FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM SEPTEMBER 13, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 23
LIC wellness coach pens book to help you live your best life
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com/ @jenna_bagcal
Before Long Island City resident
Michelle Cady was a health and self-care
guru, she worked in the fast-paced world
of fi nance.
Th e author of “Self-Care in the City”
and founder of FitVista knew what it was
like to be a high-achieving city dweller
and has made it her mission to help people
Photos by Daryl Getman Photography
Astoria senator’s bill require more stringent lead tests in water systems
BY EMMA MILLER
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
A Queens state senator has proposed
legislation that would require all schools
and parks in the Empire State to test their
water for lead every three years.
Th e current law, passed in 2016,
required schools to test their water every
fi ve years. Th ere was no previous requirement
for public parks.
Th e new bill proposed by state Senator
Michael Gianaris would mandate that
schools and parks check all sinks and
water fountains for lead and report their
results to the state. If lead was found, the
school would have 90 days to fi x the problem.
Th e new bill also would mandate that
results should be made available to the
public online.
“Too many children are exposed to lead
and other harmful substances at public
places where they should be safe,” Gianaris
said. “Th is proposal would reduce the risk
of exposure and ensure our schools and
parks are not doing damage to our kids.”
In 2017, Th e New York Times reported
that 83 percent of New York City schools
had at least one sink or water fountain
with lead contamination.
Two Queens schools had the highest
levels of lead, according to the Times
report. P.S. 95 in Jamaica had 34 contaminated
outlets, while P.S. 208 in Bellerose
had 36.
Th e city’s Department of Education said
that every contaminated outlet has been
turned off until it was replaced and retested
to meet the Environmental Protection
Agency’s standards. Th ere have been no
cases of lead poisoning caused by school
drinking water.
take control of all aspects of their well
being.
Cady released her inaugural book earlier
this year to teach people how to take
care of themselves while living in an
urban environment like New York City.
She drew from her personal experience of
living in the city for work, in addition to
the stress-related symptoms, like adrenal
fatigue, infertility issues and trouble taking
deep breaths, that she suff ered from
as a result of her environment.
“Th e noise in New York City and the
stress, it’s so diff erent than our natural
environment like mountains and hills.
Th at’s what I really enjoyed thinking
about, doing the research and reminding
people that it’s not easy to live here,”
Cady said.
She added that she wanted to make
readers aware that there were parts of living
in a city that could be impacting their
lives without them realizing it.
But her career focus was not always on
health and wellness. From 2008 to 2014,
she was at the top of her career as the
associate vice president of a Manhattanbased
investment fi rm. She had made it a
personal goal for herself to live a well-balanced
life fi lled with career success, a
healthy body and a thriving social life.
As time went on, she found that she was
starting to get over stressed and burned
out from trying to achieve this balance.
Aft er climbing the ranks at her company,
the former fi nance exec came to the
realization that her job was getting harder
with each passing year.
“I had recently been promoted and I
thought that with each promotion things
would get easier,” Cady said. “I had associates
working for me, I had someone else
crunching the numbers on Excel so I was
more client-facing and I was getting to go
on business trips all the time. I was about
to turn 28 years old and realized that I
couldn’t imagine the next 20 years of my
life like this.”
In 2014 she left fi nance to pursue her
true passion in nutrition and fi tness.
During her free time at work, Cady said
she would pore over health and fi tness
books and articles, soaking up all the
information that she read. She attended
the Institute for Integrative Nutrition
in 2014 and became a health and wellness
coach at her own company, FitVista
in 2015.
Since then, she has taken on clients who
are living the similar high-stress lifestyle
she once lived. Her approach as a coach
involves making individualized nutrition,
fi tness and lifestyle changes that work for
each person instead of giving her clients a
cookie-cutter approach that may not necessarily
work for them in the long run.
Much of what she does as a health
and wellness coach at FitVista overlaps
with what she writes about in her book
and shares that she uses “Self-Care” as a
teaching tool for clients when they start
working with her. Cady provides 100
tips for how those who live in the city
can “optimize their nutrition, fi tness and
wellness.”
Her tips cover a range of topics including
“BYO Veggies” that gives readers
insight about bringing their own vegetables
to snack on when they go out, “How
to Survive the Subway” and “Solo Walk
and Th inks” that teach readers about the
benefi ts related to diff erent styles of walking.
She said that though her book is about
surviving and thriving in a city, many of
her readers are people who do not live in
New York or similar big cities.
“While the story is set in New York
City, so many of the tools and tips are
mental shift s that can work wherever you
live. I have people in Texas read it, in
Ohio, in Europe,” Cady said.
In addition to her coaching business,
Cady also does corporate talks and book
clubs. Her fi rst book tour is also coming
up this month and kicks off on Sept.
18 at Athleta Upper West Side. For more
information on “Self-Care in the City”
and FitVista, visit www.fi tvista.com or @
michellefi tvista on Instagram.
File Photo
Michelle Cady, author of “Self-Care in the City.”
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