Mary MacVean

Mary MacVean is the former Mind & Body editor at the Los Angeles Times. She’s a runner and a cook, and has worked at The Times as morning assignment editor, web liaison, food writer and copy editor. She was a national editor and writer focusing on food at the Associated Press and a features editor and a columnist in Moscow, where she also ran a children’s cooking school. She left The Times in 2015.

Latest From This Author

Concrete hiking: We walked Wilshire Boulevard, end to end. Here’s what happened

Concrete hiking: We walked Wilshire Boulevard, end to end. Here’s what happened

We Angelenos are led to believe that we don’t walk much.
Relax with a bath ... of sound. Its practitioners say it’s like a massage or meditation.

Relax with a bath ... of sound. Its practitioners say it’s like a massage or meditation.

Think of a sound bath, practitioners say, as a massage or a meditation, with sounds washing over you and running through you, sometimes feeling too big for the room.
Are you brave enough to get off the ground with aerial yoga?

Are you brave enough to get off the ground with aerial yoga?

Just thinking about a relatively new sort of yoga, called aerial yoga, made my heart race.
It doesn’t have to hurt: How to use soft rollers and balls to gently melt away aches and pains

It doesn’t have to hurt: How to use soft rollers and balls to gently melt away aches and pains

All sorts of fitness buffs have taken to using foam rollers on backs and arms and legs, but it’s often a no-pain, no-gain venture.
The gym comes to you with the rolling L.A. workout studio G.I.T. Fit

The gym comes to you with the rolling L.A. workout studio G.I.T. Fit

If your workout excuse is it’s too far, time-consuming or inconvenient to get to the gym, then Matt Rolph just might leave you with no excuse whatsoever.
Is this the funnest workout in L.A.? Sweat like a dancer in Derrick Garcia’s rhythmic exercise class

Is this the funnest workout in L.A.? Sweat like a dancer in Derrick Garcia’s rhythmic exercise class

I can’t imagine there’s a workout in L.A. that’s any more fun than Derrick Garcia’s Make Me Sweat class at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, a dance school that also has fitness classes.
This workout is like a rave, mashing up fitness with art

This workout is like a rave, mashing up fitness with art

Shay Kostabi was a dancer and choreographer who found fitness.
Entertainment & Arts

Great Read: For former professional drummer Robin Russell, no gig tops Griffith Park

Entertainment & Arts

Great Read: For former professional drummer Robin Russell, no gig tops Griffith Park

For 14 years now, sometimes three times a week, Robin Russell has gotten up around 3 a.m. and driven his maroon van from Pasadena to the same spot in Griffith Park, not far from the zoo.
Why Barre fitness classes are exploding in popularity: ‘Everyone can do it’

Why Barre fitness classes are exploding in popularity: ‘Everyone can do it’

I never took a single ballet class as a girl, despite my whining, and while I got over that, I still can’t ignore the allure of long graceful muscles and good posture -- which is the sweet promise behind barre workouts.
When your workout is a pool party: water aerobics in West Hollywood

When your workout is a pool party: water aerobics in West Hollywood

Readers have asked for a class that would suit older people or those recovering from an injury.