Reebok to pay $25M over toning shoe claims

Just goes to show people are getting wiser to whacky claims about apparent fitness benefits of new fads, like toning shoes.

I like to think that eventually the cream rises to the top and people who don't have the best of intentions or ethics will be held accountable in some way. This ought to seal the deal for any of you thinking about buying toning shoes. Instead, get your butt to the gym and sweat and strength train and stop the hand to mouth reflex.

Shoes aren't the answer. The answer to a nice toned arss and sexy legs in within you. There are no short cuts.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Reebok will need to tone down advertising for its shoes that claim to reshape your backside.
The athletic shoe and clothing company will pay $25 million in customer refunds to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that it falsely advertised that its "toning" shoes could measurably strengthen the muscles in the legs, thighs and buttocks. As part of the settlement, Reebok also is barred from making some of these claims without scientific evidence.
"Settling does not mean we agree with the FTC's allegations," Dan Sarro, a Reebok spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday. "We do not. We have received overwhelmingly enthusiastic feedback from thousands of EasyTone customers."
It's the latest controversy surrounding so-called toning shoes, which are designed with a rounded or otherwise unstable sole. Shoemakers say the shoes force wearers to use more muscle to maintain balance and consumers clamored for them, turning toning shoes into a $1.1 billion market in just a few years. Companies such as Reebok, New Balance and Skechers have faced lawsuits over their advertising claims. But the FTC settlement, announced Wednesday, is the first time the government has stepped in.

And Kim, you and I both know your coveted ass has nothing to do with you wearing toning shoes.

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First Trimester Home Workout

My most recent iVillage Column is a equipment free home workout for women in their first trimester. It was soooo hard to write. So many things to consider including experience level with exercise, choosing exercises that even barfy mamas can do easily and creating enough of a challenge that mamas will feel like they actually did something.

I put together five exercises that hit all the major muscle groups and work on alignment and structural balance to help with the weight about to be packed on. This pic is of the plie squat. Since gravity plays a really important role in getting the cervix to open up during labor, we need to find the strength to squat while in labor.

It might seem far fetched that you're going to actually work out while you feel nauseous and exhausted, but it always helped me feel better. I remember many times in my first trimester (when everyone at the studio I was working at the time didn't know I was pregnant yet) sitting in a bathroom stall before a class wondering how I was going to get through an hour of teaching and motivating people. And every single time I got the strength together to move a bit, I ALWAYS felt better for a good couple hours.

So go check it out!

Victoria's Smoothie Recipe

Victoria Fodor is a legend in her circles for her dinner parties, her wonderful homemade frozen meal service (Victoria's Kitchen) and for just being the nurturing full of life woman that she is.

Today she and I were chatting and she told me about this AMAZING smoothie recipe she came up with.

I would say, treat this as a bit more of a dessert smoothie. But it's loaded up with so many different nutrients in a totally yummy way, that I had to pass it along. I love yummy and healthy foods.



This should make a few servings!

1 banana (packed with potassium and fibre, also Vitamin B6 and C)
2 tablespoons almond butter (protein, omegas, calcium and Vitamin E)
6 dates (rich iron and in antioxidant flavonoids such as beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, packed with fibre)
Chocolate almond milk (vitamin E, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, iron, fiber, zinc and calcium)
Coconut water (cytokinins in coconut water showed significant anti-ageing, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-thrombotic effects)
Pinch of cinnamon (calcium, iron, vitamins C, K, and manganese)

Add liquid in equal parts to your desired consistency. Yum!

Thanks Victoria!

The Truth about Toning Shoes

Just watch this. Really. She knows what she's talking about. There's nothing that will make people have 'toned' bodies without sweat and eating mindfully. Shoes won't deliver miracles. Consistency, commitment and strategy is what it takes. So could people just stop asking me about their potential benefit please? There is no magic pill!!!!

They could actually hurt you. If we were meant to walk in what feels like a mini rocking chair, our feet would be in the shape of a rocking chair.

Why You Shouldn't Fear Prenatal Exercise

My iVillage column this week has at its heart, the hope that I will somehow inspire even one pregnant woman to get on the path of self care during pregnancy. Once baby comes around, all the attention goes off the mama's health and gets directed at the baby. I always felt this paradigm was flawed at it's core. If the mama is the primary caregiver, then the oxygen mask on first analogy should prevail. Happy mom. Happy baby.

I know how hard it is to care for a new born. Some babies are harder than others. If I hadn't had the physical strength I did when my daughter was born, I wouldn't have been as engaged with her as I was. I wouldn't have been able to milk the beautiful moments the way I so often could (not a perfect record on this front of course!).

I really had NO idea how intense having a new born was going to be. The one thing we do have in our control if we have a normal pregnancy, is to make ourselves as robust as possible for all the unpredictability and chaos those little tiny beings bring into our lives.

So go check out my most recent column to get a bit of inspiration and maybe even a bit of a kick in the pants you need to get moving mama!

Here's a bit of an excerpt as a teaser...

James Clapp M.D. (unrelated to moi), is the world’s leading prenatal exercise researcher and author of “Exercising Through Your Pregnancy”. He conducted a 1990 study that concluded that women who exercised regularly during their pregnancy had shorter labors, fewer C-sections, less uses of forceps and their babies had higher APGAR scores. APGAR is an acronym for activity, pulse, grimace, appearance, and respiration and is the test given to a newborn immediately after birth.

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Stay posted on my soon to arrive column, "First trimester home workout"

If you've got a baby bump right now, hope you're happy and well!

Jane

How University Students Can Fight "The Freshman 15"

My most recent iVillage Canada column comes at the perfect time. Kids are settling into their first year of university and have some control over what's coming ahead, the Freshman 15.

Rapid weight gain or weight loss is often a symptom of something awry within someone. A lack of internal emotional and psychological balance can manifest on the exterior. The freshman 15 isn't just about too much greasy pizza and beer gardens.

Kids are faced with one of the most dramatic transitions, moving away from home and launching into early adulthood. With that comes emotional challenges and stress.

I tried to sum up the big picture issues and simple health tips for new university students in 500 words.

Check it out

A month of strength training from the inside out

I love being given a challenge. When iVillage Senior Editor, Adina Goldman, approached me to help her with her one month challenge of building core strength, I was ready. Coaching people towards their goals is so much more than designing an exercise program for them. It's about understanding the flow of their lives, overall priorities, time constraints and getting to deeper to their true motivation for wanting to make a change. Only then, can a coach truly help facilitate positive change.

My most recent iVillage column is all about Adina and my assessment of where she's at and my recommendation for her progress. So go check it out!

Here's a teaser from Adina. You might be able to relate very well to where she's at. So stay posted for her/our updates of our month together, creating strength from the inside out.

Intro by Adina: I’ve been working an office job for most of my adult life, and as 40 looms menacingly in the distance, I find myself feeling the impact of all those years at a desk, hunched over a keyboard. While I ride my bike do a weekly yoga class, it’s not enough.

Come 5pm, I find it harder to stand up straight. These days, my posture is getting hunched and I am way more prone to brutal kinks in my neck. Lately, picking up my son (who is really too old to be carried) can throw my back into uncomfortable spasms. Is this what getting older is all about? What can I do to get stronger?

When I spoke with our fitness expert Jane Clapp, she said I need to build up my core strength. And I am a lucky, lucky editor – she’s agreed to be my personal trainer for a month, helping me create a regimen that focuses on building core strength in my minimal free time. We are SO on. Introducing ‘My Month With a Personal Trainer"

Do you eat when you’re stressed? This new study knows why

Since opening Urbanfitt over 6 years ago, my health philosophy has become more and more holistic. Squatting our asses off and sweating our faces off isn't the most important part of getting fit and staying a healthy body weight. It's all about our overall health: physical, emotional and spiritual. I always include 15 minutes of myofascial release ( AKA self massage on a roller) and fascial stretch therapy at the end of my client sessions to help the body heal after a workout and release chronic stress. Any trainer who doesn't look at fitness from the inside out hasn't been on a journey of self discovery through enough stressful times to truly understand how to coach people who are living with chronic stress. We coach to whatever depth we have been to ourselves. So when choosing a trainer, make sure you feel like they have walked or could walk a mile in your shoes so that they get where you are at, see past the surface of you and, instead, look to understand your life in designing your fitness approach.

When I get really stressed, I feel slightly nauseous and lose my appetite. Most of my clients have the reverse problem when it comes to stress. They want to eat more. So I'm always looking at understanding this stress response because I have the opposite problem. Some people build a porch (i.e a belly) under prolonged stress and some people burn a porch (i.e. lose weight) under prolonged stress. You know which one you are. In choosing an exercise plan, it has to be something that helps you let go of stress and tension especially if you're an overeater or undereater during stress.

A new study gives fitness professionals even more reason to coach clients in a holistic way.

A new Canadian study has pinpointed how stress can temporarily rewire the nerve cells in the brain to ramp up hunger pangs. The findings finally put some science behind what people have thought for years.

“There’s lots of anecdotal evidence,” noted Jaideep Bains, a scientist at the University of Calgary. “People say when they’re stressed, they eat a lot … When you don’t eat, you have this really increased desire to eat, that perhaps you don’t sense the satiety signals the same way, or you tend to overeat.”

Dr. Bains and a team of researchers from the university’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute used rats to study how the brain reacts to stress. And in the case of rats, a key stress is availability of food. So the scientists took away the rodents’ food supply for a day and then examined what happened in their brains.

They looked at the nerve cells, or neurons, of the hypothalamus, the ancient part of the brain, which has previously been identified as playing a key role in controlling appetite and metabolism. The hypothalamus is also the main area responsible for how the brain handles stress.

Their findings, published online this week in the journal Neuron, found that the endocannabinoids, or chemicals that are produced in the brain to control how cells communicate, which also regulate food consumption, were negatively impacted by stress.

(taken from the Globe and Mail)

Intuitively, we know that there's more at play with weight gain and overeating than simple impulse control issues. It's a complicated relationship between our mind and body. Sometimes one of the best ways to change our bodies is to tackle our emotional challenges. We need to find ways to deal with stress and find fitness professionals who can assess our full beings, not just look at a number on a scale or a body fat % and then give us a cookie cutter diet and exercise program. We get the best results when we give our mind and body exactly what it needs to get in balance.

Nick Carter's Visit To Urbanfitt

Nick Carter swung by Urbanfitt last night to do a special online video chat with iVillage Canada and the wonderful Taylor Kaye passed along iVillage reader's questions. Here are some pics from last night. Maggie wandered right into the shot at one point and was all smiles, being as adorable as ever. A pleasure to host it!

Stay posted for my iVillage Canada interview with Nick Carter. I interviewed him to find out more about how he stays fit and smokin' hot given his busy life as rock star!