Check out our slideshow of the amazing event.
Yes, yes, this weekend was gross—with a capital G. But the unrelenting rain couldn’t keep hundreds of local yogis from the Art Museum on Sunday morning for Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s annual fundraiser, Yoga on the Steps. We love the event because it marries all the good parts of a flashmob—hundreds of people doing the same thing, at the same time, in a very, very public location—with a really terrific cause. Living Beyond Breast Cancer is a national organization with local routes (it’s HQ’d in Haverford), with a mission to empower and offer support for those directly and indirectly impacted by a breast-cancer diagnoses—we’re talking women and men with the disease, plus their families, caregivers and friends.
Yoga on the Steps started in 2002 here in Philly, conceived of by local yoga instructor (and Be Well Boot Camp presenter) Jennifer Schelter. Now the event has grown to include stops in DC and Denver, too, as a way to raise money and awareness for the cause. Check out our photos from this year’s Philly event below.
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Plus: poop in public pools, a predicition on summer allergies, how bad restaurant food really is, and more.
• A lot of people have wondered what special arrangements—if any—would be provided to runners who weren’t able to finish the Boston Marathon last month. Now I have news on that front: Race organizers announced last week that the more than 5,000 runners who were stopped on the course after the bombs went off will be invited to register for the 2014 race. They’ll pay a to-be-determined registration fee. [Runner's World]
• Confirming every last fear you’ve ever had about public pools, they’re full of poop, a new CDC report says. [Live Science]
• Blerg: Think spring-allergy season is bad? Summer allergies might be worse, according to a sinus expert. [HealthDay]
• Check out this (fake) open letter to American consumers from the food industry. Best part: “Your superficial understanding of health has a great influence over your purchasing decisions, and we’re ready for it, whether you choose to go low-calorie, low-fat, gluten-free or inevitably give up and accept the fact that you can’t resist our Little Debbie snacks, potato chips and ice cream novelties.” [Scientific American]
• Le sigh: Restaurant food is worse than you think—much, much worse. [Women's Health]
Photo: fmua / Shutterstock.com
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A blogger on a mission created a swimsuit line to make attractive bikinis for curvy women.
Thanks to The Gloss for the heads up about a fab blogger named Gabi Gregg (a.k.a. GabiFresh), whose mission to help plus-size women embrace their curves turned into an awesome new collabo between Gabi and online swimsuit retailer Swimsuits for All.
Gabi’s been throwing around the term “fatkini” for a few years now, as part of her crusade to encourage body diversity in swimwear. Last summer, her effort culminated in a “fatkini” photo gallery, showing “31 hot sexy fat girls in skimpy swimwear.” The post landed her on the TODAY show, and got her all kinds of exposure on sites like the Huffington Post, latimes.com and more.
This year, Gabi’s back on the fatkini kick with a new bathing suit line inspired by her mission. The collaboration with swimsuitsforall.com features suits in sizes 8 to 34, and—get this—they’re actually good looking, too. In fact, that suits have been so popular that in the three days since their debut, most of the styles and sizes have already sold out. Awesome, right?
Check out this slideshow over at Teen Vogue to see a lookbook of all the styles.
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You might want to skip the adductor machine after reading this.
 • Go ahead and scratch the following machines off your gym-rotation list: leg-curl, overhead shoulder press, ab crunch. A conditioning expert says they’re among 10 machines at the gym that are pretty much useless. [Yahoo! Shine]
• Ah, so this explains the whole Governator thing: Strong men—like, dudes who are actually physically strong—tend to have right-wing political views, according to a new study. [Daily Mail]
• Okay, so while physically revolting to me (I’ve never been a Doritos gal), Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Tacos at least made some culinary sense. But the Bell’s newest creation, a waffle taco? That just seems like an utter misfire (not to mention, calorie bomb). [TIME]
• In case you’ve ever wondered, here are the crazy (read: scary) diets models put their bodies through for their jobs. [Huff Post Women]
• Useful! The 22 best cookbooks of 2013 (so far, I presume). [Greatist]
Photo: Shutterstock
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The Parx Casino Philly Cycling Classic is opening its course up to amateurs.
 If you ever watched the (now canned) Philadelphia International Cycling Championship and wished you could take a spin on the course, you’re in luck: the Parx Casino Philly Cycling Classic—the new race that replaced the Cycling Championship this year—is partnering up with Bicycling magazine to open its course early for amateur cyclists.
The so-named Bicycling Open, which will take place on June 2nd before the pro race, will allow recreational cyclists to complete as many laps as possible between 7:15 and 8:30 a.m. on the new 12-mile Parx Cycling Classic course. And get this: They’re even doing chip timing so you’ll have something to brag about afterwards.
The course is mainly concentrated in Fairmount, East Falls and Manayunk, and, of course, includes a climb up the infamous Manayunk Wall. Participants will get a swag bag, post-ride breakfast and meet-and-greet opportunity with athletes from the Cadence Cycling Foundation. Basic entry is $25, but $80 gets you a commemorative jersey, and $100 gets you entry to the CCFan Zone, located at the finish line of the pro race. Register here.
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Rittenhouse Square's Skin Palette is moving into the Bellevue.
 At the end of this month, Skin Palette airbrush tanning studio at 19th and Sansom will move five blocks east to the Sporting Club at the Bellevue. The tanning studio is the latest local business to join the Bellevue’s on-site network; the gym also houses Centerpoint Pilates, Paganos Market and Bar, NovaCare, Petrelli Chiropractic and the Athletic Spa, all of which are open to the public.
Skin Palette customers will be able to use the Sporting Club’s facilities free of charge during their visit. (We highly recommend checking out the über-luxe locker rooms, even if you don’t stay for a workout.) They can also get discounted parking in the Bellevue’s parking garage.
The studio will officially leave its 19th street location on May 29th. Its first day of business in the Bellevue will be May 30th.
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Are you listening, Phillies?
My kids hate baseball. Wait, let me qualify that—they hate it when I watch Phillies games on TV. “They’re so slow,” they moan, dragging the last word out to match their meaning. And I see what they’re saying. The batter up at the plate swings at a pitch, steps out of the box, unstraps his left battling glove and tightens it, unstraps the right glove and tightens it, hitches up his pants, touches his hat, checks his belt buckle, steps back into the box and taps his right toe three times …
What the kids are impatient with, what slows the game down, are the rituals, those small symbolic acts that pitchers and batters engage in for luck. Everybody in sports seems to have such rituals, whether it’s making the sign of the cross or pointing up to heaven or wearing lucky underpants or eating the exact same meal before every game. They may seem silly and superstitious, but scientists are beginning to pin down why they’re so endemic.
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The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia is organizing a "Safety Ride" in Center City.
 Here’s a pretty good way to round out Bike to Work Week. This Saturday, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and Center City District are organizing a free “Safety First” bike ride through Center City. The ride is advertised for cyclists of all levels (including families), but is really meant for newbies who aren’t yet confident about riding bikes in the city. The group will be led by a police escort as well as reps from Center City District and BCGP. All traffic laws will be obeyed and enforced throughout the ride.
The ride itself is free, of course, but organizers are encouraging cyclists to register ahead of time here. There will be raffle drawings before and after, giveaways and more.
Cyclists will gather at 9 a.m. at Washington Square Park at 6th and Walnut. The route is an almost-five-mile loop that’ll be completed twice. See the map below.
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Plus: why sodium guidelines are whack, a new way to lower your diabetes risk (hint: think stoners), and how to hydrate for better running performance.
• Well, this isn’t good. Bikram Choudhury, founder of the patented 26-pose hot-yoga regimen, is headed to court after former students filed two lawsuits alleging rape, sexual assault and human trafficking. Yikes. Listen to this: “During weeks of gruelling training Choudhury singled out Jane Doe 2 [one of the women who filed the lawsuit] claiming she was ‘a piece of gold in a roomful of brass.’ His approaches became more sexual and were rebuffed. The suit alleges the exhausted student was raped when she was ‘too weak and overwrought to fight him off.’” [The Guardian]
• Cool new gadget alert: Someone invented a heart monitor that’s thinner than a dollar bill and the size of a postage stamp. [Futurity.org]
• Drink more water, people! A new study shows how rehydrating today (or not) can impact fitness performance tomorrow—in very real, very precise measurements. [Runner's World]
• It might be time to rethink everything you think you know about salt and blood pressure. New recommendations from a group of experts say that maintaining the super-low, government-recommended daily-sodium-intake levels—1,500 milligrams of salt per day if you’re at risk for cardiac problems and 2,300 milligrams for everyone else—isn’t really doing anybody any good. To wit: “Evidence is too weak to determine whether limiting sodium intake to under 2,300 per day increases or decreases the risk of heart disease or stroke. …Similarly, the report suggests that, as of now, there isn’t enough evidence supporting the 1,500 milligram recommendation for at-risk people. [U.S. News and World Report]
• Go ahead and light up a joint—a little pot may just lower your diabetes risk, according to a new study. [Blisstree]
Photo: Shutterstock
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I tried it out this morning!
This morning I got up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 a.m. As I’ve said on this blog before, I am not a morning-workout person. I’ve tried. I’ve failed. End of story.
But this morning I beat all odds and actually got myself out bed at said ungodly hour (go me!) to get my very tired self over to the Hotel Monaco for a 6:30 a.m. Lithe Method class. That’s right, folks—Lithe Method is officially at the Monaco, offering classes every Wednesday morning. They’re calling it “Lithe on Location” because, as Lithe purists (*ahem Carrie Denny and Christy Speer Lejeune ahem*) can see in the photo above, the set up doesn’t exaaaactly resemble a true-blue Lithe Method class. For one thing, there are no bands hanging from the ceiling. And for another, no one’s wearing trash-bag diapers. But no matter—instructor Tiffany Nork assured me that the adapted version of the studio’s Stems class would still kick my butt in the way only a Lithe class could. And so, it did.
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