Health and fitness coach and author Laurie Rein will present a Healthy Aging for Women program for a Congregation Or Chadash Sisterhood Girl’s Night Out on Nov. 13. Rein brings 30 years of experience in health training and a career in professional dance to her talk.
Growing up in Tucson, she began ballet study at age 8 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center when it was on Broadway and Plumer. She became a professional dancer at age 18, first with the Tucson Civic Ballet, then at the Santa Barbara Ballet in California. After receiving a bachelor of fine arts degree in dance and theater from the University of Arizona, she joined Canyon Ranch. Over the years there she taught ballet, aerobics, strength training, and weight lifting, and became the director of the life enhancement program. She also was a personal trainer and Pilates instructor at the Tucson J.
As a personal trainer, Rein realized she still was “boomeranging with diets and my own issues of putting on weight. I realized that was not a good way to be. And, as a trainer, I heard other women’s stories of diets and exercise that didn’t work. I had to find the balance I was teaching others in my own life. Now I’ve found that balance,” she says. “It all made more sense to me when I hit 60. It’s getting women to begin to realize now is the time to get started, right now, today.”
Rein’s book, “Getting to the Best You: How Small Steps Can Change Your Life for Good” (A3D Impressions), was published in March. “I’m all about preventive medicine and starting right now, wherever you are. If you’re not walking, can you walk a block? If you’re not eating fruit can you eat one piece a day? That’s seven pieces in a week,” Rein says.
The book includes stories from many of her clients; the oldest is 95. “Many were pillars of the Jewish community and many have passed. I learned so much about aging and gratitude from them; they really mentored me,”
says Rein.
She adds that the book is friendly and relatable. “It’s what has worked for me and clients. Every body is different. My role is to educate, guide, motivate, and inspire readers to get moving and make lifestyle changes — if they are ready for it — and to know that change is possible at any age. For people who say they are old, they are wiser and have the tools to change. This is what I know to be true and what can work,” she says.
“The book is informative and easy to read,” says COC Sisterhood president Laurie Kassman. “It includes easy changes.”
Rein will have a book signing at Barnes & Noble, Saturday, Oct. 19 at Foothills Mall, 7325 N. La Cholla Blvd, at 1 p.m. Her program for the Sisterhood will be Nov. 13 at Trattoria Pina, 5541 N. Swan Road, at 6 p.m. The dinner is $30, including a fixed menu of salad, an entrée, and drink. A book signing follows. Space is limited. Reservations with payment required by Nov. 8; contact Sheila Peress at 250-7349.
