JoyRide Indoor Cycling Studio

1200 Post Road E, Westport

I love JoyRide.

Robin’s Note: Before JoyRide, I couldn’t stand indoor cycling. Spin classes at my cheap gym left me cold: humid concrete room, extended remix of “Rocking the Casbah,” and sweaty male bodies inches from my face. The instructor invites us to “crank up the resistance to 10 while you feel the stress of your day leave your body.” Sure enough, the stress of my day leaves my body and is replaced by the stress of sensory torment, sore muscles, and claustrophobia.

So on my list of “things I want to do,” JoyRide hovered between “cage-free swim with sharks” and “be a charity surrogate for sextuplets.”

In short, I wasn’t their target market.

But despite these obstacles, JoyRide has made a spinner out of me! I LOVE it! The spin room is spacious and blessedly well-ventilated. The music selection is well-balanced, upbeat, and energetic. And the instructors are spot on. While each instructor has his/her own style, they manage to tease a hard-core work out of everyone by managing expectations and inspiring spinners to work their b*tts off.

Full disclosure: Though I’m saddened to report my derriere hasn’t actually fallen off, at least not the part of it I wish would fall off, it’s definitely in better shape.

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Cathy Peru, Laser Hair Removal

Kathy Peru (Click to enlarge)

Plastic Surgery of Southern Connecticut, L.L.C.
208 Post Road West, Westport
(203) 454-0044

  Shorn underarms became popular around 1915. A few years later hairless gams were all the rage. Then a circle of sisters parked themselves on 57th Street in NYC and introduced legions of hair-fearing women to depilated pudendums. 

That means a typical non-European woman will spend months of her life painfully de-fuzzing limbs, armpits and, you know, other things.

I, however, will not. Because I met Cathy, RN and skin care specialist. You may think I’m histrionic when I say she’s my new best friend, but if you’ve experienced the myriad of “permanent” hair removal processes I’ve experienced, you’ll understand. However, for dignity’s sake, let’s not go there.

Cathy has been a registered nurse for 25 years, many of which were spent in the maternity ward (so no need to be embarrassed about… yeah). To the delight of numerous well-groomed women, she’s focused on laser skin care and hair removal for the past 7 years in the office of top plastic surgeon, Dr. Joseph O’Connell (see write-up on this site).

She’s lovely, knowledgeable, and amazing at eradicating annoying and unwanted keratinized filaments. And if you’re one of the unlucky individuals whose hair is disinclined to leave its host, she’ll do whatever she can (short of blowtorching) to ensure you’re happy with the results.

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Rhodie Lorenz

Westport Pilates
420 Post Road West, Westport
(203) 227-7969

 Years of pounding my feet against hard surfaces have my knees quietly sobbing for mercy.  My hip has recently joined their cause and I sit on my sofa at night feeling their impassioned battle for reprieve in the form of a persistent dull ache. I need a Better Way to Exercise. I need Pilates. So I asked around for a good instructor and I heard the name “Rhodie Lorenz” almost as often as I hear my joints crack when I walk down the stairs each morning.

So I signed up for a private class. Now, many of you are familiar with Pilates, but for the uninitiated: imagine walking into a Pottery Barn-designed S&M Club in broad daylight. Now imagine having to contort one’s body upon the equipment in this Club in broad daylight. (Note to those who think S&M is a common stock index: it’s not.) So… yeah. I felt kind of awkward.

Fortunately, Rhodie came right over and put me at ease: she is super-fit, engaging, and smart, smart, smart. Guiding me through each decumbent crouch and curl, she offered helpful advice and encouragement until I was quite comfortable in my new surroundings. So comfortable, in fact, I felt like a budding Pilates rock star. And I loved getting a complete workout without the sweat, joint ache, and gasping for oxygen I normally associate with a fitness routine. 

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Dr. Joseph B. O’Connell, MD, FACS

208 Post Road, Westport
(203) 454-0044

 Question: If a man’s best friend is a dog, then who’s a woman’s best friend?  Correct. A plastic surgeon. Unless you can bounce a quarter off your face and you’re reduced to a whimpering puddle of joy-tears when you see yourself in a J. Crew bikini, you’ve probably considered surgical enhancement at some point in your life.

Joseph B. O’Connell, MD, FACS, Westport, CT (Click to enlarge)

Personally, I feel if anesthesia and painkillers are involved in one’s program for self-improvement, one should hightail it to the best doctor available. Evidently, thousands of like-minded patients, academics, reporters, etc. agree with me, which is why Dr. Joseph B. O’Connell has a thriving practice in Westport.

You may have seen his office on Post Road: a charming, cream-colored colonial by Kings Highway that belies the sophistication of his cutting-edge medical acuity. His waiting room is chic and elegant, as are his nurses and swimsuit-model-turn-assistant. If a doctor died and went to heaven, this would be his practice. I mean, even his magazines are up to date. (Speaking of magazines, he’s been tagged “Top Plastic Surgeon” by Connecticut and New York Magazine for 10 consecutive years.)

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Susan Mudd, MS CNS

61 Sherman Street, Fairfield
(301) 661-9222

I assume I’m healthy because I shop at Whole Foods. But a fistful of organic chocolate chip cookies doesn’t qualify as a “meal” even if it’s all-natural, free of preservatives, and the closest thing to a vegetable I’ve eaten in 4 days. Which kind of made me wonder if my eating habits (in addition to my weekly expenditure at Whole Foods) contribute to my persistent stress and fatigue.

So I met the nutritionist most recommended to me: Susan Mudd, MS CNS. She’s a board-certified, licensed nutrition expert who confesses, “I don’t have a turn off switch when it comes to pizza.” She had me at hello.

Her success stories are incredible, with clients overcoming fertility, krohn’s disease, even bi-polarism, in addition to the usual litany of complaints: fatigue, constipation, hair-loss, allergies, and much more.

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Detox Diet Diary

Below is the diary I kept while on Susan Mudd’s 21-day “Detox Diet”.

Day 1
11:50 - Miserable. I’ve had three bananas and hot lemon water. Having difficulty expanding my health food repertoire.

7:03 PM – The more I think about it, I realize I felt pretty good before and I may not need to detox.

7:33 PM – Looking forward to my glass of wine and fistful of organic oreos. Then remember I can’t have either.

7:34 PM – Maybe I’ll have the wine anyway.

7:35 PM – Not sure what it says about me if I can’t go three weeks without refined sugar and alcohol. And all of my other favorite food groups.

10:30 PM – Really happy to go to bed.

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Salon Serein

208 Post Road West, Westport
(203) 454-8588

Salon Serein
208 Post Road West, Westport
(203) 454-8588

  When I was young, the Great Sleepover Ritual was “styling” each others tresses. Sometimes we’d incorporate scissors… well, one time. Long story. It wasn’t about the styling, really. It was about Girl Time, with nothing but friends, gossip, and hair viscid from Dippity-do and particles of whatever we happened to be eating at the time.

If you share the same memories, and you aren’t a man, you’ll love my new favorite salon: Salon Serein. It’s sophisticated, elegant, and deliciously cozy. The stylists make you feel as though the party can start now that you’ve arrived. It’s the Sleepover Ritual Girl Time feel, all grown up. But the only ones wielding the scissors are the professionals.

Once seated, they ask questions and actually listen to the answers (How often do you wash your hair? How do you wear your hair? How long do you spend styling it in the morning?) before offering suggestions (hint: take their advice).

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