Monday, May 31, 2010

June Recipe of the Month


@Redmountainspa #recipe

Tofu Ambrosia with Cantaloupe and Honeydew
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
2 cups Cantaloupe, 1/4" diced
2 cups Honeydew, 1/4" diced
1 cup Tofu Whipped Cream (recipe below)


Tofu Whipped Cream Ingredients:
8 oz Tofu, soft
2 T Maple Syrup
1 T Agave Syrup
1 tsp Orange Peel, grated
1 tsp Pure Vanilla
Dash Nutmeg, ground

Directions:
  1. Blend all ingredients in a food processor or with a mixer.

  2. Toss with Cantaloupe and Honeydew.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Get to Know Your Red Mountain Personal Trainer


Chrissie Pettigrew
Certified Personal Trainer

“Workout smarter, not harder.”

Chrissie has B.S. degrees in Exercise Science and in Economics, holds an ACSM cPT certification and has an ACE Personal Trainer Certification. She is a committed athlete who continually trains for triathlons and marathons. As a former gymnast and gym teacher, Chrissie brings enthusiasm, dedication and a fun attitude to her work in assisting Red Mountain guests in making their health and fitness goals a reality. Chrissie believes that an individual, regardless of limitations, can obtain a healthy body. She is a firm believer in balance and core work as a starting point to minimize
injury and prevent muscle imbalances. Everyone is capable of getting lean and Chrissie believes in empowering individuals to do so with knowledge and skills.

Friday, May 28, 2010

June Events at Red Mountain

@Redmountainspa

June is a busy month at Red Mountain. We hope you can join the fun.

June 6-11 Eat Well, Feel Well Culinary School
Come explore the many rich flavors and creative healthy cuisines from our premier chefs.

June 6-13 Detoxification & Renewal
Improve mind, body and spirit while learning healthy methods to rid your body of toxins.

June 11-14 Release & Renew with Life Coach Cindy Clemens
Reconnect with what is really important in your life and how to eliminate the energy drains and distractions getting in your way.

June 13-20 Weight Loss & More!
Sustainable weight loss is achievable when you have the right tools and know how to make good choices.

June 14-17 Renew. Re-Energize. Re-Engage. with Dr. Bertice Berry
Dr. Berry combines her skills as a sociologist and researcher with her ability to make her audiences think and laugh at the same time.

June 20-25 Life Compass Retreat with Life Coach Cindy Clemens
Helps you find the direction you want your life to take and gives you the tools to get started.

June 20-27 Detoxification & Renewal
Improve mind, body and spirit while learning healthy methods to rid your body of toxins.

June 20-27 Fitness Boot Camp
Your mission is to find fitness activities that you'll love so much you stick with your commitment for improved health.

June 27-July 4 Weight Loss & More!
Sustainable weight loss is achievable when you have the right tools and know how to make good choices.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Healthy Memorial Day BBQ Recipes

@Redmountainspa #recipe

By Dale Van Sky,
Executive Chef

Suggestions to make your BBQ healthier:
  1. Do not peel your potatoes for Potato Salad (recipe below) as the peel contains good nutritional value.

  2. Use a combination of fat-free yogurt and low-fat mayonnaise to lower fat and calories.

  3. Try Cole Slaw (recipe below) using your favorite low-fat Italian salad dressing or our Red Chili Vinaigrette (recipe below) instead of sweetened mayonnaise.

  4. BBQ Sauces (recipe below) contain a lot of sugar and calories. Try a season rub such as my Cajun Spice (recipe below).

  5. Pork tenderloin has fewer calories than chicken breast and is much lower in fat than baby back or spare ribs.

  6. If using chicken, only use breasts and remove the skin before grilling.

  7. When selecting beef, use top sirloin. It has wonderful flavor and is much leaner than rib eyes or New York strips.

Potato Salad (serves 4-6)
2 lbs Red Skin Potatoes, diced 1/2”
1/4 C Red Onions, diced 1/4”
1/4 C Celery, diced 1/4"
1/2 C Red Bell Peppers, diced 1/4"
1/2 C Non-fat Plain Yogurt
1/2 C Low-fat Mayo
2 T Apple Cider Vinegar
2 T Stone Ground Mustard
2 T Parsley, chopped
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black Pepper

Directions:
  1. Steam potatoes just until done.

  2. Spray with cold water until cooled, drain.

  3. Add onions, celery, red bell peppers and parsley.

  4. Mix yogurt, mayo, vinegar, stone ground mustard, salt and pepper together.

  5. Pour mixture over potatoes.

  6. Mix gently (do not break up potatoes).

Cabbage Summer Slaw (serves 4-6)
2 lbs Green Cabbage, shredded
1 C Red Chili Vinaigrette (see recipe below)
1 C Carrots, thin strips
1/4 C Green Bell Pepper, thin strips
1/4 C Red Bell Pepper, thin strips
2 Yellow Bell Pepper, thin strips

Directions:
  1. In a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly.

  2. Cover and refrigerate.

Red Chili Vinaigrette
1/2 Jalapeno
1/4 tsp Garlic
2 tsp Shallot
2 T Bunch Cilantro
1/4 C Rice Vinegar
1/4 C Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce
1 C Vegetable Stock (thickened with corn starch and cooled)
1/2 tsp Toasted Cumin Seed
1 tsp Olive Oil

Directions:
  1. Place the first six ingredients into a blender or food processor and puree.

  2. Add thickened vegetable stock, drizzle in olive oil and cumin.

  3. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

Spicy Fruit Salad (serves 4-6)
1 C Cantaloupe, diced 1”
1 C Honeydew, diced 1”
1 C Watermelon, diced 1”
1 C Pineapple, diced 1”
2 T Agave Syrup
1 tsp Chipotle, minced
1/4 C Lime Juice
1/4 C Cilantro, minced
Pinch Salt

Directions:
  1. Mix fruit in large mixing bowl.

  2. Mix agave, chipotle, lime juice, salt and cilantro.

  3. Pour sauce on fruit.

  4. Toss

Cajun Spice Rub
1 T White Pepper
1 T Black Pepper
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 T Granulated Garlic
1 T Oregano
2 T Paprika
1/2 tsp Salt

Directions:
  1. Mix all seasonings together.

  2. Sprinkle on chicken, beef, pork, fish, potatoes, eggs or vegetables.

Monday, May 17, 2010

May is Loaded with Activities

@RedMountainSpa

The month of May might be nearly over, but there are still a lot of activities at Red Mountain Resort & Spa. Please join us. We have a spot ready just for you!

May 18–22 Travel Writing Workshop
Peter Robinson, Editor and Author
Make the most of your spa adventure and turn your visit into an engaging travel story.

May 19–23 Emotional Fitness with Energist Andrea Hanson
Witness and experience the profound emotional peace and freedom that can be attained through this multi-cultural, multi-dimensional emotional fitness approach to healing.

May 23–30 Weight Loss & More!
Sustainable weight loss is achievable when you have the right tools and know how to make good choices.

May 26–30 Inward Bound - Higher and Deeper: An Advanced Energy Healing Retreat
An advanced Emotional Fitness retreat designed to take you higher in terms of experiencing breakthroughs, insights and breaking blocks and barriers to your success and happiness.

May 28–31 Release & Renew with Life Coach Cindy Clemens
Reconnect with what is really important in your life and how to eliminate the energy drains and distractions getting in your way.

May 31 Memorial Day Dinner Menu
Executive Chef Dale Van Sky has created a festive barbeque buffet to celebrate Memorial Day with a nutritious twist on traditional recipes.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Conquer Your Doubts


@RedMountainSpa

By Cindy Clemens,
Life Coach

Doubts are the mind games that we play based on our distorted views of the world. Our thoughts, rather than our emotions, are the favorite location for doubts. Do you recognize any of these self-doubts and negative thoughts?
  • There is not enough for everyone - I need to cling to my few crumbs.

  • I am not good enough.

  • I am not lovable, especially if people knew the real me.

  • I am not attractive.

  • The world is a dark, cruel place —I can't take risks.

  • I will get hurt if I get close to people and open myself up to them

Strategies for Conquering Your Doubts: These can actually be more difficult to manage than your fears because you may not even realize what they are. Unlike fears, which you feel in your body and know when they are trying to take hold, your doubts may be so much a part of your world view that you can't see past them. You need to be able to step outside the box, question your views and beliefs about how the world works and decide which are serving you well and which are not.
  1. Inventory Your Beliefs: This means you will need to be at least a little bit open-minded and willing to look at your mental framework. Many people are quite reluctant to undertake this type of belief inventory. They would rather let their lives continue to go nowhere instead of rocking the boat. Or, they would rather let other people dictate what they should believe rather than explore what makes sense for themselves. This type of apathetic thinking may seem safe and secure, but it leads to a life lacking in authenticity and meaning.

    To get started, use this exercise, which I call "The Failure Story." Think of a goal you would really like to reach in the next six months. If you are unable to reach that goal, what story will you tell yourself, about yourself? That you are lazy, unable to follow through on commitments, too busy to take good care of yourself, not worthy of good things? These stories will shed light on the beliefs that are at the root of your doubts.

  2. Are Your Beliefs Serving You Well?: Once you have identified the beliefs you hold about yourself and the world around you, ask yourself whether those thought patterns have served you well so far in your life.
    • Have they allowed you to move confidently in the direction of your dreams or have they held you back?

    • Do they make you willing to trust yourself and others or do they produce doubt and insecurity?

    • What life choices have you made based on your mental framework? Are those the life choices you really want to keep making?

  3. Does Your Belief Have to Be True For You?: If you decide that your beliefs are leading you to doubt yourself and your potential, consider whether a particular belief has to be true for you.
    • What is the origin of this belief? Is it written in stone or can it be modified?

    • What would happen if you altered this thought process?

    • What do other people believe about the same concept?

    • What does the concrete evidence in your life tell you about what is actually true for you?

    You may be surprised to learn how much your doubts and negative belief systems are disconnected from reality.

  4. Try On a New Belief and See What Happens: I encourage you to try on a new belief and see what happens. As you make an honest effort to reshape your thought processes, you will be presented with amazing examples of evidence to support and encourage you in this endeavor. And, as the evidence piles up, your new belief will grow stronger and stronger and overshadow the lingering doubts that pop up from time to time.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Zion Narrows Hike


@RedMountainSpa

By Gene Gerstner,
Hiking Guide

When asked about my favorite hike in Southern Utah, I immediately thought of the Narrows in Zion National Park.

For 15 million years the Virgin River and its tributaries have been cutting deeper and deeper into the great Navajo sandstone plateaus leaving behind breathtaking slot canyons deep enough to hide the sun. One of the most famous of these is the Zion Narrows, a cool place in more ways than one.

For anyone who hasn't hiked a slot canyon, picture a hallway 20 feet wide, whose walls on either side climb 1,500 feet straight up. Picture as well that hallway filled with flowing water and you have the Narrows. But, this hallways runs twisting and bending for 12 miles through Zion National Park, exposing at every turn a new and unbelievable view...an alcove cut by the pounding waters of a flash flood, a rockfall dividing the river, riffles alternating with quiet pools. At times a shaft of sunlight lights a gloomy recess, Maidenhair Fern or Scarlet Monkeyflower clings to the walls here and there, or an ephemeral spring pours water down a cliff face.

While Red Mountain hikes just four miles in the Narrows, for me it is an experience like no other...mysterious and awe-inspiring. Wading on a summer's day in the cool waters of the Virgin River over sandstone cobbles and around boulders always in the shadow of sheer sandstone walls, makes the Narrows one of my favorite hikes.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Introducing Chef for a Day

@RedMountainSpa

Red Mountain Resort & Spa is happy to introduce Chef for a Day.

Ever wondered what it would be like to be in a professional kitchen? Now is your chance. You can learn side-by-side with one of our chefs from 2:00pm-5:00pm, Tuesday through Sunday (not available on Mondays). Everyday is different as we prepare for dinner service. This is an opportunity for our guests to have a personal experience with one of our chefs, to observe the inner working of our kitchen and learn basic knife skills. This program is limited to two guests per day.

Contact the Red Mountain concierge to reserve your spot in the kitchen. Cost is $100 for 3-hours.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

May Spa Specials at Red Mountain Resort & Spa

@RedMountainSpa

Ironman Rejuvenation Package
Red Mountain is proud of our guests who competed in the Ford Ironman St. George on May 1. In their honor we have created the Ironman Rejuvenation Package. Allow us to provide relief for your sore muscles and aching joints with a lower body leg massage. You can also choose between Man on the Run—Alpha Male Active Body Treatment or our Adobe Lavender Hydrating Cocoon to reduce tissue inflammation.
Special Introductory Offer—$219*

The Ocean Within Reshaping Body Mask
This body mask was designed as a key component of any weight loss program. It will leave your skin soft on the outside while its active ingredients boost the natural processes of fat burning. Contains marine products that help fight signs of aging, promote a firmer appearance to the skin and strengthens the epidermis.
Special Price—50 minutes—$81*

Saturday, May 8, 2010

May Recipe of the Month at Red Mountain Resort & Spa


@RedMountainSpa

Chile Spice Rubbed Pork Medallions with Lyonnaise Sweet Potatoes
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
16 oz Pork Tenderloin, trimmed and cut into 16-1oz medallions
Spice Rub Ingredients:
1/2 cup Chile Powder
1/4 cup Paprika
1/4 cup Smoked Paprika
2 T Granulated Garlic
2 T Onion Powder
2 T Ground Coriander
2 T Ground Cumin
2 T Oregano
2 T Black Pepper
2 tsp Salt
2 T Fructose

Directions:
  1. Mix all ingredients well.

  2. Generously coat Pork Medallions in spice rub and squirt with small amount of oil.

  3. Sear in sauté pan 2-3 minutes on each side (until desired doneness).

Roasted Garlic Aioli Ingredients:
(1 T Per Serving)
3 Cloves Garlic, roasted until brown and soft
1/2 cup Low-Fat Mayonnaise
2 T White Wine

Directions:
  • Puree until smooth.

Lyonnaise Sweet Potatoes Ingredients:
1 pound Sweet Potatoes, peeled and halved
1/2 cup Red Onions, peeled, 1/4 inch French cut
Black Pepper, freshly ground
Salt

Directions:
  1. Steam Sweet Potatoes 10 minutes. (Do not over cook. Should still be firm.)

  2. Cool in ice bath.

  3. Slice into 1/4 inch slices.

  4. Sauté Onions in Pure Olive Oil. When they start to brown, reduce heat and continue cooking covered until caramelized.

  5. Remove Onions and cool.

  6. Heat cast iron skillet with Pure Olive Oil to smoke point, add Sweet Potatoes and sauté until lightly browned.

  7. Add cooked Onions.

  8. Add Black Pepper and Salt to taste.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

A Mother's Day to Remember


@Redmountainspa

By Myrna Beardshear,
Director of Spa & Wellness

Mother's Day is a day to celebrate your mother and show her how much she means to you.

I have found that the most meaningful mementos I have are little notes and cards that have been given to me over the years by my sons.
  • Write your mother a letter or a special Mother’s Day poem to tell her how much she means to you and how much you love and appreciate her. No matter what your age, she is still your mother and the intimate contact of a letter will mean the world to her.

  • Create a collage with pictures of your, your siblings, pets, family and friends. At Red Mountain, we are fortunate enough to have an artist Gina Jrel teaching a collage workshop and if you would like to do something extra special with your collage and turn it into art, go to her website – www.gina-jrel-art.com - and check out her work.

  • Whether it’s cooking, cleaning, laundry or trimming the roses that she would usually do on this day, take over the duties and care for her as she has cared for you for so long.
Just these simple things will give your mother a wonderful day but make it an especially relaxing day with a little spa at home.

Lay out big fluffy towels and her favorite robe and run a bath for her with her favorite bath salts or oil. If she doesn’t have any, use this recipe: 8 drops Jasmine essential oil and 8 drops of Fennel oil.

Give mom a pedicure – believe me this service performed by you will be better than any spa pedicure she has ever had – its special ingredient is love!

Refreshing Home Pedicure
  1. Get prepared. You’ll need nail clippers, orange stick (with cotton around the tips), nail file, two hot towels, and skin lotion. Have her sit in a comfortable chair, place a bath mat at her feet and prepare the foot bath.

  2. Start by soaking her feet in warm water for five minutes (in a foot bath or tub). Add bath salts (you can use Epsom Salts or coarse sea salt and a couple of drops of peppermint essential oil.

  3. Leaving one foot soaking, gentle push cuticles back with an orange stick with cotton around the tip, clip, and file the nails of the other. Repeat same for other foot.

  4. Dry off feet and slather with lotion and wrap each foot in a plastic baggie and then wrap in a warm towel. Leave her quietly for 15 minutes with some soft music and eye pads.

  5. Unwrap one foot at a time, bring it up to your lap and perform a foot reflexology treatment (see below).

  6. Finish with a light application of skin lotion to each foot and apply some polish if it suits her mood.

Foot Reflexology
  1. Start by giving each toe a good squeeze and a gentle pull. Using your thumbs, “walk” over the surface of the big toe – this will help stimulate the head, neck, face and brain reflexes.

  2. Using your knuckles, press against the pads of the feet beneath the toes.

  3. Compress the ball of each foot - using your thumb on the bottom of the foot and the palm of your other hand on top of the foot. Place your thumb in the groove between the bones that run lengthwise along the foot. Compress with your palm as you walk with your thumb through the grooves. This stimulates the chest and lung area.

  4. Pinch the bottom of your heels – pulling and twisting skin. Also knead the heel using your knuckles.

  5. Inch the tip of your thumb up along the arch of the foot (from heel to big toe), stimulating the spine’s reflex.

  6. Make little circles around the inner and outer anklebones and on the sides of the heels.

  7. Finish with gentle kneading over the entire foot.


Ref. Carol Tessier, Mini-Reflexology, Healing Lifestyles

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

My Five Favorite Healthful Eating Tips


@RedMountainSpa

By By Reema Sayegh, PhD,
Nutritionist

Wow, here we are in May already! Where has the time gone? Since we are now in the fifth month of the calendar year, perhaps it’s a good idea to hear about my A-list top five healthful eating tips.

It has been said that we first eat with our eyes. In other words, we choose what to eat by what the food looks like before we factor anything else into the dining option equation. If this is indeed true, then it reinforces Tip Number One: Choose a Rainbow of Colors. It is common knowledge that a food’s antioxidants and top nutrients are found in its color. Therefore, by eating a variety of colorful red, orange, green, yellow, blue and purple foods, we can ensure we are getting a good assortment of vitamins and minerals from these rich phytochemicals.

Now that we’ve satisfied our visual appetite, it’s time for Tip Number Two: Choose a Variety of Proteins. Many vegetarians have shared with me that their toughest challenge is to find a consistently satisfying meat substitute, and that they grow tired of soy products. Who wouldn’t grow tired of eating the same food, regardless of form, day after day? While most of us would probably agree we enjoy different protein flavors and textures, there is more to it than that. By eating different meats and/or plant proteins (think cheese, eggs, cultured dairy, multi-grain tempeh, portobello mushrooms, seeds, nuts, whole-grain rice and pasta and legumes) we are providing our bodies with a fantastic balance of essential amino acids, not to mention different enzymes and other vital micronutrients. Variety means better nutrition. Better nutrition means better overall health. Plain and simple.

Tip Number Three focuses on the mind’s connection to health. In Deepak Chopra’s book, “The Ultimate Happiness Prescription,” he refers to mindfulness, or the art of being present, and its importance in the day-to-day activities in which we engage. He states that before we eat, it is wise to ask ourselves the simple question, “Will this food nourish me?” What could be simpler, or more mindful than that? Try this technique before you give in to whatever diet-derailer you may think is calling your name. Ask yourself: “Will this food nourish me?” I have done this, and it has saved me many a sugar hangover, believe me.

In this vein, Tip Number Four seems to logically follow. Since we are no longer hunters and gatherers (unless you call driving to the grocery store or food establishment hunting and gathering), we can only rely on money as the tool to obtain nourishment. Therefore, before we act on a marketing executive’s clever product placement, or on impulse or old patterns of emotional eating, we should tell ourselves this: “If I don’t buy it, I won’t eat it.” After all, despite modern technology, no one yet has discovered a way for that bag of chips or Oreos to find its own way into our pantries, and, ultimately, our bellies. The power to say "no" to the empty calories and "yes" to nutrient-dense, revitalizing foods is ours. We vote with our wallets and our eating utensils, every day, every meal.

Finally, Tip Number Five borrows from a basic tenet of macrobiotic eating: Eat Foods Grown Close to Home and In Season. First, by expanding our mind and palate to purchase foods grown in our own communities using sustainable, fair practices and unconventional methods (hydroponics, organic farming, farmer’s markets and co-ops) we can challenge our taste buds and our comfort zones to think outside the box (of burgers and fries). If we endeavor to eat seasonal fruits and vegetables, we can be sure we are getting food at its nutritional and flavorful peak, free of pesticides and genetic manipulation, and try new varieties of produce, meats and legumes that support our neighbors and enrich our sense of community.

So there it is in a nutshell: Five Healthful Eating Tips that encompass our many senses, and empower us to feed ourselves with vital fuel to keep us going long and strong, and satisfy us mind, body and spirit. Eat and enjoy!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Zero Balancing at Red Mountain


@RedMountainSpa

By Mark Montgomery,
Acupuncturist and Zero Balancer

Zero Balancing (ZB) is a hands-on bodywork system designed to align your energy body with your physical structure.Simple yet powerful,it focuses on your whole person, even when addressing specific needs. Considered at the leading edge of body/mind therapies, ZB moves beyond Western scientific approaches to body structure by incorporating Eastern concepts of energy and healing. This enables the practitioner to work simultaneously with your structural and energy bodies to bring balance.

Essentially, these two bodies work in concert with one another and with the external world, yet function independently of each other. The structural body is what you can see and touch - bone, soft tissue and all the body organs. The energy body is the seen and unseen movement, including muscular movements, movement of tissue fluids, cellular and molecular vibrations, movement within the body fields, and movement of the life force itself. Your energy body directly affects, and in large part is responsible for, your mood, emotions and vitality. Changes in body energy and its fields usually precede illness and have a causal relation to disease.

It can be useful to think of the structural body as the sail of a boat and the energy body as the wind. At some point the wind meets the sail. When structure and energy are not integrated, you're like a sailor floundering at sea, not "tacked into the winds of life." Life is less satisfying and you're more susceptible to all manner of emotional distress and disease - from simple irritability and headaches to more profound mental or physical symptoms and illnesses.

When structure and energy are balanced, dysfunctional habits, such as outmoded emotional patterns and imprints from past traumas, tend to release. In addition, you're able to function with relative ease, efficiency and comfort, cope with things better, and enjoy greater, more robust health. This is why most people undergoing Zero Balancing report experiencing a sense of fluidity, integration and well-being following a session.

The Zero Balancing process generally takes between 30-40 minutes and is performed with you fully clothed. Using touch, the ZB practitioner evaluates your energy fields and energy flow and balances the structures as needed. He or she may focus on body, mind, spirit,or all three, depending on where the fields are disturbed or the energy is blocked. Throughout the Zero Balancing session, attention is given to the skeleton in particular because it contains the deepest and strongest currents.

Everything in a ZB session is designed to promote maximum relaxation and a sense of well-being.The process is distinguished by a form of touch known as "interface." Gentle and noninvasive, it's pleasant for both the ZB practitioner to give and the client to receive. Some people describe experiencing "expanded awareness," others "tension melting away," and still others say it's like "feeling balanced to zero."

A Zero Balancing session is ideal for helping to prevent and relieve the problems encountered in this harried world we live in. ZB creates a point of stillness where the mind quiets, the energy fields organize and internal reorientation occurs. The process is designed to work in tandem with primary health care, focusing on deep quieting and integration of the body/mind/spirit to promote optimum functioning. ZB is a major adjunct to staying well as you navigate the challenges of life.