Yoga   Yoga: For Health and Much More

Women around the country are invited to reflect, engage and connect in the intimate setting of one of Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain’s private Mountainside Estates in Scottsdale, Ariz. during a series of four destination weekend retreats. The retreats, a collaboration of Dena Patton, CEO of the award-winning events and inspiration company, Chat, Chew & Chocolate (CCC), along with celebrity speakers Ali Vincent, first female winner of NBC’s The Biggest Loser, and Martha Beck, TheNew York Times best-selling author, life coach and columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine will facilitate the four retreats that vary in theme designed for today’s busy “Superwoman,” addressing Health and Wellness, Business Boot Camp, Glam in the City and Mind, Body, Spirit.

Each Friday through Sunday retreat, occurring the weekends of June 25, Aug. 20 and Oct. 1, 2010, includes luxury accommodations, sessions with Patton, two-hour sessions with the celebrity speaker, a 60-minute spa treatment at the Sanctuary Spa, wellness classes including Tai Chi and Yoga, a chocolate happy hour, welcome bag with skin care goodies, journal and other gifts, healthy meals and snacks throughout, time to enjoy Sanctuary’s pool and resort amenities and a group celebration dinner at elements, Sanctuary’s award-winning restaurant led by Executive Chef Beau MacMillan of Food Network and NBC-TODAY Show fame. Retreats conclude with a session devoted to a take-home action plan, ensuring that guests are armed with the tools to transform their experience into everyday living.

For more information, visit sanctuaryaz.com.

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Gaiam, Inc., the leading distributor of lifestyle media and fitness accessories, recently announced the release of Trudie Styler’s Sculpt & Tone Ballet featuring the actress, producer, and environmental activist. This is the fourth DVD release in the Trudie Styler mind body and fitness series that combine elements of yoga, Pilates and ballet with traditional exercises. It also features Trudie’s personal celebrity fitness trainer James D’Silva, who trained as a ballet dancer in his native Goa.

Filmed at Il Palagio, the eco-friendly villa Styler shares with her husband Sting in Tuscany, True Styler’s Sculpt & Tone Ballet offers two 25-minute ballet workouts. The first workout is a barre routine designed to improve strength, balance, and posture, followed by a chair routine that uses conventional and modified ballet moves to increase flexibility while toning muscles.

Bonus features for the DVD include interviews with Styler, Sting, and D’Silva, with music from Sting’s classical album Songs from the Labyrinth; a special Chakra Meditation with Styler and D’Silva; a behind-the-scenes look at the self-sustaining Il Palagio estate and the couple’s organic wine production; and a step-by-step footwork tutorial designed to help beginners become accustomed to ballet moves.

For more information, visit gaiam.com.

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Anne Feeley, a 55-year-old mother and brain cancer survivor, began a 3,781-mile ride across the country today to raise money and awareness for brain cancer research and support.

The effort, called Brains on Bikes, kicked off from the University of California, San Francisco Mission Bay campus following a celebration that included remarks by Dr. Michael Prados, director at the UCSF Division of Translational Research in Neuro-Oncology and Russ Pieper, vice chair at the UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery.

Feeley is scheduled to ride into Washington, D.C. for a finish-line celebration in early July. She is joined in the journey by her friend and trainer Gundula Hennig and dog Walter. She aims to raise $3 million on behalf of UCSF’s Brain Tumor Research Center, as well as Stand Up 2 Cancer, the American Brain Tumor Association, Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure, and other charities.

After being diagnosed in 2006 with a glioblastoma multiforme tumor — the same type of brain cancer that afflicted the late Senator Ted Kennedy — Feeley was told by doctors she would be lucky to see another year. According to the National Brain Tumor Society, the life expectancy of a person with this cancer is 12 to 14 months — the same as it was almost one hundred years ago. Now she’s giving back the time she never thought she’d have.

After working with a trainer for months on gentle walking, lifting and eventually jogging, Feeley ran a half-marathon and started doing yoga. During the course of radiation treatments, she started riding a bike back and forth to the hospital. Eventually cycling became a major part of her exercise program.

Together with Gundula, Feeley has now climbed the three highest mountains in the United Kingdom in 24 hours, competed in the International Indoor Rowing Championship, and ridden 135 miles across Britain. These challenges, in addition to running a business and raising a family, have prepared her for the cross-country feat of Brains on Bikes — a 3,781-mile journey.

With the costs of the campaign already covered, every dollar raised will directly fund badly needed research. Less than 5 percent of patients diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme tumor live more than three years. This mortality rate has been unchanged for a decade.

For more information, visit brainsonbikes.org.

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