four questions
Allison Kaplan chats with Platinum.
She's in your face and proud! After 25 years of
teaching fitness and doing one-on-one personal
training, ALLISON KAPLAN, 50, of Bloomfield
Hills, has found a new way to inspire women.
She founded the Web magazine AskInYourFace.
corn (ASK stands for Allison Stuart Kaplan), an
online hub for information and discussion about
women's health, fitness, diet and a variety of
other issues. "My goal is to inspire women by
providing solid information in a direct way,"
WHAT BOOK, CD OR OTHER
MEDIA DO YOU LONG TO
SHARE?
WHAT IMPORTANT LIFE
LESSONS HAVE YOU
RECENTLY LEARNED?
Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim
Barnouin. I love the delivery and tone of
this book. It's an in-your-face conversation
about getting it right for once in your life.
This approach is a kick-in-the-butt attempt
to motivate someone to make a significant
change.
The most important lesson I've learned in the
last 10 years is that when I'm having a bad
day, running out and purchasing a $2,000
Chanel bag is not the answer. I've learned to
let go of the struggle and free myself from
a place of pushing and forcing and wanting
and needing. I've learned to focus on find-
ing emotional freedom and liberation. (That
doesn't mean I wouldn't appreciate a beautiful
bag!) Ultimately, we have to do soul-searching
to find something sustaining and meaningful
and stop attempting to put a material band-
aid on emotional struggles.
Kaplan says. "If you sugar-coat something,
people receive it lightly." Kaplan has a group
of women (and a few men) who are contrib-
uting writers; many are local professionals.
A former health-club director at the JCC in
West Bloomfield, Kaplan currently teaches at
Powerhouse Gym and has various fitness, yoga
and personal training certifications. She's spent
the last year putting AsklnYourFace.com together and says it already has a growing national
readership. "I am deeply passionate about inspiring, supporting and empowering all women to be
fit for their future," says Kaplan. Allison is married to Steve Kaplan, an industrial waste and scrap
metal dealer; they have four grown children, all in their 20s. The couple also are animal lovers,
with five pampered pets. Here, we ask Allison Kaplan our version of the Four Questions.
— Robin Schwartz
IF YOU COULD HAVE BRUNCH
WITH ONE BIBLICAL OR
HISTORICAL JEWISH FIGURE,
WHO WOULD IT BE?
Dr. Viktor E. Frankl. Among his many accom-
plishments, Dr. Frankl wrote Man's Search for
Meaning. He survived the Nazi concentration
camps, and what was most amazing about
him was his ability to find the positive in
everything. He believed that while we can-
not avoid suffering, we can choose how we
respond to it and find meaning in difficult
times.
WHAT WOULD PEOPLE BE
SURPRISED TO KNOW ABOUT
YOU?
Every serious romantic relationship I've ever
had, beginning at the age of 16, was with a
man named Steve — five to be exact. And I'm
still married to a man named Steve. __.]
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