Body & Soul

Josef Brandenburg • May 11, 2015

With so many people saying so many things about weight loss, it can be very hard to separate fact from fiction. Here’s the scoop on five common myths about losing weight:

Myth 1
Cardio helps you lose weight. Activities like a 30-to-60-minute jog don’t help most people lose weight because they make people disproportionately hungry (among other reasons). So if you burn off 500 calories, your body will be hungry for 550 to 600 calories. However, strength and interval training tend to blunt appetite and leave your metabolism elevated for up 36 hours afterward.

Myth 2
Eating five or six small meals will help you lose weight. The research on this is clear: spreading your food out makes people hungrier and less satisfied with what they’re eating – which is only helpful for weight gain. Eating fewer, larger meals is more satisfying, takes less time and is far more effective for weight loss, now and in the future.

Myth 3
More sweat during exercise equals more weight loss. You can take the easiest, least effective workout and do it in a hot, humid room and you’ll sweat profusely. This extra sweat will not result in any meaningful, long-term weight loss, only short-term dehydration. The goal is to keep the goal the goal.

Myth 4
Adding healthy food helps you lose weight. Example: most people could benefit from adding more protein to their diet, but if you simply add a few eggs to your normal blueberry muffin, you’ll probably gain weight. You’re just eating more. Swapping the muffin for a few eggs and some blueberries would get you much better results.

Myth 5
All weight loss is created equal. Most of the time people really want to lose body fat (or get back to their high-school size). These qualities are not easily measured on the scale. A low-calorie diet and cardio can result in half of your weight loss coming from your lean body mass – in other words, everything that isn’t fat – which makes it harder to look toned. It’s also harder to keep off.

A best-selling author and fitness expert with 16 years of experience, Josef Brandenburg owns The Body You Want club in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at TheBodyYouWant.com.

Caitlin Franz • May 7, 2015

Anne Albert finds stability in the community at the Georgetown Senior Center, housed on Mondays and Fridays in St. John’s Church.

“My father was Navy growing up and my husband was much older, and he passed away,” she said. “So I didn’t have many friends.”

Albert found herself bored after retiring. She expressed this to a friend, who referred her to the Georgetown Senior Center. She has now been a member for 20 years.

“I can’t believe I’ve been retired this long,” she said. “I can’t believe I lived this long. All I wanted to do was be 21.”

Albert makes time to use her creative talents to give back to the community. She crochets blankets for an organization called Christ’s Child that provides assistance to unwed mothers. She makes hats and scarves for inner-city kids.

“I also make two martinis a night,” she said with a laugh.

Her fiercely fun personality and unapologetic nature make Albert the life of the party at the group’s twice-weekly meetings. “I still can’t remember everyone’s name,” she said. “I’ll ask the question and not listen to the answer. But I’ve done that since I was a kid.”

Her clear blue eyes light up when she laughs or smiles, mostly at herself, revealing a charming humility. Albert’s positive attitude was only dimmed when she learned of the recent dip in senior center membership.

“I enjoy the companionship of other people,” she said.

The Georgetown Senior Center offers a variety of activities, including exercise classes, visits by comedians, performances and social events. Volunteers prepare and deliver food to the church for members’ lunches.

When asked what her favorite part of the organization was, she answered with one word: “Everything.”

The GBA networking reception on May 20 at Lululemon will benefit the Georgetown Senior Center.

Linnea Kristiansson •

Sometimes, sessions in the gym seem long and dull. Going out for a run can be impossible on days when the weather isn’t the best and the couch temps. These newly opened fitness studios in D.C. will motivate and give you that extra push you need to shape up for summer.

If bicycling outside seems too dangerous to you, try out indoor cycling. Or why not tone your body with high intensity interval training (HIIT) and — or bodyweight exercises? No matter your skill level, there’s something for everyone in D.C. But remember to find an exercise that you enjoy and make sure you’re having fun. The most important thing is that you get active; the best exercise is the one that actually happens.

Off Road DC:

The local cycling studio Off Road DC provides a great fitness experience with a diversity of classes to make sure clients get a full body workout. Tali Wenger and Tammar Bergen opened the studio in October 2012, wanting to bring something new to D.C.
Tali Wenger, main instructor and co-owner of the fitness center explains that Off Road strives to maintain a welcoming environment for their clients. ”Off Road DC provides something for everybody, with any background and every fitness level. We want to make sure our clients are safe, especially when attending our cycling classes,” she says.

In addition, the Off Road DC team makes sure that beginners and veteran athletes both feel comfortable, welcome and fulfilled by HIIT (high intensity interval training), mixed cycling and running classes. ”We want clients to feel they can take any class and at their own pace.” Wenger explains.

Every class is different and instructors are given the freedom to express themselves in both music and teaching style. Off Road DC also has a wide range of offerings tailored to every person’s fitness goals. At the studio you can train indoor cycling, TRX, boxing, bootcamp and mixed classes. The mixed classes combine both cycling, running and core.

The first Thursday of every month, Off Road DC partner up with the 9:30 Club for a special spinning class. Tali Wenger encourage beginners to join the free intro class on Saturdays at 11:15 a.m. to walk through the bikes and get a 30-minute workout. ”The first step for anyone is coming in the door,” Wenger says.

Off Road DC is located on 905 U St. NW Washington, D.C.

[Solidcore]

Fitness fanatics, listen up. The innovative Solidcore workout is a 50-minute, full body tune-up in a class-based fitness studio with no more than 13 clients in class at a time. It is basically a hardcore pilates class where you use slow and controlled full-body movements with tension to work the muscle fibers to failure. This low-impact process forces your muscles to rebuild a stronger, more toned and sculpted you.

Since every workout experience is different, the body doesn’t stop responding to the exercise. With small class sizes at Solidcore, you can get a personalized experience. The certified Solidcore instructors motivate you to push yourself further than you would on your own.

Solidcore is one of the hardest and most intense workouts you will ever do, and is like nothing else you’ve ever done. As written on their website, ”This is the athlete’s workout, not your grandmother’s pilates class. Prepare to sweat, be pushed to your edge, and for the most intense workout of your life”. The Solidcore team encourages you to have fun while building the best version of yourself. You will be amazed by this workout and its results — guaranteed.

Solidcore has three D.C. locations; in Shaw, Mt. Vernon triangle and Cathedral Commons at 3308 Wisconsin Ave NW.

Flywheel Sports:

The popular indoor cycling studio Flywheel Sports recently opened a new studio in Dupont. ”Flywheel is the ultimate, revolutionary cycling experience”, says Danielle Devine-Baum, master instructor and creative director for the northeast region.

Flywheel is a full body training combined with an arm sequence at the end of every class. The Torqboards on the bikes allow riders to view and keep track of their rate per minute (RPM), power and torque. The results are uploaded to patrons’ accounts online and on the Flywheel app after every class. In addition, you can see calories burned and how mileage biked in the app and online.

If you’re not into indoor cycling, you can try out FlyBarre classes. FlyBarre helps tone and work up long, lean muscles. The classes focus on lightweight leg, arm and abdominal exercises with many reps. ”Flywheel Sports is a perfect fit for all fitness levels and our instructors are trained to help set up beginners so the intimidation factor disappears,” Devine-Baum says.

”The Dupont location is Flywheel’s thirty-third studio and with more than 60 bikes, the location is the largest studio today, which is very exciting for us,” Devine-Baum continues. The studio has showers, lockers, changing rooms in addition to a blow dry bar with spa equipment. Seat cushions and shoes are complimentary at every Flywheel Sports studio.

Flywheel Sports studio is located on 1927 Florida Ave NW.

Josef Brandenburg •

Thanks to warmer temperatures and the celebrity buzz, more and more people are thinking about losing weight and getting healthier with the help of cleanses. Most will be disappointed. The central idea behind all cleanses or detox diets is that we’re sick and fat because our bodies are saddled with excessive toxins. By adhering to these very low calorie, often liquid-only diets – goes the pitch – we can detox, become healthy and lose weight quickly.

Scientists, medical doctors and legitimate nutritionists disagree, and generally don’t even believe that “detoxing” exists. According to Professor Alan Boobis OBE, toxicologist at Imperial College London’s Division of Medicine:

The body’s own detoxification systems are remarkably sophisticated and versatile. They have to be, as the natural environment that we evolved in is hostile. It is remarkable that people are prepared to risk seriously disrupting these systems with unproven ‘detox’ diets, which could well do more harm than good.

Very low calorie diets are also known as crash diets or semi-starvation diets in scientific literature. While these diets can help you lose weight very rapidly, they also fail 98 percent of the time. That is, 98 percent of the people on these diets regain everything they’ve lost, or everything plus interest.

These diets also become progressively less effective for the initial weight-loss boost because they negatively impact your metabolism, sex hormones, muscle mass and thyroid function.

Health and fitness expert Mark Fisher sums up cleanses nicely: “If eating food leaves you full of toxins. . .perhaps we should seriously consider the quality of the food you eat.” Losing weight is easy, but keeping it off is the hardest and most important part.

Your long-term success is mostly dependent on how you lose the weight in the first place. Quick weight-loss is sexy, and it sells $200 cleansing kits, but it almost always fails you. Instead, by focusing on small, manageable habit changes that you can stick to, you set yourself up for progressive success, building a lifestyle that will deliver the health and fitness you want for a lifetime – not just a weekend.

A best-selling author and fitness expert with 16 years of experience, Josef Brandenburg owns The Body You Want club in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at TheBodyYouWant.com.

Georgetowner • April 22, 2015

Dear Stacy,

My husband cheated on me in the past. We have tried to do everything to get through it, including therapy. But it’s still hard for me not to question everything he does, even when we’ve worked so hard to get over it. We have kids, a mortgage, a good life, but on a regular basis I find myself thinking about whether I can trust him. I am wondering how other women get over this. Is it normal to just accept it because you have the kids and the marriage, or am I kidding myself that this can ever get better?

– Want to Forgive

Dear Forgive:

Your question goes to the heart of what forgiveness really is. It’s not about wiping the slate clean in a way that causes you to forget a betrayal. It’s something the betrayed person actually has to give the betrayer, sometimes every single minute. No, Husband doesn’t deserve to feel like a criminal every day, but he’s going to have to expect that you will be wary whenever he comes home late. That’s probably going to be part of the marriage for the rest of your lives, and it’s because of his choices, not yours.

But remember, it takes a progress-stalling toll when one person appears to forgive and then snaps right back to that place of anger and frustration. Therapy can help (and, yes, it can be irritatingly slow, but rewiring the brain to turn an unsafe person back into a safe person does take time), but sometimes forgiveness is a choice we have to make again and again. Which is why having the kids and mortgage can be helpful: They anchor you to the very hard work of renewing the marriage.

While we don’t talk enough publicly about sensitive issues – infidelity, infertility, disability, etc. – to truly normalize them, as someone who listens to people talk about them daily, I can say that all of us (repeat: all of us) have “something” to manage in our relationships. Commitment is both highly difficult and highly rewarding. This valuable coin comes with two sides.

Stacy Notaras Murphy (www.stacymurphyLPC.com) is a licensed professional counselor and certified Imago Relationship therapist practicing in Georgetown. This column is meant for entertainment only and should not be considered a substitute for professional counseling. Send your confidential question to stacymurphyLPC@gmail.com.

Caitlin Franz • April 14, 2015

?“We’re thrilled to open our largest studio yet in the heart of our nation’s capital,” announced Ruth Zukerman, co-founder of Flywheel Sports, known for its intense indoor cycling and barre classes. “Given that Washington, D.C., is one of America’s healthiest cities, we understand the need to provide the most effective, results-driven workout – a product that we consistently deliver every single day.”

The company’s Dupont Circle neighborhood location at 1927 Florida Ave. NW offers stadium-style seating, custom bikes, as well as complimentary towels, indoor cycling shoes and seat cushions for riders. It is Flywheel’s 33rd location in the U.S.

Since its founding in February 2010, Flywheel has combined technology with its work-outs to help participants track their results. The new D.C. studio also features the TorqBoard, which allows riders to view their resistance, speed and power. Riders may choose to have their names displayed on flat-screen at the front of every studio, which allows for friendly competition in the classes. After each ride, comprehensive data is stored and made available to riders on an individual Performance Page, which can be found at www.flywheelsports.com.

Additionally, the two-story facility offers FlyBarre, which features a series of small, intense interval exercises choreographed to contemporary music. These classes are designed to target the arm, abdominal and thigh muscles.

Both Flywheel and FlyBarre individual classes start at $28. Flywheel spinning shoes are included in that price. For class times and more information, you can visit www.flywheelsports.com or call 202-830-0755.

Stacy Notaras Murphy • April 13, 2015

Dear Stacy,

My wife is not interested in sex. She never really has been, but ever since we’ve had kids, she’s just unavailable for me. We have a great partnership otherwise, and have no real interest in divorce. I really love her and the family we’ve built. But I’m completely unfulfilled physically. I don’t want an open relationship. I know that I could not handle the jealousy of that, but I am thinking about allowing myself the pleasure of female companionship when and if it is offered to me. I do not travel often for work, but could increase that, and I think that would allow me the freedom I need to remain in my marriage. My question to you is this: do you have any other ideas before I give this one a try?
– Frequent Traveler

Dear Traveler:

Do I have any ideas before you cheat on your wife? Seriously? You are leaving this up to me?

Okay, if I get to be in charge, my answer is an emphatic “NO.”

No, you do not get to allow yourself the “pleasure” of extramarital companionship. No, you do not get to change your work schedule to allow you more time to roam the hotel bars and airport concourses, hoping that something is “offered” to you. No, you do not get to rationalize that this is the only way to maintain your marriage and that “otherwise” great partnership.

I’m saying no to all of those things because it’s a delusion to think that stepping outside your marriage for physical pleasure will do anything but harm your relationship with your wife. It will. The fantasy of it already has harmed your marriage, I would bet. So let’s stop playing pretend.

You have at least a tiny sense of self-awareness that helps you see that you, yourself, could not handle an open relationship. That’s good news, because open relationships take a lot of work and self-examination, and you don’t sound up to that challenge. Let’s be clear: the female companionship of your dreams is one-sided. It’s easy. It has no strings. Of course it sounds amazing, but even if you find it, when that fantasy is over – SCENE: when you come home from the fake business trip and are met at the door by a screaming kid – you will put Wife in the position of being a disappointment or, worse, the object keeping you from returning to that fantasy space. And then you have resentment, a toxic chemical that you ought to be familiar with already, since that’s what has fueled this storyline about being able to find physical fulfillment outside your marriage without an impact on that partnership.

So let’s look at dealing with the existing resentment before you add more to the mix. Take your Great Partnership to a sex therapist. You need an impartial, skilled guide to help you with this conversation. Honestly, the conclusion could be that you actually do get what you’re dreaming of whenever you are on a “business trip.” But you don’t get to skip the hard work to negotiate that agreement without deeply damaging the family you say you value so much.

Stacy Notaras Murphy (www.stacymurphyLPC.com) is a licensed professional counselor and certified Imago Relationship therapist practicing in Georgetown. This column is meant for entertainment only and should not be considered a substitute for professional counseling. Send your confidential question to stacymurphyLPC@gmail.com.

Georgetowner • April 8, 2015

Dear Stacy:

My boyfriend and I have been living together for three years. We are both in our early 30s, and get along great. We have talked about marriage since we first started dating (five years ago), but so far, no proposal. I know he wants to have a family in the long-term, and I know he loves me, so I don’t know why we aren’t moving forward. When I bring it up, he tells me he will know when it’s right, but that’s the end of the discussion. I don’t like how much power this seems to give him in our relationship, but I know I want to marry him and it seems like he’s less sure about me. I am wondering how much longer I should wait. I set a mental deadline of the end of this year, but I wonder if I should tell him that if we aren’t engaged by then, I’m leaving?
–Ready to Marry

Dear Ready:

Let’s start by saying, congratulations on knowing what you want. That’s honestly a big step – as many people find themselves in your situation and assume that marriage is what they should want, but don’t give the deeper questions much thought (fast forward a few years, find themselves in a counselor’s office, and realize they never really wanted to build a marriage together in the first place). You know what you want. Boyfriend knows what you want. The rest is a little murky. Let’s look at why that is.

Scenario #1: Boyfriend is unsure. Truly. He needs “more time.” That is understandable, but the question that needs to be asked is not “Why do you need more time?” Rather, “What are you doing with that time?” Is he soul searching? Is he talking to you about his concerns? Is he in therapy? If “No” or “Not yet” is the answer to these questions, then you need to pay attention to how that feels.

Scenario #2: Boyfriend is sure. He has a ring. He’s got a plan in motion. You are going to be swept off your feet – lucky you.

Scenario #3: Boyfriend is sure. He does not want to marry you. He doesn’t know how to tell you. He is waiting it out so that you get so irritated, you give him an ultimatum and force yourself into a corner.

Your mental deadline is an ultimatum of sorts. I’m not against setting a boundary like this, I just want to make sure you are comfortable with the outcome, either way. I understand that you are thinking about marrying this person, so the dissolution of this relationship may never feel “comfortable,” but that’s the only way an ultimatum works – you have to be willing to accept the consequences (NOTE: have your support network queued up and ready). If you are not ready to walk away, then don’t tell him about your deadline, instead, ask the questions from scenario #1 and see where that takes you. If you are comfortable with the possible results – pro and con – then I think waiting and seeing may be an excuse to put off the inevitable. This all starts with you, have the conversation with yourself before you bring Boyfriend into it. Good luck.

Stacy Notaras Murphy (www.stacymurphyLPC.com) is a licensed professional counselor and certified Imago Relationship therapist practicing in Georgetown. This column is meant for entertainment only, and should not be considered a substitute for professional counseling. Send your confidential question to stacymurphyLPC@gmail.com.