Life: Refined

OK, here it is, quick and dirty:
1) We are extremely excited to be introducing the REFINE METHOD REWARDS PROGRAM, A NEW WAY OF PRICING FITNESS we think you’ll love too!
2) Our prices are increasing to accommodate our expansion downtown and upgrades to the East 71st studio
3) But wait! Prices will be discounted to existing levels for the next couple of months so you have time to acclimate

Want to learn more? Read on!
Refine is growing! Over Thanksgiving, our East 71^st studio received a makeover, complete with the third incarnation of our custom Pulley Stations. This month, we welcome a brave group of Pilot clients to a private preview of our new Union Square location, opening later this spring.

Downtown we hope to offer the same Refine—but better. Same great class, same great teachers, but a more full-service experience. Our 2,000 sq ft studio is equipped with a beautiful skylight and even more advanced Pulley Stations. A full dressing room with multiple showers and a spacious lounge area will allow for a leisurely experience both inside and outside the classroom. Finally, Refine Regroup, our small group education program, will help support you in achieving your goals during the hours you are outside Refine.  This continuous evolution is one of our core principles as a business, and we hope that you too enjoy our desire to keep improving.

Unfortunately, with this growth also comes increased costs, and we have had to adjust accordingly. As of January 16^th, our single visit price is increasing to $32.00, and all packages have been likewise re-scaled. However, this pricing change is not going into effect immediately. Until Refine Union Square is officially open in a few months, you are still entitled to our existing prices.  Use the promo code “Preview” at checkout to receive 20% OFF ALL REWARDS PASSES AND CLASS PACKAGES. Both uptown and downtown clients can apply the discount during this period and we will give you ample notice before the new pricing goes into effect so you can stock up. 

We are also making some other pricing changes we think you will enjoy: 

•  We’re replacing the Monthly Visit Pass System with our NEW MONTHLY REWARDS PROGRAM, a new way to pay for fitness. Our goal is always to incentivize you to work out more regularly and we think the Rewards Program does that. You pay $0 upfront, so you never pay for classes that you don’t use. Then, each visit goes down by $1.50, so the more you work out, the less you pay! This is the most cost-effective way to enjoy Refine.  Click here to learn why the Rewards Program is going to save you money.
• For those of you who visit us less frequently, the Class Packages provide an alternate option. Previously, we did not offer any discount on class packages, but now clients purchasing Class Packs will also receive a discount for buying in bulk.
• We have offered periodic sales on our Unlimited Memberships, but we will now be discounting Unlimited Memberships for those who make a 6 month commitment. Anyone who joins as a member or 6 Month Member during our preview period will be able to lock in these lower rates before the price increase. 

Click here for a one pager on the Refine Rewards Program

Click here for a one pager on our new pricing

Refine has been built one dedicated client at a time, a foundation of love and loyalty that I am very proud of.

Thank you so much for your support so far and as we continue to grow!
Brynn

We exercise for a living. It’s easy for fitness studios to under-appreciate the effort it takes for their clients to commit to working out. Lots of fitness businesses don’t respect the time and energy it takes to dedicate yourself to a fitness program. They charge you a flat fee every month, even if you never walk in the door or only financially reward you if you buy Costco-sized class packages.

We want to reward you for your commitment, not just your buying power. Every hour of working out you fit into your schedule is harder than the hour before. We want to help give you some extra will power, by compensating you for making it that last visit. Our hope is that when you see that your next class is a bit cheaper than the one before, it will push you to get out the door and into class. Next thing you know you are working out two, three, four and even five times per week and your results will keep you coming back.

Our answer? Introducing the Refine Monthly Rewards Program. Workout more and pay less! Join our Monthly Rewards program for free and each time you come your price per visit will decrease by $1.50. Then, pay at the end of each monthly cycle for the number of visits you’ve used, enjoying greater savings the more you workout. No cost and no commitment–just watch the savings add up!

Imagine, if you commit to coming to Refine three times per week, your last week is free!

How does it work?

1) “Purchase” the Monthly Rewards Pass for $0.00

2) Start booking classes. Your month begins on the date of your first visit, not the date of purchase.

3) At the end of the month, pay for the classes you have attended, with each visit decreasing in price.

At the end of your monthly billing cycle, the Rewards Pass will auto-renew, but your month will not begin again until your next class. Want to see all the numbers laid out? Click here

We’re excited to announce that Refine is almost ready to open in Union Square! While we put the finishing touches on our construction, we will be holding a pilot program for Refiners who want to start using the new space right away.

If you’re interested in joining the pilot program, please visit our Union Square temporary website and leave us your contact information or email us at info@refinemethod.com. Unfortunately, we can’t accommodate all potential clients at this time, but if you’re not selected to participate, just sit tight and wait for our formal opening in the Spring.

See you downtown!

Brynn

With New Years Eve fast approaching, this seems like a perfect opportunity to begin a three-part (oh, who are we kidding – probably a 10-part!) miniseries on the topic of alcohol and weight loss. If you are planning on losing your mind, your purse, your shoes and your dignity on New Years, that’s your prerogative – and hey, it may be your last chance ever! If you’re going to drink, we aren’t here to stop you. We’re just hoping to provide you with a basic primer on how your body responds to alcohol and give you some strategies for how to approach a festive night on the town.

First of all, alcohol has calories. It seems like an obvious point, but it’s still necessary to make. You will still derive energy from those calories but the problem is that those calories don’t fill you up. Maybe a beer will make you feel bloated, but it will not make you eat less for dinner. In fact, alcohol will probably stimulate your hunger and cause you to eat more than you would normally eat. Because alcohol does not satiate your hunger, those calories from your wine or mixed drink just get dumped on top of your dinner.

Drinking is often associated with eating – the two go hand in hand, like pairing a robust red with a nice steak or a beer and a burger. Or doing body shots and then going home and devouring all the leftover Chinese food you had stashed in the fridge. Alcohol lowers your inhibitions and clouds your judgment, so that you not only give your number to that incredibly sketchy guy at the bar, but also eat a plate of lamb and rice from that street vendor outside the bar. You went out and promised yourself that you wouldn’t give out your number OR get drunk munchies, and yet there you are sitting at home with a bunch of gross text messages, covered in ketchup and French fry grease.

But here’s the worst part: alcohol causes your body to store fat. Liquor produces acetate in your liver, a toxin, which your body has to work overtime to eliminate. That means that other bodily functions, such as fat oxidation, get put on the back burner. Fat oxidation is the process by which your cells release fat – drinking liquor suppresses that function, and so all that dietary fat gets stored instead. So that wine with dinner may just cause your body to hold on to your dinner longer than you would like. If you skip the bread and eat a high-protein dinner, you are doing yourself no favors with that third glass of wine.

Now from reading all this, you may assume that consuming alcohol and maintaining your weight is impossible. Later this week, we’ll explain how you can enjoy a festive night out and still maintain your weight, provided you make some simple tweaks to your drinking habits.

From all of us here at Refine, we wish you a very happy Chrismahanukwanzaakah and send our hopes for a joyous New Year.

Spend time with your loved ones, wear some silly holiday sweaters, and pray for snow. And if you’re looking for a fun holiday exercise, why not try to emulate fabulous Refine instructor and Rockette Sam Harvey as she high kicks at Radio City Music Hall! Check it out – she’s at the end of the left side!

Just kidding – better leave the kicks to the professionals.

If watching Sam on stage inspires you to come in and start working up a sweat, we are open Saturday, December 24 and closed Sunday, Christmas Day. For the rest of the week, we are operating on a slightly tweaked schedule, so make sure to check the website for open classes. We will be here and ready to work on New Years Day, January 1 – so bring yourself AND your hangover!

The holidays can be the hardest time to eat intelligently. The whole family comes together (cue the stress eating) and the food is plentiful (just one more hors d’ouevre!) which makes for a perfect storm of eating and regret.

But you don’t have to spend all Christmas eating until you look like Santa. Just because mom made extra latkes doesn’t mean you have to dreidel, uh, dread the scale the next day. Here are some tips you can use to make sure your New Year’s resolution is: “Lose 10 pounds,” not “Lose 25 pounds; apologize to sister for stabbing her with a fork over the last turkey leg.”

There is a lot of preparation you can do before your holiday partying. First of all, increase your workout schedule this week and sneak in a solid workout a few hours before any big meals. This helps you in several ways: one, a more intense ramp up week will kick start your metabolism in advance of some, um, let’s call it “diet bending.” Intense training can blunt hunger (provided that you don’t reward yourself for your great push-ups with a post-exercise feast) and help you burn fat. Metabolic resistance

training (the fast paced circuit training we do at Refine!) also depletes muscle glycogen (your muscles’ sugar reserves), which means that in the few hours after your workout, any incoming carbs are more likely to get used to refill your glycogen stores, rather than getting stored as fat. Simply put, if you empty your muscle’s gas tank it will look to burn stored fat for fuel and will use any incoming energy to refill its tank, rather than padding your behind.

Second, try eating fruits and vegetables throughout the day before digging in to that huge meal. Not only will that help offset the high calorie content of your dinner, but you will feel full faster when it gets down to show time, and that will help you put the fork down and take a deep breath before grabbing another piece of cake. The lines are always shorter by the crudité plate anyway.

Third, if your particular celebration is a potluck, why not bring along a healthy option you’ll enjoy? You don’t have to spend the evening eating tempeh out of Tupperware in your car, but you can fill the majority of your plate with a choice you can be proud of. Who knows – you might even impress Mom with your newfound cooking talents.

Finally, don’t spend the holiday season on the scale. Don’t weigh yourself in between courses, or whip out your calipers. Meals heavy in carbohydrates and sodium will likely lead to some water retention that will distort your scale weight and come off in a few days anyway. You are unlikely to put on a significant amount of fat with a few big meals. Instead, focus your energy on making better small choices, and savoring the splurges you do chose to make. Holiday eating (just like non-holiday eating!) is not all or nothing; it’s a series of small tweaks.

Above all, be smart and try not to get into an eating contest with your uncle again. He always wins anyway.

Congratulations! You were all participants in our first (unintentional) Refine Holiday Eating Experiment.

The varied responses to the dreaded cookie from avoidance to portion control to savoring the small splurge pointed to one of Refine’s key messages—methods are many, but principles are few. There are different strategies to building a healthy lifestyle and different individuals will find success with different approaches, but the fundamental principles will remain the same (“Calories in vs calories out” is an adage for the ages!).

Tackling a few small dietary strategies will lead to success (and prevent dramatic failure) this holiday season and beyond, whether that strategy be dodging the dessert tray or savoring a few bites of bread pudding.  Just don’t be a Cookie Monster.

Tune in Monday when we will be announcing the winner of our $100 Refine gift card – the ultimate holiday present, in case you haven’t heard.

The holidays are fast approaching, and you were too busy dealing with all those drunken Santas this weekend to go shopping. Now, you’re spending every night on Amazon looking for the perfect gift, but rush delivery is too expensive so you’re going to end up screeching to a halt in front of the 99 Cent store on the way to your parent’s house.

For Dad: a wacky light up tie that was already broken when you bought it. For Mom: previously recalled Tupperware containers. For your brother: an air freshener featuring a football team he hates. For your sister: a bootleg DVD of Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants 2, with special commentary from the guy filming it on his iPhone at the 42nd Street movie theater.

The dog got a pinecone you found on the driveway, but he actually liked that.

Once again, you’ve ruined the holidays. And the perfect holiday gift was in front of your face the whole time!

You love Refine – your family will love Refine too! Stop in or email info@refinemethod.com and get the Refine gift card, the perfect present for anyone looking to get a jump start on their New Year’s resolution.

Dad will get so fit, he won’t be able to play Santa next year at his office Christmas party. You and Mom will be able to share clothes again, which is great since a lot of her stuff is back in style all of the sudden.  Bro and sis will owe you forever – heck, even the dog will be happy that everyone can lift him up again.