Chasing the runner's high!

Just went for a 6-mile run today…it’s my 2^nd day in a row! I think I am getting into the groove of things. When I lived in Boston back in college, I used to do a 7.8mile loop around the Charles River from MIT 77 Mass Ave to the Museum of Science bridge across to Boston and back around the Harvard Wheatstone bridge. I would consistently hit runner’s high every time at about 3.5 miles into the run and I was so addicted that I absolutely had to run each and every day, including days when I had to pull all-nighters studying for some insane electrical engineering exams. Running for me is one of the rare times when I can be totally alone with myself in my busy lifestyle. I never listen to music, I sometimes think about my day or my life-issues, or just get lost in the rhythm of it all. One day, after I finished my 7.8 mile loop, I was so energized that I wanted to do it again and I did (a total of 16.6 miles)…this was in May in Boston (probably the only month during the school year when it’s NOT snowing outside) and the sun was setting (my favorite time to run because I’m not much of a morning person and I don’t want to get that sports bra tan) and there were many beautiful white sail boats floating on the Charles River. I was on such an incredible high that when I finished my 2^nd loop, I stopped only because my brain told me “okay this is ridiculous if you actually do an impromptu marathon”. I really miss that adrenaline and am still in the search of the perfect 7 mile loop in Stockholm…let me know if you have any suggestions.

I tested the Casall ergonomic support tights for the first time today on my run. 

They are absolutely amazing. First off, they really made me look much tighter and firmer. I’d also like to rename these pants as the “Make me look thinner and super toned” Pants. Throughout my run, I almost felt weightless, they held my muscles in place and but felt super comfortable. I have tried so many different running tights over the years and highly highly recommend INVESTING in these tights. After rigorous designing, analysis and testing, Casall has created these unique high-tech running tights with both muscular Compression and Shaping in key areas. These tights were designed exclusively for women to optimize the running experience.

This is what the tights do for you:

Muscular Compression:

·       Reduces lactic acid and assists blood circulation

·       Controls muscle vibration

·       Lowers risk of injuries

·       Shortens muscle repairing time

Shaping:

·       Special panels with high-performance power stretch fabric were specifically cut and placed to provide extra shaping and support for a woman’s body.

·       This garment is constructed with unique XLA® fibre blend fabric.

·       This fabric has exceptional fit and hold of high-perfor mance stretch and lasts year after year while maintaining its shape.

They are not cheap but you will not regret this INVESTMENT. I also wear them when I travel with a comfortable hoodie.

This is my perfect after run snack. Ezekiel cereal mixed with fat free Fage Greek yogurt or Almond milk. I haven’t located this in Stockholm yet but you can buy it at Wholefoods in the states. Ezekiel 4:9. It is actually a bible version (no, seriously!) where it says “Take also unto thee Wheat and Barley and Beans and Lentils and Millet and Spelt and put them in one vessel and make bread of it…”  I guess what happens is that when you mix these ingredients together, a reaction happens and they are sprouted. Sprouting is the only way to release the vital nutrients store in whole grains. Therefore, this cereal is a potent nutrient-dense food with beneficial enzymes that are activated to become a living food. It is also delicious, and you must try it! About ½ cup gives you 23% of your fiber intake and 17% of your daily protein intake. Together with either a cup of Almond milk  (high protein, low calorie) or fat free Fage (because I love it and it always reminds me of waking up in the morning as the sun rises in Santorini Oia eating greek yogurt with honey and it’s also good for you), sprinkle a few Tibetan goji berries (I have been eating these since I was six years old when my grandfather used to give it to me soaked in herbal tea). You can buy goji berries in Stockholm at Blueberry, and it is highly dense in macro and micronutrients and phytochemicals. 

Now that it is super nice outside, no more excuses not to run…so happy running!!

 

Press event in Finland

I flew back from a quick NY trip this past Weds morning. Took a red-eye flight from Newark to Arlanda and landed at 7:30am and hopped right on a 9:10am flight to Helsinki for a Casall press event for our amazing AW 09 collection. I was totally exhausted but thankfully I was quickly energized by an incredible event.

As part of our press event, we did a demonstration with our two Casall Ambassadors, Hanna Kanerva and Elina Ikävalko. I filmed this great exercise below that shows Hanna (pilates guru) instructing Elina (champion golfer).

For this exercise, you will need:

Casall exercise ball 

Casall yoga mat 

This is an amazing and simple exercise that works on your; core muscles, especially your sides; tones your arms; improves your posture and stretches your hamstrings - all at the same time!

Now let me tell you a little bit more about these women. Hanna Kanerva, yes the tiny super fit instructor in this video has 3 boys (ages 8, 5 and 1)! She is a 25 time Finnish champion in Rhythmic Gymnastic, 5 times Scandinavian champion in Rhythmic Gymnastic and represented Finland in the World Championships and Olympic Games. Now, she continues to practice as a professional dancer and instructor as well as a certified Pilates instructor guru. Her methods combine traditional Pilates with all her years and experiences in gymnastics, dance and physiotherapy. I used to practice rhythmic gymnastics when I was a little girl and it is an amazing and very difficult training because it fuses all the fundamentals of dance and gymnastics AND you have to throw these balls in the sky, twirl and throw (and catch) these ribbons on a stick! Really really tough…

Elina Ikävalko is a champion golfer who has won several titles including SM- Gold at age 18. She will qualify for the USA Ladies Futures next Fall and begin playing as a professional and representing Casall in style on the golf course!

The event was co-sponsored by Bioforce, a pioneer in natural health started by Alfred Vogel. It’s a great Swiss company that manufacturers the freshest natural herbs, supplements and natural organic foods such as delicious muesli and organic fruit juices. All of their products are produced under strict organic protocol. Click here for more information on this authentic company: http://www.avogel.co.uk/index.php

The philosopher of fitness

I’ve had the pleasure to train with Ari Weller, a truly unique personal trainer (actually the term doesn’t really do Ari justice because he’s really more of a philosopher of fitness). With Ari, I am constantly learning new ideas, gaining a deeper understanding of my body and realizing new insights on wellness and life. No matter what is going on in my life, I always leave each session with Ari, revitalized, energized and balanced…but I am also completely sore the next day!

Ari doesn’t just demonstrate the moves; he really explains to me how they work, why they work, how my body will react to them and the overall balance and unification of body, mind and spirit.

Ari has trained the likes of P. Diddy, super models and top Olympic athletes. I first read about him in W magazine and trained with him for a while before he left to run a wellness retreat in upstate New York for the past two years. But, he’s finally back in New York and Hamptons, training again, but unfortunately I am in Stockholm and only have the pleasure of seeing him on my short trips to New York.

We train in a small piece of heaven found in the flatiron district among the hustle and bustle of Manhattan in a tiny studio that is also occupied by Master Lee, a top qigong master and healer.

Unlike many other trainers I have tried, Ari’s technique requires no machinery but only simple fitness equipment that you can buy at Casall. I have my own little home gym that includes all the tools I need to do Ari’s unique one-of-a-kind workouts. Here are the basics you need:

Gym ball

Yoga mat

Pilates ring

Exercise ball

After many years of bodybuilding, Ari realized that the traditional methods of training actually are not good for your body. In fact, it often results in making you less agile, less flexible and even weaker, especially in your smaller muscle groups. Ari has developed hundreds of unique exercises to target all of your muscles, beyond just the large muscle groups. Combining movements from gyrotonics (I love this btw and will blog about this later), yoga, pilates, core training, functional training, stretching, martial arts, Qigong, dance, interval calisthenics, Feldenkrais and more. Ari focuses on helping me develop a balanced, fit and agile body. He suggests thinking like a cheetah: fast, strong, agile and powerful. At the beginning of each workout, I start with gyrotonic undulations focusing on loosening my muscles, finding my center and breathing fully and deeply. Then we do a series of unique exercises that differ session to session, we often end with resistance stretching (part of the Meridian Flexibility System. I will blog about this later after further research).

It’s not easy to book an appointment with Ari as he has so many loyal clients that have been with him for years. However, with his expansion to the Hamptons in addition to Manhattan, there are some spots available. I am so excited to be able to show you the following videos: a series of four effective core exercises that I love. Ari also blogs at: http://ariweller.com/blog/

For more information go to http://www.ariweller.com

The Swedish flu

Okay, I haven’t been sick in years. Really, I don’t remember the last time… It was likely back in college at MIT when I would pull insane multiple all-nighters for 6.003 (my least favorite class at MIT and yes we use numbers for everything there). But unfortunately I got the Swedish flu after almost finishing up the winter having gone unscathed… It was awful and I couldn’t work out this past week.

However, I did move into a new apartment that I love. Having lived in the West Village, I have to say Gardet was a little too quiet for me... Thanks to my dear friend and colleague Katarina Forsberg (also our fabulous CasallWEAR sales manager), I found a beautiful apartment on Bragevägen in Lärkstaden, just parallel to Birger Jarlsgatan and about a five minute walk to Metropolis, my gym. I simply love it! Looking for good running loops around the area so please let me know if you know of any. So, I am now back on track with the Magnus workout. Flew in late last night, after a wonderful Easter weekend in London. It was tough waking up at 6am this morning for my 7am… But made it and feel great!

The Best of New York!

I found David Janik through a very fit and fabulous friend of mine, Goce Zojcheski (a brilliant MIT physicist, hedge fund investor who still has a great job in this market, looks as if he strictly consumes protein, and forced my friend Yanni and I to go to one of the only gym on Mykonos to work out in between beach time).

Dave is a former fitness model and has appeared in several National and International magazines including Men’s Health and Maxim. He used to be a football player (American football that is!) and once believed that training was all about weights and running. Over the years, Dave has developed a unique and tailored program that blends the best of cardio, strength training, weights, yoga/pilates, kettle bells, boxing, core training, etc. Dave’s philosophy is NOT to follow trends and fads but to develop a balanced workout that also integrates nutrition, good sleep and a healthy mentality. He has always been extremely picky with his clients and works very closely with all his clients to give them the utmost personal attention to really achieve great and measurable results. Dave would often send me text messages when I was on vacation to make sure I was eating properly and exercising… Over the years, he has become one of my best friends and I miss him dearly in Stockholm!


I was slightly skeptical at first when I met Dave because I definitely didn’t want to be one of those hard-core muscle types. I asked Dave for references of other women he had trained with similar fitness goals as mine (get more toned, slim down, etc). He shyly mentioned that he has been training Nicole Kidman for several years. In fact, I lost him for almost 2 years when he moved to Australia to train Nicole for that movie (see picture below). I won’t comment on the movie but her body looked great!

When I first started training with Dave, I was super skinny from running about 8 miles a day, had very little muscle tone and suffered from the Asian girl “flat butt” syndrome. I wanted to work on building muscle in the right places without bulking up. I am sharing a video that I filmed last week when I was deported in New York of what I call “How to be Asian and get a Brazilian Butt” (I’m not there yet, still working at it!). I hope this inspires you to get off your butt and work out! Trust me, this routine seriously works if you do it about 2-3 times week, with a well-balanced and healthy diet and other exercise of course!

I am wearing Casall Basic Cotton Tank in Yellow (I like that they are longer in length than other brands and also more fitted), and Casall Wide Jazz Pants (I have four pairs of these btw, because they are so versatile for all types of training and I’m not always on top of my laundry). Also, if you don’t have Dave Janik to provide you resistance, these wrist and ankle weights are amazing and definitely do the trick to increase your workout.

For more information and to inquire about training opportunities with Dave, please visit: www.manhattanmuscle.com

First day with my new PT

My new fab friend Ebba Bucht (super fit, tall, former model and runs House of Dagmar) introduced me to Magnus Lygdbäck, one of the top personal trainers in Stockholm. In the past 2 month, with my relocation, too many goodbye parties and drinks, etc, I’ve managed to gain about 5 lbs (I don’t actually ever weigh myself except at the doctor’s office so this is just a guess based on how my clothing is fitting me). Magnus is putting me on a strict 1 month program starting today. I will be blogging about my experience on a weekly basis and will keep you posted on my progress. This will hopefully keep me accountable!

My goal: get more toned and have more energy.

Day 1:

I just landed yesterday morning on a redeye flight from NYC. I was there for about 10 days, picking up my Swedish VISA... I knew that I was starting this program this week so last week I indulged in too many amazing dinners at Babbo, Morimoto, Freeman’s, Lure, Armani Ristorante (just opened in the new Armani flagship store on 5th and 56th, it’s amazing architecturally, click here to see pictures), secret sushi place in Tribeca hidden in a Italian restaurant and a few too many beers on Saint Patrick’s Day at The Perfect Pint. Last night I was totally jetlagged and couldn’t fall asleep until 1am… I was not excited about waking up at 6:30am for a 7am personal training session!

Prior to training: I ran out of time and grabbed a LÄRABAR (my favorite healthy bar made of 100% natural ingredients). This one was pistachios, dates and cashews. We’ve come a long way since those nasty Powerbars. But I recently discovered http://www.youbars.com/ a website that allows you to create your own bar, name it and they’ll ship it to you. You can add all these super foods like gogi berries, flaxseeds, etc. One bar costs about $3 and a case of 13 bars about $39. I don’t think they ship to Sweden yet though…

Today’s session:

• 6 minute warm-up on the rowing machine. I recently read that Halle Barry gets her amazing back from doing the rowing machines regularly.


• 3 super sets of cardio; 40 step lunges, 6 quick sprints, 1 minute alternating hops using a step board).


• 3 super sets of leg and arm power exercises using the resistance band/exetube (go to and you can order the exetube here by clicking on tools and then strength). Seriously the best and most versatile tool you can have and travel with
• 2 sets of 20 (on each side) side arm raises with a dumbbell in push up position and 15 abs raises.

How I feel after this session: totally exhausted but strangely energized!
Magnus is going to the Canary Islands and then skiing for 10 day… But he gave me program to follow. I’ll blogging about my progress so stay tuned!

How a sports bra can save you from saggy breasts!

They come in different shapes and sizes, but they have one thing in common; gravity affects them all. Ladies, this is critically IMPORTANT and gentlemen, please inform the women you care about in your life.

I am a size B cup and used to hate wearing sports bras and thought they were unnecessary for my size. Until I learned the following...

The global lingerie market was approximately $30 billion in 2007. I checked my amex bill and realized that I had spent several hundreds of dollars last year buying lingerie... That nice lacy bra will be useless after some time if you do not take care of your lady lumps while working out. Studies show that breast movement is reduced by only 38% with an ordinary bra, while a sports bra reduces movement with 74%. The breasts are held in place by a very fine ligaments called Cooper’s ligaments. Excessive movement causes strain on these ligaments, and over time they will stretch no matter how big or small your breasts are...

Once your ligaments stretch there is no return. Unlike a muscle, they don’t firm up no matter what you do!

A couple more scary facts:

1. Over 50% of women experience breast pain when exercising, which simply isn’t acceptable.
   
2. A survey shows that 73% of women are not wearing a sports bra or the proper sports bra when they exercise.

A good sports bra is just as important as a good pair of trainers. It should be an essential item in every woman’s wardrobe and there is no place for compromises. Here is a list of considerations when shopping for a sports bra (but you should really have a selection of sports bras depending of the impact of your activity).

1. Not only should the fit and the support be perfect, the fabric should wick moisture away from the body and be quick drying so that the effects of perspiration are minimized.
   
2. A great sports bra should be comfortable. For high impact sports, it should almost feel slightly small.


3. The base band. It should be wide and wick off moisture effectively so that you don’t risk chafing in that sensitive area along the bottom of the bra.
   
4. After about 72 washes the elastic starts to lose resilience and it is time to invest in a new sports bra.
   
5. If you weight changes, get re-measured and replace your sports bras.
   
6. You know that sports top with the built-in sports bra..? Okay, seriously, doesn’t work for medium to high impact activities. You need to wear a separate sports bra!

The below guide shows you a selection of bras available at Casall for the specific impact level of the activity:

Från My Casall

Okay, my next blog will be about some the top trainers in Manhattan. Stay tuned and protect your breasts!

What is your Casall?

Welcome to the unofficial Casall blog! I recently left a life in New York that consisted of intense 100+ hours weeks at Goldman Sachs in i-banking and private equity at the height of Wall Street, a beautiful apartment right on Bleecker Street, across from the Marc Jacobs stores and way too close to Magnolia’s Bakery in the West Village, an entrepreneurial venture into fashion consulting and advisory working with several top global designers to work with this seemingly undiscovered (at least in the US and to me) incredible Swedish activewear (CasallWEAR), fitness equipment (CasallTOOL) wellness company. I thought I was “in-the-know” but apparently I was 28 years behind in “discovering” this brand with an incredible and loyal cult-like following and already distributed in 18 countries.

I am just your typical end-consumer, I love to shop, I care about health and wellness and I want to stay in good shape/get in better shape. I try to work out at least a couple times a week but sometimes just feel uninspired. I got sick of shopping at Nike, Adidas, yadayada because they simply didn’t provide me the quality and style that I wanted in my cloths. I expect the top quality and design in my other clothing, why not have the same expectations in activewear? When I am working, I typically wear way-too-expensive high heels (definitely have a shoe fetish), business casual attire or the latest designer frock. On the weekends and when I am going around town in Manhattan, I always found it annoying that I had to change out of my hideous gym cloth into more appropriate comfortable attire such as James Perse, Ella Moss.... I have to admit I went through a really SHORT juicy couture phase.

Then one day, I discovered Casall at a trunk show at Equinox gym...I was first impressed by style of the clothing, beautiful and functional pieces with just the right touch of fashionable style...unlike Stella for Adidas, which to be honest, seems somewhat contrived and totally not functional to me or lululemon, which may be functional but misses the mark on the style for me. Upon further inspection, I loved the feel of the fabric, it wasn’t the usual polyester scratchy feel of most other brands, the fabric felt amazingly soft but a tag educated me that this was Casall Rapidry, an exclusive cotton-like fabric that wicks away your sweat to keep you comfortable and dry. After I tried on a pair of their classic jazz pants, I was then truly sold...we all know how difficult it is to find the perfect pair of pants...these pants made my legs look thinner and I have since learned from our talented and diligent design team that they strategically place seams and cuts to provide the best flattering fit and hold...

So here I am! Living in Stockholm, in a 2nd hand apartment in Gardet, and working with this incredible team of passionate, talented people with the main goal to create products, services and experiences that inspires you to perform your best, look your best and feel your best. Casall is not a brand that tells you to “just do it”, we want to inspire YOU to get off your butt, put on your stylish CasallWEAR, pick up your CasallTOOL and do some fun and effective exercises... it is also a company that truly cares, with high ethical standards to always do the best and minimize the negative impact on our environment. I was truly captivated by this brand and am soo excited for the opportunity to work with this company and want to make it my goal to spread the word.

Wellness is obviously beyond just the clothing and equipment you use. There is so much to learn about the types of exercises you do, how often, your nutrition, your mentality, your environment etc. This is a lifestyle that we refer to as Total Wellness Lifestyle and Casall ‘s mission is to provide the components you need, intellectually and physically to live it. Here’s where the blog comes in...I would like to research, interview, test and blog about the most talked about fitness trends in the active wellness lifestyle space.

Please comment and send me suggestions if you believe you are an expert or know of an expert that I can interview and test with...Also, send me questions on any fitness topics you’d like to explore and I will do my best to dig into them. This blog is met to be a casual and open dialogue where I hope we will all learn a bit to inspire us to live a healthier and happier life.

To learn more about Casall, please visit our new website and subscribe to this blog via any reader: www.casall.com