The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
There’s no better time to combine relaxation with a mental reset
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The flesh around my jawline is being gently kneaded upwards. My face has already been cleansed and toned, a scented mask applied and rose quartz tools rolled up and down my skin. In the pleasant, half-asleep haze that accompanies a great salon treatment, floats the thought that I’ve not eaten any sugar for three days. Firstly, this is a record. Secondly, I feel fantastic.
The most important thing I learnt when writing our book, Cracking the Menopause, with Mariella Frostrup, is that menopause needs to be approached holistically. What better place to spend some of the waning days of my perimenopause than at a bespoke menopause retreat at the Marbella Club? The concept behind “Ageing Gently” is to work in conjunction with your existing lifestyle, and also provide a stairway to a heaven-type timetable of massages and facials. It’s a blissful reset, along with tips for long-term changes.
The Marbella Club, on the Costa del Sol, was bought by Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe as a family home in the 1940s. The wall of the long, Californianstyle veranda lining the main courtyard is hung with black and white pictures of aristocracy and film stars such as Brigitte Bardot. It’s like visiting the comfortable house of a very wealthy friend. From the spacious balcony of my bright and luxurious room I can see palm trees, the famous Marbella Club pier and the crashing blue waves of the Mediterranean.
Food is, of course, central to successful menopause, and nutrition is probably the biggest focus of the retreat. A consultation with the – frankly incredible – inhouse nutritionist and naturopath, Susan Alexander, ascertains that I am existing in a near-permanent state of sugar highs and lows – not helped by fluctuating oestrogen levels affecting insulin sensitivity. I also have insomnia, headaches, poor digestion and an unmovable muffin top.
I am asked to provide a food diary – an awkward reveal – which exposes a heavy reliance on bread, as well as what appears to be an actual addiction to Cadbury’s Creme Eggs. My “inexplicable” perimenopause-related flab is less of a mystery.
On arrival, I have bio-electrical impedance analysis (BIA), which calculates such useful information as my visceral fat, muscle/fat mass and BMR (basal metabolic rate). Another holistic therapy is bioresonance, based on acupuncture, homeopathy and kinesiology. It uses energy to highlight imbalances in the body, and does correctly identify a tooth problem, as well as flagging up food intolerances and various imbalances. (More medical tests, such as stool-sample analysis, are available, should you wish.)
I am given personal recommendations – that I eat more fat and protein for energy and to balance out my blood sugar. The focus is better choices, not counting calories. Susan also recommends that I cut down on sugar, dairy and gluten – offering a range of delicious-sounding alternative suggestions.
Wellness meals are individually tailored by chef Andrés Ruiz, and can be served at any of the six restaurants. Each of my meals starts with an ambrosial soup such as pumpkin with nuts and pomegranate seeds. Roasted aubergine with tomato chutney and a lentil and quinoa salad is a divine second course.
The second element in the triumvirate that makes up the retreat is exercise, vital for the menopausal body. Wellness guests can attend the twice-daily classes offered by the in-house personal trainer. Functional Training, for example, is a form of circuits based on working the abs and takes place on a wooden decking area surrounded by trees. Blue sky notwithstanding, it’s still a hard workout.
Finally, there are treatments – a firm all-over body massage gives me a floating out-of-body feeling so blissful that I’m pretty sure it counts as meditation. A Tibetan Singing Bowl Massage is said to release your chakras. The therapist strikes a bowl, which emits a vibrating chime. The bowl is placed up and down your body and struck repeatedly as the vibrations resonate through you.
Clearly, three nights isn’t enough. I suggest that I stay a month. I am told about two couples who were “trapped” at the Marbella Club during the first lockdown of 2020. Lucky them.
Ageing Gently Retreat at the Marbella Club (00 34 952 822211; marbellaclub. com) from £2,236pp, for two nights including all meals and activities. Other bespoke retreats include body balance, exhaustion, nutrition and liver health
Covid rules An online health form (spth.gob.es) must be submitted for all passengers prior to departure. Fully vaccinated tourists and children under the age of 12 can enter the country without testing – but at present, unvaccinated tourists aren’t permitted to visit (app.euplf.eu)
Cracking the Menopause by Mariella Frostrup and Alice Smellie is out now (RRP £20, Bluebird). Buy it now for £16.99 at books.telegraph.co.uk or call 0844 871 1514.