Among the many wellness strategies Dutch Hollow Medical Day Spa has to offer, now it features a Weight Management and Healthy Lifestyle Program.

“We can teach you healthy ways to manage your weight,” said owner, medical esthetician and wellness expert Mirka Figueroa, who coordinates with her husband and physician Samuel Figueroa, whom many refer to as “Dr. Sam,” for Dutch Hollows’ clients. “We can help you shed those extra pounds and bring a healthy energy level back into your life.”

The new program includes weekly consultations, daily meal and nutrition suggestions, vitamin B12 and B6 injections each week to increase metabolism and weight loss medication under the supervision of Dr. Figueroa. Dr. Figueroa is a staff physician at Saint Anthony’s Health Center in the anesthesiology department.

Dr. Figueroa does a complete physical consultation with each client before starting any nutritional or exercise changes. Mirka Figueroa weighs clients once a week and records what they consumed and when and how much exercise they did.

She also educates clients about supplements, colon cleansing and European weight-management practices.

“When you help the weight get under control, you feel better and have more energy and are happier,” Figueroa said.

Comments from clients inspired Figueroa to add a weight and lifestyle program to Dutch Hollow’s menu.

“Clients would come for skincare and say ‘My clothes don’t look good, I’m not happy with my body, nothing fits, I’m depressed,’” Figueroa recounted. “I’ve always been interested in nutrition and I have the knowledge and my husband’s background.”

So Figueroa studied and did more research before starting the program a month ago.

Figueroa also encourages weight management clients to have massages to rid their body of toxins while helping ease cellulite and stress.

“With massage, you don’t even realize what benefits you are receiving,” she said. “You feel like a different person and like going home and cooking a healthy meal.”

Figueroa shares healthy recipes, shopping lists, snacks and fresh produce containing less sugar. She also focuses on specialized diets for clients who are diabetic, gluten-free eaters or have other health considerations.

“All diets are approved by Dr. Sam. He tells them about their needs and explains why,” Figueroa said. “He helps them understand fruits and vegetables and what each one does.”

The Figueroas also discuss dairy, alcohol and how foods and beverages interact as well as how to pick a personal trainer whom they also can recommend.

“We teach discipline first,” Mirka Figueroa said. “Then to reward themselves, we give them a (spa) treatment. We want to heighten mental awareness of why and how to adjust your body.”

Figueroa said that the younger generation wants to adjust their lifestyle with organic and natural solutions instead of chemicals.
“People need education,” she said. “It’s not a quick fix anymore. I want long-term happiness for you, which is my happiness. You have to understand that maintenance is the key to life.”

Even if someone has a facelift, Figueroa pointed out that humans still age and without proper care for the body and mind, a facelift would be money wasted.

“You have to know how to rest, take care of your skin and body to be happy,” she said.

Clients can join the program for either one or three months.

Full Article and Credits

IL Day Spas Beauty, Botox, Face Lift, Facial Peels, lipo-dissolve, Luxury Gift Packages, Medical Day Spa, Permanent Makeup, Restylane, Spa

Conde Nast readers name Watermark’s spa one of country’s best

The Watermark Hotel & Spa has been voted one of the top spas in North America by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler.

The Watermark earned an overall score of 92.4, ranking it among the Top Ten hotel spas in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean and Canada. The complete list is featured in the publication’s April 2009 issue. The Watermark is the only spa in San Antonio to earn a ranking in this year’s Readers Choice Spa Poll.

“We are delighted to have received yet another top accreditation by Condé Nast Traveler and are pleased to have the support of our loyal customers,” says Rusty Wallace, general manager of The Watermark Hotel & Spa. It’s a testament to our outstanding spa staff that our beautiful facility and expert services have earned consistent praise from both San Antonio locals and hotel guests.”

Readers evaluated 79 hotel spas throughout North America on food and dining, location, treatments, spa facilities and spa staff.

“This is an important ranking for us as spas are playing a critical role in providing an escape from the stresses of daily life,” says Liz Hutto, spa director at The Watermark Spa. “Our spa bookings have held strong within the past six months showcasing a real desire by consumers to relax and re-charge.”

The Watermark Hotel & Spa is owned by Irving, Texas-based Omni Hotels. The hotel and spa is located along San Antonio’s River Walk and is a companion property to Omni La Mansion del Rio Hotel.

Full Article and Credits

Dallas Resort Spa, Spa, Texas Day Spa, Texas Resort Spas 4-star, dining, fine, hospitality, hotel, luxury, restaurant, river, riverwalk, san antonio, Spa, texas, treatment, walk, watermark

In late November, a couple of months after the global financial crisis leaped to the top of news reports, spa lovers browsing  were showing new interest in a concept fit for jittery times. Along with the usual search terms, like “day spas” and “massage,” a newly prominent word was typed into the site’s search engine three times more often than it had been in the summer. That word was “stress.”

Interest hasn’t waned since.   Not only is “stress” still showing up often in the site’s searches, but weekly traffic to “stress management”  has doubled since the summer months.

When the economy was good, taking a spa vacation was largely about pampering yourself. It didn’t matter that the afterglow of that $165 carrot-and-sesame body buff lasted only until your next shower. Now, with the sinking economy on most people’s minds, a trip to the spa has become something else — an investment of sorts, in well-being.

The shift in mood is not lost on spa owners, who have long been savvy marketers, convincing people of the purifying qualities of sweat lodges and persuading them that a nightingale cleansing mask, made from sanitized bird droppings, was truly worth $109.

 

Miraval, the spa resort company based in Tucson, Ariz., is offering a new De-Stress Me package designed for “these trying times,” according to Tracey Anne Latkovic, the vice president of sales and marketing.

 

 

The Eldorado Hotel and Spa in Santa Fe, N.M., is running a Stress Bailout promotion to attract travelers looking “to escape the non-stop coverage of the economy,” according to a press release.

 

 

And under the usual New Agey marketing jargon that flashes across the sleek home page of Canyon Ranch, the destination spa company that was luring guests for body poundings and weight-loss regimens before the modern spa proliferation was a gleam in marketers’ eyes, there is a new message straight from its founders, Enid and Mel Zuckerman. “Has there ever been a time when you could have used an escape to Canyon Ranch more?” it reads, under the caption “The Vacation You Need” and a proverb about health, hope and happiness.

“No?” the pitch continues. “Then book your healthy, revitalizing getaway today and let us help you re-establish your balance. In times like these, nothing — nothing at all — is more important than taking care of yourself and on focusing on what really matters: Health, hope, love and a tranquil mind.”

During past economic downturns, Zuckerman said in an interview, business had been “very strong, because people need to get away to deal with stress, deal with fear, go to behaviorists, do life management, protect their health.” So far, Canyon Ranch’s revenues are “holding up very nicely” this time, too, he said, despite a dip in occupancy of about 10 percent in Tucson and Lenox in 2008. And the company opened a new luxury spa in Miami in December, just when the recession was proving itself entrenched.

Of course, a little financial incentive also helps. To battle the uncertain economy’s dampening effect on leisure spending, spas are marrying their new emphasis on stress relief with a flood of discounts and deals.

Rancho La Puerta, just over the California border in Tecate, Mexico, explains its decision to keep prices at 2008 levels — starting at $2,795 a person for seven nights, double occupancy — this way on its Web site: “We feel that in these tumultuous times a destination spa vacation is more important than ever.” It has also run Bring a Friend promotions that allow a guests to double up and share $1,500 to $2,200 in savings.

Miraval’s Authentic Remedy package, which starts at $399 a person a night — more than 40 percent off regular rates — includes extras like organic wine tastings and cooking classes. Mii amo, at Enchantment Resort in Sedona, Ariz., is holding rates at 2008 levels and offering other discounts.

Not to be outdone, the Golden Door in Escondido has rolled back weekly rates to 2007 levels of $7,750 a person through May 24, down from $8,275 originally planned for this year, and is offering $500 savings if you bring a friend.

Even Canyon Ranch, which has never lowered its published rates — “I could never compromise our standards or cut our programs because we no longer could be who we are,” Zuckerman said — is tinkering with pricing.

Canyon Ranch in Tucson is offering credits of up to $350 for stays of at least four nights (which start at $3,770 a person, based on double occupancy) to out-of-towners, to help offset airfares. Its sister property in Lenox, Mass., has a fifth-night-free deal through April — in effect a discount of as much as $1,000 depending on accommodations and time of week — and is also offering 15 percent in savings when two guests who have never stayed at a Canyon Ranch resort share accommodations.

Last year, at the second-annual Global Spa Summit in New York, Ian Schrager, the trendsetting hotelier who is designing a new spa brand for Marriott, suggested another way spas could improve business — add spaces where spagoers can hang out. “These are places where people can meet and socialize before or after spa treatments,” he said in a keynote address. “People feel good when they come out of the spa and spas can take advantage of that.”

Spa owners have no more insight than anyone else into how long tough economic times will last. “I have no idea whether we got another year or two or three years ahead of us,” Zuckerman said. But recently, Canyon Ranch bookings have been picking up ever so slightly, he said, which he takes as “the message that people still want and need what we have to offer.”

For the nail-biting stress victim who still has enough money left to relax at a spa at all, this may not be entirely the worst of times.

Full Article and Credits

Top Stress Relief Spas and Spa Deals

Spas …The Best Stress Less Step 

Affordable Spa, Arizona Spas, California Spa, Destination Spa, Miraval, New Mexico Spas, Stress Management Spas Canyon Ranch, Destination Spas, ElDorado Hotel, Golden Door, Miraval, Spa, Spa Discounts, Spa Stress Packages, Stress, Stress Management