Classical Stretch Retreat
Riviera Maya, Mexico February 2nd to 8th 2008 We just got back from another wonderful week in Mexico with a group who joined us for one of our fitness vacations. We’ve been asked why we keep going to the Iberostar Resort which is a five-star all-inclusive hotel and not a more “raw natural venue”. It’s not that I’m against a “raw natural venue” but for now we’ve only had rave reviews from participants of our Iberostar retreats so there’s no reason to change. How popular is it? We had two people who were coming for their third retreat and three for their second retreat!! That alone is a pretty strong endorsement of the location and event. What makes the retreats at the Iberostar so successful is that everything about them creates an environment of total relaxation. |
 
Everyone who has participated in these retreats has left with renewed energy, happy with life, smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes, completely relaxed and feeling like new people. The combination of the warm Mexican weather, two daily classes, delicious and nutritious meals where many of us linger over cappuccinos and champagne, perfectly kept gardens, walks along the ocean, lounging at a pool, golf, tennis, snorkeling, hours of soaking in the heated spa pools or a variety of massages and skin treatments all help in leaving us with a marvelous feeling of well being. What’s there not to like?  
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| A Mexican Adventure This retreat about ten of us chose to take part in an ancient Mayan Healing Ritual. The ritual is performed in special sweat huts called a Temascal, which is a low ceiling circular stone sauna.It took place at night under a starry sky where the ten of us sat in a semi-circle as three Mayan healers led us through the ceremony. The Mayans were dressed in full costume with painted bodies and feathered headdresses. They chanted, played the drums, burned incense and then had us wash ourselves with sweet smelling body oil. It was lots of fun experiencing an ancient ceremony performed as traditionally as possible. After about 30 minutes of the chanting and anointing we entered the hut. The Mayan Healers slowly increased the intensity of heat in the hut by adding water and coals on the fire and fanning the coals with eucalyptus leaves. (It was like being in a vicks-vapour sauna). We remained in the sauna or Temascal for an hour, sweating like mad. Most of us felt a refreshing tingling of our skin from the oil and eucalyptus. We all left feeling relaxed and purified! Temascal: A Temascal is a native steam-bath that was in general use in Mesoamerican cultures, the oldest vestiges of which can be found in the archeological zones of Teotihuacan in Mexico and Piedras Negras in Guatemala. Its use throughout history has been ceremonial as well as therapeutic. The practice survives today thanks to the oral tradition of Mexican indigenous communities. The word Temascal comes from the Nahuatl language meaning steam house. |
 
That was definitely a fun experience that we all want to try again. One of the best parts of the retreats is the people; many have become close friends, the only thing sad about the retreats is that they end too soon for all of us. M |
 
2008-01-26 Just to share with you how I have been spending much of the past weeks. I’ve been in the editing studio working on the sound on the new TV series which will be finished and on air very soon! Bruno is here with me as he goes through the task of cleaning the sound tracks and making sure the music is attached to the correct exercise. Though I don’t see much daylight, we’re having fun! M |
 | 2008-01-25 I’ve been avalanched with questions about my personal diet and how I keep my weight under control and my body in the shape it’s in. I thought it might be easier to talk about it over my blog rather then answering all the emails, and also it’s a long drawn out answer so I will spread it out over the weeks and share with you my day to day adventures of staying in shape. Although my job requires me to be in shape, I actually stay in shape for me. I feel happier and more energetic when I am at my lowest weight and in my best shape. To begin the answer to how I control my weight involves many things; paying attention to the nutritional and caloric value of food comes first, then I monitor how much exercise I do, and then of course there’s other complicating factors like emotions…or holiday season, or traveling… so truthfully for me staying in shape is on-going and day to day. I’ll share more details with you over later! M |
 | 2008-01-12
QVC VIDEO CLIP If you weren't able to catch it live, follow the link below to watch Miranda's recent appearance on QVC! http://www.qvc.com/ and enter product number F03988 in the search box, then click on the video tab. |
| | 2008-01-17
QVC APPEARANCEMany of you have been asking and we now have the date! Miranda will be presenting her new body toning workout Essentrics on QVC Saturday January 19th. Please tune in to "New You 2008" on QVC airing from 7:00am to 8:00am Eastern Time. If you've been thinking of trying Essentrics and want a little more description straight from Miranda's mouth, this would be a good time to tune it. |
| | 2008-01-11 Last night I had dinner with Ava, an 88 yr old widow, one of my long-time students and good friend. I love her attitude to life, she has become my inspiration to keep exercising no matter how old I get. Yes! I need inspiration too!! She joins in my class of mixed age-groups and levels. Not only does she keep up with everyone, she can actually kick higher then many people half her age with the strength and energy to do it. Tomorrow she is scheduled for an operation on her finger ligaments, but generally she is in top health and full of energy. It’s Ava’s disciple towards regular exercise and a healthy diet that makes me admire her. As she tells it, being disciplined isn’t easy, but she forces herself out of bed often having to make herself go to the gym (three times a week). Her routine is to walk 10 blocks to the gym, take a 1 hr class with me, eat a light lunch and walk home. She has watched her diet all her life, eating small quantities to maintain a stable weight. I think the secret is that she has exercised all her life; dancing as a child, riding, skiing, swimming and taking exercise classes. She is a living billboard to the results of regular exercise and healthy eating. She has never been out of shape or over weight. She complains like mad about the battle to stay thin and in shape the older she gets. But the inspiring thing is that she never gives in and is always in the fight to stay healthy. I am in that battle (as I think most everyone is) where as I get older I try not to gain weight. Like many people I have trouble disciplining myself when it comes to food! I go through periods where I do eat more than I actually need to, and as I get older it’s harder to keep the pounds off. Its not that I eat large quantities of food, I just like all the fattening food. I tend to gain weight really quickly, but watching Ava I see that she literally stops herself from eating 5 chocolates or a big piece of cake. She has one bite and stops. Watching her eat like that both kills and inspires me! Even her exercise habits are inspiring to me as she disciplines herself to exercise even when she doesn’t want to. She knows that she would lose muscle strength quickly if she stopped. There’s a downward spiral of weak muscles which give us less energy which makes us less interested in exercising which becomes a slippery slope until we are completely out of shape. Ava just doesn’t let herself get into downward spirals. All that to say that we have to keep motivating each other to maintain regular exercise our entire lives, and try to eat moderately even when there is good food all around us! M |
| | 2008-01-01 Happy New Year to all… As always, health and fitness seem to be one of our priorities in January so I hope you are all getting those DVDs out and exercising as much as possible! Well I have finally joined the modern world with a blog; I hope to make this as informative as possible. My aim with this diary will be to share different health and fitness tip that I learn on a regular basis. Between teaching classes, training athletes, the TV shoots and DVD’s, I am continuously learning new tricks to help improve our health and fitness and I don’t get a chance to share these with very many people. My students and I talk after classes and it is those discussions and much more that I will be including on my blog. I also thought I would just share some of my crazy fun life with you, things like a story from my fitness retreat in Mexico, getting physically ready for TV shoots, my favorite fitness clothes, dieting & weight loss struggles, my favorite foods, travels, new athletes I am working with, all kinds of Classical Stretch related info. And I’ll post photos too so you can follow along. So right now I am working overtime to finish the editing of the next TV series which should be on air in the spring. You have no idea how difficult it is to shoot, edit and deliver these 26 shows. I love these new shows. The music is really pretty and my daughter is joining me in some of the shows. Also Brandon Quigley a tri-athlete is in several of the shows. I really like having them with me; I think they add a special energy. I’m also getting ready to do a spot on QVC, the shopping network in mid-January. I’m really excited about that as we will be launching the new Essentrics line on QVC. Scary!!!!! That’s it for today. M |
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