A visit to Tennessee Fitness Spa helps Mike to shed some of the “souvenir weight” he picked up during his RV travels, and to refocus his efforts to maintain a healthful lifestyle.
By Mike Wendland, F426141
July 2013
When we began our motorhome lifestyle a year and a half ago, I knew that all those new places we’d visit, the interesting people we’d meet, and the great adventures we’d have would expand my world. I just didn’t count on our travels expanding my waistline.
Life on the road brings plenty of opportunities to enjoy food. Regional foods. Specialty foods. Snack foods. And, of course, lots of lawn chair nibbling around campfires as we sit outside our coach and socialize with fellow RVers.
So, when my wife, Jennifer, a physical fitness instructor by occupation, had an opportunity to be a guest teacher at a place called Tennessee Fitness Spa earlier this year, she immediately accepted. Then she lured me into accompanying her.
“Hey, Mike, I have a great place for us to take the motorhome,” she said. “They are in a beautiful rural setting in Tennessee; they have full hookups; and you’ll get three gourmet meals a day. I’ll be teaching and you can hang out.”
I was immediately in. I just didn’t know what I was in for.
The spa is about two hours south of Nashville, and as we cruised down Interstate 65, Jennifer broke the news to me that by “hanging out,” she meant I would be participating in the “program.”
Hmmm . . . “Program?” What was she talking about?
“You’ve been talking about wanting to lose some weight and get in shape for summer,” she reminded me. “This will jump-start your plan. You’ll love it.”
The spa has two RV parking areas, one being the upper campground that is about a half-mile from the main complex of lodges, a dining room, a lounge, a fully equipped gym, and a huge swimming pool. During our stay, this area was occupied by several Type A motorhomes. The folks staying there either drove their towed cars down to the center or walked down a hilly gravel road to the spa. This campground has room for 10 coaches.
The lower campground, with five spots, is right in the midst of the complex, on the banks of 48 Mile Creek, a pristine, fast-flowing, and surprisingly wide stream that would be called a river just about anywhere else. We parked our Type B Roadtrek eTrek next to two Type C motorhomes.
The spa is all about health and exercise. A Sunday afternoon orientation meeting introduced me to the other guests. The spa typically has about 60 in residence during a week, staying in motel rooms, the lodges, or RVs.
Nancy Shaw, who founded the spa in 1991 with her late husband, Joe, says the RV spots were added a few years ago because of demand.
“There are a lot of people in RVs who have neglected good eating and exercise,” she said, trying to be tactful and to avoid looking at the growing roll around my middle. “We try to give them a new start and some practical help in incorporating a healthy lifestyle into their travels.”
Lodge guests can’t bring their pets, but pets are welcome with RVers.
“They like it, because not only can they sleep in their own RV and bring their pets but they save money from the lodging costs our regular guests pay when staying in a room,” Ms. Shaw said.
Exercise programs are tailored to each guest based on his or her health. Most are asked to do at least two aerobic workouts a day, with a minimum duration of 45 minutes each, followed by strength training in the gym and a stretching class.
Jennifer was right when she told me there would be three gourmet meals. But what she didn’t tell me was that, in total, those meals amounted to no more than 1,400 calories a day. What amazed me, though, was that I never was hungry, even with all the exercise I was doing.
“That’s because the meals are all made from scratch and are perfectly blended with the right amount of protein, good fats, and complex carbohydrates,” explained Belinda Jones, the spa’s director of fitness and nutrition. “They are low-salt and low-sugar, and what everyone notices is that their cravings disappear. It’s sugar and salt that cause those cravings. Good food satisfies.”
During the day, spa employees present special seminars about nutrition and interesting topics such as the benefits of herbal teas, growing your own food, and the area’s unique history.
That history lies only a few steps away on the 100-acre complex. A spectacular geographic feature called Natural Bridge consists of a natural limestone cave with a collapsed roof. Dean Ware, part of the spa staff, leads a tour of the cave and tells the story of how Natural Bridge was home to notorious outlaw gangs who preyed on travelers along the Natchez Trace, which is a few miles away. In later years, locals held church services there, and it’s said that Davy Crockett delivered a speech from a protruding ledge of the bridge called the pulpit rock.
So how did it go for me?
It went!
I lost 8.5 pounds and 8.25 inches during my week there.
Then we hit the road for the return trip to Michigan.
And reality set in. On the road, it’s very hard to make healthful choices when eating out. A traffic accident and hour-long delay on I-65 north of Nashville sent us off the interstate. We pulled off at an exit and decided to eat dinner as the traffic cleared. We found a Mexican restaurant (who could resist the chips and salsa?), a fast-food place (there is nothing fresh and healthful about fast food), and a national pizza chain. We figured the pizza place would give us the healthiest choice, because we knew it had a salad bar.
But the salad came in plastic bags. That’s surely not fresh. Only high-fat, high-calorie salad dressings were offered. And the pizza we ordered — thin crust with a pineapple topping — was so salty and sugary that our newly sensitized taste buds immediately noticed this. We both felt yucky and vowed that from now on, we are going to carry our own salad dressings and protein sources and learn to make better choices.
As for exercise, that, too, is more challenging in an RV. Walking, of course, is always a choice. We can also carry along bicycles. And we can seek out towns with gyms and YMCAs.
We absolutely loved Tennessee Fitness Spa (www.tfspa.com; 800-235-8365, 931-722-5589). Now, the challenge is to build on what we’ve learned. After all, there are a lot of places out there we want to see as we travel around North America. We want to be sure we are fit and healthy enough to take everything in for as long as possible.