start to believe it, even if you’ve got a ways to go,” Bensen says.

This was a phenomenon actually experienced personally eight years ago when I joined four colleagues at a daily newspaper on a year-long public diet. At the start of the year I had the least to lose: my last 10 pounds of postpartum baby weight. Throughout the year, however, I was confronted by well-wishers and skeptics alike who questioned why I was

trying to lose an ounce. (One even asked my then-editor if she was promoting eating disorders.) Interestingly, my goal of 125 pounds was not remotely unhealthy considering I’m around five feet, four inches tall and petite. But, somehow, the naysayers’ insistence that I “looked fine” crept into my subconscious. It became license for me to eat cookies and ice cream whenever I wanted. (In my case, that’s fairly often.)

No surprise, I only got halfway to my goal. A decade later, that extra weight I never lost is still with me and it’s that much harder to lose.

Stefanie Tropea, a personal trainer and nutritionist affiliated with Norwalk’s Punch Gym, says she tries to alter her clients’ thinking completely when they come to her frustrated about weight-loss plateaus. “To be honest, I don’t care at all about numbers on scales,” says Tropea, who is petite and yet so impressively lean she easily passes for 20 pounds lighter than her scale weight of 145 pounds.

Instead, Tropea tries to focus her clients on what she sees as more healthful goals, such as eating more nutritiously and lifting weights to rev up their fat-burning engines. “If they come to me and say I want to get rid of that bit of fat around the belly, I can work with that. But I don’t really want to hear, ‘I want to lose five pounds,’” she says.

Sometimes, she says, women tend to focus on upping their cardio. While that can burn calories and even help people drop scale pounds, “they can get to goal and still be flabby.”

So, she gets out her tape measure and gets her clients to focus on losing some inches. “The scale may not budge, but if the waist circumference changes that’s a victory, too.” Her advice for those stuck in a 10-pounds-to-go rut? “Try to focus on getting smaller rather than lighter. If you’re wearing smaller jeans, you may be just as happy as you would be if the scale moved.”

HL

10 pounds to go! What’s in your way?

Here’s what the experts have identified as reasons those last 10 pounds are so hard to drop.

You’ve Become A Victim of Your Own Success  Often, when people who’ve lost significant amounts of weight get close to their goal, they celebrated with oodles of positive feedback from family and friends. “It can get in your head in a way that’s counterproductive,” explains Bensen. “You start to say to yourself, ‘Hey, I look good, so I don’t have to try so hard.’” But as Bensen notes in a world where obesity is a huge public health issue, more and more of your

well-intentioned friends and colleagues are likely to be overweight. “So you do look skinny to them,” she says.

The results of completely buying into their praise can be psychic sabotage.

“They are the people who will go ahead and tell you to have the cheesecake,” says Bensen. “The rest of the world really doesn’t want you at that (goal) weight.”

You’ve Slipped Off Track Without Realizing It  Mills says it’s normal to forego some of the attention to detail that may have gotten you off to a successful start.

“Are you keeping a journal?

Are you measuring? Are you

working out just as hard as you were when you started?”

Bensen says many otherwise dutiful long-term dieters don’t take responsibility for their undocumented BLTs (that’s bites, licks and tastes). “Little things can add up to a lot of calories.”

You Haven’t Changed Your Routine  “Women tend to rely on cardio, cardio, cardio,” says Tropea, who sees this phenomenon with both diet and nutrition. “People say, ‘Oh, my weight is up, I have to go spinning or do Zumba,’ when really they should be hitting the weights hard.” Since any plateau

almost always demands new diet strategies and fitness routines, Tropea also suggests focusing on “whole, real foods” — skip processed snacks and empty calories — and making sure to have some healthy fats and oils. They’ll keep you sated and your metabolism purring.

You’re Skipping Meals or Not Eating Enough  “Often at Weight Watchers when I work with clients who’ve hit a plateau, we have to encourage them to eat more,” says Mills. Not having enough to eat can slow your metabolism, making it harder to lose.

healthylifect.com

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owner’s manual

Your Spleen

— a primer compiled by linda tuccio-koonz

A

soft, spongy purple organ about the size of your fist, the spleen sits just under your rib cage on your left side. It’s about 4 inches long and is part of the lymphatic system, which fights infection and keeps body fluids in balance.

 Photos: Woman, ©iStockphoto.com/shapecharge; Spleen, MedicalRF.com/Getty Images.

Your spleen helps control the amount of blood in your body and filters about 95 gallons each day.



The spleen is a reservoir for immune cells — monocytes, a type of white blood cell that fights off infiltrators that can cause infection or other problems.

To keep your spleen healthy, be sure to exercise, eat a balanced diet, and drink plenty of water.



You can live without your spleen if it’s damaged or injured because other organs, such as the liver, will take over some of its work. Living with no spleen does, however, increase your risk of serious infections.



A ruptured spleen is serious and requires medical evaluation because it can cause internal bleeding that can be lifethreatening. Signs include pain/tenderness in the upper left abdomen, lightheadedness, confusion, blurred vision and fainting. A spleen can rupture at the time of trauma, or even weeks after the injury.



Splenomegaly, or an enlarged spleen, can occur when blood accumulates in the organ. This accumulation can be caused by prob-

spleen

lems varying from mononucleosis and other infections to liver disease and blood cancers.



An overactive spleen is called hypersplenism. The spleen helps filter old and damaged blood cells, but when it’s overactive it removes the cells too early and too quickly, leading to anemia and sometimes frequent infections.



Lymphomas — blood cancers that start in the lymphatic system — can attack this organ, leading to spleen cancer. Cancer from other parts of the body also can spread to the spleen; one example is leukemia, which starts in the bone marrow.

 

Wearing a safety belt is the No. 1 way to protect it.

Usually doctors can feel an enlarged spleen, but X-rays and other imaging tests may be used to determine its size. Treating the disorder that’s causing the enlargement usually solves the problem, but sometimes the spleen must be removed.

HL

For additional information on the spleen go to

www.healthylifect.com

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45

feel great

Tired of Being Tired? learn how to find the culprit and restore energy by lee nelson

46

healthylife

T

hat fifth cup of coffee no longer helps you stay awake during your day. Simple, daily tasks seem overwhelming. Each step you take seems as if you are wearing heavy marching boots and 50 extra pounds of combat gear.

Are you tired of being tired? It’s happening to lots of women in every age group, workplace and lifestyle. But what’s causing all this fatigue and what can you do about it?

“It can be various things going on, including undiagnosed medical conditions,” says Dr. Tonya Cremin, family physician on staff at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport and founder of Fairfield County Integrative Family Medicine and Healing Therapies in Trumbull. “So many things are going on in a woman’s life. When they come into my office with this complaint — and I get many women with this problem — you first need to do a full history and physical. It could be something very simple and can be changed easily.”

Start with assessing your own life and what you do and don’t do.

“You can look at your own eating habits, physical activity, sleeping habits and lifestyle,” says Linda Arpino, dietitian and author from Stamford. “People are coming to me very listless. Fatigue can impact every aspect of their lives. It can make them uninterested in the day-today things they need to do and want to do. It has a cascading effect if it’s not changed.”

Here are some of the most common reasons for feeling tired and what you can do about them:

Doing Too Much

Growing up in India, Dr. Pram Vishvanath has a different perspective on life than many women who come to her complaining of exhaustion. “Women in the Western culture believe that every minute of the day has to be occupied. It is sad,” she says. “They aren’t enjoying the abundance around them. They don’t stop and smell the roses.”

As a naturopathic physician and founder of the Integrated Health Center in Fairfield, she teaches the connections between people and nature. She works with these tired women to find a healthier, more balanced lifestyle.

“I have women coming to me who take shopping bags full

of vitamins yet they are still tired. But it’s not helping,” she says. “They have to stop all the multi-tasking and remember to breathe and enjoy their life.”

What do you give up? Vishvanath sits down with her patients to talk about an individualized plan of action. They need to give up something, and then focus on getting their health back on track.

Doing Too Little

Has that treadmill in your bedroom become an expensive clothing rack?

Maybe it’s time to get back on it.

Lack of exercise can be a big reason women are so tired all the time.

“Just increasing one’s activity level can do amazing changes to the mind and body,” says Cremin. “It doesn’t mean you have to go jog five miles. It means just getting up and doing things, whether it’s playing with the kids or taking a walk with your husband.”

The American Heart Association suggests on its website that people should get in 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise, five times a week. Doing so will give you the benefits of a healthy heart, better sleep and more energy. The association describes physical activity as anything that moves your body and burns calories, including swimming, biking, aerobics, running, playing sports or using that treadmill.

The myth that exercise just makes you more tired is just that — a myth. Sure, you may be tired at first because you aren’t used to it, Cremin says. “But being sedentary means the oxygen doesn’t get to our cells and extremities, and neither does our nutrition,” she says, “which means you will be tired if you just do nothing.”

Increasing your level of activity can positively affect your energy level.

Eating Too Much and Not the Right Foods

Being overweight can be a big offender in zapping your energy. Another no-no is grabbing those quick fixes to give you energy, such as sugary snacks, energy drinks and coffee. They are only temporary solutions, says Arpino.

She wrote the book, Eat Fit, Be Fit: Health and Weight Management Solutions, which is a lifestyle guide with more than 300 recipes that emphasize portion control. “Ninety percent of Americans have a non-nutrient-filled diet. It’s

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47

feel great all empty calories,” she says. “This reduces all of your body’s systems.

This, in turn, can make you tired.”

When she gets new clients complaining of constant fatigue, she asks them about the health of their guts. “Do they have any nausea, constipation or loose stools?” she says. “I encourage Energy drinks certain foods that will enare a quick fix, hance the good bacteria and can lead to in the gut.” Those foods a quick crash. can include more fruits, Stick to healthy vegetables, yogurt with calories. probiotics and other unprocessed food.

She also encourages clients to slow down and relax when they are eating, since inadequately chewed food isn’t broken down sufficiently, which means important nutrients may not be able to be absorbed.

“If you are just shoving it in your mouth, it can truly af-

fect absorption of the nutrients. Plus, it can affect what you crave, which is usually salt, sugar and fat,” she says.

Small portions of good protein throughout the day can help with energy levels. Plus trying to get all food groups in each day will help replenish mineral and vitamin intake.

Sleep Patterns are Messed Up

Sleep is not a luxury but a necessity, says Cremin. Going to bed at the same time every night and getting up at the same time each morning can have a positive effect on energy level, brain activity, ambition and almost everything else involved in your life.

“But a lot of people don’t abide by that,” she says. “If you don’t go to bed about the same time, it can definitely impact your circadian rhythm, which in turn can make you tired.”

She sees many of her patients who think they can be wellrested with only four to five hours of sleep per night. “Most people can’t do that. They need seven to nine hours to feel well-rested and to do their best,” she says. “You can’t really make up for that sleep on the weekends. You need to alter your schedule to try and get the most sleep you can. Sleep is as important as food, water and shelter.”

She suggests turning off the television, laptop and cell phone at least a half hour before you plan to fall asleep.

If you read before bed, that’s great. But don’t read any horror or murder mysteries that can activate your brain in

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a negative way.

“Three tea bags of chamomile tea with your typical mug of water covered for 10 minutes to get all the medicinal quality can be a nice sleep aid, even safe for children,” she says.

“And make sure your bedroom is a very restful place without clutter.”

Other Medical Conditions

is a lifestyle issue, then we help them change it.”

Getting everything working in the body at optimum levels can get them back on the road to having the energy they have missed. “Sometimes it can be a very simple thing,” she says. “But some people just think being tired is normal and don’t go talk to someone about it. But if we don’t take the time to go find out what it could be, then it can get worse.”

HL

Many health-related issues can cause that lethargic People need feeling. For instance, over- and under-active thyroids 7-9 hours of can both cause fatigue. A simple blood test can help sleep to feel your doctor evaluate what’s going on. well rested, yet Many people also may have diabetes but don’t most don’t get know it. They also could be low in potassium, vitanearly that. min D, vitamin B-12 or iron, or have an undiagnosed heart problem. For instance, a study by Tufts University shows 64 percent of those ages 26 to 83 were deficient in B-12. Dangerously low B-12 levels can cause fatigue, anemia and loss of memory and nerve damage.

That’s why going to your primary care physician to discuss your issues is important, as well as getting the right blood, urine or other tests to eliminate any of these factors.

“When I’m looking at an individual, I look at their overall level of health and see what envelope they are pushing toward disease,” Vishvanath says. “I look at who they are, what they do, what they eat and what are their habits. If the cause

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The

Doctor’s In The House concierge medicine comes with care, convenience — and cost by alice kenny

D

r. Thomas Pellechi arrived at the home of a Greenwich executive before dawn, took the man’s fasting blood work and finished in time for his patient to enjoy his morning meal.

Dr. Edward Kulich brought his black medical bag to the home of a feverish girl on a winter’s night, gave her antibiotics and treated her in time to avoid a rush to the emergency room.

Dr. Sarah Gamble accompanied a sick patient from specialist to specialist to interpret her medical issues and make sure she received the care she needed.

And Dr. Peter Cimino was able to spend extra time with a patient to assess his lifestyle and discuss important changes that would enable him to live more healthfully, with Cimino as a partner throughout his transformation.

Is this a dream? Where can we find doctors like this?

For starters, we need to look for practitioners of “concierge medicine,” individualized care in the comfort of our homes — or sometimes even in the doctor’s office. No central registry of concierge physician exists and while websites and Internet searches may help, most of these doctors depend on word of mouth. “My patients are my best advertisement,” Kulich says.

Doctors participating in the evolving field of concierge medicine offer a variety of services, options and delivery methods. Some work alone and make sure back-up doctors are available if they need to be away. Others work with partners.

Some make house calls and maintain offices. Some, as in days of old, consider their patients’ homes their only office, bring their medical black bags with them and accompany patients to specialists and labs when further tests are necessary. And some concierge physicians offer hybrid practices, where most patients are “traditional” but some opt for the higher-level of services they receive as a concierge patient.

All concierge physicians, however, are required to meet the same federal and state regulations regarding medical care as

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How to choose a concierge doctor:

Ask 

... for the doctor’s

contact phone number.

Then call after work hours to find out if the doctor is truly accessible.

concierge medical practitioners have a patient load ranging from two dozen to 200 patients.)

... about annual fees and

...

...

where the doctor lives (to get an idea how long it will take him to get to your home).

...

...

additional per-visit fees. whether coverage continues if your health deteriorates. whether patients must handle insurance reimbursement.

...

Photos: Dreamstime.com; Doctor, © Laurentiu Iordache; House, © Kuzma.

about the doctor’s total patient load. (Most

for patient references.

...

which hospitals the doctor is affiliated with.

doctors who provide typical in-office care, including rules regarding patient load and access to equipment. While there are no rules on the books unique to concierge physicians, most say that because the number of patients they care for is lower, the quality of service they provide is far higher.

Cimino, a partner with the Fairfield Medical Group who specializes in internal medicine, says he signed on with Concierge Choice, a marketing and service company that advises doctors interested in setting up concierge service, so he could continue to provide high-quality patient care that harkens back to the day before medicine became an industry ruled by insurance companies. Area concierge physicians affiliated with Concierge Choice can be found at www.choice.md.

“The way the system works now, there is really no way for people who need more time and help to get that [from their physician] without entering a concierge program,” Cimino says, adding doctors are forced to increase their patient load in order to stay solvent. “Most patients are set into a standard 15-minute slot, or a 35-45 minute slot for a physical examination. Everybody gets the same kind of cookie-cutter medicine.

But we aren’t all robots and some people need more time.

[Concierge medicine] allows for people who wish to have more time to be able to get it.”

Doctors who offer this service typically charge an annual retainer. Some charge per visit as well. And many, particularly those with no office staff, do not deal with insurance carriers, leaving that task to the patient.

Cimino says this isn’t an issue for his concierge patients.

His hybrid office handles all insurance claims and paperwork.

“Many doctors doing traditional medicine who are forced to see more and more patients a day to make ends meet are drowning in paperwork and are at the point where … they have to decrease the amount of hours allotted to seeing patients,” he says, adding that his hybrid practice allows him to keep pa-

tient load manageable so he can devote appropriate time to his patients, both concierge and non-concierge.

Dr. Frank Scifo, who retired after 22 years of private practice in Stratford and is now medical director of the urgent care walk-in clinics and multispecialty group at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport, says concierge care reemerged just over a decade ago and really is a throwback to the days before insurance and seven-digit incomes. He agrees with Cimino, saying it arrived in response to what he describes as the “chameleon” of health care, an evolving system pummeled by politics, perspectives and pushbacks from insurance carriers.

Dozens of concierge practices have emerged throughout Fairfield County. They come in handy for everyone from bankers too busy for office visits to children too disabled to leave their homes to those who want their physicians to truly know them and help them get the best care possible.

Pellechi, a Greenwich internist who practices concierge medicine, describes himself as a “one-man band.” He has no office, no receptionist and no nurse. Instead, his cell phone serves as his constant companion.

“It’s like living with a time bomb,” he says. “You never know when it is going to go off.” He visits patients at midnight, on holidays, any time — 24/7, 365 — that they call for care. If his patient’s health worsens, he continues to treat them without raising his fee.

And, similar to many doctors with concierge practices, he remains connected to his patients even during his brief vacations. Pellechi says he’s never away for more than a week at a time, never takes more than two weeks of vacation in any one year, tells his patients when he’ll be away and urges them to call him on his cell phone if they have any medical needs. As associate fills in, if needed.

The benefit, he says, is that the patient care he now provides is what he expected to offer when he enrolled in continued on page 54

healthylifect.com

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medical school. Plus he has no worries about co-pays, short office visits or hours spent on the phone fighting with insurance companies. He treats fewer than four dozen patients per year, compared with the thousands he saw in private practice.

And his net income is nearly the same.

Annual retainers typically depend on patients’ income and their initial medical needs. They can range from nearly nothing, when doctors choose to treat patients in financial need, to more than $10,000 per year. Cimino’s hybrid practice charges a $2,000 yearly (or $200 monthly) fee. “Some people want to invest in their health,” he says. “Yes, this is a lot, but it’s not a terrible amount. The majority of my patients are factory workers. You would think this is for the rich and exclusive, but it’s not.”

All of his concierge patients receive an annual exam from which he creates a personalized wellness plan. And although he usually sees his concierge patients in his office — time is allotted into each day’s schedule specifically for these patients — they are given a dedicated office phone number as well as Cimino’s personal cell phone for 24/7 access.

Cimino says his concierge patients fall into three categories: informed patients who want to analyze data with him and understand his medical decisions; patients with past health issues who want 24-hour access to a physician; and those patients who want to change their lifestyle and start anew with their physician as a partner.

Kulich, whose pediatric concierge practice, KidsHousecalls, stretches from New York City to Fairfield County, says the annual fee he charges is less than the cost of a pack of cigarettes a day and far less than the cost of private school tuition. It is about choices, he says, not elitism.

Greenwich resident Sarah Derene says this type of one-onone treatment was the key to her recovery. She felt exhausted all the time, she says, and suffered from mysterious fainting spells. “I was passed to so many specialists that I was at the end of my rope.”

Finally she turned to Gamble. The Greenwich osteopath diagnosed Derene with late-stage Lyme disease. She visited Derene’s home every week, overseeing her intravenous infusions, changing her bandages and taking blood and throat cultures.

“I’m a 100-percent believer in concierge medicine,” Derene says. “I’ll never go to a regular doctor again.”

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 What you should know about GMOs April 2013

Giving

new life to old wood Live longer and help the

environment (with what you eat)

go window shopping • made in the USA • mulching for spring

window shopping

Shop smart, shop local

Window Shopping highlights eco-friendly furnishings, décor and seasonal items available in stores in and around Fairfield County. Have a favorite store we’ve missed?

Send an e-mail to rhaynes@hearstmediact. com. We’d love to hear from you! by melinda mcgarty webb

Pet- AND earth-friendly These machine-washable and earth-friendly West Paw Design Eco-Nap Pet Mats are durable and adorable. Milled in the USA, the fabric contains 85 percent IntelliLoft fibers, which are created from post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. Prices vary from $30 for the extra small size, (intended for animals 10 pounds and less, and 19 by 14 by 2 inches in size,) to $99 for the extra large, (designed for animals more than 66 pounds, and 41 by 28 by 3 inches in size.) The Clean Bedroom, 1869 Post Road E., Westport, (203) 292-9275; (866) 380-5892. www.thecleanbedroom.com.

A savvy night’s sleep All-natural latex, coir, organic cotton and wool, give this Savvy Rest Earthspring innerspring mattress comfort and support. The hourglass-shaped coil system is topped by three inches of all-natural Dunlop latex. Nestled inside is a sheet of recycled coconut fiber (known as coir), blended with natural latex. The outer cover is made with organic cotton and wool and the mattress is 9 inches high. Prices range from $1,149 for a twin to $1,649 for a queen, with mattress sets also available. The Clean Bedroom.

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Think spring The refreshing herbal aroma of this Jason natural liquid hand soap is like springtime in a bottle. With the invigorating, yet subtle scents of fresh parsley, fragrant thyme and savory sage, you’ll clean up and perk up at the same time.

It nurtures your skin with vitamins, aloe

Decorative moss Ever considered tiling a wall of your home in low-maintenance moss? Paprika, chili or cassis-colored moss, or an installment using all three — who knew such a thing was even an option? MOSStile is made of an ecologic resin base imbedded with natural moss. It contains no toxic substances and the only maintenance required is an occasional misting. Each tile is 11.7 inches square and weighs 3.5 pounds. $175 per tile, or $160 each for quantities of more than 40 of one color.

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Soft touch In a palette influenced by nature itself, these COYUCHI Air Weight Bath Towels are a soft 100 percent organic twill weave designed for quick drying. The collection includes bath towels, bath sheets, hand towels, washcloths and bath mats — all available in colors drawn from the earth, water and sky. Bath sheets: $63; bath towels: $40; hand towels: $20; washcloths: $7; bath mats: $40. The Clean Bedroom, 1869 Post Road E., Westport, (203) 292-9275; (866) 380-5892. www.thecleanbedroom.com

Natural charm These elegant indigo and light gray “Stacked Stones” decorative pillows add a natural charm to any bedroom or seating area.

The white hand-stitched appliqué sits on a machine-washable cotton sateen cover with coconut shell buttons. Made of 100 percent organic cotton, sourced and woven in India, the pillow is 12 inches by 22 inches in size. $115. The Clean Bedroom.

check out our blog for additonal finds

Window Shopping

and lipid-rich avocado oil. The soap contains no petrolatum, sodium lauryl or laureth sulfates, parabens or phthalates. No Jason products are ever tested on animals. Whole Foods Market, with stores in Milford, Fairfield, Westport, Darien and Greenwich. www.whole food market.com.

@203

www.healthylifect.com

healthylifect.com

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refurnished living

The American Dream

by alison grieveson

There was a time when a label that read “Made in the USA” was not a mark of quality ... not any more! Here are just a few quality, U.S.-made home products you’d be proud to own.

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 I love the casual feel of this wool blend area rug from Capel Rugs. The Hampton Rug in gray stripe (shown) would also look great in a formal space.

Six sizes available, starting at $69. capelrugs.com  Thrive Furniture, which makes its eco furniture in Los Angeles, created this amazing, retro-inspired piece called the “Cleveland Sofa.” It is shown here in Klein Wheatgrass, but is available in a multitude of colors. $2,499. thrivefurniture.com

 This dynamic Ferris Wheel print by Ben Holiday would make a statement in any living space! Measuring 36" x 48", it's a limitededition print. $249. cb2.com  Sitting on a brushed steel base topped with reclaimed wood, this coffee table had me at “Chevron.” I know the trend has peaked, but I still adore the pattern.

Browse the rest of this Etsy shop for some interesting vintage finds. $670. etsy.com/shop/ Heritage1956



 Can you get enough of this clover hanging lamp made from recycled cardboard? Me neither! I can picture a few of these hanging in a row for a beautiful glow. Comes with a 15' cord. Lucky us: It’s now on sale for $210. inmod.com

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Alison Grieveson is a graphic designer who enjoys exploring the greener side of the design and decorating industries. For more green tips, check out RefurnishedLiving.com.

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our food

?

What’s in your

corn flakes probably GMOs, or genetically modified organisms

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healthylife

by valerie foster

M

ention GMO and watch the reaction. There might be some eye-rolling. Or maybe a quizzical look that means the person has no idea what you’re talking about. Then there are those who’ve heard of GMOs — genetically modified organisms — but really don’t understand what they are.

Honestly, chances are even if you think you understand GMOs, you might actually be harboring lots of misconceptions. I know I was, and I’m a seeker of organic produce, grass-fed meat and poultry, and wild fish low in mercury.

It’s an involved and complicated subject, so HealthyLife is offering a cheat sheet of sorts to make it easier to absorb. We promise to keep it simple.

WHAT IS A GMO? Many of the foods we eat today are hybrids, the result of grafting or cross-breeding to create a new or improved food. Think about it: You can breed a cow with another cow to get a better cow, but you can’t breed a cow with a banana. Hybrids are not GMOs. The cow/banana combo would necessitate gene mixing and technically would be a GMO. But of course, it’s more complicated than that. In many cases, GMOs translate into plants and seeds that are resistant to certain insects and pesticides and grow in less favorable conditions than they would ordinarily need.

Many of the seeds only work with one pesticide, so the manufacturer sells them as a combo package.

According to the Human Genome Project, combining genes from different organisms is known as recombinant DNA technology, and the resulting organism is said to be genetically modified. GMOs do not happen in nature. But they’re found in medicines, vaccines, foods and food ingredients, feeds and fibers, which means it’s getting nearly impossible to know if you have eaten or ingested GMOs. GMOS IN FOOD Our focus today is on our food supply. Tara Cook Littman of Fairfield founded GMO Free CT, and was instrumental in beginning the Coalition of States for GMO Labeling, an organization of about 30 states committed to full disclosure on food labels. “We do not tell people whether they should eat foods containing GMOs, but we do educate them about GMOs,” she says. “We do think that everyone has the right to know what is in their food.

Food labels should say whether the food contains GMOs or not. People can make up their own minds.”

Littman says that 80 percent of the processed foods we eat contain GMOs and that the five main GMOs found in processed foods are corn, canola, soy, sugar beets and cotton seed. Check food labels and you’ll discover how accurate that 80 percent figure is. “Ingredient labels are

Expires June 30, 2013

our food

... the five main GMOs found in processed foods are corn,

also confusing,” Littman adds. “For example, lethicin is made from GMO soy.” (Lecithin is an oily substance that occurs naturally in soybean plants and egg yolks. It has emulsification properties that make it a perfect food additive. It’s primarily found in candy, bakery items, tea bags, cough drops, prescription medications and some asthma inhalers.)

Think you’re avoiding GMOs by eating fresh produce? Not necessarily. Some of the produce on your grocer’s shelves is genetically modified, with the most common including corn, soy, Hawaiian papaya, and small amounts of zucchini and crook-neck squash. Alfalfa fed to animals also can be genetically modified.

When it comes to crops, many foreign countries have banned growing GMOs, according to Greenpeace. In the United States, only the California counties of Mendocino, Trinity and Marin have banned growing GMO crops.

GMO PROS AND CONS The Human Genome Project lists many GMO benefits: enhanced taste and quality; reduced maturation time; increased nutrients; hardiness in animals; better yields of crops, meat, eggs and milk; improved animal health; friendly bioherbicides and bioinsecticides; better natural waste management and more efficient processing. For a complete list, check out ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/ elsi/gmfood.shtml.

But the HGP also lists concerns, including potential human health impacts, such as allergens and transfer of antibiotic resistance markers. Then there are environmental impacts, including GMO transfer through cross-pollination (for example, a bee pollinating a GMO plant with his next stop an organic field), loss of flora and fauna biodiversity, domination of world food production by a few companies, genetically inserting an animal gene into a plant, and vice versa, and lack of labeling. (The complete list of controversies follows the advantages on the Human Genome Project’s website.)

LABELING BILLS According to Littman, 61 countries around the world have

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GMO labeling. So some American food manufacturers have two different labels, she says, one for countries that don’t require labeling, another for countries that do.

In November, Proposition 37 failed in California, which would have required GMO labeling and prohibited the food designation “natural.” The voting was close: 48.5 percent of voters were in favor of labeling; 51.5 percent against. California Watch, an independent nonpartisan initiative of the Center for Investigative Reporting, reported that money poured into California to support both sides of the issue. The “No on Prop 37” campaign received $44 million from companies such as Monsanto and The Hershey Co., while proponents raised $7.3 million.

According to organicconsumer.com, 17 states have bills moving through their legislatures that would require some type of GMO labeling.

In Connecticut, a GMO labeling bill made it out of the environmental committee last year but not to the general House.

Littman says the bill will be reintroduced this year, but as of HealthyLife’s deadline, did not have a number. For more information: gmofreect.org or labelgmos.org.

Photos: Dreamstime.com; Corn flakes, © Serrnovik; Corn on the cob, © Vesna Njagulj.

canola, soy, sugar beets and cotton seed.

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“We only need a few states to pass a GMO labeling bill to make it standard throughout the country,” Littman says. “The food companies will not make different packaging for different states.”

HealthyLife tried — in vain — to get a statement from the FDA regarding GMO labeling. Even the famed Dr. Oz only had a written statement from the FDA when he aired a show on GMOs. It read: “We recognize and appreciate the strong interest that many consumers have in knowing whether a food was produced using bioengineering. FDA supports voluntary labeling that provides consumers with this information and has issued draft guidance to industry regarding such labeling.”

S tart with one meal at a time and find non-GMO alternatives. For example, start with breakfast and kick out the high-GMO-risk breakfast cereal. C heck out nongmoproject.org for a list of all products that have received the non-GMO seal.

“I want to live in a GMO-free world,” says Littman.

“Others might not, and that is their choice. But everyone should have the ability to decide if they want to eat GMOs, and until there is labeling, we have no choice.” She adds that since the commercial sale of GMOs only started in 1994, research on long-term effects on humans is scarce.

Until labeling exists, there is an invaluable website, nongmoshoppingguide.com, which lists non-GMO products, including ones that are GMO-free but have not received the Non-GMO Project’s seal. It also lists the products that are awaiting verification from the project. They even have a free iPhone app that you can take shopping to immediately see if a product is GMO-free.

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WHAT’S A CONSUMER TO DO? The Non-GMO Project is a nonprofit that was started in 2005 by natural-food retailers to provide customers with better information and reliable non-GMO choices. The project created a third-party standard and verification program to test products for GMOs. If deemed GMO-free, the product can display the non-GMO seal.

Currently, the project has 6,100 non-GMO-verified products with another 2,500 in the process of being verified.

There are 689 brands enrolled in the verification program.

“Often people feel overwhelmed by the prevalence of GMOs in processed foods,” says Courtney Pineau, assistant director of the project. “It is important to remember that even small changes can be meaningful.” Her tips: Remember that the most common GMOs are corn, soy and canola. Check the ingredient lists on every non-organic product for this trio.

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being green

Something Old is

New Again

reclaimed wood adds beauty and history to home renovation story and photos by wendy carlson

W

hen Tom Grotta and his wife, Rhonda Brown, decided to expand their antique barn home in Wilton, they wanted to preserve its architectural integrity. So they didn’t hesitate to seek reclaimed materials, including wood.

First they consulted with a structural engineer to determine the dimension and best type of wood they needed as beams for their new master bedroom. Then, Tom spent hours online researching beam brokers from around the country before finding what he needed.

“Finding the beams of the proper dimensions and wood type was crucial to us because we wanted them to look as if they had always been there,” he says.

The couple also used other types of recovered wood to achieve a vintage look throughout the home.

Old wood paneling was repurposed into flooring, a set of barn sliders was installed as room dividers, and a coffee table was fashioned out of salvaged planks. The end

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At Tom Grotta and Rhonda Brown’s renovated barn in Wilton, above, old barn doors were installed as room dividers.

At left are salvaged boards from William Wisnowski Design’s stock in Danbury.

result was a house that seamlessly blends old with new.

Reclaimed wood can add warmth and beauty to your home. It also can be more environmentally sound, and since each piece carries its own story, it adds character to your home.

But what defines reclaimed wood and what makes it so special?

Wood that is more than 200 years old, and typically has had another life, is considered to be reclaimed, according to experts in the field. Less-older wood, such as

barn board and other types of aged wood, have value too, depending on its condition and type.

Often harvested from old-growth trees, vintage wood tends to be stronger and more durable. It also has larger grain patterns, a richer color palette, a darker and smoother surface, and other beautiful imperfections that make it appealing to architects, builders, woodworkers and homeowners.

Grotta advises that consulting with an architect or builder before you choose reclaimed wood is crucial.

These experts not only have knowledge, but a wealth of contacts.

“We deal with a broad network of retailers who sell timber or flooring and other types of wood products made from reclaimed wood,” says Eric Rose, president of E.M. Rose Builders Inc. of Darien. Many of the Fairfield County homes he builds have a combination of different types of vintage wood from a variety of sources.

One of the state’s largest reclaimed lumber manufacturers is Reclamation Lumber in New Haven. The

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being green

Reclaimed beams and old doors, above, were used in the master bedroom and bath and, at left, wall panels were repurposed into flooring for a basement office at Tom Grotta and Rhonda Brown’s Wilton home.

company salvages old-growth wood from period buildings, then meticulously prepares it by re-sawing, planing and kiln drying, which prevents warping and bending.

Owner Robert Fecke says that, as a rule of thumb, “reclaimed wood, if used for finished flooring, can be twice to three times the cost of new hardwood.”

For example, reclaimed white oak would cost $12 to $14 per square foot versus $6 to $8 per square foot for the same type of new wood. “Generally, you’ll spend $8 to $20 per square foot for vintage wood for flooring, depending on the kind of wood and width of planks,” he says.

For that reason, when deciding to use reclaimed wood first consider how it’s going to be used, the difficulty of installing it, and how well it will blend with the aesthetics of your home.

William Wisnowski, owner of William Wisnowski Design in Danbury, says not all projects using reclaimed wood are expensive. His company makes tables, bars, vanities, shelving and other furniture, and provides finished boards for do-ityourself homeowners.

“If the right material is selected for the right project, it can

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being green Selling old wood

cost close to the same as new milled wood,” he says. “We do a lot of tables from the materials harvested from tobacco barns down south and warehouses being razed in Brooklyn, N.Y. If people insist on old-growth chestnut, they’ll pay a pretty penny, but beech, sycamore and hemlock are as striking if not more so, and right now run about $5 a board foot.

They also are available in larger quantities, so it’s easier to select just the right boards for the project. I build a lot of art furniture from the scrap pile.”

Whether your house is contemporary or traditional, there are many ways to use reclaimed wood if used with discretion, according to Paul Reiss, an architect with Berkshire Wilton Partners in Wilton.

“In modern houses, we have used barn siding for doors and other panels. We have also used reclaimed flooring as a counterpoint to white walls and simple finishes,” Reiss says.

“It gives the floor a richness that might be lacking in, say, a simple bamboo strip material.”

HL

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healthylife

Reclaimed wood stacks, Courtesy of William Wisnowski.

Salvaged wood pieces were fashioned into a rolling coffee table to help achieve a vintage look at Tom Grotta and Rhonda Brown’s renovated barn in Wilton.

If you’re remodeling and want to get rid of your old wood, there are hundreds of brokers. But to make the process of selling your wood easier and more profitable, you need to do some homework first. Large wood manufacturers and salvage companies will not be as interested in salvaging an outdoor shed or 20 boards in the basement as a small, local broker might be.

Brokers will want to see a photograph of the structure or stack of wood that you’re trying to sell, and they’ll need information, such as the size of the structure, the type of wood and the dimensions of the boards or beams, and whether beams are handhewn (with an ax) or sawed.

A homeowner will get the best price if the wood is clean, free of debris and not rotting. Different woods bring different prices with old chestnut commanding a premium. In the 1900s, blight destroyed most of the chestnut trees in the country, making this wood rare.

Demolition companies will dismantle structures, flooring and paneling, as well as other types of wood architectural features, such as molding, millwork and mantels. Green Demolitions in Greenwich re-sells entire kitchens, millwork and other wood materials that the company salvages.

Antique paneled rooms and libraries, says president Steven Feldman, can go from $5,000 up to $250,000 and up, depending on the quality of craftsmanship and the type and condition of the wood.

Using reclaimed wood also has a green advantage, he adds. It’s wood that has been saved from the waste stream and put to good use again. It saves existing timber, while giving old wood a new life, he says.

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The Magic of

Mulch

the first step to helping your garden stand out story and photos by colleen plimpton

M

y patient, non-gardening husband is frequently befuddled by garden doings. Early each spring, for instance, he wonders why a mountain of organic mulch appears in our driveway. True, the dark steaming heap consumes a generous corner of the drive, forcing my spouse into some fancy maneuvers as he backs his truck out of the garage. But it’s a necessary inconvenience, because copious quantities of fragrant, moist and useful mulch are essential to the garden.

The richness feeds and beautifies the soil, protects it from the elements, regulates temperature, and allows rainfall to percolate deep into the life-giving earth.

I long ago decided that with my acre of ornamentals I could no longer haul mulch in bags. Thus began the annual ritual of the rumbling dump truck unloading four or five yards of the good stuff in my driveway, to be distributed among the gardens at my leisure. I start applying it once the soil warms. Though opinion varies, I don’t like to spread

mulch while the ground is still chilled; the insulating layer would lock in the cold and delay growth.

Whether you lug bags from the nursery or have a load dropped in the driveway, now is the time to order and mid-April is generally the time to apply. At that early point the only garden interference you’re likely to encounter are plants such as daffodils, pulmonaria and Virginia bluebells, instead of huge stands of iris, peonies and other burgeoning perennials later in

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Once the supply arrives, grab the good pitchfork and the wide snow shovel, load the wheelbarrow and get to work. My favorite mulches are Sweet Peet, Agri-mix or other proprietary blends composed of a combination of horse bedding, wood shavings and manure. These weed-free mulches remain dark and are chock full of microbes that feed the soil as they decompose. Also beneficial (and cheap!) is mulching with one’s own leaf mold.

Some beds I let Mother Nature mulch, for instance, the shade garden under a mature white pine, which layers the ground below with softly attractive pine needles and cones. Heuchera, hydrangea and azalea thrive in these conditions.

Some materials should not be used as mulch. Peat moss, for example. Not only is it considered endangered, but it quickly forms an impenetrable crust, impervious to moisture. Marble chips reflect too much light, don’t feed the soil, and won’t break down in a hundred lifetimes. Landscape cloth looks artificial, tends to shred, and also doesn’t nourish the soil, from which all things grow.

For me, the satisfying work of mulching consumes several weeks off and on.

I prefer to cast large handfuls (or occasionally bucketsful) onto areas between perennials and shrubs, spreading it evenly with my hands. An optimum layer is 2 inches; a lighter covering allows weeds to break through, while more tends to suffocate the soil. Never mulch over the crowns of plants, and leave

the good stuff a few inches away from tree trunks. No mulch volcanoes! And do consider applying a deeper layer of mulch on garden pathways to prevent muddy shoes. Lay down pieces of old carpeting first, to stretch the supply.

Remember, though, that an application of mulch may well smother any seedlings you’re anticipating, such as spider flower or love-in-a-mist. If your garden depends on their annual appearance, it might be best to mulch after these self-sowers have emerged in May. Don’t exhaust yourself by doing too much at a time. Mulching is a wonderful excuse to be out in Mother Nature’s grand landscape, listening to birdsong and breathing in the clean fresh air, but as with any job, too much of a good thing isn’t good. The work doesn’t have to be completed all at once; doing some each day, interspersed with other spring chores such as division, fertilizing and pruning will spread out the labor. Think of mulching as a gateway chore, but when the major task is complete, brush off the remnants from the sidewalks and other paved areas, and stand back to admire your work.

After my beds are mulched and marveled at, a small pile of Sweet Peet often remains in the corner of the driveway. I’ll need it to replenish a few areas

subsequent to transplant chores later in the season. I don’t leave the pile too long, though, or critters will move in; I’ve seen both toads and moles take up residence in my lingering heaps, so I’m careful as I pitchfork or shovel the remainder.

If your garden has attracted meadow voles, you may need to reconsider mulching. These mouse-like, voracious vegetarians dine on plant roots and thrive under a warm covering. If you spot 1-inch, perfectly round holes among your plants, and astilbe, hosta, carex and daylily have unaccountably lost their roots, you most likely are hosting voles. Do not make your garden cozy for them! Leave affected areas bare, the better for visiting owls and hawks to find their natural prey.

This spring, ignore the complaining spouse or help him tolerate the driveway clogged with your beautiful mulch.

And if there are still objections, sweetly inform your mate that the sooner he or she pitches in, the sooner the garden will be dressed and the driveway returned to its original, unobstructed use.

HL Colleen Plimpton lectures on, writes about, coaches and teaches gardening.

For more information, visit her website at colleenplimpton.com

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Room of Your Own have you claimed enough personal space to grow? by emma tennant

Photo: © iStockphoto.com; Lise Gagne.

A

few years ago, Tess was sent to me by her mother.

A brilliant 17-year-old, she played the cello, edited the yearbook, and possessed a curious and literary mind. She was also very angry, and had recently thrown a dozen textbooks at a boy in her class. OK, the boy had mocked her square, shapeless haircut. But one of the things that I began to notice was that — despite being very pretty — Tess dressed oddly. It was as though her clothes were something mailed to her by a stranger who had no idea what a teenager was. Things didn’t quite fit. She was dowdy.

Eventually the subject came up.

“I feel I have to dress this way because I’ve always dressed this way. I don’t feel that prettier clothes are ...”

“What.”

“I don’t feel like they could belong to me.”

That got me thinking. If Tess didn’t feel she had dominion over how she looked and presented herself, what else might be going on?

“Describe your bedroom to me,” I said out of the blue one session.

Tess said nothing. She looked puzzled. “There’s a bed. I have a chair and a desk. I have a dresser that I’ve had since I was 8.” She looked at me as though I were nuts.

“What’s on the walls?

“Nothing,” she said, still puzzled. The room she described was cold, overlit and void of feeling and personality.

What emerged in time was what I would describe as Tess’s failure — up until that point — to claim her body and the space around her as hers. Her mind was rich, but her body and material world were barren, cold and foreign. Being an only child had a lot to do with it in her case. She grew up alone and felt alone, and she also grew up without a rival and friend, someone to define herself in relationship with.

Her father and mother governed her life very strictly, and, in response, Tess had withdrawn from the physical world, inhabiting rooms and inhabiting clothes — but not really living in them.

Hence the anger. Inside was a vibrant, beautiful, strongwilled young woman who simply had never taken the stage in her life, or claimed her space. She felt that space belonged to her parents and that she could not dare to set foot in it.

We made a lot of progress. Funky boots, better hair, a

looser, freer style of dressing. She got a lamp for her room that was warmer, more sensual. Impressionist pictures went up on the walls. She started to play music at night when she went to bed that made her feel safer, uplifted. Tess had grasped the problem once we had discerned it. She started to define the space around her and never looked back.

M

any of us take it for granted that we should put plants in our office, pictures on the walls, and fabric on the floor. Some of us claim our place in the world as easy as breathing, but when you think about it, such a move is quite a radical process. In effect, we take our self-idea and project it into the world around us, making a space for ourselves that mirrors, flatters and enhances our self-worth.

That means taking that space from someone else in many cases, or daring to project it into shared space, and that can be a source of conflict.

Some of us have our reach into the world squashed before we get started. Either we feel so small and insignificant that we don’t dare to impose on the world, or we come up against forces that make us feel we don’t have the right. What about that parent who dictates every aspect of our lives — our clothes, our living space — and gives us the explicit or implicit message that only they get to define the environment?

If that goes on forever and persistently enough, we may always be a prisoner of a kind, without really understanding why others seem so free, so big, and we feel so small.

The good news is that it is never too late to start. For most of us — at this point in our lives — we simply haven’t cultivated the habit of making the space around us reflect our tastes. We are free to walk out of that flavorless room we inhabited as children any time we want. All we need is a little encouragement.

Why am I thinking about this issue this month? A few weeks ago, a woman in her 70s came to see me. Very angry.

She had just moved in with her sister, and felt unwelcome and imposed upon. She has a fine, literary mind but dresses as though someone mailed her a box of clothes from Goodwill. I asked her about her bedroom.

HL E-mail your questions to askemma@healthylifect.com and check out her blog at www.healthylifect.com.

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productivity

80

healthylife

Finding your

POWER hour... … and making the most of that time by sandra diamond fox

I

f it’s between 9:30 and 11 a.m. and you have something more than a quick question, don’t even think about disrupting Marni Baggett. That’s when the Danbury bookkeeper is having her power hour, or most productive time of day.

“When I first come into the office at 8 a.m., I check my emails, voicemail, inbox and plan my day. Once 9:30 comes around, I’ve gotten myself organized and acclimated to what needs to get done,” Baggett says. “Between 9:30 and 11, I get very involved in my work — doing collectables, payables, payroll, and everything else that needs to be taken care of. I always get the most work completed in that block of time. By 11, I’ve accomplished a lot.”

Like Baggett, all of us have a power hour, an internal clock of sorts that keys us into the time of day when we get the most accomplished. According to Shelley Berman, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist in Fairfield, this clock stems back to our ancestors. “From an evolutionary perspective, only communities with members available to work and protect others around the clock survived (long) enough to pass their genes to the next generation. A community whose members all want to work at the same time and all want to sleep at the same time is at more risk from natural threats in the environment than one that always has someone on guard,” Berman says. “Long before the Industrial Revolution, fields needed to be plowed before the intense heat of the afternoon sun, fish were easier to catch early in the morning when they were feeding near the water’s surface, and having an alert night watchman could make the difference between life and death.”

Some of us are lucky enough to be attuned to our power hour and know when it is. But what about the rest of us? How do we go about finding it?

No searching is necessary, says Berman, since “your power hour usually finds you.” Throughout the day and night we experience various levels of energy, motivation and alertness, she

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productivity ...all of us have a power hour, an internal clock of sorts that keys us into the time of day when we get the most

says. “Many women are so busy taking care of everybody else they may have tuned out their own internal signals,” Berman says. “By easing up on yourself long enough to listen to these messages, or ‘MEmos,’ you’ll learn how to use your unique rhythms to get the most done at the best time.

Pay attention to when you feel ready to take on the world versus when you’d rather curl up with a quilt and a cup of hot chocolate.”

One way to learn when your power hour is — assess your to-do list, she says. Ask yourself the following questions: Which tasks require physical effort, which require emotional energy and which require peak cognitive capacity? “By identifying the personal resource required for each task, you’ll know what time of day or night to perform [it] for maximum effectiveness with minimal effort.” Berman says.

She explains at the other end of the mental acuity spectrum, you might find a task such as deleting spam from your inbox to be the most effective means of utilizing your time,

since this is not an intellectually challenging activity. “Once you know what parts of the day you’re most energized, you can zoom through your to-do list in harmony with your internal clock.”

Danbury resident Gail Hill Williams, who works as a business consultant, says her power hour is between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. This is when she has the most success reaching people she needs in order to get her work done.

“As part of my job, I need to make a lot of phone calls and I don’t like to leave messages. I like to talk live to people. Between 1:30 and 2:30 is when most people have just returned from lunch and are usually back at their desks,” Williams says.

“I always feel the most productive during this time. This is also the time I regroup and figure out if I’ve accomplished everything I needed to get done for that day. I go back to my list of what I planned to complete. For whatever I didn’t finish, I determine if I still have time to finish it that day or if I need to put it on my to-do list for the next day.”

It’s important, however, to understand your power hour

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isn’t always guaranteed to occur at the same time every day.

“We tend to associate productivity with a certain set of largely physiological conditions — for example, being well-rested or well-nourished — that, when satisfied, lend themselves to periods of increased productivity, says Janet Aspen, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in Wilton. “For this reason, many people expect a correlation between high productivity and specific times of the day,” Aspen says. “In my experience however, one’s unique environmental factors — for example, the current noise level of your office — and psychological factors — for example, your mood at the moment — are often more influential on one’s productivity.”

Aspen explains how planning ahead is essential to making the best use of those times when you feel most productive.

“A running to-do list is helpful to have close by you whenever a chunk of time presents itself,” Aspen says.

Flexibility is also something to take into consideration when it comes to getting the most out of your power hour. Sometimes, you may not get a lot accomplished during this time period, and you should have a backup plan.

Danbury resident Nancy Matzinger says she tries her best to be flexible with regard to her own power hour, which is between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. Once or twice a month, however, something comes up in her office where she’s unable to make best use of this time.

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“Sometimes I get work later in the afternoon that has to get out that day. Other times there’s a meeting I must go to during my power hour, so I’m not able to get my work done during that time,” says Matzinger, who is a personal injury paralegal.

“In those cases, I have to switch gears and work through my second power hour, which I discovered is between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. Even though my best time is still in that morning time period, my second power hour is nearly just as good.”

When considering how to make the most of your most productive time, you may want to limit any possible distractions that can interfere with it. “Distractions not only take you away from what you’re doing physically, but also mentally and psychologically,” Aspen says. “Depending on what the distraction is, it may be difficult to recover and enter back into your flow.”

“During my power hour, if someone needs something that will take more than a few minutes — unless it’s the owner of the company — I’ll tell that person I’ll get right back to them as soon as I’m finished,” Baggett says. “From experience, I’ve learned if I get disrupted for a significant amount of time, it will take me that much longer to get back into what I’m doing.

“I always feel guilty saying no since it’s in my personality to want to help someone right when they need it,” Baggett adds. “However, I know in the long run it’s the right thing to do to keep my priorities in check — and my sanity!”

HL

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your fears

Don’t Be

Afraid! by lee nelson

D

o you shriek when you see a spider? Do you get clammy hands and palpitations when you go to the dentist? Everyone has fears — crowded elevators, tall ladders, mice, public speaking, the list goes on and on.

You probably can avoid going into tall buildings if you’re afraid of heights. You can keep your cool if you see a bee, even though they scare you to death.

Most people can deal with that fear internally or avoid places and things so they don’t have to face it. Their lives go on.

But for some, it’s not that simple. Their lives are affected drastically when that fear becomes a phobia. Their involuntary and irrational reaction to a thing, situation or idea can devastate their lifestyle and relationships or give them panic attacks.

“About 10 percent of people will have some specific phobia over the course of their lives, but a very small percentage will seek treatment,” says Eliot Brenner, clinical psychologist in Fairfield. “It’s really when fear and avoidances of the object or situation impacts their lives with such significance that they come to see me.”

For instance, one of his female clients had a neardeath experience and was hospitalized as an adolescent. She had so many injections and her blood was drawn so many times during that stay, she developed an overwhelming fear of needles. She avoided the dentist for years, causing problems with her health and mouth.

“Her teeth were becoming problematic. I helped her understand and manage the symptoms of her earlier trauma,” Brenner says. “By desensitizing her

you CAN overcome phobia

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your fears Phobias can ruin lives, families and dreams. But there is help out there. to her fear of needles, she was able to get over the anxiety and get the dental work done.”

Phobias are anxiety disorders and can be caused by an assortment of issues, including genetics, brain chemistry, environment, traumas and other biological and psychological influences, according to the website of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America.

The association denotes three groups of phobias. The first and most common are specific phobias with fears of specific objects, animals, places and situations. The second is social phobia or social anxiety disorder, which causes extreme anxiety when in a social or public setting. The third is agoraphobia, the fear of being surrounded by large numbers of people or having a panic attack in public places where you can’t easily escape.

Specific phobias affect 19 million adult Americans, with twice as many women as men affected, says the National Institute of Mental Health website. Often, the phobia is accompanied by depression or substance abuse. Phobias can ruin lives, families and dreams. But there is help out there.

“Obviously, there is a wide variety of phobias out there, and anyone can be fearful of anything in life,” says Sheila Cooper-

What are you afraid of?

Here are some of the most common phobias our experts have seen through the years:

Acrophobia

Brontophobia

Aerophobia

Claustrophobia

Fear of heights Fear of flying

Agoraphobia

Fear of confined spaces

Fear of large crowds and inescapable situations

Mysophobia

Aquaphobia Fear of water

Fear of social situations

Arachnophobia

Trypanophobia

Fear of spiders

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Fear of thunderstorms

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Fear of germs or dirt

Sociophobia

Fear of injections

man, vice chairwoman of psychiatry at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport. “Fears are so individual, and you can never guess by looking at someone who is afraid of what. But there is help and hope with several approaches out there for those whose fears are interfering in their lives.”

She has seen in her practice many agoraphobia patients do better in a group setting. “They do well in talking about their fears with others who understand what they are talking about. They can hear how other people dealt with it in the past and how to possibly approach it in their own lives,” she says.

Through the years, her patients have been afraid of snakes, spiders, flying, heights and more.

Some people afflicted with phobias can get help with their anxiety when their psychiatrist puts them on anti-depressants. These are more useful for phobias than anxiety-based medications, she says. The anxiety meds were meant only to be used for a short time, and patients need more and more of them to get the same effect if they are used for the long haul.

“Sometimes phobias don’t make sense to the people around the people who have them. I know New Yorker City

Difference between normal anxiety and a phobia Normal Anxiety

Phobia

Feeling queasy while climbing a tall ladder

Refusing to attend your best friend’s wedding because it’s on the 25th floor of a hotel

Worrying about taking off in an airplane during a lightning storm

Turning down a big promotion because it involves air travel

Feeling anxious around your neighbor’s pit bull

Avoiding visiting your neighbors for fear of just seeing a dog

Contributed by Anxiety Disorders Association of America

dwellers who are used to seeing rats and mice all over the place and just walk on by with no fear. But if they see a skunk, they are terrified,” Cooperman says.

Photos: GettyImages; Scared woman, Peter Dazeley; Spider, Nature Picture Library; Dreamstime.com; Airplane, © Svlumagraphica; Pit Bull, © Ginger Monteleone.

T

he fear of flying is quite common and can be a devastating phobia for those whose jobs require them to travel or whose family is spread out across the country. Clinical psychologist Martin Seif, with practices in Greenwich and New York, suffered from his own fear years ago.

“Getting over my fear of flying was one of the most difficult achievements of my life,” he says.

Fear of flying is not just a single phobia. Those afflicted also may be claustrophobic, the fear of having no escape or being in cramped quarters, or have other anxieties such as fear of heights, he says.

Thirteen years ago, he created the Freedom to Fly program at the Anxiety and Phobia Treatment Center at White Plains (N.Y.) Hospital, where he serves as associate director. He also is founder of the ADAA. The program is a six-session program with the participants actually flying at the last meeting. He understands why people fear flying: It seems unreal that a big, heavy plane can get off the ground and stay in the air. People know that flying is a safe way of traveling, but statistics don’t stop their fears.

Nearly 20 percent say the fear interferes in their work or social lives, Seif says.

“There are rare cases where they decide not to fly on that sixth session. But we give them a lot of information and teach them to look at their anxiety differently,” he says. “They learn to control the fear instead of fighting it.”

Coming face to face with the fear has proven through the years to help many people come to grips with their phobias. “The name of the game is exposure. People have to come into contact gradually with the thing they are afraid of,” says David Tolin, clinical psychologist and author of the 2012 book, Face Your Fears: A Proven Plan to Beat Anxiety,

Panic, Phobias and Obsessions. He also is a featured expert on the A&E cable television series Hoarders and director of Anxiety Disorders Center Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital. “We retrain the brain not to have an alarm reaction and to keep pushing what the person can do and face,” he says.

For example, one of his clients had been afraid of snakes since she was a little girl. She now was in her 50s and still struggling. She was getting to the point of avoiding going outside or letting her grandkids go outside to play when she watched them.

“She knew it was silly, but she was still fearful. The impact on her relationships was growing,” he says. “We started her out with looking at pictures of snakes, then bringing in a snake into the same room with her, and then having her touch the snake.”

By the time her sessions with Tolin were through, she was able to have a snake crawl across her arms without having panic attacks or any other exasperating feelings. “They weren’t doing anything bad to her so her fear subsided,” he says. “She found she was no longer impaired. She can go anywhere now and walk across grass or take a hike in the woods.”

At his center and with many anxiety centers, virtual reality programs can be used to give someone the feeling, for instance, of being at the top of a tall building, or giving a speech to a large group of people. “You can simulate something and let them practice over and over again like speaking in front of a group that wouldn’t be practical in real life,” he says. “But there is no substitute for reality and facing the fear.”

He admits there are a lot of good and bad therapies out there to help those with phobias. “You just have to find which treatment has the strongest scientific evidence. If your fear is unrealistic and way out of proportion, you have to recalibrate the brain,” he says. “But people really can get past their fears.”

HL

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No Bones About It!

PARKING PERMITS

Ronald A. Ripps, M.D.

W

e frequently get asked to endorse applications for Disability Parking Permits, and there are things that you should know. The availability of convenient parking in all public places for disabled people was enacted into law on July 26,1990, when President H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

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Many states also include people with cardiorespiratory illnesses and conditions that limit walking distance, such as certain spinal conditions. Half

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The permits may be temporary (six months) for people recovering from fractured extremities or orthopedic surgery, or they may be permanent if the condition is unlikely to change.

The permits are usually blue (after the European “bluecard”) with a white stick figure in a wheelchair - the universal Symbol of Access. Federal and state laws regulate the number of parking spaces required at anyone location. Generally one space is made available at any public location, with more being required depending on the size of the lot and the type of the location (health facilities and doctors’ offices, for instance, require more).

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your privacy

Electronic Mishaps protecting your medical records in a paperless world by laurie lynn fischer

L

ast year we got bad news from our doctor’s office about a virus — a computer virus. A form letter warned us that someone had hacked into our patient records, which may have included our “name, social security number, date of birth, home address, phone number, account information, health insurance account numbers, credit card information, laboratory tests and diagnoses.” We should place a fraud alert and security freeze on our credit reports, enroll in a credit monitoring service and “remain vigilant,” it recommended.

We’re not alone. Medical identity theft victims in Darien, Norwalk, Westport and New Milford appear on a 2011 World Privacy Forum map based on Federal Trade Commission data.

Contrast this obvious potential downside to electronic medical recordkeeping to the upside of paperless medical records: more trees, fewer

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your privacy

paper cuts and greater convenience for doctors and patients alike.

“When used properly, electronic records relieve patients of the burden of repeating their medical history at every visit and make coordinating appointments between different doctors easier,” says Scott Wallace, a visiting professor of health information technology at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire.

Up to a quarter of medical tests repeat prior tests because the results can’t be located, he says. Electronic records make it easier to track test results, he says, giving his father’s experience as just one example. After suffering a stroke, Wallace’s father landed in intensive care five times from toxic drug combinations. After switching to the Veteran’s Administration’s paperless system, that never happened again.

Consolidating records is one reason Cardiac Specialists in Fairfield went paperless. When they opened a second office 10 years ago, “patients were going to either of the two,” Administrator Robert Hendler says. “We had paper charts. We needed a courier. Electronic records ended that problem.”

Now, his practice can use the database to check who’s due for an appointment. Before, Hendler says, “You couldn’t get that kind of data unless you pored through the charts.”

If a drug is recalled, his office can pinpoint who’s taking it

and contact them, he says. “We have thousands of patients,” he says. “I can just punch a few buttons and get a list. Without electronic records, it would be a colossal undertaking.”

A vacationing cardiologist also can remotely access patient records and respond from anywhere, Hendler says.

G

oing with paperless records is not without drawbacks.

Stamford Certified Insurance Consultant Katalin Goencz helps patients with billing problems. For three days after a pediatric practice’s computer broke, “The whole office came to a traffic jam like I-95 has at 5 o’clock,” she says.

Another drawback is that patient privacy depends on staff trustworthiness and the competence of IT personnel, Goencz says. “If they hire somebody and they didn’t check the background, that person could be stealing information for months before they notice it — if they ever notice,” she says. “Anyone can get a job in a clinic, take a little USB device, download all the information on patients and sell it off.

I think small practitioners are actually safer, because they don’t have that many hands in the information and they’re likely to still be keeping paper records.”

There’s no failsafe way to protect health records, says Trumbull attorney Matthew Hausman, who helps doctors

Electronics at a Glance

Medical practices participating in Medicare and Medicaid with electronic records in 2012

Hospitals that used electronic records Connecticut: 44 percent Nationally: 35 percent

Source: Peter Ashkenaz, spokesman for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The statistics include only providers who received federal meaningful use incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid and are based on 2011 non-federal, acute care hospital figures and 2012 medical practice figures.

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Photos: Dreamstime.com; Doctor, Rocketclips; Inc.; Confidential stamp, Svanhorn4245; Laptop, © Xavier Gallego Morell.

Connecticut: 31 percent Nationally: 39 percent

The liposuction you never knew you had People don’t just steal medical information for financial gain. Some do it to get treatment.

“A while back, I got a phone call from someone,” relates Stamford patient billing advocate Katalin Goencz. “He was upset. The provider sent him the balance on a bill after the insurance paid.

He hadn’t received the services.

“When you get your explanation of benefits and it says you are being treated by a doctor in Florida, and you never left Connecticut, that should be a red flag and you should call your insurance company,” she says. “At the end of the day, the best defense is keeping tabs on your bills and never providing your social security number. Insurance companies don’t need it to process claims. The only exception is Medicare.”

If your records have been compromised, report it to the state Attorney General, Department of Insurance and Inspector General, she recommends.

File reports with police and the Interstate Trade Commission, says Trumbull lawyer Matthew Hausman. Medical practices have contacted him with everything from suspicions that patients have provided bogus information to concerns over someone using their provider I.D. number to forge prescriptions.

handle security breaches. “It seems to me that there’s always somebody who’s looking to get beyond any firewall that they’ve developed,” Hausman says. “There are a lot of hackers out there, and they’re very creative.”

Hausman recently represented a provider who was burglarized. “It wasn’t that somebody hacked into their system from outside,” he says. “Somebody broke into their outpatient surgery facility and stole a computer.

Apparently, the thief knew to target the computers outside the operating room because those are the ones that had all the patient information.”

Despite strict reporting regulations, victims sometimes don’t learn of security breaches for years, if at all. “All of a sudden, you find yourself getting served with a lawsuit because somebody has incurred debt in your name, but it’s not you,” Hausman says. “People very often call me. They suddenly get turned down for a loan or they’re starting to get calls from creditors they’ve never heard of. Once something is out there, you don’t know until somebody has a search done and gets a printout that says you’re a deadbeat, so it’s a pretty frightening landscape out there. Once the genie’s out of the bottle, you can never put it back in.”

HL

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my word

Coffee Clutch I

Photo: © iStockphoto.com/Vmatt egginton.

by cari scribner

n English, the word “coffee” means so much more than a hot, caffeinated beverage. “Let’s meet for coffee,” a friend says. “Anyone for coffee?,” asks the waiter.

Loosely translated, the word “coffee” sometimes seems synonymous with the word “linger.” Coffee extends the visit or lovely meal. But having a cup of joe also can reflect rushing, as in “I’m just going to grab a cup of coffee.”

It’s portable, inexpensive if you skip the frills, and a great way to score points if you grab a cup for a friend/spouse/ co-worker.

Sharing coffee is a modern-day ritual. Coffee brings people together. In the movies, when one character turns on the coffee pot, you know they’re in for a long, heartfelt discussion that will inevitably alter one of their lives forever. No one in the movies ever bonds over a late-night glass of fruit juice.

The word “coffee” is on the lips of more than half of all Americans as they wrench themselves out of bed every morning. Automatic coffee makers set to brew a pot just before you rise are necessities for many. When Keurig machines entered the marketplace, they ignited a brave new world of convenience and speed. And the flavors!

Donut shoppe! Peppermint mocha! Hazelnut! You don’t have to agree on one flavor; every coffee drinker can choose her own.

I make these observations because for most of my adult life, I was a non-coffee drinker. During the decades when coffee was said to be growth-stunting and mania-inducing, I felt virtuous for not imbibing. But now, with coffee cleared of its bad reputation and even said to stave off forgetfulness during the aging process, I launched my mission to join the coffee club.

It’s not that I didn’t have role models. My mom has been a black-coffee drinker forever. My 17-year-old son has been ordering coffee in restaurants for about four years, young enough that some waiters looked as if they wanted to ask him for I.D. to show he was old enough. Many people have a story about bonding with a family member or friend over a cup of coffee. For my son, it was Sunday mornings with his

brother, when he was poured a half-cup and filled the rest with milk and sugar.

I don’t have a bonding story. All I had was a desire to run with the crowd. I didn’t want to order water when my fellow diners had coffee, or turn down a hot cup when offered at a friend’s home. I wanted to linger. And so I embarked on a journey to become a coffee drinker.

L

ike scotch, coffee is an acquired taste. I defy you to find someone who, after their first swig, wiped their lips and said, “Now that’s a delicious drink!” It’s strong, and if the first swallow doesn’t strike you as overwhelming and bitter, the aftertaste will.

Early on, the taste of coffee was so abhorrent that I needed to wash it down with a mouthful of something sweet (read: highly caloric). My choice of chaser was a chocolate glazed donut hole. Or two. I tried biscotti, which seemed like a classy coffee side dish, until I read the nutrition information and discovered they had as many calories as the aforementioned donuts. I tried pairing coffee with Clementine oranges, another failure (you don’t see many orange/coffee brews; there’s a reason for that).

I psyched myself up to drink coffee, bellowing, “Wow, I could use a cup of coffee,” first thing in the morning, even when I was alone. I found a favorite mug. I volunteered to make a pot of coffee after dinner and served it to members of my family. “Who wants coffee?” were common words off my lips.

Sip by sip, the flavor of coffee became more familiar to me, although I still add skim milk and artificial sweetener.

Now I love holding a steaming cup to warm my hands. I love the stirring and the sipping. I feel like a grownup. Who cares if my preference is for light blends and I still can’t drink the dark roasts? That’s between me and the Keurig.

I was out to dinner recently with my family and a friend who didn’t know I’d crossed over to the java side. When the adults (and my son) ordered coffee, and I chimed in, my friend was visibly stunned. “Yes, I drink coffee now,” I told him. And then we all lingered for a nice long chat.

HL

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your mind

The

Creativity Puzzle by merci miglino

putting together the pieces to get your juices flowing

I

t’s classic easier-said-than-done advice: Be more creative. Whether you’re trying to come up with a new product, blog post or project, getting your creative juices pumping can be a challenge.

So how do you jumpstart your creativity, especially when you’re tired, stressed or convinced your muse left you years ago? You work at it, says the research, and the payoff is a good mood, improved self-esteem and richer relationships. And better yet, a recent article in The Washington Post suggests that creative activities can renew our vitality and can-do attitude as we age.

Here are some great ways to get those creative juices flowing and improve your life at the same time.

1. See Inspiration Everywhere When the muse leaves, says art therapist Mary Pellicci Hamilton of Westport, you have to believe it will return.

In the meantime, seek inspiration elsewhere. “Visit an art museum or sculptural exhibit,” she says. “Seek out the environments which bring you the most calmness and contentment. Hike through the woodlands or feel the texture of the sand at your feet. Soak in your senses and draw in that natural energy.”

2. Let Go of Judgment “Get into the process of writing, painting or whatever it is that you love,” says Fran Dorf, Westport novelist and The Bruised Muse blogger. Knock that judgment monkey off your back and focus on the creative process. “Think process rather than applause. If you’re worried about rejection, you’ll silence your muse. Focus on the work,” she says. “Just be in the work. It’s really meditative.”

3.

Believe in Purple Cows

Remember what it was like to believe cows could be purple or green or whatever crayon colors you had on

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hand, suggests Dorf. “Everybody is born completely creative with full access to his or her creative muse.

“Get in the mindset of a child! When I watch my granddaughter, skipping down the street and singing and talking about stuff like purple cows, she’s in a supreme moment of creativity,” says Dorf. “As we get older people start to tell us ‘no … no, cows cannot be purple.’ And that’s what separates us from our basic instinctive activity, our creative spirit.”

4. Stop Digging and Start Brainstorming When you’re stuck and the creative juices are not flowing, stop whatever you’re doing and start brainstorming your way out. “The more you keep doing the same thing, looking at your creative problem the same way, the more you’re digging a hole that just keeps getting deeper,” Dorf says. “Stop digging and start thinking of, say, 50 crazy ways or ideas to bring back the muse. Change your thinking by brainstorming.”

5. Do Something Completely Different Whatever the cause of your creative funk, consider doing something completely different. In 1994, Dorf, an author with a two-book deal, found she could not write and refused to follow through on her publishing contract.

“I went along for three years, just walking around in my

bathrobe and my grief, and then suddenly for reasons that still fascinate me, I decided to take this acting class. I think it was like my creative spirit rising up and urging me to express myself in some new way,” she says.

6. Find Inspiration in the Ordinary Observing nature and the world around us can spark ideas when staring at a blank canvas. Look at the landscape through the window or stand outside and observe the tree branches and how they create lines, and the shapes of leaves, rocks or the flow of water.

“See how the land rises and dips, creating interesting lines. Clouds in the sky can have amazing shapes and bird life, too, is full of changing shapes as they soar above. The list is as endless as the imagination,” suggests Stamford artist Benice Horowitz, whose landscapes are featured in many public spaces in the city of Stamford.

8. Be Passionate and Have a Plan “Whether it’s art or business, fear is the first thing that squashes any kind of creativity,” says Valorie Luther of Fairfield, founder of Creative Concepts marketing firm. “It’s not just the fear of failure or rejection; it’s the fear that we don’t know what we’re doing or feel like we have no business doing it. To quell such fears, you need a strategy including some short- and long-term goals,” she says.

With a strategy, Luther says, you can take the steps to turn that strategy into a reality and be very creative on the spot, “working to make better things happen.”

This is exactly the method Luther employed in helping her son, Niles Luther, organize and promote a memorial concert and fundraiser to benefit the families of Newtown after the December shooting tragedy.

“We put together a concert for Newtown. We created the brand name. We created the messaging. We moved to two shows. We sold out one show via social media and then the second show was sold out because of all the press. And that was done in three weeks and we raised close to $8,000.

That was the most intense burst of creative energy that I have ever spent in my whole entire life,” Luther says. “The creativity, leveraged and executed in such a short period of time, came from a passion. It’s how you stay creative.” HL

Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/ Simone Becchetti.

7. Tell Your Story Draw on your unique style and story, adds Horowitz, and don’t inhibit your free self-expression. “Everyone has a story to tell and everyone’s story is unique. It is the uniqueness of every expression which makes it interesting,” she says.

“Believing in these values facilitates the creative process. Once one focuses on the fun of apply-

ing the paint without restraint and worry about how it will look, this fun releases inhibitions and unlocks inspiration.”

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your spirit

why daily meditation can make you happier — and healthier

Ommmm by stacy davis

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efore Loredana Trandu started meditating eight years ago, she admits she was an overachieving, materialistic, ego-driven perfectionist. “I felt so miserable inside,” she says.

Trandu, 40, of Easton, was depressed, anxious and cried a lot. “I felt horrible,” she says. Since then, she’s earned a master’s degree in psychotherapy from Fairfield University and says she would have diagnosed her younger self with generalized anxiety or mood disorder.

But now that she meditates daily, she’s happy inside. “It’s two different people,” she says.

Trandu owns Transcend Mind/Body Training & Beyond, where psychotherapy, fitness and meditation are integrated to help her clients achieve life balance.

The objective of meditation is to sit and be completely peaceful, says Trandu. Valerie Candela, a Newtown- and Stamford-based therapist who founded Healing for Life, says meditation involves bringing the mind to a quiet stillness. “Meditation is truly spending time with yourself,” says

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Maa Prem Jothie Samadhi, the owner of Sacred Doors, a meditation center in Norwalk.

WHY MEDITATE? Trandu says meditation gives us the ability to watch our minds without reacting to every thought, she says. This helps relieve stress and helps us from behaving impulsively, she says. “Meditation helps people cope with stress in a healthy way.”

When people worry, it’s like their minds are on treadmills, says Candela. If we continue to have the same negative thoughts repeatedly, it can make us more tired. Once we surrender our thoughts to meditation and positive thinking, however, we’ll get a more positive outcome, she adds.

In addition to relieving stress, meditation can help release tension and pain, as well as wake up parts of the body that may not be functioning optimally, Candela says. It also can increase I.Q. scores and help prevent the onset of chronic illnesses, Trandu says, adding “There’s tons of research.”

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The American Heart Association, for instance, has reported that people who meditate are 48 percent less likely to have a stroke or heart attack. And the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has reported that those who meditate regularly are able to reduce the number of episodes of chronic pain, anxiety, high blood pressure, cholesterol, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress.

Meditation also helps those who do it become more patient, Samadhi says, adding meditation allows us to live in full awareness. “A lot of times we create so much crap in our lives because we are not in full awareness,” she says.

“We’re on autopilot.”

HOW DO YOU MEDITATE? The most basic form of mediation is focusing on breath as it enters and exits the nostrils, Trandu says. She tells her students to sit on a cushion with their legs crossed and to make sure they’re comfortable, but not so comfortable that they want to fall asleep. If you’re not comfortable sitting with your legs crossed, you also can sit in a chair, she says, but shouldn’t lean against the chairback. To meditate, you should sit with your back extended.

“Press the crown of your head to the back of the chair,” Trandu tells her clients. Then start taking deep breaths from the abdominal region. Many people, she adds, become accustomed to taking shallow breaths because they’re constantly in a state of stress.

Your mind will wander, but Trandu says to let the thoughts pass. “Don’t argue with the mind.”

Instead, refocus your mind on the breath that is entering and exiting your nostrils. The mind can’t focus on two thoughts at the same time, she says.

Trandu doesn’t give her students mantras because focusing on breath is sufficient, she says. But this philosophy varies from teacher to teacher. Samadhi recommends beginners use guided meditations by Dhyan Vimal or Sai Maa. Candela recommends Deepak Chopra, saying “He’s one of the best.”

Trandu and Samadhi focus on connecting with the spirit and divine being. But Candela uses meditation to help her clients regulate their nervous systems. When they are meditating, she tells them to focus on their body parts, usually starting at the feet and working their way up to the head, she says, adding most people think only from the neck up and pay no attention to other parts of their bodies until they are in pain.

Trandu says everyone should spend a little time meditating each day — even if it’s only five minutes.”The continuation of practice is key,” she says. “I think anyone will benefit tremendously.”

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makeup tips

Magic Wands

by kristi barlette | photos by colleen ingerto not all mascaras are created equal f you had to choose one makeup item to matic look, find one for volume that will make

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wear today — just one — what would it be?

For most women in America, the answer is mascara. A survey from BellaSugar, a makeup, beauty, hair and skin blog, asked women which single makeup item they always wear. The team received thousands of responses, but that little tube filled with makeup that women sweep on their lashes took first place with 37 percent of the votes.

OK, so we know mascara is essential in many a makeup bag. But what, really, do we know about the liquid lash enhancer that lines shelves and fills makeup counter cases with options almost as confusing as Facebook privacy settings? With options from volumizing to thickening to lengthening, what’s a lashchallenged woman to do?

“Mascara is a necessity in every woman’s cosmetic bag,” says Ashley Gomila, a Los Angeles-based makeup artist who has worked on celebrities such as Jessica Simpson and who has had her work featured in national magazines. “Deciding which mascara best fits your needs can vary; usually every girl wants more volume.”

If you have short lashes, look for an extender. If they’re sparse, or you like a more dra-

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them look fuller. A thicker wand or brush will give lashes more volume, while wands that look like a comb will provide more definition and more separation, according to Laura Vita, lead esthetician at the Agora Spa in the Stamford Marriott Hotel. The smaller, skinnier wands are good for lower lashes, she adds.

“Usually a lot of women want the volume and the length,” Vita says. “You get the length from the formula and the volume from the brush.“ Higher-end mascaras, she says, will often offer both in one bottle.

Melissa Burke, an esthetician and makeup artist at DPZ salon in Danbury, agrees price matters when you’re buying mascara. Although many makeup experts who have spoken to HealthyLife for other beauty stories have said drugstore brands often work just as well as the higher-end brands, Burke says these brands often have fillers that can dry and damage lashes. Those fillers also can lead to clumping and flaking — two characteristics no woman wants.

“You aren’t getting the full potential of the product,” says Burke. “If you spend a little more, you are definitely going to get a better quality product.”

Some mascara contains vitamins that will hydrate and condition lashes such as Pro-Vitamin B5. For deeper hydration, a cream or lubrication may be needed.

With any formula, the more coats, the more dramatic the lashes will look. Think longer, fuller and darker — three traits most women want out of their mascara.

The other popular option that often confuses customers? Waterproof mascara.

Contact lens wearers, especially, turn to this variety so their mascara doesn’t smudge or run. It’s also a natural option if you’re going to be sweating a lot (a summer picnic) or possibly crying (a wedding).

But waterproof isn’t always the best choice.

The ingredients in this product — the contents needed to keep the makeup in place when it comes in contact with moisture — can be less than lash-friendly.

“I’m not partial to waterproof,” says Vita.

“It’s very drying.”

Still, the option can be fine — in moderation rather than everyday use.

Whether you opt for volumizing, thickening or waterproof mascara, experts agree conditioning formulas — almost a “basecoat” for your lashes — can be helpful. Just as conditioner in the shower strengthens hair, lash conditioners can strengthen your eyelashes, Vita says.

That’s where lash conditioners come in. You don’t use this instead of mascara, but with it.

Conditioners can help strengthen, enhance and even lengthen your lashes. The conditioner, also in a wand and white, is swept onto the lash and allowed to dry before applying the mascara. Our experts recommend using it every day.

If all the options still feel overwhelming, or you still aren’t achieving the runway-worthy look you crave, you can always fake it. “Go all out and select your favorite pair of false lashes and skip mascara all together,” Gomila says.

“I recommend Faux Lash; they carry over 50 styles and the quality is like no other brand that I’ve tried.”

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Great tip to keep mascara off your skin ...

Learn more about it in our exclusive video!

Want to learn more? Watch our video with some tips on how to apply mascara at healthylifect.com.

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cover model

up close with...

Torie Burke by rebecca haynes | photo by dru nadler

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orie Burke has come about as close as she can to returning to her roots without actually moving back to Kentucky. The color consultant and organic candy company (Torie & Burke) co-founder has lived all over the world, including many years in New York City, but relocated to the country hamlet of Bridgewater 2009.

She loves the more relaxed lifestyle, including being able to spend outdoor time with her horse, eBay, and dog, Google.

“I grew up in Kentucky and loved being in the country and felt like it was time for me to do that again,” says the 50-yearold Burke, adding that even though she had bought a house in Ridgefield in 1998, she split her time between there and her place in the city. “Right now my commute is about 10 minutes and I have much more time and can enjoy life.”

Tell us about the health issues that led to your gluten-free lifestyle. A few years ago I had a pain on my left side that was persistent for over a year. I went to so many doctors and had every test that ends with ‘oscopy’ … I even swallowed a camera. Then they took a biopsy, but the gastroenterologist said to me [beforehand] he thought I was gluten intolerant and so he wanted me to eat a healthy dose of gluten before the test so that when he did the biopsy he could see the inflammation and get a definite yes or no… [After the biopsy] I stopped eating wheat and dairy and about two and a half months later I felt like a totally different person.

Did your food allergies affect your ability to exercise? I started running when I moved to France in 1998. They don’t grow the super wheats there, so I was eating ancient grains and I felt fine and could run. But then when I moved back to the states I would go to trainers and I would try to exercise with my friends. I was always pretty good at the beginning but then would run out of air or energy more quickly.

I would get tunnel vision when I ran. …. My whole life I had been more of a sprinter than a distance person. I should

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have put two and two together since I didn’t have these issues in France, but I didn’t until I got really sick in 2007. Now I can run and I don’t have tunnel vision. It’s hard to argue with the results.

So how do you include fitness in your daily activities now?

I love to ride my horse, and even though I don’t do it as much during the winter, I do like to go over and chase him.

We exercise together in an indoor rink, probably three to four times a week. I also like to run on the treadmill, and I run around quite a bit with my dog.

What do you like to do in your spare time? I have so much fun fox hunting! We don’t get anywhere near a fox, of course.

We see them on occasion but we never kill anything… We go out on our horses and it’s camaraderie with your friends…

I also enjoy gardening, which I have just begun to understand. And I started playing tennis last summer and that’s a blast.

HL Clothing and accessories provided by Lyn Evans Potpourri, 423 Main St., Rigefield; (203) 244-2980. Hair and makeup provided by Christie & Company, 129 Padanaram Road, Danbury; (203) 744-8234; www.christieandcompany.com; Lisa Reiss, stylist; Laura Denny, makeup. Cover and inside model photographs taken at Young’s Nurseries, 211 Danbury Road, Wilton; (203) 762-5511; www.youngsnurseries.com.

Read more from Torie’s interview at healthylifect.com

(closer)

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