Portrait by William Taufic
Like many lifestyle magazines, we tend to devote our January issue to health. Yes, we’ve even done the “New Year, New You” thing. But for this issue, we decided to take a look at wellness from a few different angles.
The first: fitness. Working out is about more than appearance and physical strength. It’s about pushing your body to do things you’re not sure you can and the sense of achievement that comes when you do. For me, exercising saves my sanity. If I go a few days without a workout, I just feel off—a little cranky, a little sluggish. So, when we heard the buzz about Amanda Bartolomeo and her super-popular CorePlay workout, we had to investigate.
Amanda’s classes are about feeling strong, empowered and connected to your physical and emotional care. Writer Michelle Calarco had a great time chatting with the fitness guru about her wending journey through both hardship and triumph that has put her in the spotlight. Meet Amanda in “At Her Core.”
Weight management is also (unfortunately) a part of wellness. And it can become increasingly more difficult as we age. For some, no matter how many calories we cut or miles we log on the treadmill, the weight just won’t budge. Enter all those drugs being hailed as miracle cures. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t heard of Ozempic, let alone be able to sing the catchy (albeit annoying) jingle. And everybody seems to have an opinion (think the great Botox debate of the early 2000s). Writer Liz Barron talks to area experts about the pros, cons and alternatives to weight-loss pharmaceuticals in “Weighing in on Weight Loss.” As you can imagine, it’s not a one-size-fits-all answer.
Finally, the third component of our feature package: addressing our town’s wealth disparity. At first glance, this may seem to be an outlier, but financial stability has a too-often overlooked influence on our mental and physical well-being. For ninety years, the Greenwich United Way has been funding programs that enrich the lives of our underserved population.
Some areas of focus include mental health services, food and clothing distribution and child care, as well as crisis and domestic abuse intervention. Valerie Foster takes a look at the organization’s substantial impact on health and well-being in our town.
We hope your 2024 is off to a wonderful start and the new year finds you happy and, of course, healthy.