From New York to Los Angeles, London to Hong Kong, Melbourne to Manila, the high-powered and well-heeled are toting around mysterious liquids in shades of beet red and mossy green. Look a bit closer, and you'll see the names: BluePrintCleanse, Urban Remedy, Punch Detox and Purifyne. No matter the brand, the message is clear: The juice cleanse craze is catching on around the world.
A health-oriented fix, this liquid diet is seen as the ultimate reset: a fast (if not painless) way to drop a few pounds before a beach vacation or to atone for the indulgence of an Italian holiday.
Perhaps most appealing about today's juice cleanse is that it can be done without putting a busy life on pause. "People are no longer spending 10 days at a destination spa learning health skills," says Melisse Gelula, a wellness trendspotter and cofounder of wellandgoodnyc.com, an online publication about all things healthy. "They don't need to learn about nutrition; they just need three days to drink the juice that's delivered." …
Click here to read more in the Summer 2012 issue of The Ritz-Carlton Magazine
Lake Tahoe remains the American West's glittering, aqueous jewel, a body of water of many superlatives. The freshwater lake has 192 square miles of surface area straddling Nevada and California, making it the perfect spot for water sports, while its temperate summer climate and easy access to the Sierra Nevada mountain range lend themselves to all-season resort activities.
With notions of an outdoorsy summer vacation in mind, my girlfriend, Jenna, and I visited The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe for a slate of adrenaline-charged activities to knock us out of our East Coast complacency.
The first impressions one has of Lake Tahoe fall into classic Western rustic categories: tall pine-tree woods, the breathtakingly jagged mountains and, of course, the bounteous lake itself. The hushed woods and crisp mountain air enfold you.
While there are myriad recreational Tahoe activities, Jenna and I had decided on two that made use of water and air: a glider-plane ride and parasailing. Both seemed promising, but I was most looking forward to the weightless sensation of parasailing. …