New fitness center features hottest treatments

We need to take care of ourselves, according to Laurie Kennedy; otherwise, stress will create illness and discord in our bodies.
Her new business, Anew Image Body and Fitness Center, near the Sonoma Market on West Napa Street, offers infrared body wraps that help people lose inches and weight, eliminate environmental toxins, and reduce stress and pain. Because it penetrates deeply, she said, infrared heat accelerates and enhances the integrated program she recommends, which includes diet and exercise. Formostar, in Port Hueneme, Calif., makes the infrared system (www.formostardirect.com).
A personal trainer who’s lived in Sonoma for 21 years, Kennedy swam, played tennis and competed in endurance horseback riding during high school. In the 1980s, she was a competitive weightlifter in the Bay Area, works out regularly at the Fitness Factory here and also skis and snowboards.
The heat produced by her system is similar to a sauna’s, but targeted, because Kennedy places six silicone wrap pads on the parts of the body being treated. To reduce inches, for example, she puts two pads on the thighs, two around the abdomen and two around the upper arms over the course of 10 50-minute sessions – two a week for two weeks, then one a week for six weeks. The cost ranges from $45 to $65 a session, depending on frequency, and Kennedy will negotiate payment plans. She invites skeptics to try her system. “It’s not a gimmick,” she said.
Right now, 70 percent of her clients are women, though she’s aiming for an equal mix of men and women. Talking about her current satisfied clients, who listen to music, read or sleep during treatments, she said, “They chill even though they get hot.”
Anew Image Body and Fitness Center
500 W. Napa St., Suite 526B
Sonoma,  707.933.8393
e-mail: snobrdrmomik@sbcglobal.net