As the New Year begins and resolutions are
proclaimed, it's usually time to bring out the fad books, hop on a one-week
juice fast, and fail after two days.
But when it comes to serious weight loss,
many people are swapping their regular holiday for a weight loss vacation.
By cutting off distractions to everyday
life and work, these trips offer individualized fitness and diet plans intended
to last well beyond a week or two.
Today's best weight loss vacations offer
fitness adventure, spa detoxing, or medical programs to help people reach their
weight loss goals through good food, engaged activities and proven medical
advice.
1. The Ranch, Live Oak Malibu, United
States
The Ranch at Live Oak Malibu gives a
one-week full immersion bootcamp in the heart of nature. The 120-acre Ranch is
a fitness retreat set three miles above the Pacific Ocean in the Santa Monica
Mountains.
The program is designed to help
participants gain physical endurance, lose weight, detoxify, and learn how to
keep the weight off once they get back on the grid.
Some 2,000 participants on the program
have lost an average of 8.82 lbs. a week and women lose an average of 5.09 lbs.
a week.
The program focuses on sustainable
exercise such as daily hikes, yoga, and core work with weights. The intense day
is jam-packed from 5.30 a.m. to 7 p.m., with 8-10 hours of exercise in-between,
but there's always time for a daily nap and massage.
Austin Ligon, a former CEO, went to the
Ranch three times this past year, maintaining a loss of 15 pounds of body fat.
"It makes weight loss easy," he says, "because you don't have to
work out your own program and stick to it. You just join the group, do the
week, and see how it comes out."
The menu of organic vegetarian cuisine is
limited to 1,400 calories a day using ingredients picked daily from the Ranch's
own gardens. Example meals include Zucchini Fettuccini with Cauliflower
Bolognese, Sunflower Seed Risotto and Hearts of Palm Crab Cakes
The seven-day Ranch program, which
includes full room and board, daily activities and massages, is held weekly
(Sun-Sat) and costs $6,200; +1 310 457 8700; theranchmalibu.com
2. Lefay Resort & Spa, Lake Garda,
Italy
Set at the top of Lake Garda, Italy's
largest and most scenic lake, Lefay Resort & Spa is an eco resort
covering 3,000 square meters and featuring indoor and outdoor heated salt-water
pools, a 10% indoor salt lake, five types of saunas and a crushed ice fountain.
At the heart of Lefay Spa is Dr. Maurizio
Corradin, a Western-trained, Eastern-practicing doctor. His philosophy is
simple: "You must enjoy life," and he believes any diet that puts
heavy restrictions on a person is bound to fail.
Rather than focus on food restrictions,
they focus on what guests can eat, using only ingredients the guest chooses.
His treatment program follows Chinese
Medicine in order to to restore optimal flows of Qi (energy) in order to set
the body and mind on the right path toward achieving its optimal weight.
Corradin designed a series of Tui Na
massages in order to solve specific problems such as draining excess fluid,
improving sleep or curing sugar cravings. His foot reflexology stimulates
meridians or energetic lines to detox and regulate the body.
Corradin uses aromatic hydrotherapy to
treat stress and tension. He may also prescribe acupuncture, and moxibustion
heat treatments, as well as phytotheraphy, or medicinal teas.
Daily exercise classes are encouraged,
including the Meridian stretches, Tai Qi and Qi-Gong for stress relief, as well
as water gym classes and Pilates to increase energy.
3. Fitness Travel, Senegal
Fitness Travel Company designs itineraries
for guests to explore a new country and get in top physical shape at the same
time.
Upcoming trips include a Senegal adventure
where guests will embark on an action-packed week full of beach runs, an
18-mile cycle to a lion cub game reserve, kayaking to a private beach and
learning African dance to the sound of local drums.
To maximize weight loss, guests will eat a
high-protein/low-carb Paleolithic-inspired diet, starting the day with a fresh
juice and continuing with alkalizing raw fruit and vegetables and fresh
seafood.
The trip fee includes an in-depth personal
training course in the guest's home country, three weeks in advance in order to
prepare for the trip, and one week on return.
Spandana Gopal, a business owner in
London, recently went on the Senegal trip and lost 5.5 lbs. with the pre-month
training, and her husband lost 9 lbs. "The experience was fantastic,"
she says. "I think the fact that I can see a different country and stay
fit at the same time made me love the trip."
A Thailand trip Involves deep jungle
running in Chiang Mai, Muay Thai training, mountain biking through remote
villages and Thai cooking lessons.
A Masai Wild Warrior fitness trip in
Nairobi lets guests train like warriors through tree climbing, game walks,
spear throwing, hill sprints and bush crawling.
And a ladies-only slimming retreat in
Bodrum lets women learn flyboarding, wind surfing and water skiing in Turkey's
most beautiful, blue peninsula.
4. Ti Sana, Lombardy, Italy
Ti Sana is a small 22-suite, family-owned
retreat in Lecco a 50-kilometer drive north of Milan. The resort is a former
18th century home with stone country walls and a state-of-the-art spa.
Upon arrival, guests of the
Healtheatarian, Active Life Program, undergo a series of tests to measure the
body's current level of health and stress. The spa's staff then develops an
individualized exercise and nutrition plan in order to make guests aware of how
to optimize energy.
Ti Sana's weight loss program is somewhat
extreme for diet novices, but guarantees fat loss over muscle and water weight
loss as well as reducing other issues such as poor digestion.
Participants can choose between a juice
cleanse or a raw food diet, consisting of small portions of vegetable-heavy
foods.
Caffeine, flour, sugar and other staples
are not allowed on the program. Ti Sana claims that after one week, cravings
for sugar and processed foods disappear, and energy levels go through the roof.
Daily fitness includes a walk around the
nearby lake as well as several exercise classes, from trampoline rebounding to
muscle hypertrophy.
To counteract the intense programming
guests have access to a beautiful underground spa that combines a wide range of
healing hydrotherapy from saline pools to rainforest and mint showers with a
great selection of hot saunas including infrared and steam rooms.
Guests leave with a personalized diet as
well as the Ti Sana "Manual for an Active Life," which provides a
step-by-step approach to how to maintain the results gained from the detox,
living the Mediterrean diet, advice on natural beauty routines and a guide to
physical activity.
5. Canyon Ranch, Tucson, United States
Walk your way to health.
A former cattle ranch located on 150 acres
in the Sonoran Desert, Tucson's Canyon Ranch is a mainstay in health and
wellness and celebrates its 35th anniversary this year.
"It's a program for people tired of
fad diets who are ready to embrace a lifestyle approach. We moved away from the
bootcamp fat farm approach of weigh loss vacations to more of a lifestyle
management course," says Jim Eastburn, life enhancement director at Canyon
Ranch.
What sets Canyon Ranch apart is its large
medical faculty. It employs over 60 wellness professionals, including
integrative medicine physicians, clinical grade nutritionists, exercise
physiologists, spirituality practitioners and licensed behavioral therapists.
Guests undergo a series of medical
assessments. Their program director then designs an individualized nutrition
and fitness course.
Therapists work with guests to address
lifestyle variables and emotional issues that may be affecting their results,
aiming to teach them how to reprioritize behaviors to put their health first.
There are daily lectures that address
topics like one's relationship with food, brain fitness, healthy eating on the
go and maximizing your metabolism.
Susan Earl, a retired special education
director, says of the experience, "I not only lost 42 pounds, but I reversed
my recent diagnosis of Diabetes as well as lowered all of my previously high
cholesterol and triglyceride numbers into the healthy range. I honestly believe
I could not have done this if I had not participated in their program."
6. Talise Spa, Madinat Jumeriah, Dubai,
U.A.E.
Talise Spa at Madinat Jumeriah has a
reputation for not only being one of the best spas in the world, but for having
the most integrated medical weight loss solution offered in the Middle East.
Guests who arrive at the spa meet with
doctors to determine first why they're carrying excess pounds. An initial
consultation includes a full body scan as well as in-depth blood tests that may
lead to further testing.
If the extra weight comes from a careless
diet and bad eating habits, doctors will do a blood analysis to check
cholesterol levels and triglycerides. If metabolism is low, guests will undergo
a series of food intolerance tests.
Common diagnoses are hormonal imbalances,
metobolical dysfunctions, sugar imbalances, lack of exercise and food cravings
from emotional imbalance.
A typical program may begin with a liver
and intensive detox, and then followed up with a variety of treatments such as
sessions in the infrared sauna, relaxing yoga and tai chi or strength-building
kung fu classes, and a course of homeopathic medications, supplements and
vitamins.
The resort wellness chef designs a meal
plan for the guest's length of stay, which depending on the guest's diagnosis,
may be a low GI diet, a high protein diet or a diuretic diet.
Internal medicine specialist Dr. Elisabeth
Makk at Talise Spa says, "A holistic weight loss program is designed for
those that are ready to make a change, not just to their diet, but also in
their lifestyle. It's about understanding your strengths and limitations, and
concentrating on prevention, focus and renewal."
7. Thermia Palace, Slovakia
The Art Nouveau Thermia Palace in
Piešťany, Slovakia, has for over 100 years welcomed anyone from kings, sheiks
and czars, all wanting to experience the sulfur-rich thermal mineral waters and
healing mud sources on the spa island.
The 20-strong medical staff in Piešťany
focus on wellness and weight loss, aiming to become once again Europe's top
medical spa.
Its one-week slimming spa stay program
includes a doctor consultation and health examinations including metabolic
functioning, nutrition planning, fitness training and a wide assortment of
doctor-prescribed therapies (up to 30 a week), such as hydromassages and
medical massages to increase blood circulation.
Guests can have a sulfur mud bath under
the stained-glass windows to target specific problem areas.
The slimming program focuses not only on
diet and fitness, but also on preventing damage to joints and to the body.
Natural springs have been proven to aid in diseases such as rheumatism, and
also give incredible energy and strength to anyone coming to kickoff a fitness
lifestyle.
"With the pharmaceutical industry,
it's not well-known if the treatments will last, or what kind of long-term
damage is being done," says CEO Klaus Pilz, who says their programs are so
effective that over 50% of repeat guests visit at least once a year. "As a
medical spa, the only side effects of our treatments are sore muscles after a
massage."
The takeaway from this Thai
establishment? Suppleness.
Absolute Sanctuary is a boutique resort
overlooking the Cheong Mon Peninsula.
"Familiarity breeds contempt,"
says Claire Bostock, executive director of Absolute Sanctuary. "Take that
away and things get easier. Plus, in an island such as Koh Samui, known as the
island of healing, just the atmosphere itself makes one motivated to keep to
their goals."
Guests can choose between a seven, 10, or
14-day program, and lose an average of 6.5-22 lbs., according to Bostock. The
most she saw was a CEO of a multinational firm who lost 20 lbs. in 10 days,
down from 375 lbs., by following the resort's diet menu and program activities.
Light meals are chosen with organic
handpicked local produce, cold-pressed oils and whole-food seasonings and
superfoods like flaxseeds, spirulina and coconut oil. A sample menu could be an
apple and guava omega fruit salad for breakfast, cashew brown rice stir-fry for
lunch, and raw Pad Thai for dinner.
Absolute Sanctuary's two-fold fitness
approach offers tailored physical exercises from Pilates to fit ball to
endurance and resistance training. It combines exercise with cleansing mental
therapies such as hypnotherapy and Reiki designed to break down any emotional
barriers to weight loss.
Just across the border in Tecate, Mexico,
at the juncture of the Laguna and Sierra Juarez mountain ranges, is Rancho La
Puerta, a 3,000-acre resort full of gardens, mountains and meadows.
A week at the ranch teaches sustainable
nutritional eating and muscle building. "If guests exercise in moderation
during their stay and eat the servings we provide, they can expect to lost 2-5
lbs. in the week," says Yvonne Nienstadt, director of nutrition at Rancho
La Puerta.
Dubbing their weight-loss diet the
"Mexo-Mediterrenean Diet," the Ranch's menu is largely based on
plants and whole foods, banning all processed food. Calories are reduced
moderately, not radically in order to lose fat and not muscle.
Nienstadt recalls one guest, Suzanne, who
lost 24 pounds over three weeks by eating huge salads, drinking fresh green
juices and cutting out dairy, gluten and sugar.
"People then feel better, and feel
like eating right rather than self medicating with 'comfort foods' and they
feel like getting up off the couch and exercising," says Nienstadt.
"Within four days Suzanne told me her
knees were no longer hurting and she could exercise more freely and by the end
of three weeks, she stated that not only did she feel lighter physically, but
mentally she felt 'high.'"
Rancho La Puerto has over 40 daily
activities, from high intensity interval training, bird walk, cardio drumming,
hula hooping, African dance, Feldenkrais, tennis clinic, and meditation
workshops.