Tag Archive for: retreat

Five Easy Nutrition Tips

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It’s amazing when you begin to research something as seemingly simple as eating. I mean, we all do it and we have done since the beginning of time so how hard can it be, right? The more I started unravelling the layers of this topic for a Mountain Trek blog post, though, the more I realized this is a really really big onion. (Sorry. Food similies…bad.)

So I decided to try and break down the topic into five core things that people (and most especially North Americans) can easily remember and digest. The first is crucial: “Drink Your Food; Eat Your Water.” In other words, take time to chew and swallow. Mash up that steak – that’s what you were given molars for. Swish that cool water around in your mouth before you guzzle – get those saliva glands helping with the entire digestion process. One easy trick to help you remember to eat slower is to put your utensil down between mouthfuls.

Here are all Five Easy Nutrition Tips and of them, #5 really struck a chord for me. My fiancé is celiac (she was diagnosed when she was four) and so there’s very little gluten to be found in our household. But there were tons of dairy products and once I started examining my relationship to it all, I realized my phlegmy head every morning may be caused by it. Sure enough, I cut back on my milk intake and voila, no more need for a daily neti pot session. Have a read about the “Sour 8″ and see what small things you can incorporate into your daily routine that many have massive consequences for your overall well-being.

7 Crucial Healthy Eating Tips

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I just finished a post for Mountain Trek about seven key things one should remember about food in order to maximize vitality. So many sources deal with what to eat but in this case I decided to look at WHEN to eat, which isn’t something you hear a lot of nutrition experts discussing. Having just completed the week-long program at Mountain Trek’s BC Lodge I was struck by how amazing the daily lectures were, especially the ones that detailed the key times our bodies are looking for nourishment and what they’ll do do when they get it.

For example, most of us in North America have a daily schedule that looks something like this: Wake up groggy ➨ Coffee ➨ Commute to office ➨ Coffee ➨ Quick lunch at desk ➨ Chocolate/Coffee to spike low energy ➨ Commute home ➨ Huge dinner ➨ Watch TV ➨ Sleep ➨ Wake up groggy

The issue with this model is that the coffee suppresses our appetite and so we don’t eat causing our bodies go into starvation mode and store calories as fat. We then eat a huge meal before bedtime and our bodies become further stressed and can’t work off the excess calories. (Because we’re just sitting there in front of the TV.)

So here are 7 Healthy Eating Tips that deal with everything from when to eat breakfast to how many snacks you should consume a day. (It’s a lot more than you might think.) Also included in this blog is the most popular salad dressing recipe at Mountain Trek, the Afterglow Almond Butter Dressing.

How To Keep Healthy and Active as the Cold Weather Approaches

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I just finished a post for Mountain Trek about how to stay active and healthy now that the days are getting shorter and the temperature is dropping. The first tip in the blog definitely struck a chord with me because I gave up coffee for this month. I’m not a huge coffee drinker (I might have two double espressos in the morning) but I don’t drink it in the afternoons nor do I drink caffeine-rich drip coffee.

In fact, it’s a common misconception that espresso has more caffeine in it but one 2 oz double espresso shot has about 80 milligrams of caffeine, whereas a 12 oz brewed coffee has about 120 milligrams.

However, the caffeine headache I had after giving up coffee on October 1st lasted 3 days! Three days! It definitely makes me re-evaluate my morning cuppa ritual. (But it’s so damn yummy though!) Thankfully the headaches are over and I’m swilling a caffeine-free barley malt drink every morning. Whether this will continue on Nov 1st remains to be seen.

Avoiding more hot caffeinated beverages like coffee in the cooler months is just one tip for health as we head into the winter. Here are nine more listed in the Mountain Trek blog. Oh, and there’s a delicious Pumpkin Beef Chili recipe in there as well!

Press Releases – Swing ‘em Like a Hammer

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I have to say it’s a pretty good feeling when a client gets splashed all over Canada’s largest newspaper, The Globe and Mail. Mountain Trek was featured on the cover of the Globe’s travel section this month and the story resulted in a half dozen direct bookings (worth over $25,000) that they know about and incalculable interest for future visits.

 

This is how it all came together. Two years ago I was doing public relations for Mountain Trek, a wellness retreat and fitness lodge in south-central British Columbia, and we came up with a campaign that featured the phrase “Hike Your But Off” and the “but” was usually, “But I’ve never been hiking” or “But I can’t take time away from my family.”

The press releases (and overall campaign) garnered good reception and one of the key reasons it did so is because of a mantra I’ve shared with my clients again and again: “A press release is just a hammer; you gotta swing it!” So many times I hear from people who have used other public relations professionals and then complained that they didn’t get more coverage from a press release. The reasons are typically two-fold:

  1. the media personnel  weren’t targeted directly in a way that would interest them and/or
  2. the press release didn’t have enough reach/stamina

A press release is just a tool and you never know how far it’ll reach. For example, I just received an email from a writer who had received the release mentioned above two years ago and wanted to do a piece on the client now. The one thing you cancontrol is how interesting the media professional finds your release and subject matter. Having been involved in the media as a writer, editor and publisher for the past 20 years, I can confidently say I know what grabs a journalist’s interest.

Touch base with me anytime and together we can work out a strategy for  your next campaign and release.