Vernon spa serves up miracles
North of Vernon, in the Monashee Mountains, lies Silver Hills Guesthouse. Consider a session there if you have health (or heart) concerns and see a return to nature as a possible solution to your problems.
The five- to 12-day health retreats feature gourmet, plant-based foods, winding nature trails, spa services, hot tub, infrared saunas, steam room, cooking classes and health lectures.
The setting is a vision of delight. Soft mountains in the background and acres of garden and farm in the foreground. From the lodge windows, you see clear blue skies and feel pure air inside and out.
Silver Hills is not a health vacation in a chaise lounge. Participants share a time schedule that starts with breakfast 7.30 and ends with an evening lecture.
From the hot tub at night I saw the Milky Way form a huge arch overhead and the Big Dipper was so close to the tree tops, I felt I could reach out and touch the stars.
The gourmet meals are vegan and called Spa Cuisine food.
Breakfast the first morning was millet (which was new to me, but a good source of the fibre we hear so much about) that was smothered in fresh peaches and pear cream.
The sideboard held every fruit in season, grapes, plums, and pears picked from trees outside the kitchen door.
Fresh bread was offered daily. My favourite was the Maple Nut Twist made from the basic bread recipe with the addition of organic cane sugar, chopped walnuts, maple extract and non-dairy butter. It is good for seniors to be reminded that good nutrition is the No. 1 factor in good health. We all know that the key to a proper diet is to eat what you like, mostly fruits and vegetables, not too much.
There were cooking classes to demonstrate the preparation of basics like mayonnaise.
Herb recommendations start with fresh lemon, roasted garlic, cayenne pepper, Mrs. Dash, basil and hot paprika.
Eileen Brewer is tiny, talented, and convinced food must look good as well as taste good to keep the chef inspired.
Her dedication to the subject of nourishment is basic to the belief that healing is natural, nurturing, and food is the most important part of daily life as well as any celebration. Eileen’s enthusiasm is contagious, and of course I bought the cookbook.
The second consideration of improved health is a lifestyle that includes daily exercise. We walk at Silver Hills through trails surrounded by Douglas Fir, Paper Birch and Cottonwoods. You can smell the cedars and catch the aspen leaves.
I noticed a small gym near the spa area, but walking outside with a guide pointing out view sites, eagles overhead and young white-tailed deer is the exercise of choice.
Exercise is essential to the body’s circulation. When we walk and work our muscles, they demand more blood. Oxygen and nutrients circulate to every body cell, all of which depend on oxygen to operate.
After lunch and the afternoon walk, it is spa time and treatments are included in the price of admission.
The name spa comes from Spa, Belgium, a town that dates back to Roman times when public baths were housed in opulent buildings and included libraries, lecture halls, gymnasiums and formal gardens.
By the 1800s spas added strict diets and hot and cold water treatments, which bring us to Silver Hills today.
You can choose from treatments like detox wraps, hot-stone massage, herbal mud wraps and hands-and-feet treatments like the salt glow, which is a full body exfoliation.
In my case, Phil suggested a hot and cold remedy that would improve my breathing called fomentation. I have COPD and have struggled for years to keep the condition from deteriorating, not knowing a possible remedy was available to actually assist my lungs to heal.
I call it Phil’s Fire & Ice and Fomentation. In my case meant hot compresses and icecold applications that immediately relaxed the anxiety I have been experiencing and sent healing circulation to my heart and lungs.
I have not sneezed, coughed or spit out awful junk from my mouth since. I have had follow-up fomentation and continue to feel rejuvenation and, more amazing, healing in my lungs thanks to improved circulation.
I have learned that in some cases, eating more fruits and vegetables and less meat can improve lung function.
I wish I were a clever wordsmith and could describe the Silver Hills experience beyond the usual “rad” or “amazing” or “awesome” adjectives that come to mind.
The evening lecture time stressed the importance of a spiritual connection to attitudes toward lifetime changes.
I will focus my future on a plant-based diet, daily exercise and a prayer of thankfulness. Check silverhills.ca or call 1-888-547-9456. Jeanette Dunagan has lived in Kelowna for more than 40 years. Email her at jd2399@telus.net.