Use this information (articles, media clippings, medical research reports) and include it in your newsletters. Have “take-ones” available for your members to pick up and read. Invite athletes to give guest lectures.

Have your fitness staff talk about how to adapt a cross-training program to achieve personal goals and how this type of training is not just for elite athletes but can help weekend athletes and those trying to develop leaner, more toned bodies in less time.

Remind people that this type of training means that they should never have to wait in line for a piece of equipment because there is always another workout option.

This kind of information and seed planting will begin to open client’s minds to new things without being intimidating or scary.

Another hallmark of success is planning. Planning in advance what you are going to eat and when you’re going to eat it, goes a long way to breaking the automatic-eating habit. Planning what you eat begins with planning what you buy at the supermarket. Even if you don’t do the actual shopping, planning what you eat can help the shopper buy the foods that fit your diet.

Making Healthy Choices
Healthy diets are the result of making healthy food choices. Most of us have both the power and freedom to choose the foods we eat. Yet, too often we eat without consciously thinking about the choices we make. This can be particularly true in the supermarket. If you don’t do the food shopping yourself, you can become a part of the shopping process by helping the one who does the shopping prepare a shopping list. Remember, you are the person in charge of making food choices for you. Let’s look at how making poor choices at the supermarket can affect your weight management efforts.

If you are interested to reduce mass then you need choose some herbal appetite suppressant to reduce your hunger and hold your weight in control.

This article will concentrate on the fourth area: social support. Methods that advance social support can be extremely productive, andare probably the easiest of the four support areas to accomplish.

Some may think that simplyoffering a comprehensive list of group exercise classes addresses social support, butit does not. Rarely will the typical new exerciser (who lacks confidence) freely participate in such classes.

The “threat” of not having the required skills, as well as possessing, perhaps, an unfavorable body image, will all but rule out what seems to be obvious opportunities to meet, interact and form bonds with other members.

What isneeded is an approachspecifically tailored to the new, apprehensive exerciserwho,without directed support, is likely to drop out. What can be done to encourage new exercisers to maintain their programs? Recent research provides ideas for exercise maintenance programs.

Although patients as young as 7 years old still have some baby teeth, they have usually gotten their molars and incisors. These markers allow orthodontists to predict crowding and other common problems, such as an overbite (a protrusion of upper teeth over the lower teeth) or a cross bite (a condition in which the molars of a too narrow upper jaw bite into the lower jaws).

“What you want to do is catch problems while the growth potential of the jaw is still there,” said Dr. Karen Hughes, an orthodontist at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. “When children are younger the jaw is more malleable.”

New Techniques Reserved for Adults
The basic technology to straighten children’s teeth has not changed too much in recent decades — a period when braces evolved from metal bands that wrapped around teeth to less obtrusive devices that are glued to the surface of the teeth, joined by wires and moved by pressure. The same is true for retainers that hold the teeth steady and palatal expanders, which widen the jaw.

New technologies, such as braces that sit on the backs of the teeth out of view, are recommended only for adults, since these “lingual brackets” are more expensive and far more difficult to install. Invisible braces, or disposable retainers, also are not available to children. The braces are designed using computer simulations, which can be done only on non-growing patients since the programs cannot anticipate growth.

Six months after Garcia’s son began treatment, she couldn’t be happier with the work, which is estimated to cost about $3,000 when completed in spring 2001. Christopher now wears devices designed to widen and move his upper jaw forward — giving his teeth more room to grow in properly.

Garcia says she can already see a positive change in his facial structure. “He sees the difference and so do I.”

Christopher said, “I like my teeth better because they’re pushed out more in front now.”

Although Christopher is the only child in his fourth grade class with braces, he says it’s worth it. When his friends start getting braces in their early teens, his treatment is expected to be all but over.

Of course, no treatment will be effective without a child’s cooperation, orthodontists agree. To bring children along, most orthodontists offer such things as brightly colored rubber bands — green and red for the holidays, blue to match an outfit, clear to reflect a more minimalist sensibility.

Retainers and palatal expanders can also be customized with pictures of a favorite rock star or soccer player. Do these gimmicks boost compliance? “Absolutely,” Smith said. “Kids need to feel ownership and when they do they’re more willing to participate and cooperate. It’s a two-way street.”

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Migdalia Garcia was 27 when she finally decided to close the broad gap in her smile. Her teeth were grown fully and her facial bones set. And she was long past the bouts of self-consciousness that plagued her teen-age years.

But she spent $3,000 and three years trying to improve her smile anyway, with mixed success. If she could do it again, she would have corrected her teeth a lot sooner.

That explains her reaction when she noticed the crooked teeth of her 8-year-old son Christopher: She couldn’t get him to an orthodontist fast enough.

Forget the price; forget Christopher’s tender years. He was going to have straight teeth, no matter what.

“I wanted him to get help early, while his bones and teeth are still growing and easier to fix,” said the Manhattan mother of two boys. “I’d never seen braces on a child so young, but I knew Christopher needed them.”

The Sooner the Better
In leaping at a decision parents once pondered for years, Garcia joined millions of others who, flush with cash and intent on making life easier for their children, are seeking out orthodontists sooner than ever before. Each year, 4 million children and teens under 17 receive orthodontic care in this country. The majority of children who receive care are between 9 and 14.

Not too long ago orthodontists rarely treated pre-adolescents. Now they routinely see children 7 years old and younger.

The American Association of Orthodontists applaud the trend, saying early attention often leads to shorter, less expensive treatment. Sometimes early monitoring eliminates the need for care altogether by allowing doctors to watch a child’s development.

“Sometimes I see kids for several years on a recall basis” without doing any orthodontic work on them, says Dr. Vincent Smith, an orthodontist in Syracuse, N.Y. “Certain problems correct themselves with age.”

Ulterior Motives?
There’s no question the early treatment approach is controversial. Critics argue that pushing younger children into care is simply a way to get patients paying for care sooner. They point to two studies that suggest children with certain dental conditions reap little benefit from early orthodontic treatment.

Dr. Camilla Tulloch, a professor of orthodontics at the University of North Carolina, is spearheading a 10-year study examining the benefits of later and earlier treatment of children whose top teeth jut out over the bottom teeth — a condition more commonly known as buckteeth.

Her research thus far has found that getting to the problem early rarely shortens the treatment and it may lengthen it for some. “Parents need to understand that the pre-adolescent years are not the only chance for treatment,” Tulloch said. “Our study shows that the chance for success is the same in younger as in older children.”

Another study at the University of Florida in Gainesville suggests that children who start orthodontic treatment earlier generally stay in treatment longer, with children younger than 10 in treatment for three years and those older than 10 staying in treatment for two years.

Nevertheless, Dr. Timothy Wheeler, who is leading Florida’s research team, is convinced that orthodontic treatment is absolutely necessary for some younger children and should not be delayed. “There are some severe conditions that absolutely have to be corrected early,” he said. “Starting a child on orthodontic treatment is a tough issue for parents. It really boils down to an issue of trust in your orthodontist.”

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Although experienced martial artists can teach proper technique and movement patterns, the majority do not possess the expertise or skills necessary for successful mainstream group-exercise instruction. “There needs to be a balance between the sport and fitness,” says Norris.

“Therefore, instructors leading these classes should have qualifications and training in both areas.” Black belt or not, Gove, who has a background in martial arts, stresses that any kickboxing instructor should have a higher sense of kinesthetic awareness.

“You have to be really aware of how your body is moving,” she explains. “If the instructor’s [moves] are a little sloppy, the participants are going to be sloppy as well.”

Program directors who are aware of the strengths, weaknesses and abilities of their staff members may discover that their instructor team is comprised of individuals who can successfully manage a martial-arts fitness class. Gove points out that assembling an adequate pool of instructors is essential.

“The last thing you want to do is bring in something that will be exciting for members, and then get stuck [with no instructors].”

A number of programs designed to bridge the gap between the sport of martial arts and mainstream fitness are on the horizon. Reebok is launching Reebok Martial Arts R, which combines aerobics and kickboxing in a progressive instructor training package. Both Norris and Olson are members of the international development committee for Reebok Martial Arts. “We are concerned with developing fitness, not fighters,” explains Olson. “[Our goal] is to combine … cardio movements like the grapevine or jumping jacks, which increase the heart rate, [with] slow martial-arts skill development.” In Canada, TRC Fitness has introduced Bo Kwon Do, a club-based program package that includes year-long progressive instructor training, as well as advertising and promotional materials.

Finally, I considered what the rest of my life might look like, and what I wanted from it. It turned out that more than my fear of being criticized was my fear of living a life of might-have-been. Unmarried or not, I did want to know and feel what it meant to carry, love, nurture and watch a child grow. I refused to accept the script that seemingly was written for me, and for so many women before me.

As my thinking slowly evolved, a few events clinched the matter. A last relationship in my early 40s faltered and died. I spoke to friends I trusted — first elliptically, then directly. Surprisingly, again and again I heard the words, “I will support you.” It was my most gratifying and instructive discovery, and I think it taught me to trust in the goodwill of others more than I ever had.

Then another friend sent me a magazine article about some women — more or less like me — who had chosen to pursue motherhood on their own. So they were out there. Many of them belonged to a national organization called Single Mothers by Choice (SMC). I promptly joined.

In fact, membership was my mother’s gift to me. Many of our parents initially oppose or worry about what they consider a radical step. My mother doesn’t fit that mold. I had carefully broached the subject with her, and she immediately encouraged me. It made a big difference.

From SMC, I received a list of women in my neighborhood who were single mothers or “triers” or “thinkers,” as the group distinguished the status of its members. It was a surprisingly long list, and they lived north and south, east and west of me, some no more than a block or two away. Shortly afterward, I attended a workshop run by SMC’s founder, Jane Mattes. Several single women who had chosen to raise a child alone — whether by adoption, donor insemination, or carrying on a pregnancy when the man had opted out — spoke from the heart to a roomful of women on the brink of action. The speakers were smart, attractive, articulate, regular women who had had the same dreams and disappointments as others but who also had had the gumption to determine their own fates. Their kids were there too — the miracles they had created. Not one woman minimized the difficulty of the road she had chosen, but not one said she should have chosen otherwise.

After that workshop, there was no turning back.

Even with the critical decision made, I approached each subsequent step — finding a doctor and a donor, telling my boss, my rabbi, my friends and coworkers, then planning for pregnancy — with ambivalence and fear, always with a feeling of being unprepared, of leaping into the unknown.

Still, at every point, I was surprised by how much better things turned out than I had expected, how much support I got, how impressed everyone was with my courage (hah!). The best thing I heard, again and again, was from other single women who said, “What you did gives us choices too.”

Of that I’m proud. I’m also proud of what I learned about my own strength and what I made happen. In so many ways, this decision turned into a life-affirming adventure that has given me unexpected insights into myself and others, as well as a new sense of empowerment.

P.S. I gave birth to a beautiful, brilliant, charming boy. But that’s another story.

That comes as no surprise — in my own research on how to set up an on-line store, I am having a dreadful time in coming up with useful Canadian examples.

My experience so far is that many of those who have charged off into building an on-line store haven’t done it very well. The problems are many, but one recent experience stands out as an example of how not to do business on the Web.

Imagine this scenario: You go to a store and pick out a product. You walk up to the checkout counter, where you are told that you can’t buy the product at the advertised price and that, indeed, you’ll have to pay more. This never happens, does it? The rule is that the price listed is the price at which the sale should occur.

Does this happen on-line? Not with major players such as Amazon.com or Dell. Companies with successful retail E-commerce strategies work hard to ensure that customers are not left with any negative feelings about their on-line shopping experience, and advise customers of what they are spending when conducting an on-line purchase.

Contrast this with a recent experience I had on-line with a Canadian computer company. Its Web site features a “system builder,” a tool by which you can assemble your own PC. Technically, it works well — put together the components that you want for a custom order, at which point you are told the price.

Since the company doesn’t yet permit you to order on-line, you are advised to call one of the company’s physical locations to purchase the custom order for which you have received a quote.

This is where things go wrong. Thinking that I had a firm price on the product, I called one of the locations listed on the Web page, only to be advised by the chap on the phone that there was no way that he could sell me a system at that price. Intrigued, I called a second location. Same story. I gave up after three calls.

I followed up with an angry fax to the company’s head office, wondering how close this situation might be to false advertising. They offered the feeble excuse that the Web site notes “prices are subject to change without notice,” and indicated that they are having a hard time in ensuring that the prices on their site match the prices in their physical locations.

The Retail Council of Canada and IBM are concerned about the fact that few companies in Canada have ventured into E-commerce. Maybe, given Web sites such as this, we should warn companies not to get involved until they are ready to do business on-line.

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But I was already 44. I had always assumed that I would one day be a mother — though I (and reproductive science) kept pushing the cutoff date further and further into the future. The desire to have a child was part of my culture and my physical and psychological sense of what it was to be a woman and a human being. I believed that children gave meaning and resonance to life, that we expand emotionally from that unconditional love and grow, too, from the challenges of parenting. I believed all this even as I lived a wonderfully sophisticated and entertaining single life, rich with culture, absorbing work, terrific vacations and friends (most of them single as well, in that great center of single life, Manhattan’s Upper West Side). Yet I never failed to feel a deep ache when I saw a mother tenderly embrace an infant in her arms.

Still, no relationship got me to that place. I kept hoping for the traditional scenario — a mom and dad, ample resources, a true parenting partnership. Soon it was getting too late to hope for any last-minute rescue in the form of the dashing prince (older-woman’s version) who also yearned to be a father — and sooner rather than later. But, I asked myself, if I wasn’t lucky enough to experience a full partnership with a mate, why should I be deprived of another vital dimension of human experience?

I had never flouted convention in a big way. Ask anyone, and they would likely agree that I obey the rules. I’m religiously observant and a little nervous about authority. I care what people think. As I contemplated this huge, out-of-the-box step, my fear of public censure — at work, at the synagogue, among friends and acquaintances — was unquestionably the biggest obstacle I had to overcome.

There were other issues, of course, but I was able to resolve them — more or less. I knew it would be financially difficult to raise a child on my own, but I also knew I could manage. Though childcare costs do run high, I had never set much store by the financial argument when it came to having children. It seemed like only financially comfortable people made this argument, and it often seemed to have more to do with maintaining arbitrary standards of living than with providing the basic necessities and love.

There was the question of an adequate support system. Mine was pretty skimpy — essentially consisting of my mother and a few close friends. New York City is a place where everyone is intensely busy with their own lives. You speak to your best friend once a week, maybe. If you’re lucky enough to know your neighbors, you don’t dare impose. Who would watch my baby if I had to run out and buy a container of milk?

Would I lose my social life completely, lose contact with the outside world, lose the interesting self I’d built up over the years? Was I saying goodbye to the possibility of romance ever (certainly for the next few critical years)?

Would I be overwhelmed with the difficulties of pregnancy and infancy? (Did I mention that I knew nothing about bringing up a baby?) Without knowing the answers, eventually I decided these were risks I could take.

There was another important question: Would I be depriving my child? I have no brothers, male cousins or accessible brothers-in-law — no masculine figures. Would my child hate me for bringing it into the world without a father? On the other hand, about 27 percent of households in the United States are run by single parents. And it has been shown that the problems and trauma of divorce, abandonment or parents who constantly bickered, were far more damaging to a child than a non-existent father in a household with one strong, loving, committed parent. After all, I told myself, almost everyone is lacking something in childhood, but you can’t really miss something you never had.

The club recently completed development and construction of a state-of-the-art teaching and recreational swim facility that is unrivaled for miles. The new aquatics center includes two wheelchair-accessible, indoor heated pools, making it one of the few aquatic facilities in Pennsylvania with a permanent ramp structure in an indoor Olympic size pool. In addition to the 25-meter, five-lane pool, the facility also boasts a therapeutic pool with tethering for deep-water workouts, massage therapy jets, training jets that allow for kayak therapy and a hydraulic swim lift for accessibility.

The main idea behind the program is to have a state-of-the-art recreational and therapeutic aquatics program available to both NAC members and the community.

As such, the aquatics fitness schedule includes programs for all ages, such as an aqua-tot program for ages six months to three years, group and private instructional swimming, adult and youth personal training, programs for older adults, adapted aquatics and rehabilitative programs.

NAC also has devoted a significant number of hours to family recreation and lap swimming.

NAC’s aquatic center has not only resulted in serving a community need, but has left NAC swimming in new family memberships and increased revenues.