Linda Miller is the Broker of Rosemary Beach Realty on Scenic Highway 30A. With 20 years of experience and wisdom as well as extensive knowledge of the local market, she has been the number one agent since 2015. Miller brokered the largest sale on 30A of $12.5 million in Rosemary Beach and has generated over $517 million in career sales with an average sale of $2,660,000. When you own property on 30A, you’ll be smiling too!
LindaMillerLuxury.com
|
(850) 974-8885
|
Linda@TheSmileOf30A.com
ROSEMARYBEACHREALT Y.COM | LUXURYREALESTATE.COM | REGENTS.COM ROSEMARY BEACH® is a registered trademark owned by Rosemary Beach Holdings, LLC and is used with permission pursuant to a license from Rosemary Beach Holdings, LLC.
Over Half a Billion in Lifetime Sales Achieved LU X U RY L IS TIN GS R ECENTLY SO L D BY L IN DA M IL L ER
2606 E. Scenic Hwy. 30A | $5,000,000
8266 E. Scenic Hwy. 30A | $4,500,000
8870 E. Scenic Hwy. 30A | $3,000,000
256 Winston Lane | $3,600,000
11 Town Hall Road | $5,700,000
26 N. Belize Lane | $4,250,000
Unique Treasures in Paradise L IS TE D U N DER $ 4 M IL L I O N O N O R NE A R HI GH WAY 3 0 - A
30 Atwoods Court | $3,750,000
638 N Walton Lakeshore | $1,250,000
This home offers so many opportunities for its buyer as the least expensive Gulf-front property in Rosemary Beach, whether you want to keep renting it as a vacation home, add a carriage house over a garage, or tear it down and build your dream home. With two master suites, fabulous Gulf views, and proximity to the beach walkover on the most exclusive section of 30-A, this opportunity won’t last long!
Find serenity on the coastal dunes of Lake Powell! With 75 feet of stunning lakefront, this home is ready for a family who loves to play on the water. It’s a short drive to the beach and seconds to Scenic Highway 30-A and Highway 98— perfect for a primary residence with four bedrooms and three baths. 2,530 square feet includes a full basement with easy access to the lakefront boat dock and lift.
58 Blue Dolphin Loop | $1,150,000
78 N. Barrett Square #12 | $980,000
Front row in Seacrest Beach means a Scenic Highway 30-A address right on the 18-mile bike path and a short walk to the beach! Neighborhood includes 12,000-square-foot pool and a shuttle to the beach access. This home has it all, including two master suites, a garage, and first-floor guest suite with morning kitchen and private entrance. Second-floor open living area boasts Gulf breezes, an open kitchen, and a guest suite with wraparound covered porch.
Sunny top-floor luxury condo in the heart of Rosemary Beach. Enjoy views of Barrett Square and the Gulf from three private balconies. This immaculate condo has never been rented and boasts white Carrara marble countertops, Viking and Sub-Zero appliances, and beautiful tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. Offered fully furnished, it features two bedrooms, two full baths, and convenient deeded garage parking space for easy entry via elevator to your top-floor retreat. This condo also has a deeded personal storage unit in the garage.
Alys Beach Beauties L I V IN G IN PA R A D I SE I S P OSSIB L E
53 Sea Venture Alley | $6,500,000 Close to the beach and move-in ready! Beautifully finished 3,850-square-foot fortified home has five bedrooms and five-and-a-half baths and is steps away from the soon-to-open beach club and fitness center. This home has it all including a two-car garage, elevator, courtyard with private pool, summer kitchen off the huge living/dining area, outdoor fireplace with Gulf views from covered porch, master suite on main living area, and guest suite with den on the first floor. This listing won’t last long!
32 Shinbone Court | $4,095,000 One block off the Gulf and ready for you to move in, this “Sea Gardens Walk” home has first-floor living. The courtyard with pool adjoins the open living/ dining/kitchen area, conveniently planned for practical living with a master suite on the first floor. Additional master and two more guest suites are on the second floor with another living area for family gatherings. A collaboration between custom home builder Benecki Homes of Atlanta and internationally known interior designer Melanie Turner makes this a spectacular property. You need to see this one!
A Family Legacy
Fulfilling Dreams Since 1976
The Pride of a Master Craftsman
Photo by Romona Robbins
When old-world craft meets new-world technology, an unprecedented level of quality is birthed. At E.F. San Juan, the quality and long-term function of our woodwork are the keys to creating elements that will transform a house into a dream home. This iconic home in Seaside, Florida, known as "In Surf We Trust," was a challenging build thanks to its many curved walls and exquisite details. Designed by Curtis & Windham Architects and built by O.B. Laurent Construction, the home features custom millwork and moulding throughout created by the team at E.F. San Juan. efs a nj u a n.c o m
T H E M O S T C R E AT I V E C U L I N A RY E X P E R I E N C E O N 3 0 A T H E M O S T C R E AT I V E C U L I N A RY E X P E R I E N C E O N 3 0 A
Contemporary American cuisine served al fresco. Our menu utilizes fresh, local ingredients to showcase our Gulf Coastserved locale al with craftOur cocktails, wine and beerlocal to match. Contemporary American cuisine fresco. menu utilizes fresh, ingredients to showcase our Gulf Coast locale with craft cocktails, wine and beer to match. Open to the public Tuesday through Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Located on the east end of Highway 30A in Alys Beach. Open to the public Tuesday through Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Located on the east end of Highway 30A in Alys Beach. 8 5 0 . 213 . 5 7 0 0 8 5 0 . 213 . 5 7 0 0
| |
C A L I Z A R E S TAU R A N T.CO M C A L I Z A R E S TAU R A N T.CO M
In this issue On the Cover
Zoltan “Zoli” Nagy is a certified personal trainer and nutritionist as well as the proprietor of Destin Athletic Club in Destin, Florida. As a former professional hockey player and now a full-time trainer/coach, his passion lies in helping others achieve their health and fitness goals. Zoli first appeared in VIE in January of 2017 when one of his clients, Lisa Ferrick, wrote a story about how his guidance changed her life. He has since become one of the magazine’s go-to fitness and nutrition experts, and we are thrilled to share his tips for living a strong and balanced life in this month’s feature, “Become Fit for Life.” Photo by Romona Robbins
94
NOT ONLY THE HOME OF GREAT MUSIC, NASHVILLE HAS ALSO BECOME A MECCA FOR BRANDS THAT ARE TAKING QUALITY NATURAL BEAUTY PRODUCTS UP A NOTCH. LEARN MORE ABOUT FOUR COMPANIES DOING JUST THAT IN “SKIN DEEP” BY KELSEY OGLETREE. PHOTO COURTESY OF CLARY COLLECTION
FEATURE 20
LA BEAUTÉ 93
Become Fit for Life: Creating Your Best Self
94 Skin Deep: Natural Beauty in Nashville
LA VITALITÉ 25 26 Fit for a Purpose: Seeing through the Fog
BON APPÉTIT!
30 Move, Lift, and Thrive at ZUMA
104 Once Upon a Farm: A Story of Good Food
34 Changing the Game 40 Everyday Ways to Stay Healthy 42 The Miracle of a Smile: Kindness Matters
108 Lifting Spirits: A Hot Afternoon in India 112 Possessing Peace
SARTORIAL
118 The Untitled Memoir
VOYAGER 57 58 Diving for the Mind, Body, and Spirit 64 Saving the Olive Trees of Greece 70 Walks of Art: Good for the Body and the Mind 76 Reflection in the Mountains 82 Wellness around the World TheIdeaBoutique.com info@theideaboutique.com
INTROSPECTIONS
48 The Modern-Day Mary Poppins
52 Gym Chic! Spring 2019 Fitness Wear Edit
PUBLISHED BY
100 Seeds of Change
C’EST LA VIE CURATED COLLECTION: VIE STAFF HEALTH & BEAUTY PICKS 88
116 Distractions
#LOVEMEXICOBEACH 120 Never Forgotten Coast: Our Story—Mexico Beach Marina
THE LAST WORD: HEALTH & BEAUTY 123 LA SCÈNE 126 AU REVOIR! 129
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 9
R R EEO AAF LLF E EER SSI NT T GAAST T EE O O FF FF E E R R II N N G G SS
AA LL Y Y SS BB EE AA C CH H
K KK K 44 ·· 33 33 SS EE AA FF O O AA M M AA LL LL EE YY
This This Khoury Khoury Vogt Vogt Architects Architects designed designed home home isis located located 2nd 2nd tier tier from from the the Gulf Gulf ofof Mexico Mexico on on the the iconic iconic Alys Alys Beach Beach Gulf Gulf Green Green and and features features aa cascading cascading rooftop rooftop pool pool overlooking overlooking the the Gulf. Gulf.
· U9 U9 · 60 60 SPICE SPICE BERRY BERRY ALLEY ALLEY
· A13 A13 · 30 30 NORTH NORTH CHARLES CHARLES STREET STREET
· HH1 HH1 · 17 17 SOUTH SOUTH CHARLES CHARLES STREET STREET
This This 4-bedroom 4-bedroom property property consists consists ofof the the main main home and a carriage house above the home and a carriage house above the two-car two-car garage. garage. The The third third story story provides provides an an additional additional living area with a terrace overlooking living area with a terrace overlooking Arboleda Arboleda Park. Park.
This This 3,075-square-foot 3,075-square-foot architectural architectural mastermasterpiece showcases 4 bedrooms piece showcases 4 bedrooms (plus (plus bunk bunk room), room), 4.5 4.5 baths, baths, and and offers offers soothing soothing natural natural light light throughout the home. throughout the home.
This This 4-bedroom, 4-bedroom, 4-bath, 4-bath, 2-half 2-half bath bath bunkroom bunkroom home, designed by Khoury Vogt home, designed by Khoury Vogt Architects, Architects, features features aa courtyard courtyard and and pool, pool, aa third-floor third-floor rooftop rooftop terrace, terrace, and and aa two-car two-car garage. garage.
L S E C . O A A L YY S B B E A A C H H . C C O M M
||
88 55 00 .. 22 11 33 .. 55 55 00 00
Alys Beach Properties, LLC, Licensed Real Estate Broker participation welcome. Equal Housing Opportunity. Alys Beach Properties, LLC, Licensed Real Estate Broker participation welcome. Equal Housing Opportunity. This is not an offer or solicitation in CA, NY, NJ or any state where prohibited by law. ALYS BEACH is a trademark of EBSCO Industries, Inc. © 2019 This is not an offer or solicitation in CA, NY, NJ or any state where prohibited by law. ALYS BEACH is a trademark of EBSCO Industries, Inc. © 2019
CREATIVE TEAM FOUNDER / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LISA MARIE BURWELL Lisa@VIEmagazine.com
FOUNDER / PUBLISHER GERALD BURWELL Gerald@VIEmagazine.com
EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR JORDAN STAGGS Jordan@VIEmagazine.com
CHIEF COPY EDITOR MARGARET STEVENSON CONTRIBUTING WRITERS PAMEL A DOWLING, FELICIA FERGUSON, MARK FURNISS, ANTHEA GERRIE, REBECCA HALL, ANDREW MARSHALL, MYLES MELLOR, ZOLTAN NAGY, MIKE ODOM, NATE ODUM, KELSEY OGLETREE, TORI PHELPS, SUZANNE POLL AK, NICHOL AS S. RACHEOTES, ROMONA ROBBINS, PATRICK RYAN, JACOB SUMMERS, ALEX WORKMAN, JAKE VERMILLION
ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY ART DIRECTOR TRACEY THOMAS Tracey@VIEmagazine.com
SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERS OLIVIA PIERCE HANNAH VERMILLION
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS JIM CL ARK, JEREMY COWART, K ATIE DESANTIS, L AURENT FAU, MARK FURNISS, ALEX HUTCHINSON, CHRIS JOHNSON, BRENNA KNEISS, ANDREW MARSHALL, JANE MCILROY, FABRICE RAMBERT, ROMONA ROBBINS, PATRICK RYAN, EDDIE JORDAN PHOTOS, PETER IS SHAW 1991, RANDREI, SHUTTERSTOCK
ADVERTISING, SALES, AND MARKETING DIGITAL MARKETING DIRECTOR MEGHN HILL ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ABIGAIL RYAN BRAND AMBASSADOR LISA MARIE BURWELL Lisa@VIEmagazine.com MARTA RATA Marta@VIEmagazine.com
AD MANAGER OLIVIA PIERCE Olivia@VIEmagazine.com
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER TIM DUTROW DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR SHANNON QUINL AN
VIE is a registered trademark. All contents herein are Copyright © 2008–2019 Cornerstone Marketing and Advertising, Incorporated (Publisher). All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced without written permission from the Publisher. VIE is a lifestyle magazine and is published twelve times annually on a monthly schedule. The opinions herein are not necessarily those of the Publisher. The Publisher and its advertisers will not be held responsible for any errors found in this publication. The Publisher is not liable for the accuracy of statements made by its advertisers. Ads that appear in this publication are not intended as offers where prohibited by state law. The Publisher is not responsible for photography or artwork submitted by freelance or outside contributors. The Publisher reserves the right to publish any letter addressed to the editor or the Publisher. VIE is a paid publication. Subscription rates: Printed magazine – One-year $29.95; Two-year $54.95. Subscriptions can be purchased online at www.VIEmagazine.com.
12 | A P R IL 2019
BESTIN DESTIN VIP DESTIN MAGAZINE READER CHOICE AWARD
2019
Editor’s Note
A BALANCED LIFE Every Breath Is a Gift
In a world where you can be anything, be kind.
T
here is a lot of talk about people taking better care of themselves lately. Exercising, reading motivational and spiritual books, and meditating are part of the health and wellness revival sweeping through segments of the population with the means to invest in themselves. We all know that exercising is good for your mental and physical well-being, but what the retail industry has learned as a result is that the athleisure style niche is great for their business model. People want to look good while they stay healthy. It’s taken root in start-ups like Carbon 38 and Lululemon and in mainstream retailers such as Free People. They’re doing a great job harnessing the fitness-wear craze with amazing merchandise that caters to cross-trainers, runners, Pure Barre–goers, yogis, cyclists, and everyone in between. Athleisure is the new streetwear in suburbia and cities alike! Take a look at some of our favorite pieces in the spring 2019 fitness style edit, “Gym Chic!” I thought I had always taken good care of myself to some degree—some years better than others. I have also paid attention to my spiritual walk, tending to my soul—the real person deep inside—with the belief that if all is well with my inward being, then everything else will organically flow outward. This has been a centric goal in my life and, God willing, it will continue to be. We’re beings made of mind, soul, and body, so to be healthy and truly live a balanced life means that all three need to be simultaneously nurtured.
A few years ago, I was feeling unusually tired and worn out no matter what I did to combat it. A former employee of many years serendipitously came back into my life and suggested that we publish an article about her friend and personal trainer in Destin, Florida. She mentioned he was helping her and others to become the best they could be by teaching them how to eat well, get proper rest, and exercise faithfully. Following his guidelines would become life changing for them and, later, for me. We published an article by Lisa Ferrick, “Chasing the Dream,” in January of 2017 on her friend Zoltan “Zoli” Nagy, owner and founder of Destin Athletic Club, and the rest is history. I started training with Zoli, hired him to teach my employees
VIE editor-in-chief Lisa Burwell Photo by Brenna Kneiss
at our office a few days each week, and introduced him to countless friends and acquaintances. I experienced a shift in my attitude toward exercising, eating well, and understanding how important it is to maintain this new approach to living for the rest of my life. It is challenging to convince someone to think differently, but Zoli has been able to do this for me and hundreds of others. He’s well educated as a guru of health and wellness. He is tough: that is what you need in a trainer. He pushes you to become better for life with the mantra that prevention is the best form of medicine and it’s something you can gift to yourself. I have changed my health and wellness regimen thanks to Zoli, and I not only understand how good this new way of life is for me, but I also appreciate it. What it has done for me mentally to alleviate stress and build my strength for conquering the world almost outweighs how physically good I feel. I have learned that the two are inextricably connected and that you need both to live a truly balanced life. If all of these praises are not enough, let me add another. Zoli treats everyone equally and truly cares for each of his students and clients. I was in his gym one day and saw a varied clientele: a sea of muscle-bound, hard-core athletes, people with disabilities, middle-aged women, teenagers, and elderly gentlemen. Watching these people from all walks of life as they exercised, I noticed that Zoli paid special attention to just about everyone—and definitely anyone who particularly needed it that day. It’s his passion and mission in life to educate people so they become stronger, better, and healthier. That might be his best attribute. Read all about our cover guy as he shares his health lessons in “Become Fit for Life.” Zoli rules! To Life!
—Lisa Marie Founder/Editor-In-Chief V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 15
DO YOU KNOW
TODD? YOU SHOULD.
BEST INTERIOR DESIGNER - DECORATOR IN DESTIN, 30A + FT. WALTON BEACH 2018 AND 2019
JLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLK VOTED BEST INTERIOR DESIGN FIRM 2019
La conversation
SHARING IS CARING WE LOVE TO COMMUNICATE AND INTERACT WITH OUR READERS! AND WE LOVE IT EVEN MORE WHEN THEY PROUDLY SHARE THEIR STORIES AND POSE WITH VIE FOR A CLOSE-UP! THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT: SHARING, LOVING, AND BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS. WE THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH AND WE APPRECIATE YOU! @reneeryan_4 Spectacular stay @steinlodge representing @viemagazine. Be on the lookout for a featured article on this magnificent resort and ski community!
@traceyleighthomas OUTSTANDING AT KAIYA with @viemagazine! Dreaming of yesterday’s amazing experience on @kaiyabeachresort for @out_inthefield with @viemagazine and @romonarobbinsreynolds. Thank you @chefphilmcdonald for a beautiful and so delicious meal.
@Seaside School Half Marathon & 5K The Seaside School Half Marathon & 5K is truly a 3-day event. Friday’s annual Taste of the Race (with Chef Emeril Lagasse), the official start of the weekend, is a foodie paradise. Grab your tickets today at www.runseasidefl.com. Photo: VIE Magazine (Taste of the Race 2015)
@fancycamps So much drama last night on @bachelorabc and apparently we are here for it! Never have we ever watched this show before, but we are feeling a little invested since this lovely lady has had a few photos snapped in our tents in the past. #teamhannahg @viemagazine
LET’S TALK! Send VIE your comments and photos on our social media channels or by emailing us at info@viemagazine.com. We’d love to hear your thoughts. They could end up in the next La conversation!
@Alex Workman Huge thanks to VIE magazine for sharing the #NeverForgottenCoast story of the Driftwood Inn!
@todoindestin We Brunch So Hard! What’s your favorite #brunch item? (Besides #mimosas, duh.) #Repost @viemagazine @greatsoutherncafe #ToDoInDestin
VIEmagazine.com
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 17
PROJECT: VIE Magazine Headquarters, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida ARCHITECT: Gerald Burwell FURNISHINGS: Modern Interiors, Miramar Beach, Florida
A MODERN WORK SPACE
114 Logan Lane, Suite 4, Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459 BurwellAssociates.com | (850) 231-6377 Florida LIC AA0003613
Become
FIT for life
creating your best self B y Z o lta n N a g y Photography by Romona Robbins
From a very young age, I was interested in fitness and healthy eating. I knew if I was curious enough and learned all I could about it, I could eventually share my knowledge with others. But first, I realized, I needed to learn how to take care of myself rather than letting my health fall into the hands of the Western medical system. I saw how my family members were treated and mistreated by the system, along with the harsh conditions and costs that could come with basic health care.
20 | A P R IL 2019
I
was determined to find a way to help people in any way possible—helping them understand how to be their own healers, how to be more responsible, and how to have faith in the process. That’s why I became a personal trainer and then a health coach, and I started to understand the more in-depth, personalized nutrition needs of my clients.
I came across Fit for Life in my early thirties. It’s a wellness and weight management program that shaped and bettered a lot of the concepts I already used in my very disciplined eating rules and guidelines. After trying the program myself and finding the results truly impressive, I implemented the program with my clients—and the results were amazing. The more personalized the program is, the more effective it becomes; we have to be open to new ideas and leap into the rewarding practice of following a nutrition plan that’s unique to our individual bodies. The universe is living proof of what a real miracle can be. Everything has a cycle: the moon and the sun, the flora and fauna, the seasons, the economy, and, above all, the cycle of life. Did you know that your body also has a cycle? The human body undergoes three eight-hour cycles a day. If you consider and care for this correctly, it will improve your digestive system functions, help you maintain a stable weight, reduce or even eliminate your fatigue, and maximize your metabolism.
After trying the program myself and finding the results truly impressive, I implemented the program with my clients—and the results were amazing.
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 21
Let’s look at the three cycles of the body: 1. 4:00 a.m. to Noon – Elimination 2. Noon to 8:00 p.m. – Appropriation 3. 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. – Assimilation
1. Elimination cycle: From 4:00 a.m. to noon, you can eat or drink moisturizing foods such as freshly juiced fruits or vegetables. During this eight-hour cycle, the body can cleanse, release, and remove toxins most efficiently. It is best to take in a lot of liquids and foods rich in moisture at this time, promoting detoxification. When eating during this time, it is important to take into account that you need food that requires minimal digestion, such as fresh fruit or green juice, to make the cleansing cycle easier. You have often heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day—that is precisely what it is, not the biggest or the greasiest meal. Eat easy to feel easy!
2. Appropriation cycle: During the period from noon to 8:00 p.m., we are the most active and more vigilant. This is when the best digestion and burning of highly concentrated foods can take place. That’s why most of our meals—lunch, dinner, and snacks—are consumed during this cycle. The most important thing you can do is to eat when you are hungry and eat only small amounts. Eat healthy foods a few times per day and don’t overindulge, which will make you feel sluggish. By adhering to the “few times” eating rule, your body will break down foods with the least effort and maintain energy for other daily activities.
3. Assimilation cycle: In this cycle, from 8:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m., people are mostly calm or asleep. During this time, minerals and food nutrients are absorbed from the foods taken in during the day, and through the bloodstream, they reach the organs, bones, and cells. This cycle allows renewal, rebuilding, and healing of the body from daily activities. I challenge you to try this method of healthy eating for ten days and observe your body’s grateful reaction!
22 | A P R IL 2019
N
>>
ext are some tips on how to combine certain foods to make you healthier and, in a certain sense, more efficient. The principles of combining specific foods to avoid digestive disorders should be a common practice, but many people don’t know the effects that food combinations can have on the body. It is not only a matter of what we eat but also how our bodies can (or can’t) break it down.
Do not consume starch and sugar together. For example, avoid jelly, jam, fruit butter, sugar, honey, or syrup on bread and cakes or in the same meal as cereals, potatoes, oats, or other starches. Honey or syrup with pancakes and bread will cause the carbohydrate digestion to deteriorate and lead to fermentation in the stomach.
>> Do not consume acidic fruits and proteins together. An example of this would be eating oranges or lemons with meat or eggs. Acidic fruits ferment in the stomach and inhibit the gastric juices that are needed to digest proteins properly.
Unhindered digestion can be guaranteed by paying attention to food combinations and avoiding any difficult digestion, which can be damaging both physically and mentally. Based on the right food combination rules, you can make excellent recipes that form a healthy diet.
If you consider these few principles and try to feed on cycles, your body will be grateful, and in the long run, it will reward you with a healthier and longer life.
Let’s see what the “wrong” and “right” food combinations are:
>> Do not consume carbohydrates and acidic foods in the same meal. For example, this could be bread, potatoes, beans, bananas, or other starches mixed with lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, tomato, or other sour or citrus fruits. Fruit not only inhibits carbohydrate digestion but also promotes fermentation that slows metabolism.
>> Do not consume concentrated protein and concentrated carbohydrates together. Examples of this would be combining seeds, nuts, meat, eggs, cheese, or other proteins with bread, cereals, potatoes, sweet fruits, or cake. Carbohydrates (starches and sugars) and proteins digest very differently, and when they mix in the stomach, they interfere with each other. Avoid all kinds of beans except green beans with low starch content.
>> Do not consume two concentrated proteins in the same meal. For example, do not eat nuts and meat, eggs and meat, cheese and nuts, or cheese and eggs or drink milk with one of the previous items in the same meal. Milk is best consumed by itself, or you can replace it with a nondairy option. Everything contains protein, but in most foods, it’s only found in small amounts.
Unhindered digestion can
If you decide to change the patterns that have not rewarded you so far, start doing it as soon as possible. Don’t wait for the new year, spring, bikini season, the month before your next cruise vacation, or even next Monday— go for it immediately! You have to make a pact with yourself, stick to it, and believe in it even on days when you don’t feel like it. Ditch the excuses and form a routine. When you keep up with it for a long enough time, you’ll find yourself with new habits and, essentially, a new lifestyle. You will love the results.
be guaranteed by paying attention to food combi-
Don’t wait until tomorrow; take the first step toward the healthiest, most efficient you today!
nations and avoiding any difficult digestion, which can be damaging both physically and mentally.
Zoltan “Zoli” Nagy is a certified personal trainer and nutritionist as well as the proprietor of Destin Athletic Club in Destin, Florida. As a former professional athlete and now a full-time trainer/coach, his passion lies in helping others achieve their health and fitness goals. Visit BeyondFit.org to learn more or book his services.
>> Do not consume protein with fats. Don’t use creams, butter, and oils with meat, eggs, cheese, and nuts. Fat delays the secretion of gastric glands and inhibits the pouring out of proper gastric juices to digest meats, nuts, eggs, and other protein. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 23
LOCAL EXPERTS. GLOBAL REACH.
30ABEACHES.EVUSA.COM | 850-213-2800
La vitalité
La vitalité A ZEST FOR LIFE
Visit GuerlainSpas.com to learn more. Photo courtesy of Guerlain
You already know that The Plaza is New York City’s go-to luxury hotel experience, but did you know that you don’t have to be a hotel guest to enjoy all the incredible amenities there? One primo stop is the Guerlain Spa. Ever since the brand opened its first Institut de Beauté in 1939, Guerlain has maintained its status as one of the world’s top spas, with exclusive massage techniques that its therapists travel to Paris to learn. Visit their website for a list of rejuvenating services and top-tier products. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 25
La vitalitĂŠ
fit for a purpose S E E I N G
T H R O U G H By Jake Vermillion
26 | A P R IL 2019
T H E
F O G
There’s a place deep within each of us that’s like a well to draw inspiration from—it is full of moving feelings such as those you get from special moments in time or the memories of a loved one. These feelings stir our passions and push us toward greatness, fragility, and one another.
t
o reach the well, many of us have to push through a thick fog of fear that surrounds it. That fear clouds our vision as we struggle to glimpse our deepest desires. Many of us wish to be known, to make a difference, and to play a part in something greater than ourselves. Over the past eighteen months, I’ve found it takes courage to push through fear, it takes conviction to persist toward the things that inspire us, and it takes a community to help navigate the course that will take your passion and turn it into results. Courage. Conviction. Community. Those three things have allowed me—and so many others—to draw from the well of inspiration and to experience the joy that flows from making a difference and playing a part in something greater than any one person. That joy inspired me to join Fit For Hope, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida that works to help its members by promoting physical fitness with events and challenges so that they can, in turn, help others through charitable donations, spreading awareness, building a better community at home and abroad, and inspiring more people to do the same. I haven’t always had the drive to pursue these things. I still don’t have it all the time. It ebbs and flows, but that’s what makes having it—even just for a while— so beautiful, meaningful, and empowering. I hate the days when my drive recedes into the distance. But, when it does, I have a constellation of peers to look to for guidance, inspiration, and assurance. That’s what Fit For Hope is all about.
My journey began with a challenge from a friend: to get off my lazy behind and do something not just for myself, but also for someone else. I decided to bike one hundred miles in a day for women trafficked into sexual slavery. When confronted with the reality of human trafficking, the pervasiveness of sexual exploitation, and the horrors of modern-day slavery, I was compelled to accept the challenge to push my body past its admittedly shallow limits in hopes of raising awareness of and gathering resources for the fight against this incredible injustice. For months, I emptied myself on the bike, painstakingly whittling my asthmatic frame into the body of an athlete left gasping for breath, face up, on the sunlit grass (there’s a video to prove it). With time, the novelty of learning to turn inspiration into results fathered a need to do so again and again. It became an obsession that drove me onward, and my ambition began slowly to strengthen my ability. With each turn of the pedals, the miles melted into each other. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and longed to escape the pain in my muscles but also dreaded the discomfort that I knew would accompany the completion of my challenge. Would my inspiration wane when I finished it? Reflecting on it now, I can appreciate the fear I wallowed in leading up to the day of my official one-hundred-mile ride. But the toughness I had bought with the sweat of a thousand practice miles dealt its dividends—the weight of a venture unfulfilled was lifted as I crossed the finish line at Joachim Street and Dolphin Avenue. Ducking into a back alley, away from the noise of celebratory beers and finisher photos, I stopped pedaling
Opposite: Fit For Hope athlete Jake Vermillion trains for a one-hundred-mile ride to raise money for the fight against human trafficking. Photo by Hannah Vermillion V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 27
La vitalité Hurricane Michael, exercised for the first time in ten years to help a single mom provide for her kids, and biked thousands of miles to care for victims of domestic abuse. When that friend challenged me to visit my well, to fight through the fear, and to live in alignment with the deepest desires of my heart, he did me a far greater favor than I could ever have imagined.
for the first time in what felt like an eternity. I savored the relief of knowing I’d dispensed with a second finish line—the only one that mattered: playing a part in restoring freedom and dignity to the imprisoned, anguished, and abused. Above: Runners at the Bear Claw Classic Trail Run for Freedom, an annual Fit For Hope event held on National Black Bear Day at Grayton Beach State Park. Right: Jake and his father, Dale, at the 2018 Bear Claw Classic. Dale’s company, Mortgage Champions, covered the event’s overhead costs so that 100 percent of funds raised benefited those in need. Photos by Brenna Kneiss Opposite: Local athletes paddle across Western Lake for a run through Grayton Beach State Park at Fit For Hope’s pop-up event with RUN/SUP. Photo courtesy of Fit For Hope 28 | A P R IL 2019
I didn’t even recognize the real impact of crossing that second finish line until months later, when the workers meeting the needs of these women revealed that the amount of money my colleagues and I had raised—thanks to the incomprehensible generosity of our supporters and partners—was the exact amount needed to fulfill their dream of opening an emergency shelter. At that moment, the gravity of this endeavor—to run, bike, or swim for something greater—crushed me. I would never have believed that the pursuit of something so fleeting as fitness could leave an enduring impact on those desperate to have their wounds healed and hope renewed. That day will live long in my memory, so much so that I’m now partnered with other men and women who share the same commitment to face their fears and visit their wells of inspiration again and again. We gladly suffer through yet another ride or run so that others might not have to bear far greater burdens alone. Through Fit For Hope, I’ve been fortunate to witness the extraordinary courage of others who test the limits of empathy, fumble about in the muddy depths of humility, and push against the bounds of selflessness all for a chance to behold the transformative power of genuine compassion. This group of active and aspiring athletes has demonstrated purpose through pain, endurance over apathy, and others above self. Our members have run marathons to help house families affected by
I savored the relief of knowing I’d dispensed with a second finish line—the only one that mattered: playing a part in restoring freedom and dignity to the imprisoned, anguished, and abused.
Let me pay the favor forward. If you long to experience something so meaningful it’s gratifying to empty yourself in pursuit of it; if you long to be counted among thousands working toward a common, selfless goal; if you long to know the fulfillment that comes with helping to redeem others from hopelessness, take the challenge. Each of us has what we need to draw from our well of inspiration. The only question is this: will you?
Get started today by finding your courage, living your convictions, and multiplying your community at FitForHope.com. Jake Vermillion is an endurance sports enthusiast, founding member of Fit For Hope, and organizer of the Bear Claw Classic Trail Run for Freedom. Jake and his wife, Hannah, live in South Walton, Florida, where they attend Redeemer 30A Church, provide respite care to foster children, and volunteer with Communities of Transformation.
Shirts made from recycled plastic bottles!
come see us! rosemary - seagrove - gulf place - 30agear.com
Opposite top: Alys Beach, Florida, is known as one of the most luxurious and exclusive communities along the corridor of Scenic Highway 30-A. Opposite bottom: An aerial view of the layout for ZUMA, the state-ofthe-art health and fitness center set to open in Alys Beach just north of Highway 30-A in late spring of this year Rendering by Nequette Architecture & Design 30 | A P R IL 2019
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF ALYS BEACH
AND THRIVE AT
La vitalité
orn from the Mediterranean spirit of peace and balance through health and beauty, Alys Beach is excited to announce its newest endeavor, ZUMA Wellness Center. Not merely a fitness center and much more than a gym, ZUMA Wellness Center will be the meeting of design, beauty, state-of-the-art technology, and community, created as a space to uphold the pillar of wellness as a part of life defined at Alys Beach.
The fifteen-thousand-square-foot ZUMA campus was designed by Nequette Architecture & Design based in Birmingham, Alabama. The design of the facility at Alys Beach was inspired by its peaceful location and puts a strong focus on natural light in every room of the building. Surrounding courtyards will be visible through large glass framing. Every detail of the space was designed with the community in mind—not just as a gym, but as a gathering place for all individuals. The venue lends itself to a mindful and holistic full-body experience. With a mix of indoor and outdoor areas, luxurious landscaping, and calming water features, the experience at ZUMA will truly be transforming, as members transition from the hustle of day-to-day life into a space entirely focused on optimal wellness, both physically and mentally.
EVERY DETAIL OF THE SPACE WAS DESIGNED WITH THE COMMUNITY IN MIND—NOT JUST AS A GYM, BUT AS A GATHERING PLACE FOR ALL INDIVIDUALS. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 31
La vitalité The ZUMA campus will comprise many diverse and distinct spaces. The Lift Room, the Movement Room, the Cardio Room, and the Recovery Room are core components of the facility. They are complemented by an indoor/outdoor pool, two treatment rooms, steam rooms in both the men’s and the women’s locker rooms, exterior natural spaces, a juice bar, and other amenities designed to promote growth toward better well-being for Alys Beach homeowners and resort guests. In anticipation of ZUMA Wellness Center’s opening in the late spring of 2019, Alys Beach is proud to introduce the key leadership team. TJ Middleton will serve as the director of fitness and tennis; many already know him as Alys Beach’s tennis professional. His career highlights include playing in fifteen Wimbledon tournaments. Patrick Hoffner, who will be the fulltime head fitness professional at ZUMA, is a respected TRX coach and holistic wellness trainer who has held classes at Alys Beach for the past two years.
VISIT ALYSBEACH.COM TO LEARN MORE.
ZUMA’s director of fitness and tennis, TJ Middleton, and head fitness professional, Patrick Hoffner Photo by Katie DeSantis
a unique shopping experience on
30 A
Less is More L iving a Beautiful L ife
Furniture . Rugs . Lighting . Art . Accessories . Antiques . Gifts . Outdoor . Design 32 E County Hw y 30A, Gr ayton Beach, FL 32459 | (850) 534-0700 | BeauHomeInteriors.com
La vitalitĂŠ
Changing
GAME THE
By Kelsey Ogletree
Phoenician Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona Photo courtesy of Luxury Collection
34 | A P R IL 2019
More women than ever are taking up golf and for a myriad of reasons. Here’s why—and how to get started. Sexism has long been a problem for the male-dominated game of golf. For decades, many golf clubs didn’t allow women to play before noon, while others shunned women entirely. Even Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters Tournament, admitted female members for the first time in 2012. Add the fact that golf terminology and rules can be overwhelming and confusing to someone who’s never played, and it’s not surprising that most women throughout the years had little desire to play. “It’s an intimidating sport,” says Jane Geddes, a former LPGA player. “You pull up to a golf course, and you might not know where to go. Tee box, driving range, greens—those are all funny words if you’ve never done it before.” But the times they are a-changin’. The tired joke asserting that the word “golf ” stands for “gentleman only, ladies forbidden,” is becoming less relevant as organizations take the initiative to make the game more welcoming to all. According to stats from the National Golf Foundation, women accounted for 24 percent of the on-course golfer base in 2018 and also made up 35 percent of newcomers to golf. The sport overall is growing, too, with a record high of nearly fifteen million nongolfers in the US reporting they were now “very interested” in playing at a golf course, a 16 percent jump from 2016. Part of this can be attributed to the rise of off-course golf experiences. Topgolf, a sports entertainment community with more than fifty US locations, has added technology and a party atmosphere to the historically lengthy game, making it easy for all skill levels to play together.
Origins Golf Club in the Watersound community of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida Photo courtesy of The Clubs by JOE
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 35
La vitalité
nother reason for the increase in women golfers is programming such as #inviteHER, launched last summer by the LPGA Women’s Network, an outlet of the LPGA designed to connect women with golf ’s top female thought leaders. The simple premise of #inviteHER is to actually follow through on inviting women to play golf. “We’ve all been invited to play courses, but often no one takes action on the invite,” says Geddes, who is now the network’s executive director. “We’re encouraging people who play golf to invite one woman in their life who doesn’t play or isn’t playing anymore. It can be as simple as asking them to ride around in a cart with you, hit a putt, or just talk golf. It’s something that is doable and scalable at the same time.” With twelve thousand members across the country, the LPGA Women’s Network has as its primary mission to grow the game of golf for women, and it’s succeeding. While they put on many national competitive events, numerous efforts are at the grassroots level, says Geddes, such as hosting spring kickoff events at about one hundred amateur chapters around the country. They’ll also do a big push for Women’s Golf Day, taking place on June 4 this year. The promotion of golf as exercise is a major selling point for women, tying into the global wellness movement. There was a time when almost all courses required players to use carts, but now more are offering members the choice of walking for a minimal trail fee. “Because of that, we’re seeing the health benefits of golf rising,” says Belinda Marsh, president of the Georgia State Golf Association. “People are getting more 36 | A P R IL 2019
opportunity to walk and enjoy some exercise when they play.” The average eighteen-hole round might amount to seven or eight miles of walking, making it easy for those tracking their steps to hit their daily goals. Even if you’re riding in a cart, as Geddes points out, there’s still a good amount of walking required, as you’re not able to drive directly to your ball on every shot (for example, carts aren’t allowed near the greens).
The tired joke asserting that the word “golf” stands for “gentleman only, ladies forbidden,” is becoming less relevant as organizations take the initiative to make the game more welcoming to all.
GETTING STARTED Joan McDonald, a three-time qualifier for the U.S. Women’s Open Championships and now the head golf professional at The Golf Club at Equinox in Manchester Village, Vermont, shares her tips for players who are new to the game:
1.
One of the most important things all players should do, especially women, is to get fitted for clubs. I recommend staying away from hand-me-down clubs. There are many variables involved that most new golfers wouldn’t consider— length, grip size, shaft flex—and the pros can help you with that.
2.
Spend ten to fifteen minutes stretching before play or practice. The golf swing and setup require flexibility and very different body positions from what is normal for most people. Taking a few yoga classes and working on exercises to strengthen your hands and arms can be helpful.
3.
Be patient and take time to perfect your grip and posture. Develop a routine that takes you through a quick reminder list. The correct setup is the most important component of a good swing.
4.
On the course, finish every swing in balance on your front foot, facing the target. Rhythm and balance will lead to a consistent swing. This is where women can make up some distance by using their lower body to create swing speed. Golf benefits mental health as well. When you’re out playing with a group of friends, enjoying nature, making an effort to unplug—and not worrying too much about your score—the experience can be downright meditative. “I think when people really engage,” says Geddes, “no matter their age, fitness level, or how they play, it’s about being out there and having fun.”
5.
One of my most important reminders is to always “swing the club” rather than try to hit the ball.
Opposite: The Phoenician Golf Club’s recent renovations and beautiful resort surroundings make it a great destination for a girls’ trip or couple’s getaway. Photo courtesy of Luxury Collection Left: The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando, Grande Lakes is a great course for any skill level. Photo courtesy of Ritz-Carlton Below: The Golf Club at Equinox in Vermont’s Green Mountains Photo courtesy of Equinox Resort
If you’re new to golf or thinking about trying it this year, Marsh’s best advice is to start with a lesson from a PGA teaching pro. They can be found at clubs around the country or in shops like PGA Tour Superstores. Then, make golf social. The key for women, she says, is meeting new friends on the course who are learning just like you, so if you’re a beginner, you won’t feel inferior from the start. “One of the ways we help promote the game is through adding socials or events for women to participate in,” says Sean McGaughey, director of golf for The Clubs by JOE, a Florida-based private membership club with three high-end golf courses. “These are vital to helping create camaraderie and a safe place to learn.” V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 37
La vitalité
TIME TO PLAY!
These four courses are located at beautiful resorts, making them great destinations for weekend getaways.
the city of Manchester and swing big on the unique seventh hole, which requires hitting over the highway. EquinoxResort.com/Golf
Origins Golf Club
Phoenician Golf Club This eighteen-hole course, reconfigured from its former twenty-seven-hole layout, reopened to the public in November 2018 at the Phoenician, a Luxury Collection Resort (also recently renovated) in Scottsdale, Arizona. While it isn’t an easy course, the redesigned holes eliminate blind shots and hazards (where you’re unable to see where you’re headed), making it a more manageable experience for newer players. GolfThePhoenician.com; ThePhoenician.com
The Golf Club at Equinox Nestled into the Green Mountains of Vermont, this eighteen-hole course is a picturesque spot to spend a fall afternoon—especially during peak foliage season (early to mid-October). It’s relatively flat and unobstructed, making it accessible for beginners. Sneak in a photo op at the fourteenth hole tee box overlooking
“Orig
inal
Photo courtesy of Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando, Grande Lakes
Designed by Davis Love, this course in Watersound, Florida, is part of The Clubs by JOE, a brand of one of the area’s premier resort and club proprietors, St. Joe Club & Resorts. It has ten par-three holes, making it extremely player friendly, especially for beginners. “In my eleven years in the golf business, I have never seen a property that encompasses what the love of the game is all about more than this one does,” says Sean McGaughey. Wind through Northwest Florida’s pines, lakes, and wetlands on this scenic course, and then enjoy a bite at the Watersound Cafe. ClubsByJOE.com
The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando, Grande Lakes Ask for a caddie (standard for new players here), and you’ll navigate this eighteen-hole course with ease. The greens are challenging, but the fairways are wide, so while your short game might test you, there will be
Red
chances to redeem yourself. It’s an easy course to walk, especially during the cooler spring and fall months, and you can also sign up for lessons with former PGA player Larry Rinker. GrandeLakes.com
Bar” Kitty Taylor, Broker, GRI, CRS, CIPS Catherine Ryland, Broker Associate
The S tore @ 1969
“Grayton Girl Team” Selling Grayton and Beach Properties along 30A. Realtor of the Year 2017 for the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors 850.231.2886 | 850.585.5334 133 Defuniak Street, Grayton Beach, FL 32459 GraytonCoastProperties.com
NOW OPEN FOR LUNCH & DINNER Ha p p y Ho u r 3 –7 P M Seasonal Hours Apply
FOOW30A.COM
•
(850) 534-5050
•
34 Gol de nrod Ci rcl e , Santa Rosa Be ach, F L 3 2459
La vitalité
EVERYDAY WAYS TO LASTING CHANGE NEVER RESULTS FROM JUST FIXING THE SYMPTOMS OF A PROBLEM. LASTING CHANGE ONLY EVER RESULTS FROM FIXING THE ROOT CAUSE. THIS CONCEPT HOLDS WITH EVERYTHING— DISEASE, POLITICAL TURMOIL, FAMILY ISSUES, AND EVEN INTERPERSONAL ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS. BUT THERE IS ONE MAJOR AREA WE OFTEN IGNORE: OUR HEALTH. As a personal trainer, I often talk with people about how they want to take back control of their health. Unfortunately, a large chunk of this crowd wants a magic supplement, a workout, or a piece of advice that will help them reach their goals. In the fitness community, this is called the “magic bullet.” This is the idea that if you just had “it,” you too could have six-pack abs and run marathons. There’s an entire portion of the industry dedicated to exploiting this very idea. The truth is, not only does that magic bullet not exist, but my most successful clients have never asked for it, or they stopped asking a long time ago. They realize the simple truth: Getting healthy isn’t a thing you do; 40 | A P R IL 2019
BY JACO B SU MM ERS
it’s a thing you become. Health isn’t something you do for an hour or two, like going to the movies or visiting the store. It’s not something you can turn on and off when you want. Sure, occasionally you can turn it off to have pizza with friends or ice cream after a terrible week at work—but the point is that it should be “on” more often than it’s “off.” You’ve probably heard this before, but packaged differently: fitness is a lifestyle. If “lifestyle” seems a little overwhelming, let’s call it what I call it: a habit. What, then, are some good habits for the average person to build?
STAY AWARE OF WHAT YOU EAT I’ll start with a simple one. Every year, either for a competition or for my own goals, I end up going through a “cutting” period of a couple of months when I make an active effort to trim unwanted fat. Because I know I’m a nervous eater, and because I can’t eat what isn’t there, I keep my fridge stocked with only healthy options. That’s not to say that I couldn’t overeat eggs, raisin bran, or chicken, but if I craved what was already in my diet, I probably wouldn’t be opening the fridge at eleven thirty at night looking for the Ben & Jerry’s. If it’s not there, I can’t eat it. This article isn’t about dietary recommendations, so I won’t go into how your pantry should and shouldn’t look. You know what’s within your diet and what shouldn’t be kept in the house to tempt you. This leads to the next way to make health a habit: don’t eat out if you can help it. I’ve been found guilty of eating out a lot when I finish my cutting season, and it showed. A friend reminded me that when I started to feel bad and it was affecting my runs,
it was probably because of the junk food I was eating. After all, even the “healthy” option on a drive-through menu isn’t really healthy. How do we fix this? Prepare something to eat before you leave the house or wait until you get home to eat. Many people think food prep is a chore, but it doesn’t have to be. Not all of you want to be bodybuilders. Some of you want to lose ten pounds or fit into the clothes you used to wear. So maybe baking pounds of chicken each week isn’t for you. Instead, make some turkey-and-cheese sandwiches to eat at work and resist fast food on your drive home. When you get there, you’ll find your healthy options waiting (if you heed my first tip).
up to have an energy crash in the next hour or so. It puts your body back into hibernation after it burns through those simple carbs, and it’ll make you feel weak and tired until your next meal. None of that information is meant to scare you. It just demonstrates the stark difference between your actions if you are better informed compared to being blissfully unaware of the direct impact your diet has on you. It is much easier to foster and maintain willpower if you know the exact consequences of your actions, good and bad. The doughnut might look tasty, but now you can see it for what it is and make an informed decision, and that’s a gift—not everything in life readily shows you the direct effect of your actions.
CREATE HEALTHY HABITS DO THE LITTLE THINGS People are creatures of habit. We crave routine. I am extremely free-spirited, but even I begin to lose my mind a little bit without some external structure. Use that trait to trick your brain into wanting exercise at the same time every day. Again, not everyone wants to be Mr. Olympia or finish a triathlon. You don’t have to spend hours per day working out. Simply set aside a little exercise time before work, during your lunch break, after work, or after you’ve put the kids to bed—whatever works best for your routine. This can be at your local gym or in your garage gym with a treadmill and some weights or even without. The key is to keep the routine consistent. Set reminders when you’re starting out: your phone can remind you to work out at five thirty in the evening on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, for example. Stick to it, even if it’s just thirty minutes. Learn to enjoy the habit like you would enjoy a daily cup of coffee, but with a bit more sweat. After a while, you won’t need the reminders because your body and mind will both crave that routine and the direct effects of exercise. It’s chemical dependence, but of the best kind possible. There are some ways to make the habit easier. Set things up the night or day before your workout; it’s a lot easier to get up and go on a morning run if you set your shoes, clothes, and water bottle out the night before. Same with evening workouts—if you pack your gym bag the night before and take it to work with you, there’s no scramble to go home and get stuff together after a long day. Lock yourself into the commitment you’ve made.
EDUCATE YOURSELF Learn the direct effects of your actions. When you’re oblivious to how much sugar and how many calories are in a doughnut, it’s easy to “guesstimate” that one doughnut can’t hurt. The average doughnut has about twenty grams of carbs and ten grams of fat. That’s 170 calories for a basic doughnut, and all of those carbs are coming from sugar—meaning that if you casually eat a couple of doughnuts from the break room at work instead of a healthier breakfast, you’re setting your system
Finally, learn to see everyday actions as challenges to improve your health. In such a technologically streamlined society, we have removed most of the physical struggles from our daily lives. Try simple things to get in shape that either supplement your time in the gym or on the treadmill or replace them for the day in case you have to skip a workout. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Carry an extra bag or two of groceries on each trip from the car. Take some time to run around and play with your pets or your children. If you can walk instead of drive to where you’re going, do so. Basically, remove a handful of handicapping comforts and learn to appreciate the value of keeping your body active and moving.
THEY REALIZE THE SIMPLE TRUTH: GETTING HEALTHY ISN’T A THING YOU DO; IT’S A THING YOU BECOME. TO SUMMARIZE: • Keep your fridge stocked with only that which is already in your diet and nothing else. • Try to eat at home and not to eat out. • Get into a routine with your exercise. • Prepare things ahead of time to make exercise convenient. Set yourself up for success. • Educate yourself on the direct effects of your actions. To change the symptoms of excess fat, problems climbing stairs, getting winded carrying the groceries in, high blood pressure, etc., fix the cause: you. Get in shape. Start with the mind. The body, the results, and the lessening of symptoms will follow as the body begins to heal and improve. The body will do what the mind tells it.
BARSANDSTRIPESFITNESS.COM V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 41
La vitalité
The M I R A C L E
of a
SMILE K i n d n e s s Ma t t e r s By Mike Odom Photography courtesy of Done In One
I
t’s no great secret that life sometimes has an enigmatic way of offering us exactly what we need to rise above our seemingly hopeless situations. The problem is that solutions don’t always present themselves as such. It takes faith and imagination to seize these potentially life-altering moments before they pass. I want to provide an anecdotal example of this phenomenon in action in hopes that my story can help others recognize blessings when they emerge and use them to their advantage.
Opposite top: Mike Odom showing off his new smile Opposite bottom: Dentists use facial recognition technology to get the perfect mold of patients’ mouths and a master ceramist finishes up each set of Done In One implants all within forty-eight hours.
42 | A P R IL 2019
The present-day portion of this tale began for me when a young periodontist named Daniel Noorthoek fatefully appeared in my life and offered me a cure for the pain to which I had reluctantly grown accustomed. Armed with an admirable air of confidence and steadfast determination, he singlehandedly carried me across long-established enemy lines and helped me overcome a lifelong, legitimate, and all-too-common phobia of dentists and their offices (which I considered torture chambers.
Ultimately, he gifted me the ability to smile again. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Long before I was comfortable even conversing with a dentist, I had a deep-rooted phobia. And, I want to make it clear that “phobia” is not an understatement. When I was eight, I flew face-first off of a skateboard and lost my two front teeth to the sidewalk. The dentist my mother took me to in 1988—who had undoubtedly received his license a century before—did a number on my unsuspecting psyche, and I wouldn’t step foot inside a dental office for decades. Later in life, I stood, shaking, in front of a mirror, trying desperately to remove a throbbing molar with a pair of pliers, giving up only when I heard an audible crack—a sound that I will never forget. More incidents such as this occurred, and when I did finally make it to a dentist, it was only because doing so seemed like a more sensible option than tooth pain– induced suicide. I forced my way in and demanded to
My mentality when it came to caring for myself had completely changed since I passed into the “golden years” of my late thirties. I had been blessed with the proverbial girl of my dreams and a perfect little boy who, at a year old, was starting to get little white teeth of his own. Now that I had a family, I could no longer allow fear to keep me waiting around for the worst to happen. Beyond desperate, I took a long needle and forced it through my upper lip and gums and into my sinus cavity. The pressure was relieved instantly, and I tried
be seen immediately, lest my blood be on their hands. Luckily, they obliged and led me down that seemingly never-ending hallway to an office with a dentist’s chair. “Sit down,” the dentist told me impatiently. I did. Those were the only words he spoke to me before, during, and after the pitiless removal of the molar. I was grateful for the instant relief, though still as traumatized as I had been before I entered. I vowed, again, that this was the last time I’d sit in one of those torture chairs.
He told me that he had something in mind, and for me to take care of the teeth I had left as best I could, and to trust him. So I did.
not to swallow what streamed out of the tiny hole. But my alleviation was short-lived; by the end of the day, my sinuses were filling back up with what I described to my fiancée as “extremely poisonous, foul-tasting, concentrated pain juice.” I pause, yet again, to point out the signs I mentioned at the beginning of my story: my mind stumbling back upon that random article; the documented exchange taking place on Reddit; the Christmas season; the Jacksonville location; the oral disaster I was struggling with. When combined, all of these things were impossible to ignore. Maybe I wasn’t doomed to a lifetime of pain. Perhaps if the stars aligned, I thought. It can’t hurt to try. I distinctly remember thinking, What if? Taking all of this into consideration, and with all my home remedies exhausted, I decided to reach out to the dentist from the article. I wrote him a message describing my situation and, to my surprise, he responded, telling me to come in the very next day. That was when I first met Dr. Daniel Noorthoek, the kind soul who would change my life.
(I want to add here that the dentists I encountered throughout my journey may very well have been doing their absolute best with the conditions that I had burdened them with. I blame no one but myself for the pain I went through.) Then, two years ago, just before Christmas, I stumbled across a BuzzFeed article about a dentist that had done some pro bono work for a fellow Redditor who was also fast approaching the end of his rope. The dentist practiced out of Jacksonville, Florida, where I (miraculously) happened to be living at the time. The timing of the article and its implications reaching me seemed otherworldly—I hadn’t slept in a couple of days because the entire right side of my face was swollen to twice its size. I sat there wondering if my infection could get any worse. Not a day went by that I didn’t recall a family friend’s tragic passing; he had died from a cerebral abscess—a tooth infection that had made its way to his brain.
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 43
La vitalité
A
fter brief introductions, it was time to see how much damage I had done by avoiding practitioners who could’ve helped me. The X-rays went surprisingly smoothly, and Dr. Noorthoek informed me that a number of my teeth needed to be removed immediately. Every terrified fiber of my being told me to get up and run, but I decided to trust him. Above: Dr. Daniel Noorthoek and his team partnered with BioHorizons to perform pro bono Done In One transplants on six patients over the holiday season in 2018 for the Twelve Arches of Christmas program. Opposite: Done In One’s implants are custom milled ceramic bridges bonded to a custom milled titanium bar to create new permanent teeth instead of dentures or other temporary solutions.
44 | A P R IL 2019
I figured this was as good a time as any to admit to Dr. Noorthoek, hesitantly, that I might be the most poverty-stricken individual ever to step foot into his luxurious office. I had not a single dollar to my name. If anything, I was in the red. He didn’t care. “Sit down,” I heard a dentist say again, recalling one of the worst days of my life. But this time, there was a postscript. “We’re going to fix you so that you don’t have to live like this anymore.” When you are in as much pain as I was, hearing that is everything.
Once I agreed to sit and was rendered completely numb, which Dr. Noorthoek insisted on repeatedly confirming to ease my fears, he set to work. I don’t know what it took to get all seven of my cracked and decaying teeth out, but what I thought would have been my worst nightmare went by faster than I could believe. I never felt a thing. When the process concluded, I was grateful to the point of speechlessness, and not just because my mouth was an unfeeling, swollen mess. It was yet another occurrence of instant relief. I tried not to cry and mostly succeeded. Dr. Noorthoek talked to me as I slowly came back to reality, and I waited nervously for the bill that I would have no way of paying. It never came. Out of nowhere, he said that he was going to get me a new set of teeth. Not dentures—new teeth. The idea was unfathomable. I couldn’t even afford X-rays, and implants seemed entirely out of reach. He told me that he had something in mind, and for me to take care of the teeth I had left as best I could, and to trust him. So I did. I need to pause the story here (last time, I promise) to make clear what kind of person Daniel Noorthoek is. He put himself through eleven years of college (the first in his family to attend) and dental school by working full-time at Subway, all while incurring massive debt. After earning his bachelor’s in microbiology and cell science and his doctor of dental medicine degree at the University of Florida, he decided to pursue his interest in removing teeth. Noorthoek spent three extra years in postgraduate classes to become a periodontist. He procured his master’s
degree in science and dentistry and began his career with prominent private practices in Boca Raton and Jacksonville. Striving to find ways to improve upon his chosen field of implantology, he mastered emerging procedures including TeethXpress, All-On-4, and Teeth-in-a-Day. Since then, he and his team have been dedicated to perfecting their revolutionary Done In One procedure, using modern facial recognition software to design custom teeth in virtual reality. A master ceramist then handcrafts and finishes the teeth. All this occurs within forty-eight hours. Daniel Noorthoek’s eyes are on the future; his goal is to transform the field of dentistry. Before he bade me farewell after my first visit, we sat around and calmly shot the breeze (the best I could after being on anesthesia) after what I had previously imagined would be the most traumatic experience I’d had since I was eight. That was the moment I realized that the whole concept of my dentist phobia was antiquated, left over from a time long before we had the medical advancements of today. I lived in anguish for years while detrimentally avoiding the bogeyman; now I was sitting in his office, liberated from constant torment. By the time Dr. Noorthoek fistbumped me and made his exit, I considered him my friend. For the first time in my life, I was no longer afraid of a dentist.
Because it was all we could afford, we sent Dr. Noorthoek a thank-you card. He said that it was the best thank-you from any of his pro bono work and that he still has it hanging on his refrigerator. After getting to know him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he really did—he’s just that kind of person.
By the time Dr. Noorthoek fistbumped me and made his exit, I considered him my friend. For the first time in my life, I was no longer afraid of a dentist.
We kept in touch sporadically over the next couple of years, and then in August of 2018, I received a message from Dr. Noorthoek asking if I was ready for my new teeth. I just stared blankly at my phone for a spell, wondering how to respond. He told me the dates he wanted me to be there, and I relayed the message to my fiancée—and we both cried. Again. Dr. Noorthoek called me a few days later and filled me in on his Twelve Arches of Christmas program. He had
partnered with an implant company, BioHorizons, which donated enough materials to do both arches for six dentally challenged individuals who desperately needed new teeth and couldn’t afford them. He said that our first meeting, just before Christmas a couple of years prior, had been the inspiration for this whole charitable idea. I went in a day early to record a presurgery interview with a talented director out of Jacksonville. The testimonials from some of the participants have been compiled at the Done In One website. The actual surgery took about an hour and a half. I received eighteen extractions and two sinus grafts, which were necessary due to the alarming amount of bone loss I had incurred. The entire procedure streamed live online, and I focused on Dr. Noorthoek’s voice throughout it. It kept me in a good place. I never felt any pain, and it didn’t come close to living up to the horrifying scene that my imagination had conjured up in expectation over the years. The next afternoon, I arrived—a little sore but more excited than anything—for the delivery of my Done In One set of teeth, and by that evening, I had a brand new mouth and the ability to smile with zero apprehension. During the entire two-day
The nurse came back to give me some aftercare papers, and with them, she placed a one-hundreddollar bill into my hand. She said it was from Dr. Noorthoek and to get my son something for Christmas. I’m sure that sounds like I’m embellishing my tale for dramatic effect, but it’s God’s honest truth. When I got into the car to go home, I handed the money to my fiancée and tried explaining what happened the best I could through a completely desensitized face. She ended up putting two and two and “dendist gamme fuh Rbbee Chsmas” together and understood. It was her turn to cry. What we spent that money on was a lip-tie surgery that Robbie needed from a pediatric specialist. I have Dr. Noorthoek to thank for helping set my son on a path that will lead him away from where his father had taken the exit into oral negligence. I’ve had not a single bout of tooth pain since that day, and I never will again.
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 45
La vitalité
The next afternoon, I arrived—a little sore but more excited than anything—for the delivery of my Done In One set of teeth, and by that evening, I had a brand new mouth and the ability to smile with zero apprehension.
process, I was probably in the office for a total of five hours. In contrast, undergoing this procedure using previously available methods would mean twenty to thirty hours of office time spread out over ten to fifteen visits. Like I said: the man is transforming dentistry as we know it. Fear is a devastatingly powerful emotion. Even with everything at stake—the once-in-a-lifetime offer of pro bono dental work, the promise of solace instead of agony, the very future of my family’s well-being— I’m not sure that I would’ve found the courage to return to a dental chair ten or fifteen times. Fortyeight hours was all that I could muster. I went from destitution to a full set of permanent, straight, white teeth and all the potential they provide in less than two days. The Done In One procedure is the only reason that I’m in the right state of mind to share this experience. I owe everything to this medical advancement and its innovators. I don’t know what the future holds for Dr. Noorthoek and me. He will go on to do great things in the field of implantology, and, thanks to pioneers like him, my son will never need to experience the pain and anxiety of generations past. I know that he has committed to traveling the country teaching the
46 | A P R IL 2019
Done In One procedure to other specialists, envisioning that this process becomes available to the masses and helps far more people than he can reach on his own. I know that, as of today, I no longer have to cover my mouth when I laugh or smile. I no longer have to suppress happiness to avoid humiliation. I also know that I’ve made a lifelong friend in Dan Noorthoek. Most importantly, I know that my dream of having a nice smile has come true and that all I had to do was face my worst nightmare (and swallow my pride and accept a hand from a kind stranger). My faith in humanity has been restored by someone who genuinely wanted to help a less fortunate family, uncaring of the cost or profit. Selfless acts such as these can be the catalysts for healing the divisions that exist in our world. I know that my life has been changed and I want to pay it forward every chance I get. I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t wait to go out in public and show off my smile. But as I sit here writing this, it’s all I can think about. And if there is a picture of me in the byline, I can promise you that I’ll be smiling. I hope this story has inspired you to join me in doing so.
Visit GetDoneInOne.com to see more patient stories and videos and learn more about Dr. Dan Noorthoek and his team.
Above left: Mike Odom smiles proudly with some of the team celebrating the Twelve Arches of Christmas event. Above right: Dr. Noorthoek with his wife, Beth, and their dog, Cole
La vitalité
Mary Poppins T H E M O D E R N - D AY
BY
48 | A P R IL 2019
Suzanne Pollak
Mary Poppins, a bewitching being, believes anything is possible and nothing is impossible. She can turn any situation on its head. Then, when the chaos calms—and before the recipient of her help can become dependent on her to fix every problem in sight—she’s off to imbue the next project with her magical order. M. P. finds the marvel underneath any situation, which always exists but often eludes us, much like a starry night we can’t see because of light pollution. When we lose the ability to believe in mystery and magic, we need this kind of person to float into our lives.
M
eet Dennise Church—part modern-day Mary Poppins, part house whisperer, part intuitive soul seer who knows when someone needs their hand held spiritually. She flies around the country organizing, advising, and even putting clients to work as she sees fit, transforming and working her magic in ways that a life or business coach does not. Her specialty is making people feel differently about their living spaces, helping them to find stability in the midst of the turmoil in the world. Church has many tricks up her sleeves: the first is knowing how to get her clients working right alongside her, which must be the quickest, surest way to rebuild a life. Paint stroke by paint stroke, a transformation begins. The painting is not only a way of making a house beautiful but also a tool for rearranging the brain to accept the newly altered space and life that comes with it. Unexpected pleasures and a new sense of responsibility stem from the labor. Participating in the work, physically and mentally, becomes creative and more constructive than paying someone else to do it. Joy lies in changing chaos into calm, ugliness into elegance, a neglected, unloved space into a gem, and even the old you into the new you. Some of us cannot feel settled unless our interior spaces are organized in a way that connects to our inner being. We need someone to show us the way. I understand why The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo was a best seller and the concept of Swedish death cleaning ended up on Good Morning America. Today’s zeitgeist has created an urgent desire for order in many of us, and that order can start at home. There are different ways to view a house. For some people, it is all about the shelter. Economists see it as a commodity for building wealth, and sociologists
understand the differentiation of social status and how trends, income, or age might determine dwellings. But none of this matters in Mary Poppins’s world. For her, the house is a metaphor for life. Church uses a house to rebuild a person’s identity. Anyone with extra money can make a great design better or pay an expert to do so, but to create more than an ode to design or dollars—to make a launching pad for a new life that suits the occupant—requires a unique skill. Church intuits what the person living in turmoil needs to thrive and be launched firmly onto a new path. The twenty-first-century Mary Poppins harks back to the fourteenth century like Virgil leading Dante through the Inferno: “in the middle of the journey . . . in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost.”
The twenty-first-century Mary Poppins harks back to the fourteenth century like Virgil leading Dante through the Inferno: “in the middle of the journey . . . in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost.” I recently moved into a new house and found it has been bruised, and so have I. Naturally, I enlisted Church’s help. It’s a process to redo a house, to remove decades of grime caused by neglect. A home has a relationship with its owners very much as people have with each other—it is often either treasured and loved or neglected and unloved. A house takes on perceptions, problems, and ugliness over time, accumulating them in layers. To scrub off all the unwanted layers of past lives is a mighty job. We want to leave the patina and character underneath but ensure that the essence and beauty shine through. It takes dedicated work and digging deep to let go and uncover the confidence and joy hiding inside, allowing it to emerge front and center. At first, the interior of my home was a muddy, dark, grayish-brown, the color producing a depressing vibe in each room. I wanted light, calming colors to embrace me. With Church’s guidance, I chose pale teal and the lightest of blues for walls and trim. Painting the trim the same color as the walls made the rooms feel bigger, brighter, and cleaner. To make the house work for my life, I decided to swap the room functions. The first room became an office instead of a living room. The square dining room is
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 49
La vitalité I began to honor the little gem my home is becoming, a happy place to support me through my transition as I learn to carve a new path and write my own story. now my tiny living room—definitely the smallest living room I have seen but also one of my favorite ones. It has such personality, and it’s mine! An upstairs room that was useless is now a library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Through painting and cleaning every wall, molding, stair riser, and door trim with my own two hands—plus those of Church and her sidekick—I moved from feeling the house was not right for me to appreciating the space slowly, brushstroke by brushstroke. I began to honor the little gem my home is becoming, a happy place to support me through my transition as I learn to carve a new path and write my own story. Shedding the grime of the past and finding luster underneath it adds yet another layer of history, character, dignity, and depth to both the house and me. As I find
my way forward, I expect I’ll accept no boundaries or rules imposed on me by anyone—a resolution made thanks to transforming a tiny little house with a powerful Mary Poppins named Dennise Church by my side.
Suzanne Pollak, a mentor and lecturer in the fields of home, hearth, and hospitality, is the founder and dean of the Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits. She is the coauthor of Entertaining for Dummies, The Pat Conroy Cookbook, and The Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits: A Handbook of Etiquette with Recipes. Born into a diplomatic family, Pollak was raised in Africa, where her parents hosted multiple parties every week. Her South Carolina homes have been featured in the Wall Street Journal “Mansion” section and Town & Country magazine.
Your closest one -stop shop to the beach! The freshest selections of Gulf seafood. Let us steam your shrimp while you wait! Freshly prepared gourmet dips and spreads, salads and soups Artisan cheeses, prime meats and more Incredible selection of wine at competitive prices!
OPEN DAILY: 9 am – 6 pm 13063 Highway 98 East, Suite M, Inlet Beach, FL (850) 502-4100 | DestinIceMarket30A.com
Sartorial
S p r i n g 2 0 1 9 F i t n e s s We a r E d i t
1
Back in Black
Adam Selman Sport Long-Sleeve Crop Top and French-Cut Leggings $135; $150 – carbon38.com 52 | A P R IL 2019
Hail Hydration
3
bkr Spiked One-Liter Bottle in Jet $58 – mybkr.com
2
Surf ’s Up
Gigi C Morgan Surf Jacket $240 – carbon38.com
Let’s face it—looking cute might not be your first priority when it’s time to get your exercise for the day, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try if you want. Top apparel brands around the world have taken note of women’s love of fashionable fitness wear—or “athleisure” wear, if you will—and their tendency to wear it for more occasions than mere workouts. Whether you embrace the comfy lifestyle all the time or you just want to change up your gym attire, this roundup is sure to motivate you to do a few reps on the retail circuit! V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 53
Sartorial
Pink Lady
6
Year of Ours Velour Try-Out Crop Hoodie and Jogger Pants $99; $110 – carbon38.com
4
Mood Booster
Alo Yoga Moto MeshPaneled Stretch Leggings $125 – net-a-porter.com
Run for It
5
Adidas Ultraboost Uncaged Shoes $180 – adidas.com 54 | A P R IL 2019
Let’s Go, Girls
8
Alo Yoga Lush Mesh-Trimmed Stretch Sports Bra $55 – net-a-porter.com
9
Follow the Steps
Athletic Propulsion Labs TechLoom Bliss Sneakers $220 – net-a-porter.com
Toe the Line Flower Power
7
Gigi C Laser-Cut Tina Top and Hannah Leggings $140; $185 – carbon38.com
10
SHASHI Star Open-Toe Socks $18 – carbon38.com
Voyager
Visit VesselNOLA.com to learn more or book your reservation. Photo courtesy of Vessel NOLA
Voyager
SEE THE WORLD
Who wouldn’t want to eat, drink, and be merry in this space? The gorgeously refurbished ceiling of the 1914 church building that now houses Vessel NOLA was modeled after a ship’s hull. That, coupled with the bar’s twelve different glassware options for cocktails and more, makes it pretty clear where this culinary gem got its name. Located in New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood, Vessel offers a huge bar for cocktails with friends, a charming patio, and an architecturally magnificent dining room where guests will enjoy cuisine by executive chef Amandalynn Picolo.
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 57
Voyager
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROMONA ROBBINS
DIVING FOR THE MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT
O N T H E L A S T D AY O F S U M M E R , M Y F A M I LY S U F F E R E D A T R A G E D Y — THE LOSS OF OUR TWO BEST FRIENDS. MY HUSBAND AND I HAD PLANNED A DIVING TRIP T O T H E B A H A M A S O N A L I V E A B O A R D I N L AT E S E P T E M B E R , W H I C H WA S O N L Y J U S T A W E E K A F T E R T H E I R C E L E B R AT I O N O F L I F E . I D I D N ’ T WA N T T O G O .
58 | A P R IL 2019
I felt guilty and fearful, especially having to leave our six-year-old behind. When young life is lost, it is a heavy reminder of how fleeting life can be. And that scared me. My wonderfully sensible husband and my dive tribe at Emerald Coast Scuba convinced me to go—and I am so glad that they did! This trip was our first liveaboard experience. In the diving community, liveaboards are boats that cater exclusively to diving. They can be anything from a luxurious yacht to just a boat with a bed. Ours was a quaint sixty-five-foot sailboat with all the necessities (and damn good food!). We basically “camped” out at sea for a week with our feet never touching the ground, diving day and night all around the waters of Nassau, the Exumas, Little San Salvador, and Eleuthera. We did a total of eighteen dives, and each dive site was unique. There were high-speed drift dives, sheer cliff wall dives, a giant sinkhole known as a blue hole, an occasional swim-through, and—my favorite—a shark dive.
Above: A trumpetfish camouflaged in soft coral Left: Divers descend from a liveaboard boat for a shark dive in the Bahamas. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 59
Voyager IT’S THE ONLY TIME THAT MY MIND CAN SHUT OUT ALL THE SADNESS FROM MY LOSS AND THE STRESS FROM DAILY LIFE AND TRULY LIVE IN THE MOMENT.
Being immersed in the sea and surrounded by all its beauty gave me moments of escape from all the pain in my heart. The shark dive, in particular, was healing. I was apprehensive about diving with them, but seeing these curious and majestic animals up close was breathtaking. The water that day was unusually calm and crystal clear; it was like being in an aquarium. When the air in my tank ran low, I couldn’t wait to get back in the water and just free dive with them. It was amazing! The key to diving is to relax and control your breathing; you want to conserve your air so you can stay down and play longer. Fun fact: you burn a ton of calories per dive as well, which is a nice perk! But most importantly, diving has helped me with the healing process. It’s the only time that my mind can shut out all the sadness from my loss and the stress from daily life and truly live in the moment. If only I could do it every day! 60 | A P R IL 2019
Left: A colorful cowfish Top: Shane Reynolds finding serenity in the deep blue sea Above left: A cigar jellyfish on the hunt Above right: A lettuce sea slug
Curious Caribbean reef sharks Below, left to right: A soft coral reef in the Bahamas; a parrotfish zips by; Romona Robbins and Shane Reynolds with a large nurse shark (Photo by Chris Johnson)
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 61
Voyager
Visit DiveDestin.net and AllStarLiveaboards. com to learn more or plan your excursion.
Romona Robbins is a Northwest Florida photographer and dive master who specializes in travel and underwater photography. Over the past decade, she has worked on many network, commercial, and independent projects in over thirty-five countries for clients such as National Geographic, Travel Channel, Lonely Planet, and, of course, VIE.
This blue hole is a 275-foot-deep sinkhole off the Bahamian coast.
PARADISE. MAKE IT YOURS.
Get away to paradise. Come play on miles of white-sand beaches, splash in turquoise waters and explore endless family fun, eco-adventures, nonstop thrills and romantic escapes. Exhilaration awaits. Make it yours.
VISIT NOW VisitPanamaCityBeach.com/make-it-yours
SAV I NG T H E
OLIVETREES By Rebecca Hall
OF G R E E C E
64 | A P R IL 2019
Voyager
Think of Greece and you’ll no doubt picture blue skies, islands, endless seas and horizons, eating fresh fish at a seaside taverna, and the staple of the land—olive trees. These ancient trees—some of them hundreds, if not thousands, of years old—provide much to the earth: food, shelter to small animals, and water. They literally give back to the environment. Should we not respect these “wise old men of the land” and protect them wherever possible? Alas, man and technology can be nature’s enemy. Even in Greece—a country that tries to work in harmony with the nature that surrounds it—these beautiful trees are not immune to destruction. Railway line construction, for example, can mean the removal of hundreds of ancient olive trees to make way for new infrastructure, and they often end up in the homes of people to use as firewood. Enter a Greek-American philanthropic family doing all it can to preserve this proud, ancient cultural symbol of Greece.
T H E ISL A N D OF IOS Ios is a Greek island nestled between the famous tourist spots of Santorini and Mykonos. With no airport, it’s quieter than its neighbors yet no less beautiful. A hippie haven in the 1970s, Ios has since shaken the negative connotations that went with the peace and free love aspects, but it never lost its charm.
The small Greek island of Ios is home to not only scenic, off-the-beaten-track travel destinations but also a family’s effort to save the country’s ancient olive trees.
And yet, as with all gorgeous destinations, the fear of overdevelopment is always lurking in the wings. “We saw what happened to other Greek islands transformed by overdevelopment,” says Vassiliki Petridou, founder of LuxurIOS Island Experience, the local eco-resort company. “We’re determined to save Ios from that fate.” How is it possible to stop an island from becoming overly popular and imploding while also maintaining jobs and livelihoods for the locals? The Petridou family has such respect for the earth and an affinity to the island that, after a lengthy bureaucratic process, they purchased a significant amount of land there to sustainably develop a small portion of it,
leaving the rest to thrive and offer visitors a genuinely untouched Greek island experience. They wish to ensure that Greek island cultural heritage continues to thrive for future generations of locals and visitors alike. From this desire, the LuxurIOS tourism project was born.
LU X U R IOS ISL A N D E X PE R I E NCE The “Luxur” in the LuxurIOS name is no coincidence. The concept is to provide luxury to all who visit the island from a unique, state-of-the-art tourism perspective. Petridou and her team maintain there are five elements to a successful vacation experience: luxury, privacy, culture, environment, and fun. This is reflected in the land they have so far developed on the island. There is a selection of beach bars, a sunset lounge experience, an environmentally friendly fivestar, sixteen-suite boutique hotel, and, at the time of this writing, Calilo—derived from “Create a life you can fall in love with”—a thirty-suite five-star resort and spa being developed in the middle of a thousandacre plot with six miles of coastline, guaranteeing nearly absolute privacy. Don’t be fooled by the word “development.” As mentioned, the Petridous have a huge respect for the environment, and their projects have been constructed in a way that works in harmony with nature. All venues have underground water reservoirs to collect water during the rainy season to be utilized during the summer tourist season; all electricity and telephone lines and cables are underground, ensuring no visual pollution to the environment; and, wherever possible, they use local materials from the building sites in construction. These efforts led nicely into the Elektra Olive Tree Project and the saving of more than 280 olive trees, each over three centuries old. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 65
Voyager
You can see the symbolism that the olive tree represents and its importance to Greek life.
You can see the symbolism that the olive tree represents and its importance to Greek life. It should be held in high regard, so why should modern technology destroy it?
EL EK T R A & T H E OL I V E T R EES Olive trees have a symbolic importance in the Mediterranean region, especially in Greece. Legend says Zeus arranged a contest between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of the city of Athens. As his gift to the people, Poseidon raised his trident, smashed it upon the rock of the Acropolis, and produced a salt spring. Athena, the goddess of wisdom, produced an olive tree with rich fruits dangling from the branches. This showdown between the two powerful gods is immortalized in stone on the western facade of the Parthenon. The ancient Athenians chose Athena’s gift, and the olive tree has remained a central part of Greek life ever since. Its leaves have been used to crown the heads of victorious athletes, generals, and kings. Its wood is used to build houses and boats. Its oil fuels lamps, is rubbed into the toned bodies of athletes, and is added to all food dishes. Olives are a staple of the Mediterranean diet and a valuable export. 66 | A P R IL 2019
The Elektra Olive Tree Project works to combat this destruction. In 2013, over 180 olive trees in a small village in the southern Peloponnese faced elimination with the construction of a new stadium. Upon learning this, given their love of nature and ability to take action, the Petridou family set about finding ways to rescue the trees. This meant raising all the trees from the ground so as not to destroy the roots, transporting them over 320 miles by truck and ship, and replanting them on the island of Ios, specifically among the LuxurIOS enterprises such as Calilo. This came at considerable cost, but the family knew it was worth it to save these ancient symbols of Greece. The process involved removing all the branches from the trees, but the trunks and roots remained intact. Once replanted, the limbs regrew, one sprig at a time, and the trees now thrive in their new environment facing the Aegean Sea. Each tree has been given a name and a GPS coordinate. To date, the Elektra Olive Tree Project has also replanted fifty-five thousand trees and bushes of various species and 283 olive trees that were due for destruction and destined for firewood. The plantings help to restore previously burned and
deforested habitats on the island and decrease the carbon footprint of its inhabitants, assuring a greener future. The Elektra concept is so popular that any time olive trees are in danger, Petridou’s team will receive a call to see if they can be saved.
AA 26001879
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED A BOHEME DESIGN, LLC / CHRISTOPHER BARRETT PHOTOGRAPHY 2019
Rebecca Hall is an English language teacher turned travel writer and novelist living in Greece. She writes for various online publications and maintains her travel blog, Life Beyond Borders. Her debut novel, Girl Gone Greek, was released in 2015.
Photo courtesy of LuxurIOS Opposite top: The charming port of Ios at the head of Ormos Harbor Opposite bottom: A beautiful cathedral on Ios
BOHEME DESIGN
Head online to VisitGreece.gr/en/greek_ islands/ios to learn more about the island.
Left: The Erego olive tree on Ios, one of thousands saved and relocated thanks to the Elektra Olive Tree Project
A
If a tree does happen to die during the process, it does not go to waste. The trunks are created into beautiful sculptures and furniture and showcased throughout the LuxurIOS enterprises, symbolizing Greece to its fullest.
Voyager The town of Chora on Ios as seen from above Photo by RAndrei / Shutterstock
Each olive tree relocated by the Elektra Olive Tree Project has a specific name and GPS coordinate.
TR AV ELING to IOS GE T T I NG T H E R E Fly to Athens and catch a ferry (approximately six hours) from Piraeus, or fly to Santorini, either via Athens or direct from some European destinations in the summer season, then ferry to Ios (approximately forty-five minutes to an hour).
W HER E TO STAY Agalia Luxury Suites – A member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, this property overlooks the Aegean Sea and offers sixteen suites: three with private pools, three with private pools and hot tubs, and ten individual suites. Calilo – Due to be completed in the summer of 2019, Calilo will offer five-star spa luxury on a thousand-acre plot of beachfront property along six miles of coastline. All thirty suites will have private pools, providing the ultimate in privacy.
Erego Beach Club and Restaurant – A smaller and quieter version of Pathos, minus the DJ. It, too, has a large infinity pool overlooking the Aegean and a selection of Greek dishes with a twist.
ENTERTA INMENT
Steps Bar – Located in Chora, the only town on the island, Steps is laid out almost like an amphitheater, but with scatter cushions and handmade carpets for sitting, offering a quiet atmosphere to have a drink at the top of the island.
Pathos Sunset Lounge Bar – For those who are looking for more of a party atmosphere, this is the place to be seen. This LuxurIOS Island Experience is set in Koumbara Beach overlooking the Aegean with a large infinity pool, five hot tubs, twenty-two entertainment areas (including five dugout hideaways), and a restaurant and bar.
In all of these venues except the Steps Bar, it’s possible to see olive trees that have been planted and furniture and sculptures that have been created from tree trunks. Ios is not just another Greek island—it is an experience. Be sure to come and see for yourself!
68 | A P R IL 2019
WALKS OF ART B Y A N D R E W M A RS H A L L
G O O D F O R T H E B O DY A N D T H E M I N D
Voyager
Sculpture by Henry Moore—part of his Open Air Bronze Collection at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
You don’t have to be in an art gallery to find inspirational works of art. Head to the north of England to discover plenty in the great outdoors.
here are many ways to view and appreciate works of art, but there’s something inspirational and liberating about walking among art in nature instead of in a crowded indoor gallery. Henry Moore (1898–1986), a leading English artist of the twentieth century whose sculptures are synonymous with the landscape, said, “Sculpture is an art of the open air. Daylight, sunlight is necessary to it. I would rather have a piece of my sculpture put in a landscape, almost any landscape, than in or on the most beautiful building I know.” With this concept in mind, we visit the north of England, which is blessed with a selection of excellent art walks where you can discover sculptures in the great outdoors.
YO R K S H I R E S C U L P T U R E PA R K , YO R K S H I R E “A great day out with or without the kids. Loved exploring and finding all the different artists.” “Space to be free with nature and have our eyes and minds opened.” These are just a couple of the comments from visitors to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP), winner of the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2014 and arguably the top outdoor gallery in the country. YSP is perhaps best described as the art world’s equivalent of a safari park, where over sixty sculptures are scattered across five hundred acres of historic rolling parkland on the eighteenth-century Bretton Estate. The park showcases the works of
Opposite: Chatsworth House, built 1707, is the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire and famous among the stately homes of England. It is open to the public daily for tours and its gardens include a variety of sculptures. Photo by Jane McIlroy / Shutterstock V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 71
Voyager
dozens of leading sculptors, both national and international, including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Antony Gormley, Jonathan Borofsky, Anthony Caro, and Andy Goldsworthy. Several walking trails branch out from the YSP visitor center, and some of the many art highlights include Henry Moore’s Open Air Bronze Collection, Barbara Hepworth’s The Family of Man (on display at YSP for over thirty years), Seventy-One Steps by David Nash, and James Turrell’s Deer Shelter Skyspace. Adapted from a Grade II–listed shelter that would have originally provided refuge for the estate’s deer herd in poor weather, the Skyspace now creates a place of quiet contemplation and harnesses the changing light of the Yorkshire sky.
Right: About one hundred of these cast iron statues face the sea in Sir Antony Gormley’s Another Place at Crosby Beach, Lancashire. Photo by Eddie Jordan Photos / Shutterstock Below: Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North, in Newcastle, Tyneside Photo by Peter is Shaw 1991 / Shutterstock
Throughout the year, there is a diverse program of temporary exhibitions, artist talks, landscape tours, workshops, and family activities. Before you leave, don’t forget to visit the excellent gift shop to browse through its treasure trove of beautifully designed products. The park is situated eighteen miles north of Sheffield and twelve miles south of Leeds, just off Junction 38 on the M1 motorway.
YSP.org.uk
G R I Z E DA L E S C U L P T U R E , CUMBRIA The ten-thousand-acre Grizedale Forest in the Lake District is home to the UK’s largest collection of site-specific art in the environment. Created over the past thirty-five years, Grizedale Sculpture is the
first sculptural concept of its kind, and the forest now holds around fifty permanent artworks by leading international artists in response to the landscape. The first piece was made in the late 1970s by David Nash; since then, artists have continued to respond to the unique forest setting, creating site-specific works in a continually changing landscape. The sculptures can be visited using several popular walking and biking trails that crisscross the forest, including an all-access walking trail suitable for strollers and wheelchairs. A map of all the trails is available from the park’s visitor center or website, and the staff can advise on the best way to see the sculptures based on how long you have or whether there is a particular piece you’d like to see. Keep an eye out for Concrete Country by Lucy Tomlins, a two-and-a-half-metertall representation of a typical country stile. It was the winner of the Thirteenth Annual Battersea Park Sculpture Prize. Equally impressive is Romeo by Owen Bullet and Rupert Ackroyd, a carved oak totemstyle piece that was inspired by the story of Romeo, an urban fox who explored the building site of the famous Shard tower in London, creating media headlines. He climbed to the seventy-sixth floor before being caught by an animal rescue team. Grizedale Forest also hosts temporary exhibitions and events.
GrizedaleSculpture.org
ANGEL OF THE NORTH, TYNESIDE Looming large over the main A1 highway about five miles south of Newcastle is a gigantic statue of a human frame with wings—the majestic Angel of 72 | A P R IL 2019
the North. At twenty meters high—the equivalent of four double-decker buses stacked—and with a fifty-four-meter wingspan that is almost the same as a jumbo jet’s, Antony Gormley’s best-known work is believed to be the world’s largest angel sculpture. Thanks to the number of passing cars on the A1, the Angel of the North is seen by about ninety thousand people daily, making it one of the most viewed pieces of public art in the country and possibly the world. To fully appreciate the sheer size and scale of the Angel of the North, it’s best to park the car and take the short walk up to its base where you will feel absolutely dwarfed. The sculpture weighs two hundred metric tons; there is enough steel in it to make four British Chieftain battle tanks. It can withstand winds of more than a hundred miles per hour, as its massive concrete base goes twenty meters deep to anchor the sculpture to the solid rock beneath. Angel of the North is made of special weather-resistant steel, containing a small amount of copper, which forms a patina on the surface that mellows with age.
NewcastleGateshead.com
C H AT S W O R T H , DERBYSHIRE Situated in the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District and home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, Chatsworth House is one of Britain’s most historic and
recognizable settings, thanks to period dramas such as Pride and Prejudice and The Duchess. Although this magnificent stately home is fascinating to explore, the jewels of Chatsworth’s crown are the thousand-acre park designed by Capability Brown and the 105 acres of extensive gardens, which have been evolving for more than 450 years. In the garden, it’s not Created over the past thirty-five just about typical neatly clipped hedges and lawns: five miles of footpaths wind past cottage and rose gardens, years, Grizedale Sculpture is a rockery, waterfalls, a maze, fountains, streams, and the first sculptural concept of its wooded glades carpeted with wildflowers.
kind, and the forest now holds around fifty permanent artworks by leading international artists in response to the landscape.
Sculpture is clearly a passion at Chatsworth, and over the years, the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire have commissioned dozens of pieces to be permanently sited within the grounds. While not an official sculpture park, Chatsworth could certainly qualify as one with its wealth of both classical and contemporary sculptures to discover, including Angela Conner’s bronze busts of the Cavendish family, woven willow sculptures by Laura Ellen Bacon, and the Lying Down Horse by Elisabeth Frink.
Throughout the year, Chatsworth also hosts temporary sculpture exhibitions. One of the standouts in recent years was by conceptual artist Michael CraigMartin, who installed a dozen giant sculptures of such commonplace objects as a red wheelbarrow, an orange umbrella, and a vibrant pink shoe; all were based on line drawings and appeared oddly two dimensional within the garden setting. Chatsworth has also been home to Sotheby’s Beyond Limits sculpture exhibition, showcasing around twenty monumental and original sculptures by various artists including Anthony Caro, Damien Hirst, Barry Flanagan, Thomas Heatherwick (designer of London’s Olympic cauldron), and one of China’s best known and highly acclaimed artists, Xu Bing.
Chatsworth.org
A N OT H E R P L AC E , L A N C AS H I R E Situated six miles north of Liverpool on the Lancashire coast, the art installation Another Place, created by Antony Gormley, is no ordinary place. Standing spread
Above: One of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s sheep enjoying this piece by Henry Moore, part of his Open Air Bronze Collection Photo by Andrew Marshall V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 73
Voyager over a two-mile stretch of foreshore at Crosby Beach are a hundred life-size cast-iron figures looking out to sea, staring at the horizon in silent expectation. According to Gormley, Another Place harnesses the ebb and flow of the tides to explore man’s relationship with nature, with the figures becoming submerged, then revealed, and weathered by the effects of sand, wind, and water. Walk along the beach to capture the overall views of the installation, interact with the figures, and appreciate them from different angles. Another Place is a dream for photographers—even the most inexperienced will capture good images here. Up close, the figures are vague in detail; some of them are rusty, while others are thickly encrusted with mussels and barnacles. One of the intriguing aspects of Another Place is that, because of the ever-changing tidal landscape, the installation looks different depending on when
you go. At low tide, the majority of the figures will be visible; between tides, the sculptures could be waist high in sea water; and at high tide, they might not be visible. In addition to checking the tide times before you go, it’s a good idea to take appropriate footwear and be aware that it’s not safe to walk out to the farthest figures. For maximum impact, visit Crosby Beach either early morning or late afternoon in fine weather, when the sunlight will enhance the statues and make Another Place even more magical.
Visit FoodGolfTravel.com to see more of Andrew Marshall’s adventures along with his brother and fellow photographer, Paul.
Left: Buddha by Niki de Saint Phalle at Yorkshire Sculpture Park Photo by Andrew Marshall
Voyager
R e flein ctt h e ion
76 | A P R IL 2019
S TO RY A N D P H OTO G R A P H Y BY
MARK FURNISS
I
n June of last year, my wife was going away to Germany for a week for a family commitment, and rather than sit at home twiddling my thumbs, I figured I might as well make the most of it and also take a short trip. While I scanned the budget airline destinations, Santander in northern Spain caught my eye. I was already familiar with the sun-and-sangria areas of the Mediterranean coast, and after doing a bit of research, hiking in the Picos de Europa (Peaks of Europe) of northern Spain appealed to me. Out came the credit card, and after a two-hour flight from my home in Ireland, I arrived in Santander. As I only had a week to spare, I planned out a walking route in advance to make the most of my limited time. My schedule didn’t afford me time to explore the streets of Santander—as soon as I arrived, I hit the road to the town of Potes, the start of my hike.
The valleys of the Picos de Europa (Peaks of Europe) in northern Spain are lush and green, full of quaint villages, and perfect for hiking.
The drive to Potes took about an hour, and it was spectacular. It was a struggle to keep my eyes on the narrow, winding roads as they meandered through immense limestone walls that towered over the route like skyscrapers. After reaching my lodging for the evening in one piece and freshening up, I ventured out for a stroll and a bite to eat. The town of Potes is postcard pretty, with its traditional golden limestone buildings that run along the Quiviesa River, which is crossed by a network of stone bridges. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 77
Voyager
On reaching the town square, I chose a restaurant at random and prepared to fuel up for the following day’s trek. Here is where I first encountered my only gripe with the whole trip. The region of Asturias prides itself on its cuisine, with dishes such as fabada (a sausage and bean casserole) and cocido montañés (another stew with white beans, pork ribs, pork belly, black pudding, chorizo, ham, and bones). This is great for meat lovers, but for a vegetarian like me, there is very little on the typical local menu that doesn’t include pork in some form. So, my meal that evening was iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and local goat cheese. The dinner was agreeable, but after a week of the same meal twice a day, it got tiresome. After one or two grande cervezas, though, I was set for the following day’s hike.
Above: The Picos de Europa are home to many agricultural villages, so trekkers will no doubt encounter local livestock. Right: The elevated trails and hills are often punctuated by meadows of wildflowers.
The weather in the north of Spain is pretty unpredictable due to its topography, but I was blessed with sunshine in the morning for the trek to my next stop of Sotres, with the highest elevation of all the villages in the Picos de Europa. Naturally, my journey involved an awful lot of up. The climb wasn’t such a hardship—the scenery was breathtaking, and the brow of each hill enticed me with the promise of another spectacular view at the other side. Having never visited the region before, I was surprised by the lushness that I wouldn’t have associated with Spain; I could easily imagine I was in the Swiss Alps. Spring flowers carpeted the meadows, and I passed abandoned villages that stood higgledy-piggledy like ghostly reminders of a thriving agricultural past. I found it hard to imagine that anyone would want to leave this place, but the harsh realities of living in such an isolated community compared to the comfort and conveniences of modern towns outweigh most romantic notions of “the simple life.” When I reached Sotres in the late afternoon, I was tired but exhilarated and ready for my supper of lettuce and goat cheese.
78 | A P R IL 2019
I awoke the following morning to rain and thick fog; nevertheless, I donned my rain poncho and plowed on to my next destination of Poncebos. Although gray and drizzly, the landscape still had an eerie beauty, especially around the abandoned villages. The fog seemed to stifle the land, with the silence occasionally punctuated by the distant clanking of a cowbell. As the morning became afternoon, the clouds began to lift and reveal the mountains. Vultures sat on craggy outcrops with their wings spread, trying to dry their feathers as wisps of steam drifted up from the forested valley floor. Before I reached Poncebos, I decided to make a refreshment stop in the village of Bulnes, which involved a descent down a long, narrow dirt track. The morning’s rainfall had reduced the path to a muddy stream. I was halfway down the sludgy slope when the urgent clanging of cowbells startled me. In the nick of time, I jumped out of the way as a stampede of cows came hurtling past me. I had inadvertently got myself stuck in the traffic of a huge herd being cajoled down the mountain by local cowboys who were moving them to greener pastures across the valley. The rest of my descent was spent evading rampaging cattle and avoiding ending up flat on my back covered in mud and cow dung. When I eventually reached Bulnes, I calmed my frayed nerves with a couple of cold cervezas, and there was also a pleasant change to the usual menu—a bowl of patatas alioli (garlic potatoes). After lunch, I enjoyed a relatively leisurely and thankfully hazard-free stroll down to Poncebos. The following day, I headed from Poncebos to Cain via the Cares Gorge. The clear turquoise waters of the Cares River have carved a deep ravine—up to a mile deep in some places—between the central and western massifs of the Picos. The twelve-kilometer Cares Gorge Trail that runs along it was initially a
Spr i ng f lower s ca r peted t he meadows, a nd I pa ssed abandoned villages that s t o o d h i g g l e d y- p i g g l e d y l i k e ghostly reminders of a thriving ag ricultural past. maintenance track excavated into the cliff face in the 1920s to service an accompanying canal that feeds a hydroelectricity station in Poncebos. Today it is primarily a walking trail—possibly one of the most spectacular trails in the world! This trail is the one that prompted me to book my plane ticket, and it didn’t disappoint. Apart from a steady incline for the first two kilometers, the trail is pretty level, but it hugs and winds its way around the sides of the cliffs, sometimes with vertigo-inducing drop-offs of over a hundred meters to the river below. Each bend in the trail seems to expose a more spectacular view than the last. When I arrived in Cain, I would have happily gone back to Poncebos and done the whole thing again the following day, but I had a schedule to keep.
Above: Several abandoned villages throughout the Picos de Europa offer travelers somber yet beautiful scenes to behold. Next page: A vulture dries its wings after a drizzly morning in the mountains.
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 79
Voyager
From Cain, the final stop of my trek was Espinama, whose proximity to the Fuente Dé cable car enabled me to reach the higher areas of the Picos. On the last full day of my trip, I obtained my cable car ticket an hour before the first car of the day left the station and joined a sizable queue of skiers, snowboarders, hikers, and day-trippers. The cable cars take about twenty passengers at a time, so the crowd reduced quickly. As I alighted from the cable car at the upper terminus, the panoramic vistas took my breath away. I planned to explore the Picos above the snow line for a while and then tackle the descent on foot. Who’d have thought you could build a snowman in June in Spain? I spent an enjoyable couple of hours at the top observing the chamois (shaggy-haired, mountain goat–like creatures) while they expertly navigated the icy slopes above me. On the way back down, I trekked through several ecozones, from subalpine shrubland to coniferous and deciduous forests and then through lush meadows, before reaching my lodgings in Espinama. That evening, while picking at my greens and goat cheese, I enjoyed a few more grande cervezas and reflected on an unforgettable trip. Volveré!
Visit MarkFurnissPhotography.ie to see more from Mark’s adventures.
tweens, womens, gi�s 104 north barre� square RO S E M A RY B EA C H , F L
850.231.1720
Wellness around the World BY ANTHEA G E RRIE
What differentiates the great spas of Europe from the many excellent institutions in the United States? Perhaps the answer lies in a focus more on regenerating body and soul than just pure pampering; Europeans think of a “cure” as a process including the elements of nature alongside the usual massages and facials.
From the harvest of the sea to hot mud matured in thermal springs and even the cells of specially bred Swiss sheep, nature is distilled to offer its essential benefits to clients, who are treated more like patients, in the pristine settings of European spas. When it comes to diet, the strict principles of Dr. Franz Xaver Mayr inform many clinics in the mountains of northern Europe, and although the macrobiotic diet might have been conceived in Asia, the world’s first spa to serve foods balancing the yin and yang was in Spain. Gourmet tastes are also amply catered to along France’s northern coast and near the thermal springs of Tuscany. Anthea Gerrie gives a rundown on a few top spas worth crossing the pond for:
Voyager
The thermal spring at Italy’s Terme di Saturnia resembles a giant swimming pool—but has natural healing properties. Photo courtesy of Terme di Saturnia V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 83
Voyager
Clinique La Prairie, Switzerland Despite the controversy that has raged for nearly eighty years over its “rejuvenating” infusions, the Swiss clinic is a consistent award winner, voted one of the world’s top five spas in 2018 by Condé Nast Traveller. This isn’t surprising for an institute that has attracted world leaders and royalty since Dr. Paul Niehans started injecting the rich and famous with cells from the embryos of black sheep specially bred in verdant pastures near the clinic, which overlooks the snowcapped Alps on the far side of Lake Geneva.
In addition to its natural springs, Terme di Saturnia offers many spa treatments and wellness programs, including yoga. Photo courtesy of Terme di Saturnia
The shots are no longer offered, but you can still get the sheep cells in what is now described as “revitalization therapy” and stay in the charming Swiss chalet whose austere guest rooms overlook the lake. But now there is a superluxe, hotel-style annex linked to the medical building where dental work, cosmetic surgery, noninvasive cardiac procedures, and more are performed. Live cell therapy is not compulsory at CLP, which also offers weight management and relaxation programs in gorgeous surroundings. A walk around the lake to nearby Montreux, passing flower-bedecked piers and sculptures, might be the world’s most enjoyable form of exercise. The best part for guests is the thorough medical check using state-of-the-art technology that can diagnose conditions like hyperthyroidism, diminished liver function, and osteoporosis in time to take early preventative action. The cuisine, even down to the dishes designed for weight loss, is sublime. LaPrairie.ch
Poached steak in broth, fennel, shiitake, spinach sprouts, and grapefruit from the wellness menu at Hôtel Le Royal La Baule in France Photo by Laurent Fau / Studio des Fleurs
Terme di Saturnia, Italy If the lake beside CLP is merely therapy for the eyes, Tuscany’s thermal waters are all about the mineral benefits. Terme di Saturnia is built over a volcanic crater feeding pure water—at the same temperature as the amniotic fluid that protects us in the womb—into the resort. Along with the antiseptic benefits of the mineral-rich water for the skin, its cardiovascular and pulmonary benefits and its antioxidizing, antiaging effects on the liver are also worth the visit. While the ever-warm outdoor pools are accessible to the public, the spa’s luxuries are reserved for the guests. These include profoundly comfortable guest rooms, a vast spa where treatments with volcanic mud are a specialty, and a restaurant serving the finest Tuscan cuisine, which has attracted approval from Michelin. A word of warning: the waters are so rich in minerals and gases, they can ruin your jewelry, so leave it in your room before entering the pool! TermeDiSaturnia.it/en
84 | A P R IL 2019
Seawater and Seaweed in France There’s no mud in France’s thalassotherapy spas: these are hooked up directly to the ocean to deliver seawater and seaweed therapy to visitors. Whether you choose to soak in a whirlpool of warmed-up ocean water, have saltwater sprayed on your back during a massage, or get wrapped in iodine-rich kelp, the French believe in the benefits of the waves so much that many citizens get reimbursed by health insurance for taking a thalassic “cure.”
“
The French believe in the benefits of the waves so much that many citizens get reimbursed by health insurance for taking a thalassic “cure.”
”
A peaceful, beautiful view of the ocean from a deluxe suite at Hôtel Le Royal La Baule Photo by Fabrice Rambert
Thalassotherapy spas dot the country’s north shore, and one of the most luxurious is the Thalasso Deauville by Algotherm, the elegant resort to which Parisians flock on the weekends. It has two spectacular hotels—the beachside Le Royal and the even more elegant Le Normandy in the heart of town. The owner of these hotels, Groupe Barrière, also operates Le Royal La Baule, a top hotel and thalassotherapy center in Brittany’s most elegant resort. The strict principles for French thalassotherapy— that spas must be close enough to the ocean to draw in fresh seawater through pipes—were laid down in Quiberon, where the first of many centers along the wild and rocky Brittany coast was established fifty years ago. Brittany has many thalassic spas that can be visited independent of hotel stays, but it’s especially romantic to head across the ocean to Belle-Île-en-Mer, where the Relais & Châteaux Castel Clara has its own island spa. HotelsBarriere.com; Castel-Clara.com/en V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 85
Voyager
Chewing Therapy and Mountain Air in Germany and Austria Dr. Franz Xaver Mayr has a lot to answer for. In 1901, he identified that many digestive problems were the result of not chewing food enough, and, as a result, numerous clinics opened in Austria and Germany offering gut health programs based on the Mayr method. One resort brand, Lanserhof, realized that perhaps a diet based on chewing a stale roll forty times per bite and ingesting little else beyond sheep milk yogurt is not for everyone and has filled the gap for an Ăźberluxurious spa that makes chewing therapy more palatable. Chewing bread at every meal is still de rigueur, but you can find alternatives to the yogurt at breakfast, delicious soups to soothe the stomach at dinner, and beautifully prepared fish and game for those allowed to progress to a gastronomic midday treat. There is more than one Lanserhof, but the clinic high above Tegernsee, near Munich, is hard to beat for austere luxury. Its pristine rooms with luxurious bathrooms and huge decks overlooking the mountains punctuate crisp white corridors, and music enlivens a handsome lobby lounge with sunken seating surrounding a fireplace. Morning exercise in the forest is a particular delight, and there are walking trails, yoga sessions, and electric bikes to borrow, as well as a beautiful outdoor pool. The focus at Lanserhof is distinctly medical, so expect a raft of tests, abdominal massages administered by your doctor, and the option of warm packs laid on your gut by a nurse as you relax your digestive system before lunch. You can also get a virtual colonoscopy here, delivered by a pill attached to a miniature disposable camera. Lanserhof.com/en 86 | A P R IL 2019
Macrobiotic Luxury in Spain The SHA Wellness Clinic, high above Spain’s Costa Blanca, aims to bring macrobiotic principles to the world in a serious way. Lectures teach not only the importance of balancing yin and yang foods but also eschewing plastic wrap and storing food in glass instead. There’s nothing spartan about the resort’s surroundings: rooms are deeply luxe; there are exquisite outdoor and indoor pools; and the restaurant serves gourmet food, even if produce from the deadly nightshade family is excluded along with caffeine. Entrées are mainly based on whitefish, whole grain pasta, and permissible vegetables. The Moroccan-style spa, awash in colorful tiles, has a gentle tepidarium (heated bath) alongside the usual sauna and steam rooms. SHA offers stress management, smoking-cessation treatments, and weightloss programs along with optional sleep therapy, cosmetic dentistry, cognitive stimulation, and innovative capillary treatment for hair loss. There’s also a track
dedicated to promoting healthy menopause, and yoga, tai chi, Pilates, and meditation are all on tap. A highlight of the exercise options, apart from hiking to the picturesque village of Altea, is a beautiful mountain trail that leads to a lighthouse high above the Mediterranean. SHAWellnessClinic.com/en
Anthea Gerrie is based in the UK but travels the world in search of stories. Her special interests are architecture and design, culture, food, and drink, as well as the best places to visit in the world’s great playgrounds. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, the Independent, and Blueprint.
Opposite top: Germany’s Lanserhof Tegernsee resort offers chic accommodations, a saltwater pool, a medical spa, and a golf course. Photo courtesy of Lanserhof Tegernsee Opposite bottom: The relaxing pool deck at SHA Wellness Clinic in Spain Photo courtesy of SHA
C’est la vie
V I E S TA F F H E A LT H & B E A U T Y P I C K S
VES LO
1
Time to Bloom
GER
AL
D
Gucci Bloom Fragrance $49–$165 – gucci.com
LIS
A
For this very special edition of C’est la VIE, we asked our VIE team members to round up their favorite products for health and beauty. Whether you’re looking for new makeup brands to try or perhaps picking out a gift for someone special, we hope you’ll be inspired by some of the things our staff can’t live without!
LIK ES
1
Soft Touch
The Onsen Towel Set $75 – onsentowel.com
Close Shave
Tickled Pink
Triumph & Disaster Stash Box $160 – triumphanddisaster.us
2
YSL Rouge Volupté Shine Oil-in-Stick $38 – yslbeautyus.com
Lasting Beauty
3
Dior Forever LongWearing Foundation $52 – dior.com
88 | A P R IL 2019
2
O
LIV
I A E N J OYS
1
Tech 2 Goddess
Just Peachy
Too Faced Peach-Infused Highlighting Palette $42 – toofaced.com
TR
3
LORAC PRO Matte Lip Color $19 – lorac.com URES EA S
T RA CE
Y
Like a Pro
Clarisonic Mia Smart Connected Beauty Device $199 – clarisonic.com
3
Shine Bright
Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation $42–$60 – giorgioarmanibeauty-usa.com
JORD AN
AD MI RES
Behind 1 the Mask
Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask $48 – summerfridays.com
2
Lighter 1 than Air
Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Complete Coverage Concealer $29 – sephora.com
Make Me Blush
3
MAC Mineralize Blush $29 – maccosmetics.com
Stay Glossy
Glossier Generation G Sheer Matte Lipstick $18 – glossier.com
2
Lip Service
Kiehl’s Lip Balm #1 $9.50–$25 – kiehls.com
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 89
OR
ES
The Eyes Have It 2
ABB Y
AD
Urban Decay Naked3 Eyeshadow Palette $54 – urbandecay.com
Feeling Blue
1
Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue Fragrance $29–$134 – sephora.com
Pocket Full 3 Of Posies
Kylie Cosmetics Koko K Lip Kit $29 – kyliecosmetics.com
HANN
AH
PR AIS ES
1
Naturally
TULA Purifying Cleanser $28 – tula.com
Mother Earth 3
Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay $7 – thrivemarket.com
Born This 2 Way, Baby
Too Faced Born This Way Super Coverage Concealer $29 – sephora.com
Pop of Color
Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm $9 – ulta.com
GHN MERI TS ME
1
From the Shadows
Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye Contour Palette $48 – katvondbeauty.com
90 | A P R IL 2019
2
Pure Barre Destin 34940 Emerald Coast Pkwy #186 Destin, FL 32541 (850) 837-1090
Pure Barre 30A 174 Watercolor Way #101 Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459 (850) 231-0147
Ashley@purebarre.com | pureb a rre.com
La beauté
La beauté IT’S ALL AROUND US
Visit Bellissimo.ie/Galway to see and learn more. Photo by Alex Hutchinson, courtesy of Bellissimo Galway Makeup by Aileen Hannon, Bellissimo Model from Catwalk Model Agency, Galway
Beauty doesn’t stem from perfection—it’s more about being unapologetically you. “Fearless Beauty” is the mantra of Bellissimo Galway’s collection of hairstyles this year. Celebrating twenty years in business in Galway, Ireland, the salon “tribe” shows off their evocative evolution of hairdressing by merging old and new movements in hair. Their latest series, Venti, enters a no-fear zone and brings the beauty of the past into the future through bold colors and modern silhouettes. Walk down memory lane with Team Tribe at Bellissimo Galway when you view their work on their website and social media channels. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 93
La beauté
By Kelsey Ogletree
f you’ve purchased beauty products anywhere recently—whether from CVS or Saks Fifth Avenue—you’ve likely noticed an increase in the number of items labeled as natural or organic. The natural and organic beauty industry is projected to reach nearly $22 billion by 2024, up from $11 billion in 2016. Nowhere is that more evident than in the progressive city of Nashville, which lays claim to an impressive number of homegrown natural beauty brands that all support each other. “It’s kind of like a club of people who are trying to do good things with skin care,” says Jen Auerbach, founder of the small-batch organic beauty brand Clary Collection. “I don’t think there are many other markets where you’d promote a company that does the same thing as you—Nike doesn’t promote Reebok.” Photos courtesy of Clary Collection
94 | A P R IL 2019
They’re more than cheerleaders for each other; they’re helping to build a community around natural skin care. At locally owned shop Lemon Laine, for example,
hosting a few evening health talks has turned into an almost weekly event, where anywhere from twenty to forty people gather to learn about such topics as hormonal balance, stress management, skin care regimens, and makeup application. Here are the stories behind these locally owned businesses and their incredible products. The next time you’re in Music City, check them out.
Adriel Denae and Jen Auerbach
Clar y Collection Jen Auerbach owes credit to a Nashville institution for helping her get her natural beauty business off the ground. If it hadn’t been for the Lane Motor Museum agreeing to house her husband’s vintage Harley-Davidson collection (in the form of an exhibition, no less), she and her business partner, Adriel Denae, would never have been able to move their DIY apothecary into the barn in her Nashville backyard. Of course, it helped that her husband happens to be Dan Auerbach, the Grammy-winning guitarist and vocalist for the Black Keys. “We started as witches in the kitchens making oils with newborns strapped to us,” explains Auerbach, mother to young son Early. Driven to produce a line of organic, healthy skin care made with truly clean products, she began to develop infusions, steeping herbs from her garden in oils to draw in the medicinal properties of the plants—and Clary Collection was formed. Now the barn is where the magic happens. Their best-selling product is the oil-based Clary All Purpose Balm ($17), meant to treat burns, eczema, psoriasis, or any other dry skin condition. Made with calendula flowers, chamomile, lavender, plantain leaves, olive oil, and beeswax, the focus for Auerbach is what it doesn’t contain: petroleum. “We want to be the new Vaseline,” she says. Cl ar yCo l l e c t io n.com V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 95
Photos courtesy of AILA
AIL A Cosmetics In 2013, Dr. Cary Gannon was overwhelmed. Going through a divorce, dealing with a cancer scare, and being diagnosed with a thyroid condition, the managing partner and physician at University Foot and Ankle Centers and mother of two had reached a tipping point. “Everything in my life was toxic,” she says. A friend came to her rescue. “She said to me, ‘You’ve been taking care of everyone else and making no time to care for yourself, and you’re going to start right now,’” Dr. Gannon recalls. That day, over shots of wheatgrass at Whole Foods, she decided to eliminate toxicity from her life. Her new goal: to find ways to nourish her body, not only with healthy foods but also with healthy beauty products. That led to the launching of AILA Cosmetics. The first item AILA focused on was waterless nail polish. Water harbors bacteria, says Dr. Gannon, so polish made with it must also contain many preservatives to prevent microbe growth; many water-based polishes also contain acrylics, which can be very damaging to the nail. “You hear a lot of companies saying [their polishes] are ‘free’ of certain chemicals, but they’re chemicals the beauty industry hasn’t used in decades anyway,” says Dr. Gannon. Another myth, she says, is that all chemicals are bad for you—but that’s not necessarily true. “Man-made chemicals can be healthier in some instances,” she says. AILA’s top-selling nail lacquers, which retail for $14 each and come in forty colors (including the spring green, Wheatgrass!), are made without parabens, sulfates, formaldehyde, and other toxic chemicals while still being chip resistant, super shiny, and long-lasting. Love A ILA . com 96 | A P R IL 2019
La beauté
“
I t’s a little bit of art and science. The f irst question is, ‘Is it clean?’ Then it goes through a f ilter of who’s behind the brand, and the packaging— is it beautiful?
Lemon Laine After experiencing issues with her skin during college, working as a makeup artist, and being part of the first natural beauty buying team for Walmart, Nashvillian Laura Lemon began to realize that her calling in life was beauty. When she learned that 60 percent of what you put on your skin absorbs into your body, a lightbulb went off. “I couldn’t unlearn that information,” she says, “so I became a sponge to everything natural in terms of beauty and wellness.” That was twelve years ago, and she’s since ventured out on her own to launch not one, but two successful
Photos courtesy of Lemon Laine
natural beauty shops (in Nashville and Houston) called Lemon Laine. The stores lure in passersby with Palm Beach–style decor; the aesthetics play second fiddle to the products, however, which are all carefully curated by Lemon. “It’s a little bit of art and science,” she says. “The first question is, ‘Is it clean?’ Then it goes through a filter of who’s behind the brand, and the packaging—is it beautiful? I want someone to walk in and say, ‘This is the most amazing beauty store, and it happens to be natural.’”
There’s also Lemon Laine’s custom oil bar, which is “the heart and soul of what we do,” says Lemon. Make an appointment for a skin consultation, and an “oil barista” will work with you to create a custom facial oil for your unique skin. L e mo n L ain e .c o m V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 97
La beauté
“
W here you get those products is ver y important, so you know farming practices are sustainable.
Little Seed Farm When Eileen and James Ray decided to leave New York and plant their family’s roots in rural Tennessee, they took a leap of faith. She was a fashion designer and he an investment analyst; they had no family in the area nor any experience with farming. It had always been their dream to build a farm based on sustainability, and that’s precisely what they’ve done the last seven years.
Photos courtesy of Little Seed Farm 98 | A P R IL 2019
Their eighty-four-acre Little Seed Farm is home to a herd of forty organic, 100 percent grass-fed goats, which produce milk that goes into items like natural and organic moisturizer, deodorant, and liquid and bar soap. They also source olive, hazelnut, and coconut oils from organic farms around the world to make serums and body oils. “Where you get those products is very important, so you know farming practices are sustainable,” says James.
Deodorant cream is their top-selling product. Free of aluminum, baking soda, gluten, parabens, and GMOs, it’s a natural deodorant that actually works, and it comes in delicious scents like grapefruit lemon and rosemary patchouli ($14 each). To encourage people to give natural deodorant a try, they offer free samples on their website. “When you find a deodorant that works, you don’t switch,” says James. “For us to have a different format (applying with your finger), it can be an awkward thing.” Though they ship the samples at a loss, they’ve found success in converting people once they’ve tried it. L it t l e Se e dFar m.com
Tile + Mosaics
Design Stone + Concrete 17 Uptown Grayton Circle Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459 (850) 213-0000 · Q-Tile.com
EEDS OF
HANGE BY TOR I PHELPS
ONE COMPA N Y IS R EI N V ENT I NG MODER N SK I N CA R E BY BR I NGI NG IT BACK TO ITS ROOTS.
our products aren’t ‘pretend natural.’” The casual comment, from an early fan of her company, has stayed with Rebecca Swanson Gournay for nearly a decade. Someone gets it, Gournay marveled. Suddenly, she was sure others would too. That observation about Seed, the plant-based skin care and body care company Gournay founded in 2009, resonated so deeply because it not only summarized Seed’s ethos but also pointed to the reason she gambled everything to launch the brand in the first place. At the time, Gournay and her husband, Benjamin, were trying to start a family and, wanting to stack the odds in her favor, she decided to clean up the products she used. But in searching for body care products that were both natural and effective, she found—nothing. Many looked good on the surface, but closer inspection revealed petroleum-based ingredients, artificial fragrances, and other additives that were far from green. Frustration turned into a flicker of an idea: a company focused exclusively on clean skin care products that were safe for everyone and that actually worked. 100 | A P R IL 2019
If anyone could make it happen, Gournay could. The Minnesota-raised Boston transplant had spent an impressive career working with some of the biggest names in consumer goods, including a decade at the world’s largest personal care product company. She’d been toying with a nebulous vision of entrepreneurship combined with her passion for consumer goods, but the exact products didn’t come into focus until her fruitless search for plant-based skin care. From the beginning, Gournay and her husband, who cofounded the company and continues to keep a hand in while also running an e-commerce consulting business, saw their audience in the mirror. Unlike what was available at the time, Seed wasn’t aimed at a quirky few, nor was it intended to be a bargain-basement line that misled people into thinking they could
La beauté buy eco-products for pennies. Seed was created for the increasingly mainstream market who cared about ingredients and were willing to spend a bit more for the good stuff. In Seed’s case, that good stuff starts with the main ingredients: seed oils, from which the company took its name. Those oils, along with every other ingredient (like green tea extract or aloe leaf juice), are listed on the products as well as on Seed’s website. The transparency is intentional. Gournay encourages consumers to read skin care labels—including her line’s—the same way they would food labels, with an eye toward real, clean ingredients. Specifically, she cautions, keep an eye out for brands that tack on a couple of natural ingredients to a mostly petroleumbased formula. Gournay is determined that her customers will never have to question the purity of her products, which have expanded to include everything from facial cleansers to body creams to bath bombs. And she’s exceptionally proud that Seed has built a top-notch reputation among both customers and watchdog organizations such as the Environmental Working Group. Though built on stellar ingredients, the company’s reputation is bolstered by its founder’s trademark honesty. If you want to know which of her products is her favorite (“I use the extra moisturizing face cream the most”) or whether she’s ever encountered a bias against female business owners (“I once screamed in the car on the way home from a meeting”), she’ll tell you. She’s even frank about the reason Seed isn’t organic: money. Not Seed’s bottom line, but rather its customers’. Gournay, who buys organic produce and believes in its value, says going completely organic would raise product prices beyond what many people could afford. And that would be counter to Seed’s mission of moving consumers away from potentially harmful ingredients and toward clean, plant-based ingredients. “We
want to motivate as many people as we can to buy a better product,” she says, adding that Seed does use some organics. “We don’t want anyone to stick with a not-so-great product because they couldn’t afford an all-organic price.” Better products, to Gournay, are synonymous with plant-based. It’s a term that means much more than the unregulated “natural.” Specifically, it means that Seed’s ingredients were planted, harvested, and distilled into a formula where each serves a distinct purpose. This no-fluff, all-real-stuff goes back to the formulation, which is done by a PhD chemist who has been with Seed from the beginning. Gournay says Seed’s strategy of developing everything internally—a rarity in the skin care world—and its “not too big, not too small” Goldilocks size provide distinct advantages over both bigger and smaller peers. Whereas larger companies may struggle to retain control over external manufacturing quality, smaller firms often can’t put the same rigor into product testing that Seed does. Positioning plant-based ingredients as safe isn’t exactly a hard sell. Where Seed has made progress in the “green skin care” industry is in bringing products to market that work as well as, or even better than, synthetics—a historically difficult task. Gournay doesn’t understand why, though, contending that Mother Nature has always provided greater compatibility. “When you think about it,” she says, “it just makes sense. Your body is better able to absorb a natural ingredient.” Fragrance selection is the one category where plant-based ingredients can’t compete. While non-natural companies retail pumpkin spice lip balms and cupcake-scented lotions, Gournay refuses to compromise when it comes to artificial fragrances. They’re the number one skin care irritant, she reports, and, as one of the millions of people affected, she understands firsthand the value of using only essential oil fragrances in Seed products. Unfortunately, a cupcake essential oil doesn’t exist, but Seed does offer dozens of options—like lavender, lemon, and peppermint—to please scent lovers. Those essential oils are crucial to Seed’s Beneficial Blends Body Care line, which was created to either boost or alleviate everyday issues from concentration to
Specifically, it means that Seed’s ingredients were planted, harvested, and distilled into a formula where each serves a distinct purpose. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 101
La beauté stress. But can essential oils really do that? Probably, Gournay says. She confirms that some have definitive scientific backing. Lavender has been studied clinically, and it does, indeed, produce a calming effect; lemongrass, too, has been proven to repel mosquitoes naturally. With characteristic frankness, she admits that others don’t have medicinal bona fides, mainly because very little money is funneled into studying essential oils. No one can “own” them any more than one could own a fruit or vegetable, so few companies are willing to foot the astronomical bill for clinical studies without profits on the horizon. Still, Gournay doesn’t dismiss the fact that essential oils have been used for thousands of years. “Look at chicken soup,” she says of the classic remedy. “Science has finally proven what we’ve known all along: it’s good for a cold.” The company’s back-to-basics approach also extends to its online sales model, where her team demonstrates the kind of customer care that’s rarely seen these days. Tucked inside each package is a handwritten note to the recipient, and the company even remembers customer preferences so they can be alerted when new offerings
are added. These kinds of details take time and effort, Gournay acknowledges, but she can’t imagine running her business any other way. Creating genuine relationships, whether with her customers or the mostly female Seed team she credits with making her vision a reality, is by far the best part about her job, she says. Through those relationships, she’s come to understand that, far from being frivolous, body care impacts the way people look and feel daily. “I get emails from customers saying that Seed has made something better in their life—they feel better or have more confidence,” Gournay says. “That makes me feel like we’re doing something important.”
SeedBodyCare.com Tori Phelps has been a writer and editor for nearly twenty years. A publishing industry veteran and longtime VIE collaborator, Phelps lives with three kids, two cats, and one husband in Charleston, South Carolina.
EVEN ROUTINE DESERVES A REWARD.
SerenitybytheseaSpa.com
Appointments 850-374-5403
SANDESTIN BEACH GOLF RESORT & SPA
4000 Sandestin Blvd South, Miramar Beach, FL 32550
GREAT HEALTH IS THE NEW WEALTH ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION FOR $29.95 V IEM A G A ZINE.C OM / S UB S CRIBE
Bon appĂŠtit!
Once Upon a Farm cofounders John Foraker, Jennifer Garner, Cassandra Curtis, and Ari Raz
104 | A P R IL 2019
Once Upon a Farm A STORY OF GOOD FOOD BY J O R DA N S TAGG S
Trudging through the grocery store and trying to discern which “healthy” foods are actually good for you is an experience many of us face today. It can be especially difficult when choosing foods for children, as even those products labeled “all natural” can sometimes be deceiving. That’s where brands like Once Upon a Farm come in. This cold-pressed organic food company is raising the bar on freshness, taste, and transparency about where their ingredients come from. We caught up with the brand’s marketing communications manager, Jane Ablaza, to get the scoop:
VIE: How did the idea for Once Upon a Farm originate, and how did your founding partners get connected? Jane Ablaza: Once Upon a Farm was started by entrepreneurs Cassandra Curtis and Ari Raz, who created the first cold-pressed, organic pouched baby food in 2015. In 2017, industry veteran and former Annie’s CEO John Foraker joined the brand as cofounder and CEO, while award-winning actress Jennifer Garner also joined as cofounder and chief brand officer with the goal of providing as many children as possible with the best-tasting, most nutritious, and highest quality foods created using sustainable methods. Once Upon a Farm is a mission-driven company that is refreshing the baby and kid food categories by offering the first organic, cold-pressed baby food, applesauces, and smoothies—our cold-pressed blends are as fresh as they get without making them yourself ! We are
committed to nurturing children, each other, and the earth to pass along a healthier and happier world to the next generation.
More about our cofounders: Cofounder and CEO of Once Upon a Farm John Foraker has spent more than thirty years in the natural and organic food industry running businesses with a sharp focus on sustainability and social responsibility. John is an organic industry pioneer and former longtime president and CEO of Annie’s. In September of 2017, actress and mom Jennifer Garner joined Once Upon a Farm as the chief brand officer to lead the company’s strategy and vision. Cassandra Curtis, Once Upon a Farm’s cofounder and chief innovation officer, is helping change the landscape of childhood nutrition by creating high-quality, fresh recipes on the market for kids of all ages. Ari Raz, Once Upon a Farm’s cofounder and president, is leading the charge to resurrect Jen Garner’s Locust Grove family farm to become a working organic farm, which we’ll start sourcing from in the spring of 2019. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 105
Bon appétit! VIE: What are some of your best-selling products? Jane: There is something for everyone! Currently, we offer eleven organic, cold-pressed, ready-to-eat baby food pouches, three toddler blends, two applesauce varieties, and three smoothies for kids. We recently launched our new line of baby food cups, which provide a wonderful bonding moment for parents and babies who are being spoonfed. They are available now at select retailers (check our store locator for a store near you) or online through our website or Amazon starting March 1. They will be available at retailers nationwide in the summer! VIE:What is the best thing about Once upon a Farm for children and parents?
Jane: The best thing about Once Upon a Farm is the way we make our blends—we are as close to homemade as you can get without making it yourself! Unlike shelf-stable brands—which use heat—Once Upon a Farm foods are cold-pressed, using high-pressure processing (HPP) to better lock in the nutrients, taste, texture, and aroma of the ingredients we use in each of our blends. Our products can be found in the refrigerated section—not on the shelf—or in coolers in the baby aisle at select retailers. VIE: We love that you show your customers exactly where you source your produce. How do you select the farms that work with you?
FABULOUS KIDS’ FASHIONS & TOYS 62 main street ROSEMARY BEACH,FL gigisfabkids.com 850.231.0110
Jane: We are growing some of our organic fruits and vegetables on the century-old family farm of our cofounder Jennifer Garner and sourcing all of our other produce from passionate farmers we know and trust. We do source high-quality, certified organic ingredients from all over to ensure our family-to-family blends are the best for your little ones. We’re continually innovating with new recipes and products that kids will love. Stay tuned for what’s in store this year!
Visit OnceUponAFarmOrganics.com to learn more or order products.
Introspections
Children from a rural village in India
Lifting Spirits A
108 | A P R IL 2019
HOT
A F T E R N O ON
I N
I N DI A
S t o r y a n d p h o t og ra p h y b y Pa t r i c k Ry a n
It was a sultry day under the Indian sun. I still question why we decided to spend a few months in southern India during the hottest time of year. An uncomfortable, warm gust of wind hit my cheek and reminded me of the layer of sweat and dirt stuck to my face. A slight grin peeked out from the corner of my mouth. But while we walked down a dirt road, I knew I didn’t want to be anywhere else. I felt right at home. I worked with groups overseas in ministry for over two years before that trip. During that time, I had the privilege of partnering with local churches in various countries. Some months, we trained local believers on how to read the Bible and have a relationship with God; other times, we helped students learn English. This month looked quite different. The church we were with wanted us to help them introduce Jesus to everyone in their state. If you know anything about India, you know a state contains an immense number of people. India is one of the most spiritually driven places in the world. There are a plethora of temples on the streets where people will stop to pray or leave food offerings for the many gods. You don’t have to walk far before you pass one. India is also a place where apathy, discrimination, disease, and physical ailments are prevalent. Most Indians are people who constantly search to find more meaning in life. Sadly, they’re often searching in the wrong places. Jesus is the only place where you can find true peace and joy. Our Indian friends in that southern area wanted to bring the love of God to everyone they met. A local believer, Sai, had his life completely changed when he met Jesus. Since then, he has spent time learning more about the good news of the Lord and wanted to start his work in an outcast village. He had been planning to move there to begin his ministry. The day we went was his first day there. Together with the local Indian believers, we made our way to the village. They had told the villagers we were coming, so our friends told us to expect traditional Indian hospitality—and let me say, Southern hospitality in America is great and all, but they ain’t got nothin’ on India! V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 109
Introspections
110 | A P R IL 2019
As we turned the corner, I looked up to see a mass of people taking over the road. All of a sudden, the sound of old drums filled my ears, followed by shouts and singing. Children rushed to hand us flowers, and people threw petals everywhere. It was like the Fourth of July, but with more dancing, jumping, and singing and an absence of red, white, and blue flags. The entire village was in the street, and for the next hour, we danced and drank chai as we slowly made our way through the town. These people never have visitors because the old caste system in India had labeled them as “untouchables.” We made our way to an open area filled with seating, where a feast was to be held. We washed our hands first, and then the villagers provided us with a wonderful traditional meal. I couldn’t help but smile through the sweat that comes from spicy Indian food: vegetables, curry, spices, rice—and no cutlery in sight!
The Spiri t of God spoke to the people of this vill age who once were le t down trying to find fulfillmen t and deli verance
Sai started to share the love of God and good from Hindu news of Jesus with these people. They were about to become his family. As we prayed for people, I witnessed pain leaving their bodies, bones miraculously mending, the blind seeing again, and joy taking the place of emotional hurt. The Spirit of God spoke to the people of this village who once were let down trying to find fulfillment and deliverance from Hindu gods. They had a life-changing encounter with the Creator God, and their lives will never be the same. Sai was ecstatic about his first day in the village. He was nervous about the challenges he would face, but God answered his worries by revealing Himself in a powerful way almost immediately!
gods.
I realized something that day: I’m not so different from those people in India. I look for fulfillment in many different things. Like many Americans, I struggle with depression and anxiety. Why? I would argue that we look to all the wrong things to help soothe the hurts of life: money, overworking, social media, isolation, alcohol, and other things. All of these seem to help at the moment, but the next morning comes, and we are left with the same feeling or thought we had before: there’s got to be more. We wish we could find it. Here’s the thing—there is more! God wants so much more for you mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. He doesn’t want you to wonder whether there’s more to this life than what you’re living, because He is the more. If you feel like something is missing from your life right now, Jesus is right there at your door waiting for you to let Him in. Ask for His help, and I promise you He will answer. Then, when you find that extra strength to take on the day, there’s a world out there that needs to experience love, and you can help it. Smile at a stranger, compliment someone, and make people feel like they matter. You never know what someone is going through. Here’s to many more moments like that hot summer afternoon in India.
Sai, an Indian missionary, led a team of Americans to pray and spread the Word of God in an outcast village. Children and adults were open to receiving the faith and strength of Jesus. Bottom left: Patrick Ryan shares an uplifting moment with some of the village children. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 111
Introspections
P O S S E S S I N G
PEACE BY FELICIA FERGUSON
112 | A P R IL 2019
S U P P O RT T H E S P O U S E . RA I S E T H E K I DS . H E L P T H E CAU S E . F I N I S H T H E P R OJ EC T. P L E A S E T H E B OS S . G E T T H E P R O M OT I O N . DO THE SHOPPING. PAY T H E B I L L S . The heart pounds and anxiety surges as responsibilities mount and nice-to-dos become must-dos. The Joneses have this and do that, so I must have and do the same—if not more. Because she who dies with the most toys . . . It is so easy to lose ourselves in the hectic and demanding pace of life, work, and home. We take a breath and notice another year has passed, another milestone has been reached. And yet we feel less alive, more anxious, and mostly unfulfilled. Peace seems to be the ultimate unattainable—the holy grail for the modern human. But (cue Laurence Fishburne voice here), what if I told you there was a way to find an inner peace that seeps into the pressures of life and eases both self and circumstance? There is. It is an ancient method that is igniting curiosities and invigorating souls. But like most things, there’s a catch: it requires a bit of dedication and carving out a few minutes from the frenzy. It is meditation. There are two different branches of meditation, Western and Eastern, with subsets to each category. Western meditation practices are found in Judaism, Catholicism, and Christianity and involve focusing on God, Jesus, or scripture verses. These techniques fill the mind with good, positive truths with the ultimate goal of drawing closer to God and recognizing His presence and power in one’s life. They embrace God’s love and mercy. Divine joy and peace replace stress. Eastern disciplines, such as those found in Hinduism and Buddhism, encourage
an emptying of the mind and a focus on empowering oneself, often by chanting a particular word or phrase. They reinforce the idea that people can become one with God or the Universe and direct their situations and outcomes. Stress is relieved through controlling one’s thoughts. Though often at odds with faith and religion, science has begun to study the practice of meditation and its impact on physical and emotional health. And the results confirm what proponents of meditation have intrinsically known for thousands of years: it’s good for you! Multitudes of studies have revealed that the brain changes for the better after meditation and prayer. Test subjects’ frontal lobes—responsible for executive function or the ability to think through situations and make rational decisions—increased in volume after meditative activities. The parietal lobe (which processes taste, temperature, and touch), the limbic system (primarily And now, dear brothers responsible for emotions), and the thalamus (the relay station for and sisters, one final sensory and motor signals) have thing. Fix your thoughts all demonstrated documented on what is true, and changes in activity after meditation. Additionally, the autonomic honorable, and right, nervous system, which operates and pure, and lovely, and without conscious thought, has shown decreases in heart rate admirable. Think about and blood pressure and positive things that are excellent changes in cortisol and endorphin and worthy of praise. levels, among other benefits.
—Philippians There are even promising results specifically for those who have dementia. According to a 2018 Reviews in the Neurosciences article on mindfulness and meditation and their impacts on cognition and stress in dementia, “All studies reported significant findings or trends
4:8 NLT
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 113
Introspections
towards significance in a broad range of measures, including a reduction of cognitive decline, reduction in perceived stress, increase in quality of life, as well as increases in functional connectivity, percent volume brain change, and cerebral blood flow in areas of the cortex.” Now, if the science babble makes your eyes roll to the back of your head, here’s something more anecdotal. The Huffington Post presented the “Top Ten Things People Want in Life but Can’t Seem to Get” in 2016 and 2017 based upon interviews of seven hundred clients of success coach and writer Kathy Caprino. The regular practice of meditation could support, if not attain, six of those reported desires (happiness, peace, joy, balance, stability, and fulfillment). All of this sounds good, right? But, according to a 2012 interview study by the National Institutes of Health, only 8 percent of adults in the United States practiced any form of meditation. If there is so much documentation of its benefits, why do we not move meditation closer to the top of our list of things to do—or even put it on the list in the first place for that matter? Why do we instead choose to pile on more stress and take on The purpose of meditation more responsibilities and hope somehow busyness will equate to fulfillment? is to make our mind calm
and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness. But if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions.
Maybe those early proponents, Christianity’s Apostle Paul, Buddha (the originator of Buddhism), and others got it wrong. Perhaps there is no peace to be found in the modern day. Maybe the times have changed too much for this to be pertinent to today’s society. But before you brush meditation off as an out-of-date solution, perhaps these giants in their faiths and regular practitioners of meditation have some insight. The Apostle Paul certainly understood the struggle. He wrestled with how to choose life-giving actions in his letter to the Roman Christians of his day telling them point blank, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is —Kelsang Gyatso right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.” (Romans 7:15 NLT). Buddha himself, said, “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: not going all the way, and not starting.” So, it would appear this struggle isn’t confined to one period; it is part of humanity as a whole. And if that’s the case, and these men were able to overcome the battle, then it should be possible for us today to do the same. Perhaps the title of Tami Forman’s 2017 article for Forbes.com provides some insight: “Self-Care Is Not an Indulgence. It’s a Discipline.” Ah! There’s the rub!
114 | A P R IL 2019
Discipline. Like many other d-words (e.g., dentist, diarrhea, diet), discipline doesn’t evoke feelings of fun and excitement, often requirements for stress relief. Forman wrote, “It takes discipline to do the things that are good for us instead of what feels good in the moment. It takes even more discipline to refuse to take responsibility for other people’s emotional well-being. And it takes discipline to take full and complete responsibility for our own well-being.” Easier said than done. When everyone and everything needs you, how can self-care in general and meditation in particular be priorities without the side of guilt that seems to come free of charge these days? If boundaries are the primary struggle, perhaps there’s something that you need to do before adding meditation. Doctors Henry Cloud and John Townsend’s multimillion-copy-selling book, Boundaries, offers excellent insights and examples for setting and maintaining, well, boundaries—with self, family, friends, and coworkers. Having boundaries is a significant first step to putting ourselves and our self-care back on the list. Setting the limits and losing the guilt will result in some bruised egos and hurt feelings, but it is well worth the effort to begin the discipline Ms. Forman mentioned. Once the boundaries have been set and are respected, then it is time to find a meditation practice to incorporate into daily or weekly life. Whether one chooses the Western or the Eastern version, be sure to make it a priority and don’t compromise the time set aside for it. In the end, it is the intangible rather than the tangible that is the most fulfilling and life-giving.
Felicia Ferguson holds master’s degrees in healthcare administration and speech-language pathology. A practitioner of Western meditation techniques, she demonstrates their use in her fiction book series, The Paths We Walk, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Felicia finds inspiration in lakes and gardens and is blessed with both at her Destin home. More details may be found at FeliciaFergusonAuthor.com.
a unique shopping experience on
30 A
FURNISHING YOUR LIFEST YLE F U R N I T U R E · R U G S · L I G H T I N G · A RT · A N T I Q U E S ACCESSORIES · GIFTS · OUTDOOR · DESIGN 32 E County Hwy 30A, Grayton Beach, FL 32459 | (850) 534-0700 | BeauHomeInteriors.com
116 | A P R IL 2019
Introspections
Dear Friends,
“
On my way to write to you today, I got distracted. I decided to take a moment and check my Facebook. Need I say more? Then, when I actually began writing, the first thing I did was to look up the word “distraction” in the dictionary. The following are a few meanings of the word: 1. That which distracts us, divides our attention, or prevents concentration 2. That which takes you away from what you are supposed to be doing 3. A person who does either of the previous things mentioned What I have personally discovered about distractions is that they can very well be the enemies of your soul and your destiny. How many times have you seen men and women become distracted by another person and taken off course from what they should be doing to improve themselves or their lives? For example, imagine you get distracted by someone you fancy—particularly someone who might not be good for you, even if you don’t realize it right away. All you can think of is where they are, how they are, and if they are okay. You can be consumed by this, unable to focus or concentrate on the task before you. Your mind can even become overwhelmed by fears of things you can’t control. Ever been there? I certainly have, and it is not fun. Years ago, I started to conduct seminars on “Restoring Excellent Customer Service.” I felt it was a passion in my heart. I wrote a small but effective manual on the topic and held my first seminar in a coffee shop. It was a success—people paid to come! It was a real work in progress, but it made me happy because I felt God meant for me to do it. Shortly afterward, a man appeared on the scene. He was my distraction. Not only that, but I ended up trying to help him and never went back to what I had started. This distraction came from a great need inside me that I did not even realize was there—it was the need to be needed. We all have it, but it can become unhealthy. I am grateful I discovered this, but I was severely disappointed with myself and never went back to conducting the seminars. That not only deprived me of something that made me happy but also denied others the opportunity to learn from me. I believe God gave me this wonderful idea so I could help others. My seminar addressed three topics, and they all had to do with honor: honoring yourself, honoring clients and customers, and honoring management. I have not always been successful at all three, but I have learned that experience is a wonderful teacher. If you fail, you get up and begin again.
His kindness, patience, and love last for all eternity—what a comforting thought. We can all help others by remembering this kindness and passing it on whenever we can.
”
Remember, people are not always forgiving, but God never gives up on us. His kindness, patience, and love last for all eternity—what a comforting thought. We can all help others by remembering this kindness and passing it on whenever we can. Recently, I saw a quote on Facebook that said, “Whatever you decide to do, make sure it makes you happy.” I began to think about that and how conducting my seminars made me feel. I am excited to say I have revamped my notes and prepared some new ones. Now I must find a venue! My lesson is this, friends: Don’t allow distractions to steal you from your dreams and destiny. There are people that need the knowledge and spirit that are within you. You have worth and great value. Remember, God loves you. He never gives up on you, so don’t give up on yourself. Even if you get off course, you can find your way back. Blessings, Pamela Dowling
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 117
Introspections
ONCE AGAIN, THE OTHER DAY—IT DOESN’T MATTER WHICH OTHER DAY—I WAS SEIZED BY THE IRREPRESSIBLE DESIRE TO WRITE A MEMOIR. AFTER ALL, EVEN KIDS ARE DOING IT DESPITE THEIR HAVING SO LITTLE LIFE TO REMEMBER. SO, I MOUSED MY WAY OVER TO THE FAVORITE WEBSITE FOR NARCISSISTS OF ALL AGES, I-ME-MY-MINE.COM, TO FIND THE BEST RECIPE FOR PENNING A MEMOIR. IT SEEMS TO INCLUDE SOME PARSLEY, SAGE, ROSEMARY, AND THYMELY ADVICE, AND HERE’S WHAT I FOUND:
If you want to write your memoir, then follow these easy steps. Despite what you think you learned from Saint Augustine, don’t call it your confessions. Nobody cares, because everyone is confessing and being forgiven for being the criminal victim of a victimless crime (whatever that means). Despite the success of Malcolm X, don’t call your work an autobiography. That is strictly college-entrance essay material, and you’re not writing for the admissions office, but instead for a mass market if you can get it. 118 | A P R IL 2019
Despite the sales of Karl Ove Knausgård’s voluminous My Struggle, you probably won’t be that interesting for six volumes. Besides, you don’t want to be confused with Adolf Hitler, whose memoir bears the same title. Why didn’t someone tell Knausgård? Whatever you do, keep from calling your outpouring a diary. First, you’re no Samuel Pepys, and second, you’ll sound too much like a teenage girl. Consequently, only your parents and your nosy siblings will be interested in the book. Don’t write a travelogue because you’re neither Rebecca West nor are you John Steinbeck. Don’t use “Remembrance” in your title because you’re no Proust. Keep from calling your volumes Childhood and Youth because God knows you’re no Tolstoy. I was losing patience. The site was telling me what not to do, but when would I learn the how-to? Finally, at the bottom of the page, came the recipe. Before you give your work a title, write it. Be sure to include as many of the following elements as you can squeeze in. Keep in mind that you do not have to be original. You might find that your experiences duplicate those of more famous memoirists who are no longer read, so go for it. To paraphrase a wise man: “A hack borrows. An artist steals.”
BY NICHOLAS S. RACHEOTES
Convince your readers that you come from a dysfunctional family. Alcoholism, drug addiction, the death of a real or imagined parent, spousal abuse, abject poverty, or a dangerous setting are pure gold here.
If the above is linked to trauma that shaped your life, be sure to milk it for all it’s worth
I WAS LOSING PATIENCE. THE SITE WAS TELLING ME WHAT NOT TO DO, BUT WHEN WOULD I LEARN THE HOW-TO?
Though you dare not use the title, pour thousands of words into your struggle. The near-death experience, the being misunderstood by teachers and all sorts of adults, the flirtation with a life of crime, or the lapse into substance abuse are all overused—but no less captivating for their possibilities.
We’ve saved the most crucial element for last. Remember that you should neither see yourself as the world sees you nor see yourself as you see you. In short, lie, fabricate, dissimulate, contrive, spin a yarn, tell a tale. Life neither imitates art nor does art imitate life. Reality is slippery, so glide along its surface.
Introduce a character who can save you. Your long-suffering, hard-working single parent or your loving grandparent, perhaps. They should preferably be poor but honest. They could be a devoted same-sex or opposite-sex friend whom you love beyond carnal pleasure. All are possibilities here.
In the end, your memoir’s title will call out to you. Just make sure that it reminds potential readers of someone more famous than you, but doesn’t quite duplicate that person’s tale. By the way, I just tried clicking on the I-Me-My-Mine.com site, and it no longer exists; but then again, it never did. (Proof that lying pays if it carried you through this entire essay.)
Nick Racheotes is a product of Boston public schools, Brandeis University, and Boston College, from which he holds a PhD in history. Since he retired from teaching at Framingham State University, Nick and his wife, Pat, divide their time between Boston, Cape Cod, and the rest of the Western world. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 119
NEVER FORGOTTEN
COAST
INTRODUCTION BY ALEX WORKMAN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY COWART
This page and opposite: Melba and Nate Odum, co-owners of Mexico Beach Marina, plan to rebuild their business and help their community recover in the wake of Hurricane Michael. 120 | A P R IL 2019
#LoveMexicoBeach
Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle in October 2018 and left the town of Mexico Beach, Florida, completely devastated. A team of storytellers from Tallahassee partnered with individuals and entities from around the country to do something to help. They started the Never Forgotten Coast campaign, which created T-shirts for purchase and a website where survivors could share their stories. Through generous donations from people like you, they can help get the community back up and running. Read their stories. Give back. Together, we can make sure the people of Mexico Beach and their experiences are never forgotten.
OUR STORY
BY NATE ODUM, MEXICO BEACH MARINA
My wife, Melba, and I were both born and raised in Miami, and we started vacationing on Saint George Island in the late 1980s, so that’s how we discovered the Forgotten Coast. For our twentieth anniversary, we went to Mexico Beach and began to wonder what it would be like to retire and move there to be near the beach and own a small business. In 2006, my sister, Debbie, and brother-in-law, Bill, ended up buying a condo in Mexico Beach right next to the marina. He and I had always joked about retiring and buying a marina, and shortly after they moved there, the marina became available for sale. So, in our mid-life crisis of sorts, instead of buying a Harley like normal people, we bought a marina. [The media] started talking about Hurricane Michael on Saturday, October 6, and kept saying it wouldn’t be more than a Category 1 or 2, and by Monday, when we realized it was going to be more than that, it was almost too late to do much. When we woke up on Wednesday, we were watching the news and could already feel the winds. Melba really held it together, but when she started panicking, that’s when I knew we needed to take this seriously. Debbie had just had knee replacement surgery, so she wasn’t super mobile, and Bill and I had to weigh our options to figure out what was best for our families. We went into it saying we were staying no matter what, and, in the past, storms have always veered right or left of us. There is usually dry air, but this time, there was no reason for it to slow down, and by the time we realized it was going to be bad, we weren’t about to get seven adults and three pets in a car to try and beat it.
We didn’t get out until the next day. The street was covered in debris. There were houses in the road. Our nephew—we don’t know how he did it—came in from Alabama through Panama City, before people even got out with chainsaws to start clearing roads, and he took Debbie and some of the other ladies out. All of our cars were flooded. You wouldn’t believe how many people we fit in his small SUV. We made it out of town to our ranch a few days later. It’s a long road, mentally and emotionally, to rebuilding, and people get tired of looking at it. That’s when the insurance money and the offers get tempting. We saw it happen after Hurricane Andrew. Right now, we want to focus on the things our town needs. The fishing side of this is going to have to wait because people need bread and eggs and things you can’t run twenty miles to get. We might be the ones to get that up and running sooner than later. We can’t wait three, six, or twelve months to clean this beach and canal up. We need to be thinking about that now. This is a fishing village; it’s a lifeline here. We need commerce back—restaurants, beach stores, another Tommy T’s for the kids. It’s all wrapped into the water. You’ll see other interests coming in, but there’s room for more.
Have you ever been in an earthquake? It was very similar to an earthquake—you could feel it in your feet. If you pictured the eyewall, we were always on the wrong side of it. I don’t know why they called it a Cat 4, because we were experiencing 200-plus-mile-per-hour winds and holding onto doors, wondering when it was going to end because it seemed like it was so long.
Our world has been turned upside down, but the thought of not rebuilding has never crossed my mind. A lot of us aren’t built to give up. Is it bad? Heck yes, it’s bad; but that doesn’t mean it can’t get fixed. It won’t be the same, but a lot of things might come back better. I think we’ll always be able to keep that charm that brought people here, but it’s going to have to change a little bit to grow. We need to be smart about it. The people that we work with and see on a daily basis at the marina are incredible. This whole journey has been a dream. It speaks volumes to the people who live here and visit here, and that’s why you have a lot of people who want that special piece of Mexico Beach back.
We didn’t have boards on the window, so we could see the whole thing. When the whiteout was over and you could start seeing the damage, you knew it was going to be devastation. When you look for ground zero, it’s us.
Visit NeverForgottenCoast.com to see more stories or to donate. Visit MexicoBeachMarina.com to learn more about the marina.
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 121
The Last Word
Solution on next page
HEALTH & BEAUTY BY MYLES MELLOR
ACROSS
DOWN
1 4 8 10 11 13 14 17 20 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 31 32 33 34
1 2 3 5 6 7 9 12 15 16 18 19 20 21 22 24 26 29
Trendy fitness gadget Styled hair elaborately (var.) Swank Lit Pedi focus Uses a scale Title for Elton or Mick Healthy leafy greens Put in place, as a bone Late night host who “led with his chin” ___ Capitan Secluded place for a quiet vacay Healthy kind of acid Distinctive theory Hair woe (2 words) Medical diagnostic procedure (abbr.) The sheltered side, at sea Agreed! Golfer Michelle Like a lot, in the ’60s
Apples and pears, e.g. Perfume sampler Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa host Garten Fruits filled with vitamin C Manicures Fluffy stuff in a comforter Exquisite EVOO, for one Color selection Trendy new beauty term for using a highlighter Meadow Up__, hairstyle Shed a few pounds Formally attired Celery pieces First responders (abbr.) Wedding walkway Innovative
V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 123
The Last Word Solution on previous page
“
Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. —Anne Frank
”
Clean Eating Made Simple Busy schedules can make it difficult to find time to prepare healthy food every day. At Healthy Coast Meals our mission is to take the guesswork out of healthy eating with freshly prepared meals made from all-natural, whole ingredients. • Fully Cooked • Gluten Free
• All Natural • Low Sodium
Order Online for Pick-up or Delivery www.HealthyCoastMeals.com Two Grab-N-Go Locations 98 Eglin Pkwy Suite 8, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32547 | (850) 496-6470 1900 South Ferdon Blvd., Suite 180, Crestview FL 32536 | (850) 496-6872
LA LUMIÈRE 2019 Broker associate Hannah Martin hosted her fifth annual birthday fund-raiser, La Lumière: Party of the Gods, February 8–10 at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort and Spa. The celebratory weekend began on Friday with Feast of the Gods, an over-the-top VIP wine dinner featuring Fleury Wines. The main event, Party of the Gods, was held on Saturday night with an exciting live auction, an interactive photo booth, a live painting by Justin Gaffrey, premium wine and champagne, and aerial acrobatics performances. The celebration ended with the Morning on Mount Olympus Brunch on Sunday. From generous donations, community sponsorships, and live and silent auction sales, La Lumière 2019 raised a substantial amount of money that will directly benefit South Walton Academy, Special Olympics Florida – Walton County, and Westonwood Ranch. Photography by Jim Clark
126 | A P R IL 2019
Renee Launiere and Vladimir Babich
Scott Ruskin and Jenny Brennan
Aerial Dragons performers
Kaley Eckersdorff and Hannah Martin
Gina and Tony Crisafi
Jessica Bracken and Jamie McDowell
Solange and Nick Jazayeri
Ashley Singleton and Bee McNamara
Alexa Blue and Laura Ekstrom V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 127
Au revoir! Visit AnneFontaine.com to shop now! Photo courtesy of Anne Fontaine
Au revoir! BEFORE YOU GO . . .
We couldn’t resist giving you one last tidbit of beauty in this issue! Anne Fontaine, a Paris-based fashion house that made its mark on the sartorial world through its signature white shirts for women, celebrated twenty-five years in business in 2018. The brand’s Carolina necklace plays off the look of a shirt collar adorned with multiple connected crystals that are sure to make a statement. This lavish piece from the brand’s fall-winter 2018 Precious collection will illuminate your neckline—whether you’re heading to a luxurious gala event or just a night on the town with friends. V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 129
C E L E B R AT I N G
24 Y E A R S in B U S I N E S S
12870 U.S. Highway 98 West Miramar Beach, FL 32550 (850) 837-5563
ON THE EMERALD COAST!
Shoppes at Inlet, 13625 Emerald Coast Pkwy East Inlet Beach, FL 32461 (850) 837-5563
Licensed and Published Design Firm
LOVELACEINTERIORS.COM
