CAPTION: Participants are seen during a June session of Ultimate Boot Camp.

There are those of us – you know who you are – who go into hibernation mode in the winter. We acquire an additional layer of fat through a combination of too much comfort food and too little exercise, and we hide out in bulk sweaters until the spring. Then, there are those of us who are out on Boston Common at 6 a.m. in the middle of February, doing sprints and presses and push ups. These are the participants in Ultimate Bootcamp’s Outdoor Winter Bootcamp, a six-week intensive full-body workout program. A session is beginning Feb. 25, and co-founder Peter Lavelle says it is not a crazy idea to be exercising outside in the middle of a New England winter.
“Our participants are hard core – but they also soon realize they actually don’t have to be,” he says. “Within 10 minutes, you’re all warmed up. You just have to wear the right clothing.”
And, he says, Ultimate Bootcamp participants find they have a good time getting in shape – even when the temperature is barely in the double digits.
“We are the opposite of a military-style exercise bootcamp,” Lavelle says. We try to make it fun for everyone by being encouraging and motivating.”
Lavelle and his business partner, Jill Tomich, founded Ultimate Bootcamp in the summer of 2003 because of their shared passion that fitness can be fun. Both have extensive backgrounds in fitness, and they wanted to branch out beyond the typical gym setting to offer a unique exercise option. Their initial Ultimate Bootcamp location was in Watertown, and Lavelle says about eight people showed up. Since then, six additional locations have been added – including Boston Common in the spring of 2004 – and hundreds of area residents have gone through the Bootcamp.
“The Boston Common location is arguable the most popular,” Lavelle says. “There was a demand for a downtown location, and Boston Common is very accessible. It also has every material you could possibly want – hills, monuments to run up down the steps, and benches for presses.”
A typical workout will include a warm up jog, partner exercises, core work, push ups, lunges and squats. Participants can be seen working their triceps using park benches or sprinting from Charles St. up the hill to the State House. The Boston Common location also has more visibility than any other, and the sessions can sometimes have an audience.
“We have a lot of foot traffic, and we get a lot of reactions. For one, people like us being there, especially at 6 a.m. People feel a little safer,” he said. “And second, people get energized. Whether it’s a cold or a rainy day, people are out there exercising, and onlookers get energized.”
In fact, many of those who sign up do so because they saw a session and got inspired to join. Lavelle says that participants are of all ages and all abilities, but there do tend to be more women then men in the program.
“We don’t gear the program to any one person specifically,” he says. “Everyone can get something out of it.”
And that something is results. According to surveys of past participants, 94 percent say that after completing one session they have more energy and have improved overall tone, and 77 percent say they lost weight. Lavelle says the success comes from the program’s total-body approach.
“We don’t just address any one component of fitness – there are three: cardio, muscle training and nutrition,” he says. “You’re always moving, always sweating. And people actually look forward to the sessions – they do.”

Bootcamp Basics is Feb. 18 – 21 on Boston Common from 6 – 7 a.m.
The six-week Outdoor Winter Bootcamp begins Feb. 25 on Boston Common and is held three times a week from 6 – 7 a.m.
Visit www.ultimatebootcamp.com for more information.

“There is no room for compromise,” Peter Antel, owner of the building and kiosk at 140 Newbury told Back Bay Architectural Commission (BBAC) members as the battle over the removal of the kiosk continued at Wednesday night’s hearing. Antel appeared before the commissioners to ask that the remedial letter that was sent out following last month’s meeting be dismissed.
Antel told the commissioners the history of the kiosk that was built in 1981 before the law banning such appendages in 1987. He then pointed out that he had a letter from the BBAC in 1988 reaffirming the existence of the kiosk to be in front of the building. In 2006, he said that in a letter from BBAC, he interpreted it as saying not to change size of the kiosk. In March of 2007, vandals damaged the kiosk along with several other businesses in the block. Antel then had his construction crew that was doing work in his building remove the kiosk as it posed a public hazard. After several months of being removed, the kiosk was replaced according to Antel in the same proportions and using material more similar to the building that was approved by BBAC in 2006.
“Once removed and taken off the site, it is gone,” Commissioner Alfred Wojciechowski, told Antel. The Commissioners voted to take the matter under advisement. Prepare for the next round.
“We want to take what is there and improve it,” the new owners of 154-156 Newbury Street told the Commissioners. The BBAC voted to approve the work that consisted of cleaning the façade, remove exterior air conditioners, pull back the roof, repave the Newbury Street walkway with pavers and remove the metal doors and replace with wooden doors. The owners also have 160 Newbury and their hope is to make the whole building that includes 158 Newbury Street look more as a homogenous building. All other final details will be approved by administrative staff.
TD Banknorth sign will be brighter as they received unanimous permission to get a light in their sign. The contractor said that only the letters TD will be illuminated and he agreed to remove the sign for the ATM machine. The office is in the block on Boylston Street that houses businesses Wendy’s, CVS and Citizens Bank.
A hush fell over the room in a lighter moment at Wednesday’s hearing when the contractor for 269 Beacon Street asked to replace the existing one over one windows. However, the rest of the building has multi-pane windows. The contractor then added that he could use snap on dividers in the window. After a few seconds of silence the contractor was told that he could either solicit the rest of the building owners to change their windows to one over one or use multi-pane windows that were “true divided”. Obviously, the commissioners were not amused.

Alec Berryman of Defective by Design holds a sign outside the Boston Public Library in Copley Square last Saturday. Defective by Design is a broad-based campaign opposed to Digital Restrictions Management products.

The Back Bay defied statewide trends by going heavily for Barack Obama in the democratic primary, but the actual tallies of what counts—the delegates—is a bit more complicated.
That’s because Massachusetts, like all other states in the Democratic primary process, apportions its delegate based on a combination of the statewide popular vote and the results in the state’s congressional districts.
So what did Obama’s Back Bay triumph mean in terms of his delegate count?
The Back Bay is in Boston’s Ward 5, which is part of the Massachusetts 8th Congressional District (represented by Congressman Michael E. Capuano). Although Obama won Ward 5, along with the entire city of Boston, he needed to win throughout the congressional district, which includes parts of Dorchester, and encompasses Mattapan, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, the South End, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Allston-Brighton, Charlestown, and East Boston, as well as the cities of Cambridge and Somerville, in order to claim a majority of the district’s delegates.
Most congressional districts have 6 delegates, including the Massachusetts 8th. Since no source currently available to the public breaks down the vote by congressional district, the Sun conducted its own unofficial calculation to determine the apportionment of the district’s delegates.
According to the unofficial count, Obama won about 55% of the district vote, to just under 45% for Clinton. These numbers were arrived at by adding the vote totals in Cambridge, Somerville, Chelsea, and those wards of Boston included in the 8th congressional district.
And while this sounds like a solid, delegate garnering victory for Obama in the 8th, the actual rules of apportionment mitigate the value of the numbers to a certain degree. Obama’s percentage of the vote would equal 3.3 delegates, while Hillary’s tally would be 2.7. According to state rules, only the whole numbers are counted, and the sixth delegate is awarded to the candidate who has the greater number to the right of the decimal point (in this case, Hillary’s .7 to Obama’s .3). Thus, both candidates garnered 3 delegates for their performance in the 8th congressional district. A candidate needs to bring home 60% of the vote in a congressional district in order to win a plurality of the district’s delegates (4-2).
If you’re scratching your head, you’re not alone. The democratic apportionment system has been called everything from “antiquated” to “arcane” on news broadcasts and on political blogs.
Only 32 of the state’s delegates are apportioned based on the statewide popular vote. With his 41 percent of the vote, Obama therefore netted an estimated 13 delegates from the statewide popular vote, with 19 for Clinton. In total, Clinton won 55 of the state’s pledged delegates, while Obama took home 38.

Sure signs that it’s February in New England: your nose is constantly a little raw from all the blowing you’ve been doing, it seems as though a dozen people from your office are out sick every day, and your kid has a cough that keeps you up at night. It’s the heart of cold and flu season, and if you’ve been feeling under the weather, you are certainly not alone.
“This does seem to be the peak of cold and flu season,” says MGH Back Bay Dr. Susan Hata, MD. “We’ve been seeing many patients with colds, influenza and upper respiratory illnesses.”
But you don’t have to lock yourself at home until April. Hata says there is basic advice anyone can take to stay healthier this winter, and she advises her patients to take five steps toward avoiding illness.
First, she says you can prevent germs from entering your body by washing your hands frequently with warm water and soap or by using an alcohol-based gel. She also suggests wiping down office surface such as phones and keyboards, as they can be germ factories. And keep those hands away from your mouth and eyes.
“The majority of illnesses we catch in the winter we catch not through the air, but via our hands, which touch our eyes, nose or mouth,” Hata says.
Second, Hata says it is important to help your body build its natural immunity by getting plenty of rest, reducing stress and exercising. Eating healthily helps too.
Next, Hata says if you haven’t already, you should get a flu shot.
“It’s not too late to get a flu shot, and we don’t have a shortage this winter,” she says.
Hata’s next tip goes out to the smokers – quit.
“People who smoke are much more susceptible to upper respiratory infections, and they have a harder time recovering when they do get sick,” she says.
Finally, Hata says, if you do get sick, stay home and don’t pass it on. She says many of her clients have been telling her that everyone at their office is sick, and the office environment is an easy one in which to spread germs.
If you do get sick, though, Hata says you can certainly see your primary care physician. At MGH Back Bay, an internal medicine and pediatric care practice that offers primary care to both adults and children, new patients are being accepted. Hata says about half of her patients live or work in the Back Bay, and others come in from the greater Boston area.
She also suggests a few at-home remedies for getting well sooner, including staying well hydrated and using a saline nasal spray or a home humidifier. Certain cough and cold over-the-counter medications will give adults some symptomatic relief as well, she says, although the FDA does not recommend these medications for use with children under the age of six.
And although the skies may still be dark with snow and the weather remains chilly, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
“In March and April, we should see a slow decline in cold and influenza cases as the weather warms and people get outside again,” Hata says. “Hope is in sight, definitely.”