Valerie Bennis found her destiny in an essential oil blend. One of the first products this software manager–turned-aromatherapist created was for a client with insomnia. “It turned out this was just the start of requests from New Yorkers looking to get better quality sleep,” says Bennis, who founded Essence of Vali around her remedy simply called Sleep. Featuring an all-star cast of soporifics—marjoram, lavender, cedarwood, and ylang-ylang essential oils, Sleep put Bennis’s little Christopher Street apothecary into the spa limelight and the middle of a sleep epidemic: Trouble sleeping now vies with weight loss as the top health complaint at spas.

Because it’s not addictive, aromatherapy has become a holistic remedy for sleeplessness in SoHo to Sunset Park. Even if the medical community still views it as a poor substitute for Ambien, says Bennis. “People are using aromatherapy to create a tranquil environment for sleep. A pill just can’t give you that.” Here are Bennis’s best bets for getting rest:

A drop of Sleep ($18) on your pillow is meant to help you nod off

Make sure you go with a pure plant-based product.
The word aromatherapy is misleading, says Bennis. “It’s not just any aroma. For healing benefits, everything should come from a plant—the liquid of the bark, leaf, stem, or seed that we call “oils.” Synthetics may smell roughly the same, but it’s the complex chemistry of the plant proteins that’s believed to be therapeutic. It’s their effect on the olfactory bulbs and the limbic system that can help induce a relaxed state, say aromatherapists. No one was ever cured by a pine tree hanging from a rearview mirror.

Consider a blend.
People are familiar with lavender or other fragrant oils, explains Bennis. “But there are actually several hundred essential oils, each with their own health-benefiting profile,” says Bennis. “What most people don’t know is that blended oils work synergistically, yielding an exponential benefit.” In other words, you get 1+1=3 kind of results. It’s a kind like mixing eggs and milk and getting a soufflé.

Don’t view aromatherapy like just another pill.
You can’t overdose on essential oils. But that doesn’t mean you should add a drop to your pillowcase and expect your life to change. Think about how sleeping pills work: “They don’t treat the cause of sleeplessness, just the symptoms, says Bennis. “Aromatherapy shouldn’t be used as another version of this.”

Aromatherapist Valerie Bennis

Fix your sleep problem, not just its symptoms.
Instead of looking to aromatherapy as a quick fix, Bennis suggests that sheep-counters “participate more fully in their healing process” by addressing life stressors and imbalances (like work, relationship worries, no workouts) and dump caffeine and sugar from their diet to see results. “Healthy people can sleep,” Bennis points out.

Create de-stressing experiences for yourself.
To win the race for good sleep, New Yorkers need to take the tact of the Tortoise and slow down. That means chilling out, doing some yoga, reading a book—all the things we know we should do. Or take Bennis’s advice, loosely based on Hippocrates’: “If you ask me, the way to health is to have bath and an aromatic massage every day. A foot rub at home will do.”

Essence of Vali Sleep $18 is sold at essenceofvali.com and many spas around NYC, including Yelo.

Have you used aromatherapy to get better or more sleep? Tell us, here!

Today Well+Good kicks off Sleep Week. We’ll present five well-being perspectives on getting quality zzz’s—from what time of day to workout to what mattress to sleep on.

“In an ideal world, you should probably work-out before 2:00 p.m.,” says Geralyn Coopersmith, the trainer’s trainer at Equinox. Author of Fit + Female, The Perfect Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type, Coopersmith has an masters degree in exercise physiology from Columbia University and she runs Equinox’s in-house education, keeping up on the latest exercise research and teaching it to the gym’s 1,400 trainers. “There’s a connection between lower body temperature and getting quality sleep,” Coopersmith explains, “Exercise raises body temperature and revs up the metabolism. It’s a good thing in terms of burning calories, but it’s not great if you want to relax and fall asleep.”

Coopersmith doesn't know any New Yorkers who get the necessary 7-9 hours of sleep.

For a fit person, the body can learn to adjust to a p.m. workout. Coopersmith believes consistency in evening workouts is why all those regular gym-goers get good sleep. For a less conditioned person, the body takes longer to cool down, so those evening workouts can translate into a sheep-counting session that night. (With a hot bath, body temperature only rises temporarily as a result of the environment; exercise’s metabolic temperature spike lasts much longer.)

If you find yourself with only an evening slot for a workout, Coopersmith suggests yoga, Pilates, or Tai Chi. “These forms of exercise take you into a parasympathetic state—the flip side of the fight or flight stage. So if it’s 7:00, choose something other than cardio and weight training.” Coopersmith cites a recent study that compared people doing a stretching program with people doing an intense cardio workout and how quickly each group feel asleep. The results: the stretchers slept while the cardio warriors tossed and turned.

Bottom line for New Yorkers who can’t sleep: Set your alarm clock for your cardio boot camp, jogs, and spin classes; and plan to do yoga or Pilates for those days when after-work working out is the only option.

What time of day do you workout? Have you noticed any effect, positive or negative, on your sleep? Tell us, here!

YAMA Talent founder Ava Taylor

It’s hard to imagine Ava Taylor screaming at her assistant to bring her a soy chai latte or to get her Shiva Rea on the phone lickity split. Yes, Ava Taylor’s an agent. But she’s a breed apart from Jeremy Piven’s egomaniacal Ari Gold on Entourage. Taylor has essentially pioneered a new profession—the yoga talent agent. And YAMA Talent, which stands for Yoga Artists Management Agency, is her one-woman CAA. But with her ebullient personality and winning smile, Taylor could take Gold to the (yoga) mat. As Diane Hudock, an LA based yoga teacher and one of YAMA’s first clients, said, “Ava is seething with enthusiasm.”

The notion of a talent agency exclusively for yogis would have been unimaginable even just five years ago. “Yoga has entered the mainstream, though we’re just at the very, very beginning of it,” predicts Taylor. Hudock says the number of Americans practicing yoga has doubled since 2005. Sports apparel companies didn’t used to think it necessary to cast real yogis when shooting yoga apparel ads. But America’s 15 million yogis asked for authenticity. For example, the public balked at American Apparel’s ridiculous campaign of a model doing yoga when she clearly didn’t know her ass from her asana. These days, when an ad campaign or a movie features a yoga teacher, they’re more apt to use a real one. “It just makes sense,” says Taylor. “And so many yogis are great teachers, which on one level is all about performance.”

Taylor, a Pepperdine grad, starting practicing yoga while working in marketing and public relations at Lululemon’s Beverly Hills store. She got transferred to New York City to help open the spate of city stores. Along the way, she met dozens of A-list yogis on both coasts. One thing they had in common besides Vinyasa flow? Problems with cash flow.

A natural publicist, Taylor nabbed the cover of Pregnancy Magazine for Hudock

“A lot of the teachers were struggling to make a living or to follow up on all the opportunities coming their way,” says Taylor. Agustin Aguerreberry, a NYC-based Hatha instructor, started plying Taylor with questions and he was amazed at her savvy career advice. “He asked me to be his manager. It just sort of clicked.” Heady conversations at Wanderlust with Kula founder Schuyler Grant  and her music manager husband Jeff Krasno cemented the idea and YAMA was born. Signing up clients was no problem. Hudock says, “Ava also has a vision. She’s also a yogi, and lives yoga herself.”

YAMA’s only officially been in business for two weeks. But Taylor’s already accomplished a lot: she organized touring schedules for teaching gigs that make good logistic sense for her clients, booked TV deals, and magazine covers. She landed Hudock, who’s about to have a baby, the cover and a four page spread in Pregnancy Magazine. She got Sadie Nardini a deal with Body and Balance, a television network that’s prominent in Europe. And she’s also stirred up a fair bit of controversy for making yogis celebrities, a critique primarily lobbed by anonymous people on the yoga-related message boards.

Behind the brouhaha is the simple conceit that yogis shouldn’t have to take a vow of poverty when they become instructors. Like others who teach for a living, yoga instructors should have good health insurance and should be able to send their kids to college. So we’re a little baffled as to why many people on the sidelines of the yoga community are taking aim at YAMA.  For today’s yogis who count on teaching as a career, Taylor is more of a yogi’s advocate than an agent.

Are yogis the professional athletes of the future? Share your thoughts, here!

Praying for a spa deal in NYC that's worth the $50? We've got you covered!

On Monday, SpaFinder, the company known best as an online repository of far-flung spas (and the owner of the now-shuttered magazine we used to write for) debuts Deal Days. Participating spas will offer 50-minute treatments for $50 throughout the week. Think Restaurant Week for spas—or swap butter for body butter—and you’ve pretty much got the idea.

Of course, the event encourages spa-goers to spend during the downturn—or try a new spa treatment or a new spa, says Susie Ellis, SpaFinder’s president and owner. “Deal Days also provides a way to introduce new consumers to the wellness, stress reduction, and beauty benefits of spa-going. Getting someone to go to a spa for the first time is where the greatest challenge lies.” SpaFinder is certainly not the first to do this—in fact, they’re a bit late to sale-rack spa services—but the company is capitalizing on the unavoidable and latest spa trend: discounted services.

Get 40 winks and foot rub at Yelo Spa during Deal Days

Spa Week was the first to apply the Restaurant Week concept to spas. Cheryl Reid, Spa Week’s founder, launched the concept in fall 2004 with just 20 spas. She now has 800 around the country. “Spa Week opened up the spa lifestyle to the masses. It’s no longer an indulgence but part of a healthy lifestyle,” explains Reid, whose nationwide event kicks off on April 12.

Lifebooker was also early to the spa-discount game, though its approach is more like Orbitz than Zagat. “Local spas and salons have all these talented employees sitting around in the middle of the day. Our company was formed to take excess service time and discount it,” explains co-founder Andrew Unger. What does Unger think of Deal Days?  “I wish them well. But I hope consumers realize that the spas aren’t rated or reviewed in a trustworthy fashion.” (Lifebooker’s users can rate spas and services on the site if they have booked and honored appointments.)

Unger makes an important point. The event-week spas aren’t cherry picked by Ellis or Reid, which is why some are duds. And unlike Restaurant Week, which includes many of the city’s toniest eateries, Deal Days doesn’t include the Babbo and Bouley of spas. So you can forget about having a $50 service at the Mandarin Oriental or the Sense Spa at the Carlyle or the brand-new spa at the Setai.

Caudalie at the Plaza created amuse bouche spa treatments for Deal Days

On the other hand, while the Caudalie Spa at the Plaza is participating (see the list here), that luxe spa is offering an abridged service “for SpaFinder,” an amuse bouche of their stellar vinotherapy treatments. And many mediocre days spas are offering a $50 spa pedicure, which is not much of a discount at all. Skip these, along with the blow out at Great Jones (great spa, boring service) and stay away from discounted Botox or laser hair removal, unless you’ve already done due diligence.

Our advice, go for facials and massages—and these spas. Our picks with potential for Deal Days:

Iguazu Day Spa, 350 Hudson St., www.iguazudayspa.com
For the South American–themed Amazon Massage (Deep Tissue), and Refreshing Iguazu Facial (50 min, $50 each)

White Tea Spa, 104 W. 14th St., www.whiteteaspa.com
For the skinny on Endermologie (35 min) $50 and the Organic Custom Facial (50 min) $50

FineLiving New York Ayurveda, 154 West 14th St., www.newyorkayurveda.com
We’ve been wanting to try this place: Ayurvedic Body Massage and Ayurvedic Balancing Facial (each 50 min, $50)

Brilliant Smile, 45 Rockefeller Plaza, www.brilliantsmileny.com
We don’t usually recommend spa treatments at the dentist, but these cool-sounding treatments might be worth the gamble: Face & Foot Massage Nirvana and Sound & Stone Massage (each 50 min, $50)

Yelo Spa, 315 West 57th St., www.yelonyc.com
The napping spa puts its best combo on sale: 30 Minute Reflexology and 20 Minute YeloNap or Yelo Glow Facial (each 50 min, $50)

SpaFinder Deal Days March 8-14, www.spafinder.com/dealDays

Have you been to any of the Deal Day spas that are worth a second visit? Tell us, here!

BE OUR FAN ON FACEBOOK for a chance to win a weekend-long yoga retreat in the Hudson River Valley today!

New Yorkers tend to let themselves go feral during the cold-weather months until about Valentine’s Day, when everyone who waxes starts to puts regular topiary trimming into their date book. Not us. We suffered through a winter of waxing to be able to share the state of bikini waxing in the city come spring. Our testing took us to the dedicated wax palaces like Completely Bare and Uni.K., as well as nail salon chains and one-off high-end hair salons. Our findings? Not one scored above a B+.

Double-dipping is rife citywide, and shockingly not just at your corner walk-in place. Even nail salons that offer some of the city’s most hygienic nail services, like Dashing Diva, apply an anything-goes philosophy to back-room grooming. Out of sight should not mean out of mind.

While we greatly appreciate the thankless work of waxers, there are several hygiene-related duties they routinely ignore: Why not make a show of washing their hands, displaying a fresh pot of wax, or the handful of new popsicle sticks they’ll be using during the service?

Here are some things you can do to raise the standards of your waxing experience before, during, and after you drop your drawers. And our Waxing Hall of Fame: a shortlist of spas that didn’t double dip.

Before the wax

• Thwart double-dipping at booking. When you make your appointment, request a fresh pot of wax (these are more likely for the first appointments of the day) and that a slew of popsicle sticks be made available.
• Plan a wax a week after your period, when most women are less sensitive; take Advil a half hour before; and plan to take everything off from the waist down. (Maybe don’t wear a black sweater that day—baby powder can get everywhere.)

During the wax

• Many waxers need to work on their bedside manner. The good ones we encountered do the following:
• Coach you on when to take a deep breath.
• Perform the hold and stretch method to rip the wax away cleanly, in one fail swoop.
• Use “the press” immediately after each tear, per the Geneva Convention (Why has this gone out of fashion??)

After the wax

• Ask for a hand mirror, so you can see your waxer’s work before you jump off the table.
• Ask if they can get strays with tweezers. (Heck, bring your own, if you wish.)
• Bring a wholesome brand of wet wipes to clean up the baby powder and remaining bits of wax. (We like ones infused with calming chamomile.) Spas rarely provide the necessary supplies.

WAXING HALL OF FAME

Print this out and email to friends. These vetted spas didn’t double dip.

Bliss (various locations), www.blissworld.com

Boom Boom Brow Bar, 35 7th Ave., btwn 12th and 13th Sts., West Village, 212- 229-2666, www.boomboombrowbar.com

Euphoria Spa, 18 Harrison St., btwn Greenwich and Hudson Sts., Tribeca, 212-925-5925, www.euphoriaspanyc.com

Eve, 55 W. 8th St., btwn Sixth Ave and University, West Village, 212-807-8054, www.eveswebsite.com

Shobha (various locations), www.shobhathreading.com

Thread, 140 Nassau St., btwn Beekman and Spruce Sts., Financial District, 212-608-9232, www.threadsalon.com

Does your go-to spa practice good, clean waxing habits? Tell us, here!

Take the plunge: DIY thalassotherapy is just as relaxing and beneficial as the spa version

In the wrong hands, thalassotherapy spas can suck your money down the drain, since the treatments feel a lot like a bath that you could take at home for free. Thankfully seawater- and seaweed-based services are one of those beneficial spa treatments that you can easily do at home. And that one of the foremost experts on seaweed is based not in Brittany or Bora Bora, but here in NYC.

Dan Fryda is the Jacques Cousteau of the beauty world. The founder of Spa Technologies, an artisanal line of seaweed-based skin and body-care line products, he’s a huge proponent of at-home remineralizing baths. “You can get vitamins and minerals in your diet, or through your skin, and we’re all a bit depleted come the end of winter,” says Fryda, who imports his seaweed from Brittany. “Not only does it have more nutrients than any other food source on earth. It restores and replenishes minerals and trace elements missing from our body.”

Marine corps: Spa Technologies products put a bit of Brittany in your bathtub

Seaweed’s mineral and trace elements, such as potassium, zinc, magnesium, calcium, have a tiny molecular size. “They’re like grains of sand,” says Fryda, “that can diffuse into the skin, whose cells may as well be skyscrapers or mountains by comparison.” Get him talking and he’ll tell you about a study conducted on rats given a 20-minute dip in a seaweed bath (“the best study ever” said the rats), which revealed calcium in the rodents’ bloodstream.

And lest you think your raw-food diet is covering all the bases, Fryda makes an excellent point about topsoil depletion. “We’d have to eat two or three carrots today to get the nutritional value of one carrot grown in the 1930s,” he says. So you might as well soak in it.

The best way to bring the ocean home for a day? Give yourself a dry brushing, then to your tub, add a scoop of Spa Technologies powdered foaming Sea Calc Bath, with white algae, marine proteins, plus essential oils like clary sage and rosemary. And follow with an application of the Hydrating Laminaria Oil that hydrates and firms. (This part, we admit, is where we really miss a massage therapist.) “The essential oils have aromatherapy detox benefits,” says Fryda. “Plus no one wants to smell like the ocean.”

For products, contact Spa Technologies, 212-255-7773, info@SpaTechnologies.com, www.spatechnologies.com



Have you ever had a seaweed bath at home? Tell us, here!

Ski resorts in the usually snow-challenged northeast have waited 60 years to put hyperbolic terms like “Snowicane” and “the Perfect Storm” to use. It’s hard to blame them for hyping this winter’s blanketing. The mountains near NYC have Colorado-worthy snow, if not mile high peaks, and they want you to know about it.

There’s never been a better time for close-to-home skiing. And by close to home, we don’t mean a four-hour drive to southern Vermont or a two-and-a-half-hour haul to Hunter Mountain. We mean really close to home. As in 47 miles from the George Washington Bridge close. So cancel your trip to Killington and snicker at your friends who are paying top dollar to ski at Vail, you can live the Lindsay Vonn dream in, gasp, New Jersey.

MOUNTAIN CREEK, Vernon, New Jersey

The view from the high-speed gondola

The mood: Outright euphoria over the epic snowfall, mitigated by the hassle of dealing with the epic crowds.

The ski report: Standing at the top of the snow-covered mountain, it’s easy to forget that you’re not in Colorado or Utah. With over two feet of new snow in the last week, 41 trails of groomed powder are open. But note, there’s only one high-speed lift, and half the mountain is devoted to a terrain park (think Winter Olympics half-pipes and ski jumps) that we weren’t brave enough to try. The snow’s definitely on the softer side, so edges can get caught, but this translates into an amazing workout for your quads and core. Mountain Creek’s strength is its assortment of 10 or so challenging intermediate trails, which tend to be less crowded than the beginner trails since this is a “learn to ski” (read, learn to fall) mountain.

Snowboarders are definitely king of the hill at Mountain Creek

The crowd: The Real Housewives of New Jersey go skiing, while their teenage sons snowboard. About sixty percent of the crowd snowboards, and many are lacking in skilz, or just downed two shots of Captain Morgans (at Hex, the sportsbar), meaning you’d better tighten your helmet and watch out.

The facilities: Intrawest, a Canadian company that also has a hand in Colorado’s Steamboat and Vermont’s Stratton, combined two defunct Vernon Valley ski resorts and christened the new resort Mountain Creek in 1998. A fire destroyed the base lodge in 2001 and the temporary white bubble structures remain in place today as the rental center, (fast) food court, and sports bar. Despite the temporary appearance, everything operates efficiently. For example, there were 30 people ahead of us in the ski rental line, but we still had our boots, skis and polls within 20 minutes.

Bottom line: If you’re a New Yorker who wants simply to ski for the day, you can’t do better than Mountain Creek for convenience, and with snow like this you won’t get bored skiing the varied terrain. It’s by far the best, real ski resort within sixty miles of the city. (Campgaw is just 20 miles, but it’s just a bunny hill.)

Room to improve: We’re waiting for a non-smoking policy. The Jersey boys like to smoke while standing in line for the Cabriolet gondola.

Getting there: Vernon, New Jersey is just an hour northwest of New York City. And you don’t need a car to get to the mountain. Hop on a New Jersey transit bus or book a seat on a private coach bus run by Paragon Sports or Emilio’s Ski Shop. Mountain Creek has also teamed up with Zip Car to provide special deals for its members. Click here for all the transit options, as well as driving directions.

Have you ever skied at Mountain Creek? Please share your experience, here!

The Green Table, like its owner, Mary Cleaver, is a bit of a culinary secret. Not many New Yorkers know that her homey little restaurant in Chelsea Market’s crowded corridors serves some of the city’s best sustainable cuisine. (Even if the city’s other locavore chefs do.)

While Dan Barber may be spokesperson for the city’s strong farm-to-table movement, its most passionate pioneer is Cleaver. The Green Table fronts her enormous catering kitchen, from which she runs Cleaver Co., the city’s most rigorous (and delicious) green, sustainable catering company. Cleaver’s hugely influential in the industry—a foodie’s foodie—but what’s missing are the trappings of a high-profile chef—a showy dining room, book deal, and cooking show. Though not in her mind. This Brooklyn-based mother of two is much happier quietly running her business than penning op-eds and leading speaking engagements. She is, however, musing about a cookbook. And she worked behind the scenes to start and run Farm To Chef,  a program that puts the wares of small producers directly into Manhattan restaurant kitchens, until it was sold to Basis in March.

Manhattan’s green markets started buzzing around the same time that Cleaver Co. formed in 1981, and Cleaver had always been drawn to local produce. “There hasn’t always been poison our food supply; food hasn’t always come wrapped in plastic. I’m just doing what I’ve always done.”

If you can't snag an invite to one of Cleaver & Co's catered events, just stop by the Green Table for the restaurant version

Cleaver never studied cooking formally—in the ‘70s, the Culinary Institute of America had only just start accepting a handful of women. Instead, she went the self-trained Julie Powell route, cooking her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in her parent’s kitchen. This East Coast Alice Waters first sharpened her knives at Eli Zabar’s E.A.T. (though she started as a dishwasher) and then worked for Giorgio Deluca at Sandwiches, his venture shortly before Dean & Deluca. Customers at E.A.T. started asking her to cater their Upper East Side dinner parties, and a business was born—initially from the kitchen in her fifth-floor walk-up on Mulberry Street.

While Cleaver’s serious about sustainability, she’s also not doctrinaire or preachy. So she manages to be both Alice Water’s go-to caterer for NYC events and also attract clients who don’t know a ramp from a rutabaga, like the creators of the Shorty Awards, the Oscars of Twitter, happening next week. “I imagine a lot of the guests will be tweeting, but I hope they remember to eat the food,” laughs Cleaver, who has a warm smile and dresses in drapey Eileen Fisher-style clothes.

Today, the Green Table restaurant acts as Cleaver’s classroom. “Initially this was a tasting room for my catering clients,” she says. “But there needed to be a place where people could learn about local food and what I do, even if they aren’t having a catered event.” You can drop in for lunch, dinner, or Sunday brunch—no prerequisites required—and be pretty certain that you’ll be able to snag a table at this under-the-radar sustainable food stunner.

The Green Table, 5 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY 10011; 212-741-9174; www.cleaverco.com

Have you ever eaten at the Green Table? Please share your experience, here!

“Are you regular?”

Whether your doctor or your over-involved mother is asking, we all know exactly what that question means. Of course, a high-fiber diet plays a starring role in making us feel Howdy Doody. But regularity, it turns out, isn’t a mathematical equation as much as a matter of scatalogical opinion. Of which there are many.

Well+Good asked three health experts for the quick and dirty on what constitutes constipation, and what to do about it.

Meet our poop panel:

Birgit Krome
Colonic therapist at Great Jones Spa, Paul Labrecque, and Spa 88
W+G: How often should you poo?
BK: After every meal, so three times a day optimally. Peristalsis should set in when you’re full. But for most people the colon is sluggish and they don’t go until two days later.

W+G: Why is frequency better? What’s wrong with food hanging out in your colon for a day or two?
BK: If you eat the foods we’re designed to eat—raw food and lots of roughage—then you will go after every meal. Otherwise, the food ferments in your colon and bad bacteria flourishes; your system becomes more acid than alkaline and this can lead to a host of health problems.

W+G: What can you do to increase frequency?
BK: Eat more fiber—try four slices of Manna Bread a day. Also, ingest more oils—olive oil, avocados, and flaxseed oil, sesame oil—because they’ll make your stool softer and then it’s less painful to push. Pushing hard can cause hemorrhoids.

W+G: Why do women have more issues with constipation than men?
BK: There’s a lot of truth to Erik Erikson’s work. He was a developmental psychologist who believed that women are raised with more shame than men about number two being smelly, stinky, and embarrassing. So women hold it in. For example, many women shy away from pooping in places like Grand Central Station or at their workplace. Once you get used to holding it in, you get chronically constipated. Women need to overcome their shame about this thing called “shit.” So it smells—big deal! We were born with this digestive system, we eat, and we gotta go.

Dr. Lester Gottesman, MD, FACS, FASCRS
Chief, Division of Colorectal Surgery, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt
W+G: How is constipation defined?
Dr. G: The short answer is less often than every third day. But it’s also normal to go up to three times a day.

W+G: What can you do to keep thing regular?
Dr. G: Diet plays a big role. But there are intrinsic things that happen to the colon over time, as well as some medical conditions—calcium, thyroid, and magnesium issues—that will affect how the colon functions. For the average person, fiber is the most important factor. Have at least 30 grams of fiber a day, taken with meals and drink at least ten glasses of liquid a day. Within a day or two you’ll be more regular.

W+G: Raw foodists say you should eliminate after ever meal.
Dr. G: They’re chasing something that isn’t medically important.

Jeanette Bronee, CHHC, Nourishment Counselor
Founder of Path for Life Self-Nourishment Center
W+G: Any ideas or theories on why women suffer from constipation more then men do?
JB: Women tend to be more prone to anxiety, which affects the digestive system and the stomach, and to cravings for dairy products and sweets, which can cause more constipation.

W+G: How often should a person go number two? Is a certain frequency considered optimal?
JB: A healthy digestive system empties once or twice a day. Most people naturally go in the a.m. But if all was as nature intended, we’d go number two shortly after a meal. Which in an optimal world would be three times a day.

W+G: How many grams of fiber a day should a person consume? Any recommended fiber sources (so many people just turn to Fiber One cereal and consider the case closed)?
JB: I recommend 25-35 grams of fiber per day. Not many of us get that much. One problem is that we’ve learned that carbs are bad. Well, that’s how we get fiber—from whole grains, like oatmeal and brown rice, and fruit and vegetables. So some people need to supplement their diets with fiber in a tablet or powder form.

W+G: What do you think about colonics? Are they necessary or helpful?
JB: Colonics are a Band-Aid and I worry about people abusing them. I always try to balance a client’s diet first to get things moving naturally. But a food intolerance or not chewing food slowly can mean food is not digested. This is what the colonics take care of. And, of course, if someone wants to do a cleanse–for example, they are moving from a processed to a whole foods diet– then colonics can be very helpful, and should be combined with an intestinal cleanse as well.

Know how many grams of fiber you consume a day? What are your favorite fiber sources? Tell us, here!

Mojitos, mini skirts, and partying at Mansion isn’t the holy trinity of a good time in Greater Miami. The cities are overflowing with spas—and not all are bastions of superficiality. We present five (mostly) wholesome, fitness-focused, and feel-good wellness hotels worthy of an on-the-wagon weekend or a last-minute spa spring break.

The Epic Hotel poolside cabanas overlook the bay

1. Exhale Spa at the Epic Hotel
Happening Biscayne Boulevard is the new home of the Epic Hotel, set on a marina with Port of Miami views. Its spa is a satellite of the Exhale day-spa dynasty, known for its mind-body CoreFusion classes, GRN spa product line and treatments, and destination-style spa services like acupuncture and sessions with a nutritionist—a perfect notch on Miami’s fitness-focused weight-belt. The half-moon–shape CoreFusion studio on the 16th-floor has floor-to-ceiling windows and the yoga studio gets a view of the gorgeous wrap-around pool deck. By comparison the spa is a bit lackluster, but the treatments aren’t. Try the Deep Flow Massage (60 min, $140) and the new Kahina Giving Beauty facial. Rooms start at $369. www.epichotel.com

The best rooms at The Standard have outdoor soaking tubs

2. The Standard Miami
A part-time party girl with rich inner life, gold bikini, and a killer flying crow pose. That’s the target demographic at Andre Balazs’s not new but definitely still noteworthy destination with tough fitness classes and solid yoga; a king-size hammam and hard-to-find organic spa treatments; and an Adult Playground (aka hydrotherapy water park) on the bay. The most progressive spa in town. Weak link: the tiny guest rooms and asleep-at-the-wheel service. Rooms start at $239; massages at $125 for 60 minutes. www.standardhotels.com

Maxing and relaxing in the garden at The Palms Hotel

3. The Palms Hotel & Spa
A hideaway hotel with hammocks and jungle-like palms that lend poolside privacy; Essensia, a very good, high-end organic restaurant—and a brand-new spa with Aveda treatments. The Chakra Balancing massage (75 min, $175) feels a bit cheesy with its incantations (“red is the color of the root chakra; it corresponds to creativity”), but it yields energy-work magic. I looked like I’d had a facial afterward. Scrubs and body treatments are done in a high-tech water capsule, and ashiatsu back-walking massage is given in open-air (semi-private) cabanas (50 min, $160). Guest rooms (about $300 and up) are West Elm tropical. Weak link: The not-so relaxing Relaxation room was cold and cramped and change rooms that lack privacy. Still, it’s great spa value for Miami Beach. www.thepalmshotel.com

The Canyon Ranch gym faces the ocean

4. Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa, Miami Beach
The Harvard-of-spas-on-the-beach has fitness down pat. Maybe more so than its immersion spas in Tucson and Lenox. A full roster of almost-killer classes start at dawn, and are lead by fitness experts (no 19-year-old teachers here) and a healthy-living dream team: an exercise physiologist, nutritionist, and a East-West physician. (See next week for our in-depth report.) Fitness is punctuated by popular lectures, like Show Me Your Tongue (led by an acupuncturist), trips to the spa, pools, and Aquavana, an indoor hydrotherapy lounge. CR’s calorie-conscious spa cuisine will have you in disbelief over the 300-calorie succulent scallops. Temptation in SoBe is a 10-minute drive away, but most guests stay in-house—and in their yoga pants—the entire visit. Weak link: the where-am-I spa layout. Suites start at $450; right now two-night stays come with $200 spa credit and breakfast for two. www.canyonranchmiamibeach.com

5. Eau Spa by Cornelia, at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach
Less Fifth Avenue and way more fun than its now-shuttered NYC cousin, Eau has washed spa sanctimonious down the drain. The proof is in the $30-million pudding: a 42,000-square-foot water-theme fantasy that includes indoor-outdoor treatment rooms, a photogenic “Self-Centered Garden” lounge, a steam room with a disco ball. And spa cuisine? Cocktails and cupcakes. Gemstone treatments such as the Cornelia Lumina Facial (60 min, $275) put a bit of bling in your beauty but come with results. Weak link: The spa boutique calls out for some Manhattan sophistication. Rooms can go for $349 midweek. www.eauspa.com

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