When we think of wellbeing holidays, there are a few different types of adventure that spring to mind. Yoga retreats across Asia, or vows of silence in Buddhist temples aim to teach mindfulness and calm, reconnecting you with the innermost core of your being. Time spent in fancy agroturismos in Ibiza with lush spas promise to give you space from your desk job for long enough to stretch your back out. But how many of these present the opportunity to overhaul your entire approach to your body, from a scientific perspective? We'd argue, very few.
The Overall Goal
The Wellness Clinic, developed by BodyHoliday, aims to do just that. Tailoring personal programmes that tackle stress, fitness, weight management, ageing and digestive health, the holistic approach, run by Dr Maha a resident holistic wellbeing doctor, proposes to use a personalised, scientific approach to ensure that the benefits endure long after you've touched down on home soil again at the end of your trip.
The Nuts And Bolts
The experience takes place in the North-West of the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia (oh, poor you), in BodyHoliday's destination spa, which has been running for over 30 years and is renowned for its approach to health, fitness and overall wellbeing.
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The technical aspects to the approach are complex and you have to make a start on them before you even get close to heading to the airport. Pre-departure, there's a certain degree of testing that goes on, to make sure your programme follows a carefully tailored approach. Six weeks before setting off, travellers receive a home testing kit (variously including blood sampling, urine and stool tests) as well as a detailed questionnaire aiming to really get to grips with the nuts and bolts of your health, identifying any particular areas of concern.
Upon arrival there are, yes you guessed it, a few more tests. Because you can't expect a scientific approach to be based on anything but hard data, right? The programme directors aim to create a complete picture of your individual physiology and biochemistry to recognise imbalances, including nutrient, hormone and stress levels, heart health and circulation.
Once all the information gathering is done and the results have been analysed, you're delivered your programme, with objectives for reaching your goals and addressing your problem areas. This might include a variety of different things. For example, if you're interested in improving your fitness, the tests will help to identify any nutritional or functional deficiencies, or how your body is genetically predisposed to respond to certain exercise regimes. You'll be offered the chance to put these findings to the test through different workout options, even looking at how your body recovers and repairs after training.
If, on the other hand, you're most interested in detoxing, the lab will help you discover what toxins you're currently carrying around and will pop you on a bespoke nutrition plan to help these leech these out of your body.
And lastly - here's how this kind of approach really differs to so many others on the market - three weeks after you get home, you're offered a follow-up call with Dr Maha, to help keep you on the right path and make sure that everything you've learned can continue to be applied during your life back at home and at work.
My Own Experience
For myself, I figured this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a complete physical MOT and vowed to try and improve my fitness and stress levels and to detoxify. I wasn't so much concerned with weight management or the ageing process at this stage of my life.
Arriving in St. Lucia, we took a helicopter (yes, really), flown by a brilliant female pilot, to the resort, where we were met with a healthy non-alcoholic (of course) welcome drink. Touching down at sunset, the sea view complete with orange sky was really something magical. It set the tone for the rest of the week.
Morning yoga was followed by the day one testing with Dr Maha, which preceded a hot bag massage, which involves being lightly tapped with a hot, oily herbal bag. It smelled divine and helped my body ease into the rest of the programme.
The rest of the week involved personal training sessions with my assigned, and very adept, trainer Felix - a man who could tell what I needed to work on just by looking at me. Stretch and yoga classes daily. A trail walk to the top of a peak that heralded a beautiful table set with the preparations of a five course meal, and incredible views over the Caribbean sea.
Also, a personalised menu plan that included such delights as pigeon peas, tomatoes, curry leaves, a fruit called soursop (which was actually sweet-tasting), palm nits, bento boxes, seared tuna, lemongrass and Chinese cabbage.
It felt like an intense, but well-rounded experience, tackling my overall wellbeing from the inside out.
On the last day, we received more test results and I learned that I need to do more breath work, plus generally breathe much more deeply when I am exercising, to make sure that sufficient oxygen is pumped through to my muscles. I don't think I would ever have figured this out for myself.
Will I Keep It Up?
Well, yes, certainly some of it. There are things that I learned while there, not just about myself, but also about St. Lucian culture and agriculture, that I found fascinating enough to be confident that they'll hang around in my brain.
And when it comes to my body, the same goes. I'm definitely going to continue to do the yoga, as I loved it and how it made me feel.
Overall, the trip was an extremely lovely experience, full of attentive staff that clearly take their disciplines very seriously. My best advice is to go with a goal in mind, to ensure that you end up on the right programme and that you'll be getting the sort of results that will benefit you longer term.
Rates at BodyHoliday start from $388 per person per night on an all-inclusive basis, including various fitness activities, a daily spa treatment, all meals, drinks, personal instruction and tuition available for all sports, and nightly entertainment. A supplement of $2,600 per person is charged for a 3-day Wellness Clinic programme and from $5,000 per person for a 3-day Wellness Clinic Plus programme. For more information click here.
