Aprivé Wellness Blog
Wellness Retreat Special Offer - 1 Week to Go
The early bird gets the worm: In this case the worm is a special rate on our exciting Jan 16th Wellness Retreat in Queenstown, New Zealand!
YOUR DAY INCLUDES
YOGA PILATES FUSION CLASS
NUTRITION WORKSHOP WITH MICHELLE OF QT NUTRITION
HEALTHY LUNCH
MEDITATION & MOTIVATIONAL GOAL SETTING SESSION
LUXURY RELAXATION AT NUGGET POINT SPA
The holidays can be stressful, so recharge your batteries with this fun, inspiring day. You’ll leave with evidence-based, motivational strategies to help you live a happier, healthier life in 2016!
The early bird price of $120 will expire on December 16th - so get in now to pay this special rate.
Accidentally Anxious Part 1
My article for US activewear and wellness hub Live the Process is live!
Below is the first part of this important article, enjoy!
-Caitlin xo
Although we may not always realize it, many of us are stuck in a cycle of perpetual anxiety.
Between being swamped at work, juggling relationships and trying to maintain our health and well-being, our anxiety rates are increasing—affecting as much as 10 percent of the population in Western countries.
How can we combat this problem?
Our Busy Lifestyles
Everyone is busy. Whether you’re a single, working man juggling dating, friends, the gym and work or a working mum, busy with that set of a million responsibilities, no one has time. Or do we?
Health and wellness thought leaders are pointing to “perceived urgency” as the culprit of anxiety caused by busyness.
Creating endless “to-do” lists, making unrealistic commitments to relationships and friends and trying to cram in too many yoga classes or appointments leaves you feeling overwhelmed and unsuccessful because you can’t live up to your own expectations. Add to that the unrealistic demands of bosses and clients based on the trend of “next day delivery” and we’re all left gasping for air. If everything is urgent, nothing can ever be prioritized, and the list is never finished.
Try This: Instead of an endless to-do list, prioritize only three urgent tasks and leave the rest for another day. You’re likely to actually manage that amount of responsibility, which helps relieve the mental stress of a streaming to-do list.
Don't wait for a health scare: Invest in your own Wellness
We all know how to be healthy right? Wrong! If we did, the world's leading killer wouldn't be a preventable disease. It turns out few people understand actionable ways to live healthy, and even fewer are motivated to do it.
If more money was spent on public health campaigns and providing handy, meaningful health tips to help people live better, fewer people might end up suffering from with the world’s leading killer: cardiovascular disease.
How can increasing government spending on wellness help?
The more actionable, useful steps people learned about their health and wellbeing, the few hospital admission would result which means saving money for the government!
Consider these stats:
68% of deaths around the world are from noncommunicable diseases (87% in high-income countries) mostly cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic lung diseases.
The most common cause of death around the world is cardiovascular disease: 3 in every 10 deaths. Of these, 7.4 million people died of ischaemic heart disease and 6.7 million from stroke.
Ischaemic heart disease means the heart isn’t able to get enough blood because of a blockage in an artery. Stroke, basically, means the same thing, but an artery to the brain is blocked. These blockages are caused by the build up of plaque containing cholesterol, calcium and fibrous tissue. Sounds gross right? These plaques are mostly formed from eating too much saturated fat, although trans fat and cholesterol contributes too.
So! Now we’ve got the science out of the way, we know 2 basic things:
The most common cause of death in the world is from a disease caused by eating crappy food
Most healthcare investment is spent on being able to stent open your clogged artery, rather than preventing it getting clogged in the first place.
Consider this:
If you were sitting at your desk with a cup of hot coffee near the edge, would you get a wet sponge ready in case you knocked it over? Or would you move your mug away from the edge?
What action would you take first?
Healthcare spending is back to front
As it stands now, Western governments prioritise healthcare spending in a paradoxical way. As Professor Marc Cohen of RMIT University mentioned in his presentation on The Multiple Dimensions of Wellness, the highest spending goes first to intensive care, then acute care, then general care, and last to wellness. After working in multiple ICU departments many years ago during my rounds as a Physiotherapy student, I know how many machines and clever high tech innovations are used there, so I can see how expensive they must be. However, this pyramid of spending does make you wonder: What if it were reversed?
What if healthcare spending was swapped around, with the highest investment poured into wellness, then general health, then acute care, and lastly, ICU? If more money was invested in educating the public about key, evidence-based strategies to maintaining health and wellbeing, the spending needed on acute care would be less. Anti-smoking campaigns save the government billions of dollars every year, yet actionable, useful public health messages are increasingly rare.
Don't wait for a health scare to start living better
Until healthcare spending habits change though, you can take your valuable health into your own hands.
Invest in your daily wellness. Don’t wait for your first heart attack to be told how to live better.
You know what to do, but can’t seem to do it
If you’re struggling to make headway and just can’t seem to embrace healthy habits, get help! There are so many brilliant health and wellness coaches around to create steps you can tick off everyday to help you achieve your goals, and keep you out of the ICU.
Be careful what health tips you read
When looking for advice and tips on healthy living and wellness, please always question the validity of the source. Media articles will say if they’re written by a health professional and have reference marks if they quote evidence. If what you’re reading is written by a staff writer, beware! And I say this with the utmost love for writers as I’ve worked as a write myself for some big name publications.
But! Magazines and online newspapers need a certain amount of content everyday, and they don’t always include valid science-based articles. Read from trusted sites, and find a qualified health professional you know has industry experience and knowledge to back up their articles.
Don't wait until you're in hospital to be motivated, and educated on how to live better. Do it now!
My Interview on the Wellness Force Podcast is Live!
I'm a guest on US podcast Wellness Force! How exciting! Listen to me chat about how breaking my back inspired me to join the world of wellness.
Thank you to Josh Trent for helping share my story of injury and recovery, and how it ignited my passion for helping others live happier, healthier lives.
Josh Trent is a wellness coach and innovator, and has been Awarded "Top 50 Digital Health Influencers 2015." Along with his own knowledge, he uses his podcast to interview other passionate experts in behavior change, wellness technology, wellness, fitness & nutrition.
I'm so honoured to have been a guest on this inspiring podcast. Thank you for having me Josh!
Wellness Retreat & Consulting Brand Official Launch
I wrote about our company's launch in my column for Queenstown.com - so it's 100% official - Aprivé Wellness is up and running and already changing the landscape of wellness. Yay!
My mission is to make wellness fun and inspiring; plus share evidence-based science to help inform the health and wellbeing choices of people like you.
I'm no hardcore health nut, but I do have years of education, lifestyle and industry experience to know what health tips are proven and reliable, and which are just passing trends.
I'm so excited to officially launch Aprivé Wellness Ltd. and thank you to everyone who has helped this day happen from my lovely retreat guests to friends, family and mentors in the Physiotherapy and Wellness world.
At Aprivé Wellness, we have some special projects underway, so subscribe to my list so you'll be the first to know!
Thank you for all your support - Have a happy day!
Queenstown Wellness Retreat Recap- Nov 14th
Our very first wellness retreat was a huge success and was completely SOLD OUT!
Thank you to everyone for coming - you made it an amazing day.
I started the day by teaching a Yoga/Pilates fusion class outside. Set overlooking a picturesque valley at The Hangar in Arthur's Point, Queenstown, the retreat guests were treated to a stunning view of the Shotover River, and the weather couldn't have been better. I blended evidence-based exercises to challenge core and pelvic stability with fun sun salutations and balance exercises for a fully holistic class which left everyone smiling.
The morning yogalates class was followed by an inspiring nutrition workshop by Queenstown Nutrition founder Michelle Jospe. I chose her over the many nutritionists available due to her special blend of science and fun. She helped dispel popular myths about nutrition (No you don't have to eat breakfast if you're not hungry) and she taught our guests how to make a healthy lunch for the week. This included salad in a jar, healthy fuss-free breakfasts: chia puddings and overnight oats.
A healthy lunch of salads and fig balls was followed by out mental health workshop where Elizabeth Denton stressed the importance of fostering healthy relationships. Our guests were then treated to a two hour relaxation session at Nugget Point Boutique Hotel and Spa. We finished the day with a stretchy and relaxing yin yoga class by Clarrissa Benke of Go Yoga who even supplied our guests with comfy blankets and eye masks for well deserved savasana.
As our retreat guests wandered slowly away in a daze induced by 'yoga brain' thanks to yin, I felt so inspired by each and every one of our guests. They had prioritised themselves over the hustle and bustle of weekend commitments, and I was so moved by each of them.
Wellness Retreats - Investing in you
On planes we're told to secure our oxygen mask before we help others, and this goes for our health and wellbeing too.
Wellness retreats are the perfect way to recharge your batteries so you can escape the feeling of being overwhelmed by relationships, commitments and work. The inspiring women who attended our retreat ranged in age from 20 to 50, and by attending the retreat they prioritised their health and wellbeing so they could escape the cycle of stress many of us are in.
Hopefully now, they all feel inspired to maintain the wellness and balance in their lives. This doesn't mean eating kale salads all day, but it does mean maintaining a healthy balance of their mental and physical health.
I was so inspired by everyone who attended and their amazing commitment to their health and wellbeing.
Thank you so much to everyone who made this day so exciting and fun. Thank you to every of one our guests, plus the passionate people who supplied us with luxurious, natural gifts for our retreat gift bags: True Holistic Skincare, Burning Love Candles, Global Soap NZ and Only Good NZ.
Thank you also to the wonderful experts who presented on the day: Queenstown Nutrition, Clarissa Benke (yin yoga) and Elizabeth Denton (mental health)
i can't wait for our next retreat in 2016!