July 7, 2008

Throwing a Fitness

2008 Health and Wellness Guide

You’re dressed in slacks, eating leftovers from today’s strategic ideation road map meeting, and wearing that bitter no-summer-Fridays scowl on your face.

Whoa, what’s going on here? Didn’t you promise to become a blissful, non-pants-wearing arbiter of sunshiny fun?

Start small and get big rewards: A daylong retreat at the Chogye International Zen Center includes chanting, talking, and a vegetarian lunch. A pal swears her life changed for the better after meditation classes at The Three Jewels Community Center, a charming spot where you pay as you wish. Save cynicism for the office: Dharma Punx will give you clarity every Tuesday evening.

Why, you ask, would we send you to a trendy midtown hotel — ever? Because Denise Sirois is hosting a primordial sound meditation class July 12 and 13 at Dream Hotel to strip you of stress and mobilize your inner calm. Light is at the end of the tunnel. Along with a great spa treatment.

Multitaskers work out while working it on the beach. Chelsea-based ThirdPower Fitness is hosting a weeklong fitness camp in Jamaica, where core conditioning, anaerobic exercises, and frozen drinks with umbrellas mingle harmoniously.

Hard-core L.A. instructor Rebecca Kordecki started something called the Booty Slide (yes, really) that promises to make your rear tight and smooth without any weights or accessories. Drag your saggy derriere to her temporary studio in Amagansett.

Snack on Oko frozen yogurt, a Park Slope fave that just opened in the East Village (137 First Avenue; 212-228-3321). The environmentally friendly shop (the name means “eco” in Hungarian) uses all-natural ingredients and toppings and bio-packaging, so you can lose any guilty weight.

Friends who’ve run away with the circus (sound like a good idea by now?) recommend Heather Hammond’s beginner aerial silks classes in Brooklyn to give you great abs and a new perspective.

And have you walking on air.