Health happenings: Eat better, skip the treadmill and try a triathlon
Learning to eat Ayurveda, space-smudging, a new fitness chain from Down Under and a Malibu triathlon: a round-up of what’s happening on the wellness front.
Back to dietary basics
An upcoming Ayurvedic feast will focus on the staples of this ancient, plant-based diet.
“Ayurveda is all about balance and understanding that different foods have different energies,” said Meredith Klein, founder of Pranaful, which organizes wellness retreats and provides healthy catering.
Klein will give a short presentation on the benefits of Ayurveda practices at the Aug.17 event, which is part of Rodale’s Organic Life/Wanderlust Hollywood “Find Your True Fork” dinner series. The meal will include a cilantro lime pesto (ingredients deemed as “cooling” in Ayurveda), fortifying black lentils, fennel for digestion and anti-inflammatory turmeric.
Info: Thursday, Aug.17, 7 p.m.
Wanderlust Hollywood, 1357 Highland Ave.
$80 per person. Discounts for groups of four or more.wanderlusthollywood.com
Purify a room
If you’re wondering what to do with those smudge sticks you bought on a whim, here’s an idea: In conjunction with holistic services company Creative Collective LA, the Chuan spa at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena is holding a session to teach how to use smudge sticks and sage, lavender and rose petals to cleanse and purify a room.
The Native American tradition of smudging has long been used to encourage a sense of well-being in a space: the burning of some herbs releases negative ions, elevating the mood of a room.
Info: “How To Clear Your Space,” Aug. 17, 7 p.m.
$40 includes a glass of champagne and healthy snack.
RSVP to Chuan Spa Concierge: (626) 585-6414 or tllax.spa@langhamhotels.com.
Tired of that treadmill?
This month sees the opening of more Los Angeles-area branches of F45 Training, an Australian fitness studio chain that is expanding globally. The latest studios, in Culver City and Pasadena, will join more openings later this year in Santa Clarita, Woodland Hills and Hermosa Beach.
Los Angeles-based founder and CEO Rob Deutsch said he wanted to create a functional 45-minute (hence the name) plan that varied each day, and that also did away with conventional exercise equipment: the studios, which average 2,000 square feet, have no treadmills or ellipticals.
“Instead we use sandbags, Bosu balls, dumbbells, sleds,” Deutsch said.
The studios average nine classes a day that are either cardio, resistance or a hybrid of both, depending on the day of the week. (Deutsch said there are 27 different varieties.) Classes are led by two trainers.
“Each studio has several plasma TV screens that play the workout and explain the exercises,” Deutsch said. “The trainers are there to check technique and provide motivation.”
Membership is approximately $200 a month.
A triathlon for beginners
A triathlon on your bucket list? Consider next month’s Nautica Malibu Triathlon. Last year’s event saw 3,500 people run, bike and ocean swim their way to the finish line in the “classic distance” race, which is a half-mile swim, 17-mile bike ride and four-mile run. The classic distance is shorter and less challenging than the international distance, and has in the past attracted people who’ve never done a triathlon or aren’t very active. The organizers are running weekly swim clinics until the event.
Info: Sept. 16 and 17 at Zuma Beach.
Cost; $220 to $450
