TREND BITES
OUT: Red Bull
IN: Chia Seed
Centuries before the Chia seed was made famous by the 1980s infomercial for the Chia Pet, it was known to be a superfood in indigenous Mexican cultures. This tiny seed is said to boost energy and stamina, assist in hydration and prevent carbohydrates from breaking down into sugars - a natural alternative that has consumers tossing aside their Red Bulls.
OUT: Dieting in Secret
IN: Tweeting What You Eat
A new service Tweet what you eat! is a virtual food journal that allows you to count calories while all your friends watch. While some call this the "humiliation diet", many say it helps resist the temptation to cheat and keeps up motivation.
OUT: Cars
IN: Citywide Bicycle Programs
Who wants to sit in traffic when you can zip around town in a city-funded rent-a-bike? Europe is one step ahead of the US in making the daily commute into an environmentally friendly workout. Paris just launched Vélib while Londoners take up Barclays Cycle Hire in droves.
OUT: Gyms
IN: Aerial Workouts
The trend away from the gym continues as more thrilling workout options abound. San Francisco’s brand new House of Air is a warehouse full of trampolines for playing bouncy dodgeball and basketball. The Aerial Arts Academy in Hong Kong likewise gets you air-bound, offering aerial pole dancing and circus classes for the brave.
OUT: Colonics
IN: Dandelion Root
A recent backlash against colonics due to perceived health risks is causing people to look toward alternative detox methods. Dandelion root, sprinkled on food or eaten in capsule form, is said to naturally cleanse impurities from the liver.
OUT: Gymwear
IN: Streetwear
Goodwill can have those dowdy gym clothes that you wouldn't be caught dead wearing in public. With new outdoor fitness trends abounding, stylish workout shoes and apparel were quick to follow in step. Puma's collaboration with designer Mihara Yasuhiro is a good example of avant-garde designer style that can cross over between fitness and the street.
CULTUREBLOG ~
October 2010 / Health & Wellness
Communal Wellness & Digital Dieting
American societal values tend to be individual rather than communal, and nowhere more so than in the drive to be fit, healthy and gorgeous. Yet the combined pressures of recession and a new awareness of the environment may be changing all that. This edition of CultureBlog looks at the shift from "me" to "we" in diet, health and wellness.
In 2007, we reported on the “slow food” eco-gastronomic trend, which brings communal values back to the dinner table, along with healthier food. Communal in an environmental sense and also in that preparing and enjoying a meal as a group activity brings us back to the traditional function of the dinner table -- to foster relationships around memorable experiences. The recession has enhanced this trend of communal eating even among the affluent. According to the recently published American Express "Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America", more than 80% of families are eating four meals a week together compared with 16% five years ago.
A balanced diet, high in – preferably, organic and locally produced - natural products is now established as equally important as fitness routines for all-around health and wellness. It’s hard to find this in a fast food joint, though fast casual chains like Sweet Green, a favorite with our DC City Correspondent, are a step in the right direction. While the raw food diet, popular in LA, may be too costly for many, the KIND brand of fruit bars “with ingredients you can pronounce,” promises to be affordably kind to the body; and their “not-only-for-profit business model” enshrines, that “…by challenging our impersonal routines, we hope we will discover our shared humanity with people we don’t know.”
Now, fitness is also a communal experience to be shared and provide opportunities for social interaction and fun. Non-traditional regimens like La Gym Suédoise in Paris and Austin’s Wednesday Assault Ride bring groups of fitness lovers into the great outdoors while Go Ape! in London is a treetop adventure playground for adults. Most mainstream gym chains are reporting huge losses but the few that are staying alive, such as Pure Fitness in Hong Kong, cater to the need for community building by adding restaurants and bars into their facilities.
Our last technology blog talked about the importance of tech innovations to have social usability – the ability to deliver technical utility and simultaneously enhance human interaction. Demonstrating the breadth of this trend is the new PlayStation Move platform, offering a more immersive experience in communal gaming. Even dieting is going digital on social platforms. While people used to see diets as private or even a bit embarrassing, the new Twitter phenomenon, Tweet what you eat! has people in Berlin counting calories for all to see.
Will we return to a "me-centric" mentality once recession is long forgotten? We don’t think so. For now, brands should reflect on the shift in consumer priorities from “Because you’re worth it” to “Because we’re worth it”.
CityReport:
Smoke Signals
Even in a highly change-resistant culture, like France’s, there are signs that change is in the air. Notably, smoking has plummeted since the 2007 ban against cigarette smoking in public places, including bars, government offices and discotheques. This means that today I can emerge from a cafe without smelling like the Marlboro man.
Vélib-It To Bélieve It
The smoking ban overlapped with a new addition to the already-superb French transportation system: the launch of Vélib. All of the Parisians that I surveyed immediately gasped - “Mon secret? C’est le Vélib!” The citywide bicycle program rents out 20,000 bikes, 24/7, from over 1,600 stations for only one Euro per hour. Parisians are in love with the system and now cycle for any reason including weekend jaunts, riding to bars, and commuting. Whizzing down Paris’ tree-lined avenues in autumn it’s easy to understand Vélib’s popularity.
Swedes Invade France
La Gym Suédoise, or The Swedish Gym, is also changing Gallic attitudes towards working out. The concept is simple. For an annual fee of 70 to 225 euros, La Gym Suédoise offers one aerobic class to all, multiple times a day in various locations throughout the city. Let me preface by divulging that in general, the French love doing activities in unison. No joke. Whether it’s clapping and chanting for the crowd-favorite to win La Nouvelle Star (the French American Idol) or coordinated cheering during Paris-Saint-Germain soccer matches, the idea of collective participation is omnipresent in French culture. The word “solidarity” gets thrown around a lot here.
This explains why La Gym Suédoise is a hit among the French. It offers an hour-long, non-stop, full body exercise routine including stretching, weights, cardio, circuit training, and cool down. With 58 locations in Paris alone, the Swedish invasion is making my French friends feel the burn.
Hammam It Up
It might be surprising to some, but an essential tool in the Parisian woman’s beauty regime is a regular trip to the hammam. France’s long relationship with North Africa introduced the hammam a generation ago. Women of all ages visit their favorite hammam for a vigorous head-to-toe exfoliation and scented oil massage. There are slicker versions, but the undeniable favorite is at La Grande Mosquée de Paris in the Latin Quarter - an oasis of calm in the city. The hammam is relatively inexpensive (15 euros), and includes access to the steam bath, “gommage” (vigorous exfoliation), massage, mint tea, and dips into the hot and cold baths.
Le Détox
The daily Parisian nutritional pyramid usually consists of grainy espresso, bread, dairy and wine. After a couple hundred years of this, dietary detoxification becomes necessary. Detox menus are popping up from the Ritz Hotel to market cafés. Whereas the latter proffers platters of green salads and salmon, the Ritz Hotel offers a luxury package of a four-night stay, complete with healthy quinoa, green tea, and poolside slimming treatments.
The new Hôtel Gabriel in the Marais touts a complete wellness experience. The self-labeled “first detox hotel in Paris” features a small spa equipped with only organic products and soundproof guest rooms with illuminated walls in lieu of overhead lights.
Le Campanier
Belatedly jumping on the organic bus, Parisians are signing up for the CSA Le Campanier. The brown bag service delivers a selection of organic seasonal produce to the subscriber’s doorstep weekly or bi-weekly for only 8-12 euros. The appeal? Efficient, très trendy, fresh and cheap without having to brave the crowded weekend markets.
It’s no secret that France has among the best health care systems and most medicated populations in the world. Waite says that this is an example of Parisians’ focus on staying skinny, yet ambivalence concerning physical fitness. “Detoxing” in Paris is less rigorous and gut-shedding than it would be in, say, California.
The approach is more about inner peace and relaxation, minus the nuisance of perspiration, than it is about colonics and looking beefy. Yet, with bike transport cheaper and cleaner than the métro, fresh veggies on the doorstep, and even biodynamic wines becoming trendy, the skeptical Parisian is hopping on a bike and ever so cautiously broadening the definitions of santé and bien-être (health and well-being).
Barbra in Paris shows us why the new citywide bicycle system Vélib works for her...
- How do the French stay so thin? The answer is: they don’t. Steady yourselves Francophiles – the French are fat...
- My roommate Heidi is always the first to try any new fitness activity, so I wasn't surprised when she told me about House of Air...
- Summer’s buzzword was the "staycation". It was every public figure’s duty to display frugality...
- A city without much room for sprawl, an often balmy climate and a serious pollution problem...
- New Yorkers love to indulge. From dining out for most every meal to quick cab rides for the sake of wearing high heels...
- Austin is a place where people go outside to stay healthy, especially since there’s so much nice scenery to look at...
- Although I haven’t decided yet where to start in my personal battle against autumnal dullness, I got pretty inspired by my friends...
- Tinseltown’s fixation on beauty and fitness transcends the celebrity set as Angelenos have become increasingly preoccupied...
- With the pressures and stresses of life “Inside the Beltway,” Washingtonians struggle to prioritize health and wellness...