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FITNESS

Group Fitness tutorial Meet your Personal Trainer Victoria Young

Monday, July 13, 9:45 a.m., • Cooper Institute—Biomechanics
Cowan Creek of Resistance Training

In the Group Fitness • American College of Sports Medicine—
Tutorial, Sun City Health fitness Specialist
Texas Group Fitness
Coordinator Whitney • American Council on
Alexander will answer Exercise Certified Personal Trainer
your questions about
group fitness classes. • Certified Spinning Instructor
If you want more • Licensed Massage Therapist
information about the classes offered, • Aerobics and Fitness Specialist Association of
which class is right for you and how to
get started, come join us! America—Group Exercise Instructor
• Stretch to Win Institute—Flexibility Therapist
• Arthritis Foundation—Land Exercise Instructor

For an appointment with Victoria, call 512-635-2878

Athlete of the Month By Lynda Dufour

Sun City personal trainer Victoria Young Barbara Lifshen • Personal Trainer: Victoria Young
sets out to help every client gain strength
and confidence. Meanwhile, she also sets tinuous snacking at night. The biggest and she kept telling me how well I was
a good example. change for me was cutting out sugar. doing and how good I looked,” says Bar-
bara, who is always pleased with the new
Just ask Barbara Lifshen, 76, who trains “One needs to be ready for change, and my routines Victoria finds to keep exercise
with Victoria three times each week at clothes said I was,” she concedes. from becoming drudgery.
the Cowan Creek Fitness Center. Two
years ago, this former high school cheer- Barbara’s fierce dedication to her im- “After about nine months, other people
leader, tennis player and swimmer, who proved diet, coupled with her personal started noticing my weight loss and I was
was born and reared in the Bronx of training regimen, was the catalyst for an even more motivated to continue exercis-
New York City, decided it was time to impressive loss of 32 pounds. “Victoria ing,” she adds. “I actually get upset now if
“get fit.” Life was good, after all, and she was extremely motivating. She proved I have to miss a training session.”
had plenty of reasons to stay healthy. to me that I could get muscle tone back,
She was newly married to retired Air
Force Colonel Ralph Elikan, whom she
met after moving to Sun City Texas in
2009, and together they enjoyed an ac-
tive life filled with travel, the symphony,
theatre, opera, a love for fine wines and
good friends.

“Victoria got me on track,” says Barbara,
who immediately noticed that personal
training improved her energy level, stam-
ina, balance and flexibility. She developed
a more positive state of mind, she adds,
and actually felt “younger.”

But she also noticed something else.

“I asked Victoria how she stayed so slim,
and she revealed some of her eating habits
to me,” says Barbara, a retired registered
nurse. “I changed the way I ate and what
I ate,” she adds, noting that she began to
follow Victoria’s lead. “I’m careful now
about ingredients. No more diet drinks,
no more processed foods and no more con-

28 | SUNRAYS JULY 2015 ONLINE: SCTEXAS.ORG