July 2000

Total Fitness Center for Brain Gym Opens in Boston

Catherine Carrigan, president of Total Fitness, is pleased to announce the opening of the Total Fitness Center for Brain Gym outside of Boston in Ayer, Massachusetts.

Camie Larson, vice president of educational therapies for Total Fitness, will be running the office and establishing our presence in the Northeast.

"Total Fitness is committed to offering the most effective technologies in personal transformation and the best quality training programs,” says Catherine Carrigan. “Our new office expands our capabilities for sharing our knowledge with corporations, schools and individuals not only in New England, but from all over the country.”

Camie Larson opened the office at 34 Main Street in Ayer on June 1 and taught our first Brain Gym class there the very next day. Catherine Carrigan taught Brain Organization profiles there June 17-18.

Along with a variety of Brain Gym classes, the new office will offer one-on-one Brain Gym balances and a process called life coaching, which involves goal setting in the eight major aspects of life. The value of individual balances, both in Atlanta and in Boston, is $80. Other services include a Brain Gym Walking Club, with plans to add yoga classes and yoga retreats within the next six to nine months. A mentorship program for new Brain Gym instructors will begin in 2001, helping others establish profitable Brain Gym businesses and integrating these powerful mind-body techniques into personal fitness training, yoga classes, coaching elite athletes as well as the educational system. “One of my goals for the new office is to bring Brain Gym to every school system in the area,” says Camie Larson, who up until recently was the business manager for the international Brain Gym headquarters in Ventura, California.

Catherine Carrigan Named Mind-Body Fitness Expert

Catherine Carrigan has been asked to become the mind-body fitness expert for a new web site, www.aboutstress.com. “It is highly exceptional to find someone with so many admirable and pertinent qualities: the breadth of understanding, holistic approach, diverse involvement in educating both professionals and the public alike, with such obvious intelligence and ability to articulate information in as readable, entertaining and informative style as Catherine Carrigan,” says Martin Shaffer, Ph.D., executive director of the Stress Management Institute, which has offices in San Fransisco, Sacramento, and San Jose.

Integrative Yoga Therapy:
A System of Using Yoga for Healing

What’s the key to becoming a master at whatever you do? Keep learning. Always be doing your best to do at least one thing better. That way, neither you nor your students ever get bored. That way, achieving peak performance becomes a matter of joyful routine.

That’s what I learned many years ago from one of the top physical educators in the country, Len Kravitz, Ph.D. Ever since, I have been following his advice, and every year, I do my best to earn at least one new certification in the field of health and fitness.

This July, I will begin earning my third certification in yoga — Integrative Yoga Therapy, a system of using yoga for healing.

Integrative Yoga Therapy combines the timeless insights of yoga with the latest advancements in mind/body health. Its guiding vision is to bring total wellness into all areas of life and into the medical, mental health, corporate and educational settings, both through group classes and individual yoga therapy sessions.

Whether your challenge is heart disease, cancer, chronic fatigue, depression, diabetes, recovery from drugs or alcohol or many other health concerns, these techniques are already used in hospitals around the world.

Think Ahead:
When to Eat Your Carbs, When to Hold Them

When it comes to eating, one of the best rules is to think ahead.

Many of us mindlessly eat the same meals whether or not we are planning to be exercising. Sports nutritionists have taught us one principle that most of us would do well to incorporate every day: Think before you eat.

Because carbohydrates are an energy source, we need them when we plan to be working out. However, we need fewer carbohydrates—read twinkies, Ho-hos, bread, rice and potatoes—when we plan to be mostly sitting.

When you eat your meals, ask yourself, “What am I going to be doing over the next 3 to 5 hours?” Eat fewer calories and fewer carbohydrates when you plan to be sitting. On days when you don’t exercise, cut back on your portions in general to avoid weight gain.

Upcoming Total Fitness Classes

Atlanta: Brain Gym I: July 8-9 and Aug. 25-26. Brain Gym II: Sept. 30-Oct. 1. Labor Day Yoga Retreat: Sept. 1-4.

Ayer, Mass.: Brain Gym I and II: Aug. xxx and Sept. 9-11. Weight Loss, Exercise and Spirituality: Sept. 12-14. Vision Circles: Sept. 15-17.

For more information about these classes, or to register, please contact Catherine Carrigan, 404-350-8581 or Camie Larson, 978-772-0418, or email us at daylilly@aol.com, or edukcamie@juno.com.

Go to Catherine Carrigan's home page.