LA Fitness Intervention

Yesterday, the LA Fitness in Morton Grove, IL was closed by the health department for being unsanitary.  The news was not shocking to anyone who works out there or the LA Fitness where I work out on Clark and Diversey.

At the end of 2011, LA Fitness took over all of the Bally Total Fitness clubs in the Chicago area and many other places.

At first I thought the takeover might be good. Over the years, many of the Chicago Bally Total Fitness clubs had become more and more dilapidated. The club on Clark and Diversey stopped offering basic services like anti-bacterial hand wash or an easy way to clean off the machines after usage. The lockers are rusty and the toilets are often disgusting. I wondered what happened to the gym that I joined 10 years ago (at that Morton Grove location) that was a decent, affordable place to work out.

And while I didn’t expect miracles when LA Fitness took over, I also didn’t expect it to get worse. But it has. On one recent weekend, there was no toilet paper. They put industrial paper towels in the locker room (which certainly wasn’t probably good to the already deteriorating toilets.) I saw a woman ask the manager why he didn’t go to Walgreens across the street and purchase toilet paper. His answer was that they were expecting a shipment on Monday.  

The saddest part has been the rapid exit of the club’s friendly employees due to firings and the reduction of pay and benefits.

Here’s the conundrum.  In the vicinity, this is the closest, most affordable gym to probably tens of thousands of Chicagoans. You can just go in, work out, and try not to think about the deteriorating conditions or join a more posh gym for more money which many people can’t afford.

It’s like working out at Walmart, but Walmart has higher standards.

To be fair, I’ve never been in an original LA Fitness Club. It might be very nice. But working out at the clubs that they have taken over feels more like being at colonized gyms where the conquerors don’t care about the country’s infrastructure or citizens.

I think LA Fitness should address all of its “new” members via email and explain what its plan is for the clubs that they have taken over. Is it to run the clubs into the ground so people have to work out at their other facilities or are they planning to renovate and when will that happen?  We just want to know.

Personally, I would like them to renovate. These clubs employ so many good, decent people and offer an affordable place for people to take out their stress, lose weight, and prevent obesity.

In the meantime, I heard there is a sale on toilet paper at Walgreens.     

Married Friends! Help!

Dear married friends, if you have five minutes please answer the following question: what advice, based on your personal experience, would you give to ensure a happy marriage? Your answers will be published anonymously in an article I'm writing. I will just include your age, sex and the number of years you've been married (so include that too). 

You can comment here anonymously. Just please be sure to answer the question, your age, and the number of years you've been married. 

THANKS!!!!

Questions for the Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Beit Shemesh who are throwing eggs, rocks and spitting

• Why would you move to a place called “House of Sun” if you expected people to be all covered up?
• There are plenty of perfectly nice Ultra Orthodox Jews. Have you considered wearing a different color hat from black so that you can be identified? Since your issue is with women, perhaps pink would be a great color.
• Isn’t Hebrew a sacred language? Then how is it appropriate for you to graffiti buildings?
• What happens if a woman sits in the back of the bus and is checking out your neck? How is that ok?
• Can’t you come up with another name to call the police than Nazis? It’s really distasteful.
• Wouldn’t you rather eat those eggs?  Israeli breakfasts are so good!
• Didn’t “sinat chinam” destroy Israel before? Are you also supplying Iran with nuclear weapons?
• How do you know that your wives are behaving modestly if you are outside harassing people?
• Don’t you have PR Consultants? Right now you are being compared to the Taliban. You need to work on your image.
• Why if you wanted to fight so much didn’t you just join the IDF?
• Aren’t you supposed to be studying?
  
  To learn more:  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4167668,00.html

Guided Meditation

This is not a great time of year for people with depression and anxiety. You are commanded to be happy and joyful, and instead it becomes a mirror into the fact that you are not.

Although I'm pretty happy right now, my mind races. At times, it is comparable to a the track during the Indianapolis 500. There were days and nights during my 20s, where my mind could have fueled NASCAR as well.

Often this racing serves me well. I am a creative thinker and can complete tasks rapidly.

Sometimes though, I end up exhausted and depleted.

For much of my life, I have employed various interventions to cleanse the pallet that is my brain.  I have found that the most helpful "medicine" if I am an acute situation is guided meditation.

This not to be confused with meditation. I cannot do regular breathe in breathe out meditation because for some reason it causes my already burning thoughts to turn into a forest fire.

But guided meditation seems to work for me. Occasionally a negative thought or two will invade the meditation, and so I do my best to get rid of it or them. If they won't go away, I will just complete more guided meditations until they do.

And they do.

Below I am listing guided meditations that I have completed. Now the disclaimer: I have no training in this sort of thing. This is not in place of a psychologist or psychiatrist. This also just might not work for you. Also, if you feel suicidal or that you are going to harm yourself or someone else call 911.

As for the people leading the meditations, I have no clue as to whether they are excellent practitioners or total quacks. I cannot endorse them or their beliefs in any way. I can just endorse the particular guided meditation that has helped me break the negative cycle of ruminative thinking.

Tip: Don't watch the video, just listen. Be seated or lie down in a dark room or at least close your eyes. Be comfortable.

1. http://bit.ly/t419Ll

2. http://bit.ly/vvNzG1

3. http://bit.ly/uyM2ni

4. http://bit.ly/v487n9

5. http://bit.ly/9mMzb6

If there are guided meditations that you recommend, please include them in the comments section. 

Top 10 Reasons Matisyahu Shaved his Beard

10.  He wants to be in Old Spice commercials for the Super Bowl.

9. Waxing hurts.

8. He had a bet with Mitt Romney that the Bears would win on Sunday.

7.  He got sick of being called a Rabbi.

6.  He had put on weight and people thought he was Santa Claus.

5. He just found out that you don’t need a beard to be religious.

4. The hair care products didn’t last long enough to cover the gray.

3. It was itchy.

2. He saw himself on this new Bravo show and thought it was time to rethink how he observes Judaism: 

1.  It's easier to eat a jelly doughnut without having to worry about it getting in your beard. 

Best of luck to you Matisyahu. I like your music with or without facial hair. I especially liked when you sang with the PS22 Chorus. I hope wherever your spiritual journey takes you, it takes you to the recording studio. 

The most drugs ever!

My latest post for OyChicago is on Dr. House, MD and drugs. Prescription Drugs. Check it out here:
http://www.oychicago.com/blog.aspx?id=20441&blogid=142 

Most important lesson to learn from Penn State

The Penn State saga has been terribly depressing on so many levels, and the world’s top writers have already sufficiently written columns condemning the football team’s leadership who at worst raped young boys and at best did the minimum to report it.

Investigations will occur, reports will be written, and fines will be levied and paid. Trials will take place and some of the victims destroyed by one man and those who aided and abetted his crimes may or may not speak, may or may not find closure in the justice system.

It is likely that this will trigger more reports of sexual abuse at other institutions where perpetrators weren’t stopped by those who “could have done more.”

While this calamity will teach lessons to the current leadership of athletic programs, schools, religious institutions and the military, what needs to be addressed is how to teach young people to not be bystanders when they witness wrongdoings.   

We have to teach them why it is important, why it is their duty, to speak out when it is so much easier to stay silent.

What we need is for every able bodied man, woman and child to stand up against abuse from sexual to bullying. High school and college students need to know you aren’t formidable because you can catch a football or make a basket. You aren’t cool because you can down eight beers without puking.

What defines you is that you can take the keys away from a friend who is about to drink and drive; you can report a friend who is bragging about what you know are euphemisms for date rape; and you can confront someone or call the authorities on someone who is bulling.

And of course, if someone’s life is in danger or a child is going to be injured, you cannot take the easy way out and say it’s someone else’s problem.

Facing History and Ourselves has numerous lesson plans and teacher trainings on these topics. However, using the Penn State story, or what happened to Lauren Spierer or resources on bullying, and clarifying the what should be universal value that it is not OK to be a bystander to injustice under any circumstances, is a lesson that can be taught by anyone, anywhere. 

Will you teach it, or let someone else bother with it?