In 2024, clients are increasingly focused on holistic wellbeing and how our overall lifestyle impacts wellness. As spa professionals, you and members of your team can elevate your reputation as wellness experts by being able to offer real lifestyle advice to customers including tips on sleep, recovery, nutrition, physical activity, etc.
Beyond expertise in spa care, providing lifestyle tips can make the difference between a quality service and a quality AND high-end service.
To help you position your spa as a leading wellness facility, starting this month we are offering lifestyle fact sheets with tips to help your clients improve their overall well-being through the busy winter months.
If additional tips or knowledge is needed, partner with local specialists so you can direct your clients to the specialists (dietetics, nutrition, sports coaching, etc.) best suited to their needs.
Best practices for using and sharing wellness facts:
- Read and remember the tips.
- Offer one piece of advice per client, depending on the concerns they express or what you have noticed on their skin or in their speech during your diagnosis or treatment.
- Print and display the fact sheets in your spa.
- Email the tips in your monthly newsletter.
Winter Wellness Best Practices and Tips
The situation: Your client explains to you that in winter she can’t keep up her exercise routine; she eats richer, less healthy meals; and she sleeps less… What lifestyle advice can you give her?
During this winter, it is cold, which is less time is spent exercising outside. We often prefer to stay warm at home. The days are shorter and the possible exposure to sunlight is shorter. In addition, since the sun sets earlier, the body produces melatonin earlier (the so-called “sleep” hormone that is secreted when the light decreases). The sleep cycle is disrupted (the body gets the message “go to bed” from 5 p.m., resulting in a drop in energy and motivation. At the same time, the end-of-year celebrations encourage people to eat well and then cozy up by the fire on the couch.
Knowing that wellness can be more challenging in the cold, winter months, here are a few lifestyle tips you can share to help your clients:
Tip #1 – Practice Good Sleep Habits.
Slowing down in the winter season is part of the natural cycle of all living beings, but our society cultivates the idea that we must be at full speed “all the time”. As a result, we often think that if we slow down, it’s because we’re not feeling as well… In fact, the reduction in the length of the days and the reduction in light “weigh down” the circulation of energy. If your body asks you for more sleep, it’s ok to move your bedtime up to an earlier hour to help you get more sleep.
It’s also helpful to create an evening routine that will quickly become synonymous with going to bed. Practices like writing in a gratitude notebook, reading, meditation, creating an evening to-do list to clear your brain can all help with giving you peace before sleep…
Tip #2 – Create Healthy Eating Habits.
Move dinner time up to eat earlier and/or choose less fatty foods. The benefit is twofold: keep more free time after dinner to end your day with an activity that you enjoy and make it easier to fall asleep.
Why? During digestion, the body is working. This consumes a lot of calories and does not allow you to reach the deep sleep phase. However, deep sleep is critical, restorative sleep; the kind of sleep that allows you to recover from the fatigue of the day, we only experience it in the first hours of the night.
It is therefore essential that the body is not compromised by the work of digestion… Advise clients to keep a complete diet with 50% vegetables, a small serving of carbohydrates, and heavy with more digestible proteins like: white meat (turkey), low-fat fish (sardines, mackerel, etc.), an egg, etc.
Avoid heavy, fortifying dishes or fatty products.
Tip #3 – Adjust the light…and the temperature of the bath.
An hour before bedtime, suggest switching to dim lighting that will send the right message to the brain. Clients can also lower the temperature of the bedroom and definitely not take a very hot or very cold bath. In both cases, as with digestion, the body has to work hard to return to its normal temperature. In both cases, this pre-sleep bodily activity delays the onset of sleep. The ideal is a shower at room temperature and sleep in a chilled, dark room.
Tip #4 – Drink plenty of water.
The cold of winter encourages us to drink more tea, herbal teas, broths, hot drinks… But this should not replace the consumption of water alone because some of these drinks are very diuretic and the body does not retain hydration.
Do not forget to remind your client to drink mainly water throughout the day! Even more so if she is going skiing for a week, at a latitude where the oxygen in the air is scarce.
Tip #5 – Minimize alcohol consumption.
No, alcohol does not warm you up and no, it does not help you fall asleep. If it can’t be cut out entirely, alcohol should be consumed in great moderation to maintain beautiful, glowing skin and overall wellness.
Tip #6 – If necessary, slow down but do not stop exercising!
If, as with sleep, your client feels that in winter, she needs to adapt her physical activity rhythm, suggest that she reduce her specific sports activities (do one less jog or fitness session) but not stop them. This could be replacing a jog with a long walk with friends, a cross-training session with a HIIT that is less demanding on the cardiovascular level… Some exercise is better than no exercise. Remind your client that every effort will count. Even if she is doing less physical effort than she had planned, it is essential that she keep this time slot to take care of her fitness.
Tip #7 – Don’t forget to spend time outdoors.
Shorter days and the desire to stay warm encourage people to stay home. But nothing will replace the time spent breathing outside. Park further away, get off the metro one stop earlier, pick up your children on foot, take a 20-minute walk without a specific goal… Suggest that your client spend 20 to 30 minutes outside every day. To strengthen their immunity (exposure to the cold), effectively synthesize their vitamin D and get an energy boost!
Tip #8 – Create a reasonable but delicious “food” strategy to live your winter well.
Holiday treats are ubiquitous in the cold, winter months, making it more difficult to practice wellness through a healthy diet. However, you can give some advice that your clients may not have heard to help with their wellness:
– Be reasonable in the days before and after large dinners;
– Do a “cardio” sports session before a richer meal to empty your carbohydrate reserves and thus store less during it;
– Brush your teeth right after eating a chocolate so as not to be tempted to have another one;
– To limit the effects of wine during a meal, hydrate well before and after with water and do not finish your glass too quickly;
Final advice: tell clients to make the most of these moments of sharing and to eat without guilt.
Tip #9 – Accept the rhythm of the seasons.
Yes we have more energy in summer but it is not the norm. In winter, nature slows down and so does the individual. Chinese medicine presents Certainly our work rhythms do not change but on our personal time, it is possible to adapt!