C-fitters! We are hiring and need your help. We have two fabulous positions available: Group Fitness Director & Office Manager. See our Careers page for full descriptions. Please share if you know someone just right or apply, if this sounds like you!

For most, the perception of massage is for relaxation purposes. There is a tendency to label a massage as a luxury, something to schedule while on a vacation when we give ourselves permission to splurge. But you may be surprised to learn of other benefits of massage besides relieving tension and stress. Some massages can improve posture and alignment, aid in sleep patterns, promote better digestion, boost athletic performance, and as I mentioned before, aid in the rehabilitation of injuries. As you ponder these and other healing benefits, it is important to remember that not all types of massages offer the same benefits. Relaxation massage is very different from massage to improve structural alignment. Know what you want and ask a potential massage practitioner if that is what they offer.

I had decided to earn my massage license after spending four years in a cubicle chained to a computer as a marketing manager. My thoughts had started shifting towards being back in an active environment and massage was a natural first step on my path leading towards a health and wellness career. My experience with massage had taught me to value its natural and restorative effects, and I wanted to acquire those skill sets to assist others in the healing process, like it had done for me time and time again. Athletes or non-athletes, my clients range from individuals seeking to relieve muscle aches after a clogging performance, mothers carrying and lifting little ones, to commuters suffering from sitting behind a steering wheel.

Now after practicing massage for over seven years, I’ve learned many healing techniques that I routinely apply after workouts. Still, after a tough workout, I always go back to the basics: ice. Too often the tendency is to treat an area with heat, but this only feeds the inflammation and pain, no matter how good it may feel at the moment. Ice is an effective and inexpensive treatment for pain and swelling. I always have two bags of frozen peas in the freezer, petite peas to be exact, to help me recover so I’m ready for my next workout, or my next massage client.

Debbie Sporcich is a Licensed Massage Practitioner and owner of Wallingford Massage in Seattle. Prior to falling in love with group exercise at Community Fitness, she spent four years playing professional basketball in Belgium, Spain, U.S. (Seattle Reign), and Italy. After hanging up her basketball sneakers, she began a career in marketing. Soon after she realized she wanted to focus her attention on health and wellness, and started a massage business alongside her marketing position. Now at Community Fitness, she still gets to dabble in marketing, but spends more time in classes and in her massage space.

Snap® Creative Commons 2007.

Wading through the vast amounts of health and nutritional information out there can be a nightmare for the health conscious individual. We’re constantly bombarded with new studies and guidelines from various “expert” sources, which we feel compelled to follow. Carbs are good! Carbs are bad! But these new studies often directly conflict with our currently held beliefs about the best things to do for our bodies.

If you follow health trends at all, you can’t help but hear about the myriad fad diets that surface (or resurface) on a regular basis: everything from the old standbys like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, to the newer hits such as the Caveman and raw food diets. And let’s not forget about our favorite super detox diets in which you’re meant to subsist on nothing more than grapefruits or lemon water, cayenne pepper and maple syrup.

During a recent session with one of my clients I realized that even I’d been guilty of the information overload when she admitted to being easily overwhelmed by all of the information presented to her. “Best to keep it simple,” she said. Message received, if somewhat sheepishly. In that same session I held back from sharing the latest findings I’d read in a recent journal article and pared it down to the essential information and tools that I thought would be most helpful to her. We settled on three simple changes my client would focus on in the short-term, all of which we agreed were doable.

And it’s worked. Since that time, we’ve set aside the last few minutes of each session to identify two or three “mini-goals” that she can tackle in the days until our next meeting. Hitting these milestones has given her an overall feeling of accomplishment and confidence that she will ultimately be successful in reaching her larger health goals.

Clearly we are all unique individuals and we each process information in unique ways. Some of us can absorb piles of information, sort it nicely into different compartments in our brains and then reach in and grab it exactly when it’s needed. When it comes to your health, however, it can sometimes be best to go back to the basics. Life is never simple, but you might find that making one small change can be the catalyst for others.

Following that line of thought, our goal with the nutrition piece of this blog will be to keep things simple by offering tips and information that provide you with a foundation for nutrition. As a Certified Health Coach with a special interest in nutrition and as someone who continually works to return to the basics herself, I am particularly excited to be part of the CF team and to be a source of encouragement to anyone seeking to improve his or her life through fitness and nutrition.

We will also want to hear from you. Tell us what nutritional advice out there causes the most confusion for you. What would you like to see addressed? Feel free to give us your thoughts and feedback as we move forward with this blog. We will tap into our resident Community Fitness experts as well as others in the area to present the issues that are most relevant to you. And we’ll look to each other to sort out the confusion and help build a happier, healthier and more balanced community, step by step.

So how about those carbs?

Jennifer Haberman is a Certified Health Coach and owner of Sweet Vitality Health & Nutritional Counseling in Seattle. Prior to joining the CF team, she spent many years sitting in a cubicle behind a computer. While she is grateful for the experience and the friends she made, Jen finally realized she needed to focus her attention on health and wellness. Nowadays, when she is not coaching clients, studying to become a personal trainer or happily chatting with C-fitters, Jen can likely be found at the grocery store, determining which brand of dark chocolate will both satisfy her sweet tooth and provide the best source of those all-important antioxidants.

This delightful little animation made our day. If you’ve got 10 minutes over lunch, it’s worth the watch.

Collect them all!

February’s Quest for 7 is on and there’s still time to try out new classes at Community Fitness. Between now and the end of the month we have over 100 classes on the schedule in 15+ formats (class types). If you don’t have a card, you can drop by either studio and pick one up. Let us know what classes you’ve tried this month. We will retroactively punch your card and do a retroactive dance while we do it. When you hit 7, drop your card in the jar at our Roosevelt studios. Prizes will be drawn on March 1st!

Chocolate Almond Upside Down Cake (© ErnieSapiro.com)

When I think back to the day I was diagnosed with diabetes, it no longer brings up the fearful memories it used to. As a happy and otherwise healthy eleven-year-old in Mountain View, California, I didn’t think much when I felt unusually tired and thirsty one week. While watching a ballet recital that weekend, a family friend noticed these symptoms and suggested that my mom take me to get tested for type 1 diabetes. We went straight to the hospital and knowing nothing about the disease, I sat crying on her lap while waiting for the results at a park nearby. The results were positive, and the doctor told me I would need to stay in the hospital to learn how to test my blood sugar, count carbohydrates, and—worst of all—give myself daily insulin injections; a hefty responsibility for a sixth grader. Because we caught it so early, this news was particularly devastating and hard to understand, since I didn’t even feel sick.

What I didn’t know at that point was the profound effect this diagnosis would have on my future; that it would turn me into a responsible, health-conscious adult and provide the foundation for a career as a small business owner with a truly personal connection to my product.

Diagnosed in children and young adults, type 1 diabetes is an unpreventable autoimmune disease caused by an overly-active immune system. There is no cure. Where many cases of type 2 diabetes can be treated through oral medication, type 1 is treated through insulin injections.

That week in the hospital, I learned the two most important factors in maintaining good control of my diabetes. They happen to be the same key factors in preventing type 2 diabetes: diet and exercise.

Exercise has the same effect on my body as insulin. The more I exercise, the lower my glucose levels and insulin needs. I am reminded of this every day when I feel first hand the blood glucose lowering effect of a cycling class or the profound effect twice-weekly BODYPUMP™ has on my insulin needs. In general, more muscle means a higher metabolism, and a higher metabolism means less insulin, which is a good thing for all of us.

A healthy diet is important to a diabetic—as it is to anyone—in preventing swings in blood glucose levels, which are profoundly influenced by high glycemic-index foods like white flour, corn syrup and starch. Sugar is not necessarily the enemy, but is just one item on a list of foods that affect blood glucose levels quickly and intensely.

Michael Pollan’s recent Q&A for the New York Times illustrates just how important a role low-GI foods play in any diet:

“What is the single best food we all should be eating every day?

Single best? Probably whole grains—they offer a lot that’s missing from the industrial diet, from fiber to important antioxidants and healthy fats. People who eat lots of whole grains are generally healthier and live longer than those who don’t.” Michael Pollaen, NYT Magazine, October 6, 2011

As an active, soccer-loving kid with a sweet tooth, it was more than a bummer to hear how much work was involved in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including watching what I ate for the first time in my life. I loved cookies and ice cream as much as the next kid, and was determined to fit them into my diet. The nurses at the hospital told me I should reduce my overall carbohydrate intake by switching to artificial sweeteners and whole grains. A well-meaning neighbor brought over some sugar-free candy containing the artificial sweetener sorbitol, but warned me not to eat them all at once because of the stomach ache I would likely get from the nasty chemical. After realizing that many low-sugar and sugar-free foods not only tasted fake but still contained a sizable amount of carbohydrates (because of white flour or other high-glycemic ingredients), my mom and I started experimenting with whole grains, since they have more fiber to slow down the absorption of glucose in my body (not to mention the added nutrients). We used whole wheat, oats and corn to make pancakes and waffles, bread, cookies, and one of our favorites, these muffins.

I continued baking with whole grains more and more, while becoming increasingly skeptical of foods that claimed to be “low-carb,” but had a long list of chemicals in the ingredients. I started adding ground nuts and pureed veggies (like pumpkin, carrots, and squash) to increase the protein and nutrients of my baked goods, while celebrating the delicious produce our area has to offer. My diabetes has caused me to become overly aware of everything I taste, nibble and chew, and makes me keep track of the effect each food has on my body. This gives me a unique perspective as I design recipes for healthier baked goods. After blogging forever about my baking experiments, I finally decided to open Grain Expectations here in Seattle – a whole grain and farm-to-table bakery with a seasonal menu. I hope you will take a moment to visit my blog for information about Grain Expectations’ partnership with Community Fitness, and give me the opportunity to bake for you.

See you at the studio!

Yours in health,

Katie

While we are always evolving as a business and as a community, our purpose has not changed since we opened our doors in September, 2006. Community Fitness has and always will exist for the sole purpose of supporting the growth of those who desire more – more freedom and balance, more health and energy, and more personal prosperity and inner peace.

In whatever small or not-so-small way, Community Fitness is here for all of us, me included, that we might reach our highest potential. The body is our temple, and yet it is so easy to take for granted! So we provide a space for the physical body to move, music to stir the emotions and relationships to stimulate our mental and spiritual natures.

This is why we believe so strongly in group fitness. Any form of exercise is good, but exercising with friends, family and others in our community creates a swirling arena of positive energy that lifts us up and feeds the soul. Haven’t you experienced it? I don’t know about you, but if I’m anywhere close to the studio when class starts, the feeling is quite palpable, and it makes me want to get up and move!

Thank you, thank you, for being here with us. Together we are rapidly becoming more of who we really are as individuals and as a community. This year, we resolve to be appreciative of the amazing opportunities that life provides and to relax into the peace and joy that flows naturally to us all.

2012 is here—come celebrate with us.

With love,
Bradley Arnold
Community Fitness Owner