Healthy U: Upcoming seminar helps you get back on track

By March, your New Year's resolution to lose weight and get healthier may have flown out the window, but an upcoming workshop, complete with a celebrity stylist, will get you back on track.

On March 24 at Avalon Manor, Creative Solutionz and the Times Media Co. will offer Healthy U, a seminar where participants will attend a variety of 45-minute workshops in health, wellness, fitness, nutrition, environment and style.

Nick Verreos, a celebrity stylist and contestant on Season 2 of Project Runway, will give the workshop "Me, My Shape, and I" and will headline the event. All event attendees will be able to take part in Verreos' workshop.

"I get intimidated when I hear some curator of the chichi museum of fashion discuss it as if it were a nuclear bomb or something," he says. "A lot of people feel, 'Fashion-smashion. I can't look like Angelina Jolie.' For me, I kind of demystify that and make it friendly. Fashion is your friend."

Being healthy can be your friend, too, says Lourdes Castellanos, who runs Creative Solutionz with her brother and business partner Eddie Castellanos.

"We want Healthy U to encourage the community to consider various options for living healthy. Overall mind and body health is more than just diet and exercise; it's a way of life and education is key. We can begin to make educated decisions when we know and understand what our options are in terms of living healthy. If each attendee walks away from Healthy U having learned something that will incorporate into their life, then we've achieved our goal," Castellanos says.

Verreos won't be the only reality TV star at the event. Marci Crozier, a contestant on Season 11 of The Biggest Loser, will be the event's Welcome Speaker, Castellanos says.

Workshops will span a variety of healthy activities. For example, Mary Haire, a licensed esthetician at Vanis Salon & Day Spa, will lead a workshop on healthy skin rituals. Citizens Financial Bank will lead seminars on financial wellness, including the basics of credit management and how to prevent identity theft. Ryan Richardson, the owner and manager of County Line Orchard, will teach attendees about the health and economic benefits of a community garden. And McShane's Business Products and Solutions will discuss the reasons for eating local and the benefits buying local food provides the community.

"We're extremely pleased to have local businesses participate in Healthy U this year. As local businesses become involved in Healthy U, it truly becomes a community effort," Castellanos says. "Healthy U will most certainly be an annual event. We know that it will grow as more members of the community and local businesses learn and hear about it."