Irvine Health and Fitness

Dim red lights cast a glow over the women’s only pole-dancing studios at Unveiled Fitness. Periodically, the shadows of pirouetting bodies flicker against the wooden floor and reflections streak along the metal of 16-foot stationary and spinning poles. Within this environment, owner Kristin Mason and her team of instructors lead their students through pole-dancing classes. Combining the battle-tested fitness techniques of strength training, yoga, pilates, dance, cardio, and pickle-jar-opening, Kristin and her team aim to make every woman they work with feel confident in her body. The supportive staff also offers personal training, private parties, and foam-roller classes, which use a cylindrical piece of foam to boost flexibility and reduce muscle soreness.

For more than four decades, Soboba Medical Group's physicians have funneled their expertise into weight loss and nutrition, led by board-certified internist Dr. Allen Jay. Their custom treatment plans, based on each client’s history and weight-loss goals, incorporate medications such as nutritional supplements and lipotropics. Each plan facilitates initial weight loss, but also aids with long-term physical maintenance, preventing damaging yo-yo dieting.

To complement the weight-loss programs, the center offers supplementary treatments. Body wraps with vitamin B12, for example, are designed to relax and re-energize clients.

As a certified clinical nutritionist and AFAA-certified personal trainer with 30 years of experience beneath her belt, Nannette Aviles has seen it all. She struggled with yo-yo dieting and an eating disorder that brought her to the brink of despair on one Christmas Eve—but she reached out for help and eventually learned to truly take care of herself with a balanced diet and exercise. At her fitness and nutrition facility, she now helps other women do the same.

Rather than focusing on only one aspect of fitness, Nannette merges hands-on boot-camp training with diet planning aimed at helping ladies shed fat and sculpt muscle. The plan empowers clients to avoid eating for comfort and to instead opt for nutrient-rich foods that boost energy and metabolism levels. Her over-the-phone food-coaching service further encourages women to embrace food and their bodies in safe, healthy ways, eschewing trendy diet and exercise fads such as edible shake weights.

Doctor of Chiropractic Phil Straw and the technicians at Optimal Health Medical Center help clients contour their physiques with the noninvasive beams of low-level lasers that degrade the fat cells in problem areas, causing them to lose their bulky contents. Accompanied by healthy diets and exercise, their treatments have been known to deflate spare tires, love handles, and permanently attached water wings.

For Dr. Lida Kashani—a UC Irvine and Boston University dental-school grad—and her team of dental experts, taking care of teeth isn't a chore, it's an art. That's why they embrace the latter part of their name, Laguna Hills Dental Arts. Dr. Kashani casts aside old-fashioned tools such as drills and penny-farthings in favor of the latest in dental technology. On top of general preventative care, Laguna Hills Dental Arts specializes in cosmetic dentistry.

Dr. Luis J. Riberos views dentistry as an art. His inspiration is the patients who come to the office looking to improve the appearance of their smiles, with only a vague description and a fading tattoo of their younger selves to show what they want done. Dr. Riberos then applies his artistic vision and culls from modern dentistry’s available tools, such as implants, veneers, and metal-free fillings, to craft a smile that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. He and Dr. Eric S. Wilson bring more than 30 years of combined dental experience to their practice, which covers the full range of general-dental, cosmetic, and endodontic services.