Sandy Todd Webster
Sandy Todd Webster is the editor in chief of IDEA’s award-winning publications. She is Precision Nutrition Level 1 certified and is a Rouxbe Certified Plant-Based Professional cook.View FitConnect Profile
Article Archive
There’s hardly anything more satisfying for many professionals than getting out of their own heads and feeding their minds with new ideas and skills. The sheer pleasure of immersing oneself in the waters of knowledge for even a few days each year can make an ocean of difference over the course of a career.
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It’s part of IDEA’s DNA to keep evaluating our membership model and look for new and relevant ways to increase the value of our offerings to you. This drive for excellence is the holy grail of our Inspired Service deliverables as we strive to help you be the smartest and most successful fitness professional you can be. With that in mind, I’m thrilled to tell you about a few new initiatives that our team has just launched or that are on the cusp of release.
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In North America—and around the world—people are suffering or dying from the ravages of chronic lifestyle diseases that are mostly preventable. It’s troubling to write those words as a flat statement of fact, especially in an era of such astonishing medical advancements paralleled with a daily firehose of new health research that further pressure-washes what we already know.
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When I first paid for personal training sessions many years ago, I remember specifically telling my trainer that I wanted to focus only on my upper body, with maybe a little core work sprinkled in.
Legs? No way!
Read MoreWhether you’re the owner of a large gym, a small-studio entrepreneur, a mobile personal trainer, or a yoga or Pilates specialist, a basic tenet of keeping your edge sharp with clients is to shake things up frequently enough that they (and you!) don’t get bored. Certainly, that means changing your programming regularly, but it also means looking at your equipment with fresh eyes and considering some new tools for experimentation—all while being judicious about your budget.
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A few weeks ago, I purged my extensive collection of cookbooks to make way for new ones. Like the 30 or so I just weeded from the mix, the new books will be learned from, splattered upon and well-loved until I’ve extracted all of their goodness.
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This month we are delighted to introduce you to the professionals at IDEA who work tirelessly to develop continuing education, cutting-edge experiences and essential business tools to make you successful. We want to show you the faces of those whose drive and creativity bring you this magazine and the other IDEA publications you value; the incredible events you love to attend; the educational products from which you earn CECs; and the stellar inspired service of specialists dedicated to delivering whatever you need from us.
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Whether you’re the owner of a large gym, a small-studio entrepreneur, a mobile personal trainer, or a yoga or Pilates specialist, a basic tenet of keeping your edge sharp with clients is to shake things up frequently enough that they (and you!) don’t get bored. Certainly, that means changing your programming regularly, but it also means looking at your equipment with fresh eyes and considering some new tools for experimentation—all while being judicious about your budget.
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When I landed at IDEA over 17 years ago, I had tried yoga just a handful of times.
Roll back to 1997. We had moved from Los Angeles to San Diego, and I was working part-time, waiting for my newly minted PhD husband to get hired somewhere (please, anywhere!) as a college professor. Working just 20 hours per week, I had plenty of time to explore San Diego. I bought a gym membership at the University of California, San Diego, and spent a lot of time there, self-guided, trying all the classes and training myself based on what little I knew about movement and the body.
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For fitness pros to stay relevant, change is a critical catalyst.
The same holds true in magazine publishing and content development. Every few years, editors and creative directors must shake things up to re-engage the reader’s attention.
In our September print issue, we phased in the first of a three-step redesign; with the November-December print issue, we find ourselves in the thick of our remodel. So please excuse our dust and ignore the jackhammering! By January, we will have completed construction.
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If you read this column last month, you know that our team jetted off to Shanghai just weeks after the IDEA® World Convention to host the inaugural IDEA China, August 16–18. This absolute first for a major U.S.-Chinese fitness education event was a sold-out success! Over 1,500 enthusiastic Chinese fitness professionals packed every session over 3 days to absorb the most edgy and practical fitness information available today from a faculty of 28 standout IDEA subject-matter experts.
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The IDEA team has navigated through a period of exciting change over the past 18 months. Staying true to our professional values and our drive to Inspire the World to Fitness®, we have assessed each turn, innovated adroitly and charged forward. Big thinkers in all walks of life and business intuit that change equals opportunity. When we fail to welcome transition and, with it, some measured risk, we passively and perilously expose ourselves to becoming irrelevant.
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Awesome job getting your act together with a slow-cooker meal for tonight! But before you congratulate yourself too much, understand that turning on your evening meal from the office may have just opened the back door to a cyber security hack on your phone—and your life.
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When it comes to the brain and aging well, size definitely matters.
A study published January 4 online in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, shows that older people who followed a Mediterranean diet retained more brain volume over a 3–year period than those who did not follow the diet as closely. Contrary to earlier studies, eating more fish and less meat was not related to changes in the brain.
The window on green almonds opens and closes almost simultaneously and is happening now. For the first few weeks of spring, you can find these fuzzy, first-harvest gems at farmers' markets or in specialty stores. Some good sleuthing can land you a batch online, so check around.
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Many of us can remember when almost every kid at school showed up with a lunch whose centerpiece was then a childhood rite of passage: the PB&J sandwich. Easy to prepare, nutritious and, best of all, delicious, it was a quick-fire solution for harried moms packing daily lunches. But today, because of the ubiquity of serious peanut allergies in children, most classrooms and even entire schools are "peanut no-fly zones," and it's not unusual for kids to have emergency epi pens at the ready.
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The pace of corporate merger and acquisition in the food industry is as rapid as it is aggressive. Nearly every day, more news emerges of companies literally at the top of the food chain swallowing smaller brands into their portfolios.
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The convenience of bagged, prewashed salad can be a big plus when it comes to getting ample servings of vegetables every day. Just when you thought you had this part figured out, in come the research party-poopers (in the best way, of course) to rain on your easy greens.
Simply put, be careful. Even though most bagged salad is washed multiple times and then carefully sealed, the potential for foodborne illness still exists, according to a study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology (2017; 83 [1], e02416).
Each January, the creative minds at Epicurious.com throw down the #cook90 challenge. Specifically, they guide and cajole legions of home cooks to prep three meals a day, every day, for an entire month. If you don't cook often or well, the notion of whipping up 90 squares in a month (or even a year!) may send you diving for the smartphone to ensure the UberEATS food delivery app is still in good working order.
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Two recent peer-reviewed studies discuss the proven benefits of consuming moderate amounts of protein regularly throughout the day (protein-pacing) combined with a multidimensional exercise regimen that includes resistance training, sprint interval exercise, stretching and endurance training. Focusing on the quality of both food and exercise rather than the quantity of either seems to be the key.
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