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Restart Your New Year’s Resolutions: 3 New Fit Travel Ideas

Locations in this article:  Las Vegas, NV

Spring has sprung, but your New Year’s Resolutions have no doubt already sprung a leak. If you’re off-track, Fitglobetrotter Dena Roché offers three ways to use travel to restart your healthy living resolutions.  

Don’t give up your goal to get healthy in 2013. Simply use travel to make it more fun and more likely you’ll stick with it. By associating the pleasurable act of travel with the maybe not so fun task of getting fit, you’re able to train your brain that healthy eating and exercise can be exciting and fun. Best of all you can take this new-found passion back home and have a better chance of sticking with your 2013 resolution to get healthy.

Take Flight

There’s nothing new about yoga or yoga retreats, but at the Fairmont Scottsdale’s just launched Well & Being Spa a new spin on yoga is in the air-literally.

Aerial yoga is taking flight at the five-star resort, and the class will not only give you a new perspective on your yoga practice, but shows how playing and having fun can go hand-in-hand with exercise. Aerial yoga is done using a hammock that is made from the same fabric and rigging system used by the high-flying acrobats in Cirque du Soleil. Thankfully, you don’t have to be Gumby to participate; the class is geared for all levels and is most like Hatha yoga with some elements of Flow worked in. The poses may be familiar, but taking them in the air shakes them up a bit and adds a new dimension to your practice.

The hammocks can support up to 400 lbs and are placed at different heights to ensure a good fit for everyone in the class. The hour-long class begins on the ground with some basic Sun Salutations before we move to the hammock. We’re introduced to poses that use the hammock to support back bends, or standing on the hammock for tree pose and my favorite poses, an inverted frog and inverted pigeon. Because the hammock supports so much of your weight, Aerial yoga helps decompress tight joints, avoids back and neck compression during inverted moves and allows for a greater stretch and better alignment in each pose.

Instructor Sierra Ramm easily guides our class into each posture and encourages us to have fun and play. There is no doubt that Aerial yoga will bring out your inner child! And shavasana cocooned in a swaying hammock is one of the most relaxing experiences you’ll ever have at a yoga studio.

A New Phase in Life

When you’re looking to break bad habits and cultivate better ones for your health, a destination spa can provide the perfect inspiration. Mii Amo, at the Enchantment Resort, nestled in the Red Rocks of Sedona, can customize a journey that will inspire you to meet your 2013 health goals. Schedule your stay to coincide with either the New Moon or Full Moon to take advantage of two new treatments perfectly aligned for transformation.

The Spirit of the Full Moon harnesses that energy to release what is no longer serving you like emotional eating or finding excuses not to exercise. Before the treatment begins you write down the bad habits you’re ready to let go of and then burn the paper. The service includes a scalp massage to free the mind from tension, and a massage with Wild Arizona Sage infused with the light of the full moon. The New Moon is about manifesting what you want by writing it down. The paper is placed under a candle that burns throughout the treatment. Over 15 gemstones are placed in a pedicure bowl to draw the New Moon’s energy into your soul during a foot massage. A full-body massage and scalp massage follows. After the treatment the paper listing the things you want to manifest is wrapped in a piece of cow head leather and buried in Boynton Canyon. The Canyon is known as a birthing canyon; perfect for cultivating new things in your life.

During the rest of your stay at Mii Amo, you can craft a program that includes personal nutrition sessions, exercise physiology consults, and mind/body services like Circle of Power that help provide strategies and concrete ways to incorporate a healthy lifestyle into your real life. Daily activities like Vision Board creation, meditations and fitness classes are a perfect complement to your tailored program to make lasting healthy changes for life.

Sport of a Lifetime

Image credit: BigStock

If you’re looking to have fun, get a great cardio workout and burn about 450 calories per hour grab your racquet, channel your inner Roger Federer or Venus Williams and get ready to hit the court and revive your resolution.

Hilton Head is known for tennis, boasting over 300 courts, the most of any U.S. resort destination and is the ideal destination for a tennis vacation. The Van der Meer Tennis Academy has been teaching the sport of a lifetime since 1979 on clay, hard and the only indoor courts in the Southeast. Programs are available for rank beginners to former college players like myself. Guests can take part in Total Tennis University, weekend clinics, week-long clinics, drills and private lessons.

I opted to take a private lesson with Academy Director, Marcos Ondruska, a former ATP Top 30 player and coach to Jennifer Capriati. I haven’t been on the court in over a year and it’s been a decade since I regularly played the game. I was relieved it was like riding a bike, albeit one with a rusty frame! Marcos had me work on my short game, ground strokes, volleys, footwork and serve. I had forgotten how cardio-intensive tennis is and was surprised to be huffing and puffing in short order. Not only did I get a killer workout, Marcos also gave me some tips that despite years of lessons, I had never heard before. More importantly, he renewed my interest in a sport I once had a great passion for which is key for anyone trying to reach a resolution goal. If you love what you’re doing, it won’t feel like hard work or boring exercise and you’re more likely to stick with it.

For more healthy travel behaviors, check out:

By Dena Roché for PeterGreenberg.com. Dena Braun-Roché, aka, The Fit Globetrotter, covers luxury, wellness and spa travel worldwide. Her work has appeared in Spa Magazine, Robb Report, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, and Bridal Guide. Follow her travels and travel tips on Twitter @fitglobetrotter