The gym without walls: An invitation to join shape editors in paradise - Editor's Letter

Imagine yourself getting fit in paradise with 40 other women, hiking through lush rain forests with 100-foot-high waterfalls and bright red flowers bigger than your open hand, where you start each day with a yoga class. As toucans look on, you enter a tropical garden leading to the yoga "room," with banana trees at the perimeter. This gym has no concrete walls. Music and soft breezes soothe your muscles as you work out. Or you can begin with a morning hike through acres of coffee fields, the same ones you'll look over from the dining hall, where you'll be eating the fruits of the land -- guavas, mangos, bananas -- along with whole grains and fresh nectars. The rest of your day will be filled with a variety of experiences from tai chi and circuit training to African dance and lecture/workshops (in relationship building, nutrition, spirituality and fitness and more).

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This fantasy can become your reality if you decide to join us this summer in Costa Rica at the Pura Vida Spa for our Shape Your Best Life program, the ultimate holistic fitness experience designed to help you create a healthier, more satisfying life. See page 20 for details.

Whether you attend our program in Costa Rica or not, you deserve to start living your best life right now. So we have created a three-month Shape Your Best Life series beginning in this issue. Our special package includes a total fitness plan, kick-butt cardio and strength workouts, and a test to gauge your progress along the way (see "30-Day Total Body Makeover," page 108). We also offer a meal plan to help you achieve a healthy weight, reduce your risk for heart disease and cancer, and boost your energy (see "The Healthiest Way to Lose Weight," page 122). Plus, we give you a mind-spirit workbook to inspire you to map the life you want to live (see "You ... From This Moment On," page 130). You'll learn to write your "life story," a rewarding discovery process, through which you may understand more about yourself, including your patterns, guiding truths, gifts and limitations. Like climbing a mountain, writing your life story can provide a unique perspective for drawing the many parts of your life together a nd for writing about future possibilities in Volume II. According to counselor Elaine Sullivan, M.Ed., L.P.C., the leader of the workshops on "creating a life plan" in Costa Rica, "It's about becoming whole -- feeling complete and content -- in every aspect of your life."

One aspect of fitness is the development and appreciation of your body. It is also about experiencing various kinds of movement, learning to eat nourishing foods and giving attention to your soul. It is being grateful for living, so that wherever you are, you can create a paradise or, at the very least, a beautiful garden or enchanting space of your own that allows you to keep growing and find contentment in your own skin.

My best to you,

Barbara Harris, Editor in Chief

barb@weiderpub.com