Things to Do in Niles

Before becoming a health coach, Jessica Marie was in the same boat as most office workers—plagued by exhaustion, persistent aches, and a poor diet. After studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and transitioning to holistic living, she and athletic husband Joe founded CHEW, short for Complete Health Education and Wellness. The duo transforms lifestyles without asking clients to count calories or burn their stock of Twinkies in a backyard bonfire. Instead, they expound moderation and balance of two food groups: primary—the actual food you consume—and secondary—other forms of nourishment, including relationships, spirituality, career, and physical activity.

Using this unique approach, Jessica Marie designs three-month programs that begin with reworking diets to achieve individual goals. Her plans often incorporate in-home coaching, healthy-food walking tours, or extra services, such as one-on-one grocery shopping and revamping favorite entree and Play-Doh recipes with nutritious ingredients. She transitions health from home to workplace with workshops that teach coworkers how to eat for energy or craft nutritious appetizers.

Behind Underwater Safaris' unassuming storefront lies an ocean. Light shines down on the water's choppy surface, and a pod of dolphins leap out of the water. But, like a tank of helium you forgot to bolt to the floor, they never come back down. The dolphin mural is painted, but the water is quite real: it's part of a PADI five-star facility where students prepare to explore waters across the world.

The journey to coral reefs and shipwrecks begins with the guidance of a team including owner and PADI Master Instructor Marianne Preker. Preker has logged more than 3,000 dives throughout her career, and she served as dive master for nine years aboard a Shedd Aquarium research vessel in the Bahamas. After introductory Discover Scuba sessions, she and her team branch off into more specialized areas, such as diving at night, exploring underwater wrecks, or scuba diving as a career.

Of course, divers must eventually leave the heated pool. Instructors take them to nearby bodies of water such as Lake Michigan and Haigh Quarry, a PADI dive site in Kankakee. Underwater Safaris also hosts annual trips to scuba destinations around the world. Guided and independent adventurers alike are welcome to stock up on gear from brands such as Aeris and Aqualung in the dive shop.

The team at Cheetah Gym knows that getting in shape is hard work, but they try to add a playful spin to the task. In the WERQ class, for example, they play with the spelling of work itself—as well as with conventional cardio exercise, choreographing easy-to-follow dance routines to the latest pop songs or old-school hits.

In addition to dance fitness, the gyms each offer more than 130 group classes per week, ranging from Pilates and yoga sessions to cycling and boxing lessons. Outside the group fitness studios, visitors build cardio strength and muscle tone on equipment from Strive, Hammer Strength, and PreCor, rather than by trying to lift an entire bank of lockers in the changing room.

A nonprofit educational organization, The Peace School promotes tranquility of mind, body, and spirit through yoga, tae kwon do, and meditation courses that welcome students of all ages. Originally established in 1972 by Grand Master Myungsu Y.S. Kim, the school has been recognized by the United Nations, developed senior and nursing-home programs, and helped establish Peace Day, an annual Chicago celebration of peace and cultural institutions.

At the school, a coalition of experienced instructors—all of whom have trained for at least 10 years—leads students in three levels of yoga, traditional tae kwon do, and other exercises. Group practice, discussion, and lectures divulge the fundamentals of peace breathing meditation, while a hands-on self-defense for women class opens up discussion of attitude, confidence, and safety issues. Massage classes emphasize acupressure technique and deep breathing, while courses in infant massage can help babies sleep better.

Reverberating with the ring of baseballs on wire cages and the tunes of dueling pianos, Sluggers World Class Sports Bar serves its clientele with drinks, classic pub eats, and sporting good times. More than 30 televisions beam the latest athletic happenings, including six 10-foot big screens and several tubes that, like blood viewed under a microscope, are high-definition plasma. Bar denizens drink down glasses of domestic, import, and microbrews while picking at finger foods ordered from the menu, such as wings, deep-dish pizzas, sandwiches, and burgers. Seven pool tables clatter with the impact of broken racks; the arcade jangles with tokens feeding the hungry slots of skee-ball, air hockey, and video games; and batting cages resound with the peal of aluminum bat on mechanical fastball. On Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, piano-wielding pairs face off on the second floor, taking requests from the crowd while brave spectators wage dance battles on behalf of their favorite ivory tickler.

Nature Yoga inhabits a brightly lit space with warm, sun-soaked expanses of hardwood floors, high ceilings, and a schedule of classes designed to attune the mind and body. Patrons study under a cadre of skilled instructors who have trained all across the country. The studio's catalog of yoga styles launches smooth, sweeping motions in a variety of modalities, including Vinyasa and Hatha, and introductory sessions ease in inflexible rookies and freshly thawed time travelers. Students filtering out of a teacher-training program chatter about opportunities as instructors as they stroll past events with live DJs and guest speakers.