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Fit Bodies, Inc.

Fit Bodies, Inc. at The Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort Jamaioca

Jun 20th, 2011
by Lisa Marie.
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My stay at The Ritz-Carlton from May 22-31 was nothing short of completely amazing.  Arriving at the hotel so quickly after landing at the MBJ airport was wonderful.  Mr. Douglas and a glass of champagne greeted us at the door.  Smiles all around!

I love the colors of the Ritz!  Relaxing, yet reflecting Caribbean colors of hibiscus and such accompanying floral accents.   Our room is large, with garden view balcony, two double beds, and large bathroom with separate shower/tub and double sinks with a garden view.  I could see the ocean, too and it’s calm blue accents. The closet is large with a safe built into the wall.  All rooms have complimentary Ethernet and wifi is available in the lounge and Cohobar bar.

Each morning I walked around the resort, exploring the beach, pathways and even their garden where they grow vegetables like eggplant, peppers and a variety of herbs.  After my walk I was able to practice yoga, either on my own or by taking our own guest instructor’s yoga class.  Lovely, if I may say so myself! Listening to the gentle waves move in and out like our breath during asana practice.  Joyous!

Amidst the luxury resort with impeccable service and kind smiles, we did work hard.  Suzelle and I toured all our resorts, one day in Ocho Rios, and another day in Negril.  From Montego Bay, each trip was 90 minutes each way.  A mostly smooth ride, as the Jamaica roads have been improved over the years.  Being in Jamaica, meeting and greeting the colleagues I have the pleasure of emailing with daily, putting faces to the names, or email signatures I should say!  Wonderful! Negril resorts are looking good!  Business is booming at Hedonism II, and we were impressed with how wonderful Breezes Grand Negril looks with great looking crowd and more palm trees on the beach.  Very nice!

Ocho Rios- With access to Dunn’s River and a plethora of other tourist activities there is plenty to do on resort property and off.  Couples San Souci is a luxury jungle paradise, spread out and separated by mature Caribbean foliage and flowers.  With two wonderful beaches on each side of the resort, you can imagine how spread out the resort and sports complex is. Couples Tower Isle was jumping with a slightly younger, mature crowd, enjoying the island, and authentic ethnic cuisine served at the resort.  The new, state of the art fitness facility has indoor cycle bikes facing the ocean and cool, clean aerobics studio, too.

Back at The Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort, we conducted meetings and introduced a tennis position and a Kids yoga/fitness instructor position.  Both are now open to book on our reservation booking site, FitnessProTravel.com, for high season travel dates of October-Easter.  Therefore, The Ritz is now hosting a yoga teacher, group fitness instructor, tennis instructor or Kids Fitness professional on a regular basis. Very exciting for our pros and to the guests experiencing Fit Bodies, Inc. wonderful professionals while on vacation!

Fit Bodies, Inc. provides group fitness instruction, including yoga and tennis, to 45 resorts throughout the Caribbean and Pacific Mexico. Also offering private group travel and corporate travel events, as the largest teaching vacation organization in the world.  Fit Bodies, Inc. has many weekly positions available for fitness pros to enjoy all-inclusive luxury vacations with family or friends – all while teaching exercise classes to resort guests!

Happy, safe, loving travel experiences to all!

Fit Bodies, Inc. balcony view at The Ritz

The Ritz-Carlton balcony view

 

Yoga at The Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort Jamaica

Yoga at The Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort Jamaica

Yoga Teacher Training at Samasati in Costa Rica

Aug 4th, 2010
by Lisa Marie.
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In one week I will depart for what I am aptly titling as “Flyaway from it all to fly into it all” where I am leaving everything at home for 15 days and traveling to Puerto Viego, Costa Rica to essentially practice yoga, meditate, eat fab vegetarian cuisine and live in the outdoors (not literally!).  Along with this I will be assisting others to better learn about yoga for themselves and assist in developing their understanding of how to teach yoga to others in a class setting.  After attending Marianne Wells Yoga School at Samasati this past December, I am thrilled to be going back to a beautiful, peaceful sanctuary of nature, yoga and jungle!  And everything is the best part of Samasati.

Marianne’s training is 200 RYT, so over the course of 15 days this is a lot of yoga packed into each day.  It is full immersion of yoga at it’s finest, in a location I found ideal for yoga retreat.  Samasati provides everything a guest needs during a yoga retreat.  Balanced meals and Marianne’s training follows a schedule and this really helped me schedule yoga in my daily life once I returned home.   In a world where we spend a lot of time and positive energy taking care of others in life, Marianne teaches people how to take care of themselves.  With focus on the physical, spiritual, emotional and also intellectual state of being, what more do you need?  And really, through developing ability to take care of self, we not only become better yoga teachers, we become better people.

Meditation Hall Group Picture, December 2009

Meditation Hall Group Picture, December 2009

Some go to Marianne’s training with no intent of ever teaching a yoga class.  They are yoga enthusiasts and they attend to deepen their own practice and understanding of yoga. Others have quit their jobs and moved their life to pursue a spiritual journey of asanas, meditation and travel.  Those settled into their residential location return home as rejuvenated mothers, college students and caretakers, trained to teach yoga.  In both cases, Marianne’s training is a stepping-stone for career change and income as a yoga teacher.

So why did I attend Marianne’s training?  I decided to deepen my own practice of yoga by learning to teach.  After five-plus years, going to yoga classes all over Cincinnati on a regular basis I was ready to discover the philosophy further and develop my understanding of how yoga came to be what it is today.  My full time job is with Fit Bodies, Inc. and being a certified 200 RYT opens additional options for me to excel within my career.  I also chose Marianne’s training because I do not believe there is another two week 200 RYT in existence.  Well, there probably is, but they must not advertise much.  I cannot afford, on so many levels, to take off and travel somewhere for a month of yoga teacher training.  There are local trainings here in N. Ky and Cincinnati that I hear are really great, and I know many of the teachers who conduct these trainings so I know they are great, but, the idea of being in class one morning and then the office taking phone calls and emails in the afternoon was very unappealing.   After being at Marianne’s site, I knew it was right for me.  Two weeks; total immersion, total bliss, yoga boot camp (so to speak) in the middle of Costa Rica with mountains and waterfalls, monkeys and sloths…I would not have had it any other way.  Thank you, Marianne.  I am grateful for the opportunity to be back at Samasati, working with you and your August teacher training, starting next week.

“There is no road to happiness, happiness is the road.” –Dalai Lama

“There is no road to happiness, happiness is the road.” –Dalai Lama

Travel to the Caribbean and bring some wellness home

Jul 23rd, 2010
by Lisa Marie.
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Fruit Smoothies: I  have always been in love with fruit. Local fruits like apples, strawberries and melons grown from the garden or orchards are my favorite. In the Caribbean, there are tons of fruit, much of it grown locally and organically, flourishing in the constantly warm island soils of Jamaica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

Bananas grown at Samasati Nature Retreat

Bananas grown at Samasati Nature Retreat

Recently I enjoyed the smoothies at Secrets Sanctuary, where I vacationed at while teaching yoga as a Fit Bodies Inc. professional. At Sanctuary, they know breakfast is king, and I will come forth and be that queen!! Breakfast proliferates with fresh fruit, juices and smoothies made to order. In Costa Rica, at the yoga sanctuary in Puerto Viejo, very talented sisters prepare breakfast delights in a vegetarian dining environment. There at Samasati, the entire daily menu is delicious. Then again, breakfast is my king and among the treats my favorite sits the fresh juices ranging from papaya, pineapple, watermelon and my most favorite; mango. You can’t buy mangoes so good here in Northern Kentucky and so I cherish each bite and sip.

Mango smoothies are full of vitamin C and taste like the Caribbean!

Mango smoothies are full of vitamin C and taste like the Caribbean!

So I eat my breakfast like being on a Caribbean vacation everyday when I’m at home, too. Especially during the hot and humid summer days, a fresh smoothie fits the bill. It’s all-possible now with my “serious blender” blender.

Here are some of my favorite smoothie combinations. If your blender isn’t so serious, just cut the fruit into pieces that your blender can handle. The ingredient amounts are not very strict, so use what you have around, trying new creations all the time. Fruit smoothies are a wonderful way to supply your body with a proper supply of fruit each day. I suggest the fruit be properly ripe, or slightly over-ripe. (If a fruit looks a little too ripe to eat, then it’s probably perfect smoothie material.) And if each smoothie isn’t the best new creation ever you have every come up with, do not worry- just try again next time!
Rewarding your conscientious eating habit by providing yourself local or organic fruit. Frozen fruit is good in place of ice in smoothies. I suggest organic frozen fruit for best results.
Have fun smoothie-ing your creation and live a strong day!

Summer garden smoothie. Use this combination with whatever is ripe at the moment in place of the watermelon.
1/3 cup ice
Couple mint leaves
Couple stevia sprigs
2 cups watermelon

Morning Go Time. Great breakfast. Light and fluffy yet sustains the body and mind until lunch.
1 banana
1 cup frozen strawberries
1/3 c vanilla almond or vanilla hemp milk
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed
1 Tablespoon wheat germ

Morning Go Time with Extra Protein.
1 banana
1 cup froz. Strawberries
½ c vanilla almond or vanilla hemp milk
2 T peanut butter
1 Tablespoon wheat germ

Orange machine
1 cup cantaloupe
1/3 cup baby carrots, or cut them smaller
1 clementine, mandarin or about ½ of an orange
About ¼ cup water
2 teaspoons of agave nectar
A few mint sprigs

Fruit in the Caribbean

Fruit in the Caribbean

From Secrets Sanctuary to Dreams Punta Cana

Apr 29th, 2010
by Lisa Marie.
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It’s true; I am traveling just like any other fitness professional would be traveling upon teaching for Fit Bodies Inc. Yesterday Secrets Sanctuary went from 30% occupancy to 100% occupancy and my room was needed. Bumped. Bummer? Nah. But I did offer to stay and sleep on my balcony!

I was told we are going to be moved to another resort just before my 9:30am yoga class. As a guest instructor, I understand this can happen anytime, although it is rare, and in the spirit of business we should are glad the resorts have so many guests. In a way, we feel the resort’s max capacity should mean they need more fitness instructors, but alas there are only so many rooms to go around. Chad and I packed up our things, ate a wonderful lunch and said good bye to my new friends. Tony is a member of the Activities staff who is very motivating and fit. He conducts the a.m. power-walks and also the aqua aerobics. If you teach here and offer aqua classes I’m sure your skills will be appreciated and this class is at 11:30 or noon. His class encourages friendship and conversation among the pool people, like myself, and this I appreciate.

Here we are now at Dreams Punta Cana where Mr. Jose Tolentino personally greeted us with big smile. This is someone who I correspond with on a regular basis and so to meet him, put an official face and voice to his email signatures is especially meaningful to me. A cold drink and towel welcome us after the 55-minute ride from Cap Cana to Dreams Punta Cana.

This resort is way big. Over 650 rooms, and all of them are next to the pool, which the rooms basically surround with the ocean at the end. Despite the size, I feel personal attention from the housekeepers to the restaurant service. They are almost always smiling, to resort guests and to one another. I think the staff at Sanctuary is absolutely top notch but here at Dreams Punta Cana they must have written the manual on resort hospitality.

Last night I saw the best resort entertainment I have ever seen. Dreams Punta Cana is an exciting, activity filled resort and their entertainers are absolutely top notch, coming from a dance or gymnast background and work very hard, practicing from 11a.m. to at least 6p.m. everyday. This does not even include the time they spend performing. I have so much respect for them.

The fitness classes here are only 30 minutes long, so prepare to teach more often, but shorter classes. The guest fitness pros teach 4 thirty-minute classes and Mr. Tolentino wants pros to offer multiple formats. Being I only teach yoga, I am an exception to this rule. I sign off for the moment to teach the 10 a.m. class and then Mr. Tolentino is taking us on a tour of Zoetry Agua. This is what I have been waiting for and I am very anxious to see the resort! You can rest assured I will have a detailed report about Zoetry Agua this evening.

More about traveling as a fitness professional can be found at Fit Bodies Inc. and if you are a fitness professional create a complimentary travel account to book trips at Fitness Pro Travel

Expansive beach big enough for everyone.

Expansive beach big enough for everyone.