Avril Mair Chews, Cleanses And Purges Her Way To Wellness At Austria’s Vivamayr Altaussee.
I COME TO MY SENSES deep in a snowdrift, having somehow strayed off the narrow path that winds its way picturesquely around Lake Altaussee and ended up embedded in several feet of pristine, crystalline powder. The air is cold and crisp, the pine trees are hanging low with ice and I am stuck in a hole with dusk falling. For what it’s worth, I’m also starving. I could die out here, I think. Is the pursuit of wellness really worth it?
To explain: I’m at Vivamayr in Austria, perhaps the world’s leading centre for detoxification, where the emphasis is on strict cleansing of the digestive system and re-education of eating habits. What this means in practice is an enforced diet of dry bread and herbal tea, relentless chewing — 40 times per mouthful — and the unfortunate effects of taking what are euphemistically called passage salts before breakfast (that is, if you’re allowed breakfast). Also, gentle exercise. Which is why I am ravenously hungry while trying to walk for several miles in the middle of winter. This is less of a spa trip, more self-flagellation.
Denne historien er fra May 2019-utgaven av Harper's Bazaar Australia.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra May 2019-utgaven av Harper's Bazaar Australia.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Grounded In Gotham
As she acclimatises to life under lockdown in her adopted city, model Victoria Lee reflects on fear, family and the fortitude of New Yorkers
Woman Of Influence Ingrid Weir
With a knack for elevating creative yet quotidian spaces and a love of bringing people together, the interior designer is crafting a sense of community among young artists.
CODE of HONOUR
At Chanel’s latest Métiers d’art showing, house alums Vanessa Paradis and daughter Lily-Rose Depp reflect on the red-carpet alchemy of Coco’s beloved bow, chain, camellia and ear of wheat.
Stillness in time
Acclaimed Australian fashion designer Collette Dinnigan’s new life in Italy has been a slowing down of sorts — but now, with coronavirus containment measures in play, life inside the walls of her 500-year-old farmhouse in Puglia has taken on a different cast, she writes
In the BAG
Aussie expat Vanissa Antonious from cult footwear brand Neous on going solo and stepping up her accessory offering.
uncut GEMMA
Forging her own path while paying it forward to the next generation, actor Gemma Chan is the (very worthy) recipient of the 2020 Women In Film Max Mara Face of the Future Award. She reflects on fashion, the Crazy Rich Asians phenomenon and red-carpet alter egos with Eugenie Kelly
THE TIME IS NOW
Esse Studios founder Charlotte Hicks’s slow-fashion model may just blaze a trail for the industry’s new normal. She talks less is more with Katrina Israel
COUPLES' THERAPY
Brooke Le Poer Trench ruminates on the trials and tribulations of too much time together
CALM IN A CRISIS
Caroline Welch was a busy woman who wrote a book on mindfulness for other busy women. Now, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, she has started to take her own advice
ACCIDENTALLY RETIRED
As we settle into the new normal of lockdown, Kirstie Clements finds a silver lining in the excuse to slow down and sample the low-adrenaline lifestyle of chocolate digestives, board games and dressing down for dinner