Shape Up While You Sightsee
What began as a fitness-inspired way to tour New York City last year has made its way to San Diego. City Running Tours puts joggers side-by-side with a guide who points out sites of interest and explains the history and little-known facts about the city. Runners create their own schedule, after which one of the company’s seven guides will meet them up at their hotel or a central meeting place. Routes include La Jolla, Downtown, Balboa Park, Old Town, Mission Bay, Coronado, and Point Loma. Prices vary depending on mileage, but begin at $60 for the first six miles. (800/979-3370, www.cityrunningtours.com)
— Alicia Garcia


Organic And At Your Door
Why deprive yourself of great food when you’re trying to eat healthy? Carmel Valley-based Optimal Nutrition offers gourmet organic meals that provide a delicious way to maintain your health and help you get in shape. Even better, these meals are delivered to your door. Used by celebrities and athletes around San Diego, Optimum Nutrition utilizes fresh organic ingredients from farms and manufacturers that have no additives and are not genetically modified. Each meal is designed according to your individual basal metabolic rate, body fat, and activity level. Customers choose meals online from a selection that changes weekly, and receive them in the mail, kept fresh by state-of-the-art hydration technology. This system is perfect for people who want to integrate a healthy diet into their weight-loss plans, those who want to give their body an energetic boost in performance, or those who simply want nutritious meals that fit into a hectic lifestyle. (858/202-0445, www.optimalnutritioninc.com)
— Rina Van Orden


Marcela Valladolid

Head To Toe Pampering
The Head To Toe Women’s Expo Holiday show will take place November 16-18 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. A one-stop shop for the holidays, it will feature themed villages including Body and Soul City, Glitter Sector, Fashion Metropolis, Wall Street, Home & Hearth Quarters, Culinary Capital, and Philanthropic Promenade, as well as over 250 vendors and exhibitors. In addition, this year’s guest speaker will be chef Marcela Valladolid, star of Relatos con Sabor on Discovery en Español, who was originally discovered on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. Tickets are $8 for adults, $7 for seniors (on Friday only), and children under 12 are free. Parking is $9. (619/491-0677, www.headtotoewomensexpo.com) — Jane Shiomi
Much More Than Clean Feet
"Your feet correspond to the rest of your body," says Jeanette Kasbrzyk of La Jolla’s Cove Wellness, a lymphatic clinic. Proponents of reflexology claim that they can detect areas of distress in the body at specific points in the feet, and that their methods can release toxins, improve circulation, and benefit overall health. At Cove Wellness, the liver detox package — which feels like a really nice foot massage — includes a castor oil pack placed on the belly to promote the detoxification of the liver, as well as a short round with the Bioenergetic Lymph Drainage machine. The treatment concludes with an ionized foot bath, which practitioners say pulls harmful toxins and heavy metals out through the feet. The water, after 20 to 30 minutes, turns dark and murky — like nothing you’d want in a healthy body — and clients are sent away with a bag of custom bath salts to finish the detox process at home.
(858/551-9228, www.lajollalymphatic.com)
— AnnaMaria Stephens


Joan Kaestner and patient

Botox For Blindness
It is a goal both far-reaching and far-sighted — ending curable blindness in the world. The nonprofit One World Sight Project is working toward that mission, one country at a time. In November, dozens of doctors around the country, including local ophthalmologist Joan Kaestner, MD, will hold Botox for Blindness clinics to raise money to treat blindness in Africa. Doctors donate time, Allergan Medical provides the Botox, and patients get a discounted rate. Proceeds will fund a comprehensive eye center in Tanzania that not only provides surgery and treatment for patients, but training for doctors and other workers. Newport Beach ophthalmologist Richard Weiss, MD founded the One World Sight Project 16 years ago to provide eye care to the world’s poor. The organization estimates there are 25 million people in the world who are needlessly blind. Weiss says a simple cataract operation could cure them in less than 20 minutes for $25 to $50, about the price of dinner in a restaurant. (760/942-9225, www.endblindness.org) — Andrea Naversen

 
 
 
 
 


© 2007 Rocket Publishing Company, Inc.    760.942.2330     P.O. Box 676130, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067