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Posts tagged 'travel'

TOP SIX HEALTHY LONDON FOOD JOINTS!

08/01/2018

Happy New Year, if I may still be permitted to say; but for those who chose to extend the festive break, today is the first working day of 2018, and thus, the most tragic day of the year. January statistically correlates with a high volume of re-joiners to the gym again, resolving to be more active and live healthier. Preach alert; the choice I made years ago was to be relatively healthy as an all-year-round lifestyle approach, (not a seasonal one), and it’s broadly been an enjoyable one at that! But for those taking up gym membership today and mobilizing those resolutions (quite literally), remember that so much ground is “made in the kitchen”. So, to help you not only eat healthily but also eat delicious and adventurous fare in 2018, here’s my top curated list of old and new healthy restaurant discoveries to check out around London. MORE… (more…)

THE BIG ACTIVE ESCAPE: AUSTRALIA

02/01/2018

Happy New Year dear reader; I shall kick off 2018 with some travel-related food for thought… Australia has long been at the top of my bucket list, kept on that list thanks to the mammoth pilgrimage required to reach the complete opposite point on the planet. For many travellers in the Western hemisphere, it’s a trip you might only ever make once (if perhaps at all); for others, a single visit and they decide to undertake the permanent move East. It is an enchanting and diverse land, but there’s too much to cover in a single post, so I’ll break it into two digestible bits; this is Part 1, and recounts a sublime week at Qualia on Hamilton Island, part of the Whitsundays, blessed with turquoise crystal waters, dusted with powdered white sands, and fringed by lush tropical forest. Totally repaired since a dreadful tropical cyclone wrought devastation upon the islands some 7 months earlier, The Whitsundays are Australasia’s answer to The Maldives, but with one unbeatable competitive advantage: the Great Barrier Reef. Click MORE to see what exotic treasures I found there…

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WHY TO START TRAINING – NOW !!!

11/12/2017

Amidst the snowy deluge of a brutally frosted British December, Summer is but a moribund memory, seemingly belonging to a different planet (or Sydney in the case of my shots here!). Bikinis and/or trunks are consigned to a forgotten section of the wardrobe and instead, it’s acceptable to hide under countless layers of knitted misc. The commercialized ‘beach body’ frenzy is over; we feel as though we can relax, without the pressure to get naked! It’s also a time when we naturally eat and/or drink a little more than we otherwise would; t’is festive season leading up to Christmas…

For that reason, I say TRAIN NOW; this way whatever excess you’re consuming, at least you’re burning it off at the gym! Furthermore, you’re establishing a fitness routine now rather than leaving it to January, when going cold turkey will feel like a tragic uphill struggle. By the time the equally commercialized ‘new year new you’ fallacy comes around, you’ll already have a strong, regular thing going on; new year, same you! BTW, I don’t subscribe to the January frenzy, instead I believe healthy is a lifestyle choice all year round! This post contains a few 101 tips to get started, right now!

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VISITING THE ALGARVE – VILA VITA PARC…

13/11/2017

Tucked away amidst Portugal’s sun-soaked Algarve coast lies VILA VITA Parc, an indulgent resort hotel overflowing with genuine Portuguese charm, which recently hosted me on a supremely memorable wellness escape. Having visited the Algarve in the past, my mind was at once cast back to rich warm hues and golden light; honey-toned beaches beside the crisp inky-blue Atlantic Ocean, beautifully framed by limestone cliffs and the ever-changing opalescent skies. On this trip, however, I encountered an Algarve which offers some sublime fresh ingredients and amongst others, wonderful fish recipes. I also became better acquainted with a charming inland area (unusual as we Brits tend to languish by the seaside), met with locals living close to nature, and encountered so many very old and beautiful traditions that have been magically preserved. The Algarve is a superb ‘active destination’, with sweeping coastlines offering endless water-sports, (most famously surfing, given the Atlantic fetch) and countless beach-based activities too. Throw in the beautiful natural landscapes which make for great hiking and you have the makings of a healthy, comfortable and energising trip! Here’s a little of my experience…

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DOWNHILL IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, WITH EE!

24/10/2017

A fortnight ago, I had an outrageously exciting adventure; I headed to Machynlleth, in North-West Wales to take part in the Red Bull Fox Hunt, the world’s only all-female downhill mountain biking event (N.B, there were no 4-legged foxes involved, only 2-legged ones on bikes!). Regularly cycling along the leafy roads of suburban North London and growing up biking about the idyllic Swedish countryside I mistakenly thought I probably had this covered and that it would be pretty easy; not for the last time, I somewhat misjudged it! The course was remote, cold, muddy, unbelievably slippery and the mountains were terrifyingly steep at speed; imagine trying to get traction whilst cycling through chocolate slurry… Why did I do it? EE invited me to go somewhere with absolutely no coverage, so that they could show how their 4G ‘Helikite’ can deliver superfast 4G to my smartphone in the most remote places. This was a super muddy experiment for me to prove the thesis. Click MORE to see how I got on during the downhill (clue; my shoes became ‘collateral damage’!)…

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WELLNESS ESCAPE: GRAND HOTEL DU CAP FERRAT

02/10/2017

France has built many exquisite ‘Palace hotels’ over the past hundred years, but this article concerns the grande dame of them all; occupying the entire tip of the St-Jean Cap Ferrat peninsula, the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat (henceforth GHCF) was amongst the first of its kind, and is *the* destination to experience French health and vitality along this gleaming stretch of the coast. Designed by Gustave Eiffel, it stands peerless as an enduring icon of quiet French sophistication, unchanged by the passage of time and yet overflowing with contemporary relevance; the very expression of both heritage and modernity. Inside its pristine white walls can be found the standards by which world-class hospitality should be measured, with the Four Seasons group who now operate this treasure having sympathetically continued its traditions with their unique brand of attention to detail. GHCF is also the most glamorous, most beautiful, and most immersive venue for a wellness escape on this rarefied stretch of the Côte D’Azur – and I don’t bestow that title lightly, as they’re up against competition that’s been bringing their A-game to the Riviera for decades. I’ve visited here for the past 5 years, and never do I leave this sanctuary feeling anything less than supremely recharged, emotionally contented and totally compelled to return. I booked in this year with the express intention of unveiling the wellbeing treasures of this timeless institution on FitnessOnToast.com. Click MORE to discover them all…

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A CLASSIC DAY OUT!

12/09/2017

ALERT! This post has almost nothing to do with Fitness, Fashion, Nutrition or Travel, but it WAS a lot of fun to put together and it teases out a little passion of mine! Last weekend I went to the classic car Concours of Elegance at the majestic abode that is Hampton Court Palace. I was invited by a sponsor of the event, whom I believe to be the most magical of Swiss watch manufactures, Breguet. As I have a clockmaker in the family, I’ve long known of and marveled over this company’s virtuosic mechanical genius; all who call themselves ‘horologists’ worship at the shrine of Abraham Louis Breguet, the godfather of the temporal arts! In 1815, he was officially appointed chronometer-maker to the French Navy and as a keen sailor myself (you might recall my Bronze at Cowes Week) I was quite keen to discover the heritage and credentials of their Marine collection first hand, whilst seeing some of the most fabulous classic cars. Click MORE below to see it all…

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MY TOP 8 HEALTHY PLACES TO EAT IN STOCKHOLM!

29/08/2017

OK I’m Swedish! There, I’ve said it. Well, now you know my secret, I might as well let you in on some more; our capital city Stockholm boasts some totally outrageous places to eat, ranging from those with the Michelin ‘nod’, to cozy cafés and hipster juice bars. Swedes fiercely pride themselves on a little tradition called ‘fika’ which conventionally involves comfy sofas, a chinwag, and indulgent cakes & coffee. But there’s a tension in the air; ours is a nation of militant cake snobs, but we have also jumped firmly on the ‘health bandwagon’; a combo that doesn’t naturally coexist! Luckily dear reader, FitnessOnToast.com is here to help curate your next break in this most exceptional of cities! Click MORE to see my top 8 favourite healthy restaurants & cafes in Stockholm right now…

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SOUND BATHS IN JOSHUA TREE

18/07/2017

I was recently whisked on an adventure with Air New Zealand to discover a different side to California, one which is very much off the beaten path, especially compared to my California trip last year. This excursion led me to LA where I voyaged onward to Joshua Tree National Park, Hicksville Trailer Palace, and Anza Borrego Desert State Park as well as Two Bunch Palms. I had the chance to experience one of the few Dark Sky communities in the world, gazing up at the Milky Way and Jupiter (through a telescope) in Borrego Springs. However, the focus of this post is to share the incredible art of singing sound baths. If you’ve never tried it, it involves neither water nor nudity but instead is a mindfulness movement which took up roots in the desert at the beautiful Integratron – a somewhat quirky location 20 miles north of Joshua Tree. It’s a 38-foot high, 55-foot diameter, all-wooden dome designed to be an acoustic resonance chamber, and an electrostatic generator “for the purpose of rejuvenation and time travel”. Sounds trippy? Click MORE to learn more about a totally unique experience…

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ACTIVE ESCAPE TO ICELAND!

03/07/2017

A fortnight ago I escaped to a remote Eco Retreat called Deplar Farm, in an ancient, primordial landscape where people live a very different, and highly compelling life. Chief amongst any list of ‘the most beautiful places to visit on Earth’ will be found Iceland – I now understand why, and I hope this post shares some of that magic. It’s long been a romantic dream of mine to visit this isolated, mystical land with its rumbling geothermal engine, and tundra-punctuated basalt landscape; perhaps more interesting to you, my dear reader, is the recent proclamation in The Lancet that Iceland is ‘the healthiest country in the world’ alongside my homeland Sweden! But don’t be fooled, as it’s also one of the most inhospitable places to live on the planet – temperatures where I visited can plummet to an average of −30°C in January, and howling winds can lash at a brutal 160mph, with several meters of snow dumping daily. This means schools close, infrastructure suffers and cars avoid some roads for risk of flipping and/or just being buried! The land is barren and rugged but that’s bred a nation of robust and resourceful people. I was astonished by the natural beauty and the local food, but more than anything by just how much there is to do here! Click MORE to discover my expedition to Deplar Farm, the ultimate modern luxury retreat that I uncovered in the land of trolls and elves – a truly magical Icelandic saga!