I WENT ON A STARVE-CATION
Health obsessives are flocking to a new fat camp for skinny people to get even thinner
W HEN Tasha Genatt was hiking in the heat for hours along the Appalachian Trail last spring, the 45-year-old could only think about one thing: the snack awaiting her at the top of the challenging climb. Sure, it was only eight paltry almonds, but in the moment, it was a feast.
“You know the snack is coming, so you’re definitely looking forward to it,” says Genatt, a stay-at-home mom with three kids on the Upper East Side.
The hike was part of her daily routine at GroundSea Fitness, a new wellness retreat in the Berkshires where models and mommies go to shed weight from their already slender physiques.
“I’m always into losing a few pounds,” says Genatt, who is 5-foot-2 and a size 0.
The luxurious health escape — which had a soft opening last year and launched its first official season on Monday — is essentially a fat camp for women who are already thin. It inspires healthy acolytes to be even
“You definitely shrink, even in a couple of days.” — Iskra Galic on GroundSea Fitness
healthier. Attendees pay $6,000 for five days of hiking, wellness talks and lowcalorie meals — there’s a strict 1,500-calorie-a-day diet — served in Mason jars. Each session allows no more than 11 attendees to stay on the 120-acre grounds. No alcohol or sugar is allowed, and Bulletproof coffee — black java blended with grass-fed butter and a special oil that some swear by for weight loss — is allowed only before 9 a.m.
“You come back feeling so energized — your skin, your hair — and you lose 5 pounds,” says co-founder Tracy Gaslow. “It’s possible to lose more. A man could lose 5 pounds a day.”
Mornings at GroundSea start with a 6:15 a.m. wake-up call by a staffer who softly knocks on the door and whispers, “It’s a beautiful day.”
There’s gentle yoga at 7 a.m., followed by a breakfast of a glutenfree muffin atop a banana avocado drizzle, a small slice of a frittata and “maybe,” according to Gaslow, a small banana smoothie in a 1-ounce shot glass.
Then it’s time for a four-hour, 8- to 12-mile hike and that snack of eight almonds.
Lunch is typically vegan, such as an “artful arugula salad,” and often served in a Mason jar — “so you feel like you’re getting more than you actually are,” says Gaslow, 42.
Then there are daily massages, more yoga and another light vegan meal. After dinner, guests sip hot water with lemon and gather around the fireplace in the 11-bedroom home to discuss their bowel movements.
“I’m obsessed with going to the bathroom,” says Genatt.
Despite the restrictive nature of the retreat, program director Marc Alabanza insists it’s safe. “People can survive three weeks without food,” he says. “I don’t have you long enough to starve you to death.”
The GroundSea concept was cooked up by Gaslow and her fellow Dwight school alum Hollie Levy, 42, along with Gaslow’s sister, Denise Kleinman, 46. They’d long been devotees of detox getaways on the West Coast and wanted to bring something similar to the East Coast.
Gaslow did her first detox 13 years ago at an ashram in Malibu, Calif. She’d given birth three months earlier and was looking to get her body back. While her hus- band watched the baby, she was weighed and stripped of the contraband — lollipops and caffeinated tea — she’d tried to smuggle in. She lost 10 pounds in six days and quit caffeine.
“[It] snapped me back [into shape],” she says. “I was like, ‘I know the secret. It’s an expensive one.’ ”
Alison Bernstein, a 42-year-old mom of four who lives in Greenwich, Conn., didn’t have much to lose when she went to GroundSea last year, but the self-described “very active, fit” woman still shed about 5 pounds.
“I have good eating habits. The bar is already high,” says Bernstein, who adds that it was hard for the gurus to pinch an inch on her svelte frame. “[They must have thought], ‘How do we get 3 to 5 pounds off this one girl?’ ” she says.
Bernstein says the retreat also forced her to re-evaluate her food sourcing. “Even with organic milk: Where is that milk coming from? What farm is it coming from?”
Iskra Galic, a model with a Ph.D. in psychology, is equally wellness obsessed and attended the retreat last year with her boyfriend.
“Our body is our temple,” she says. “I like to be in tune with my body the best way possible.”
But, she admits, it was especially challenging for her 6-foot-4 boyfriend.
At mealtimes, he was left famished by the small portions and had to pounce on any bits of food other guests left on their plates.
“He needed a few extra bites,” says Galic, who recently moved from New York to Southern California and declines to give her age.
Still, she says the $6,000 retreat was worth it.
“You definitely shrink, even in a couple of days,” she says. “You’re eating this organic, biodynamic fresh food that’s cooked for you. You just feel reborn.”