5 Pillar Friday is your weekly roundup of insights and tips from The Life Delicious’ 5 wellness pillars:
Mindset
Movement
Nutrition
Sleep
Connection
This week and next, we’re sharing wellness highlights from our amazing trip to B.C.’s Shuswap Region!
To plan your winter wellness escape, visit www.shuswaptourism.ca
The Life Delicious helps you create feel-good brain chemistry and hardwire healthy habits – by shifting the way you think, move, eat, sleep and connect – so you can lead a pleasurable and productive life.
MINDSET
MINDSET >>> Home from an incredible winter wellness weekend in the Shuswap! Three days of exploring, snowshoeing, hotubbing, delicious dining, wine tasting, learning about indigenous culture, and being totally offline – from our amazing home base of @QuaaoutLodge – was the stress-relieving, mini-reset we needed!
Just a 40-minute flight from Vancouver to Kelowna and a short, scenic drive north, the Shuswap Region is a winter wonderland! We had perfect bluebird days, very mild weather (-1C) and gorgeous snow to explore a few of the region’s 7 districts: Chase, South Shuswap, North Shuswap, Salmon Arm, Sicamous and Eagle Valley, Falkland and Enderby.
MOVEMENT
MOVEMENT >>> Winter workouts require the right gear! Thanks to @skookumcyclesa’s snowshoe and x-country ski rentals, we were able to stick to our no-checked-bags-when-travelling policy (and, ahem, replace any forgotten mittens, hats, long underwear 😊).
And while we were passing through Salmon Arm to pick up our gear on our way to @QuaaoutLodge, we did some fabulous #naturebathing at the Salmon Arm Wharf and Foreshore Nature Trail!
The wharf is North America’s longest wooden inland wharf and offers incredible views of Shuswap Lake! It’s frozen over right now and we saw a dog frolicking in the snow with his cross-country-skiing human, and a family of 4 snowshoeing along the shoreline, while we explored the nature trails maintained by the Salmon Arm Bay Nature Enhancement Society (www.sabnes.org).
Visit www.shuswaptourism.ca for trail maps and more information on snowshoeing and skiing in and around Salmon Arm.
NUTRITION
NUTRITION >>> Imagine my delight when I discovered that one of my favourite Vancouver chefs – @chefwhittaker– has moved to the Shuswap and is the new executive chef at Jack Sam's Restaurant & Lounge at @QuaaoutLodge?! Oh, we ate WELL. So many great dishes with local ingredients, like the @turtlevalleybison striploin, and of course BANNOCK (!) in everything from the Crispy Brussel Sprouts Caesar and Shuswap Charcuterie Board, to the breakfast “Bannodict” with walnut pesto and grilled tomato – plus local wine and beer from @celistaestate, @larchhillswineryandvineyard, @montecreekranch and @crannogales!
Check out www.quaaoutlodge.com for info on Chef Whittaker’s upcoming Taste! 2019 4-course, beverage-paired dinners on March 9 and April 13 (for $69, with rooms from $99), and check out www.shuswaptourism.ca for more info on the region’s food and drink scene.
SLEEP
SLEEP >>> #PMrituals: fireside picnic dinner & bedtime jacuzzi anyone?! We try to follow our usual bedtime routine when we travel, and we had so much fun at @QuaaoutLodge in our Lakeview Jacuzzi King room (from $169/night)! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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We got into our robes and pjs, ordered room service, had a fireside picnic (check out these gorgeous napkins with embroidery of Indigenous pictographs found in the region), and then all climbed into our huge jacuzzi tub for bathtime. What fun! (And yes, that’s poutine with maple and juniper gastrique…I promise we also ate vegetables 😜)⠀
CONNECTION
CONNECTION >>> @QuaaoutLodge’s team of Cultural Interpreters are amazing! We had an incredible 2.5hr snowshoe experience with Adrian Lewis, who’s created an awesome network of winter trails at adjacent Talking Rock Golf Course.
We had a great workout (I had a good sweat, which is important and rare to me these days, carrying 30+ pounds of napping Bronwyn in her @ospreypacks #childcarrier), learned about the local Indigenous culture and wisdom (healing plants), and took in some epic #forestbathing, #naturebathing and all-around #naturetherapy.
This experience was #stressmanagement at its finest!