Monday 1 August 2022 02:18 PM Would you swap your Aperol spritz for sprints on a luxury mini-break? trends now
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ Remember that? In the olden days, leading a healthy lifestyle used to be pretty simple. Now it’s a lot more complicated.
‘Personal wellness’ — what we used to call ‘health’ — has become a huge industry, not to mention a middle-class obsession. It’s not enough just to be healthy. We want to make our bodies the best they can be. We want to live for ever!
This trend has reached new heights, literally, with the opening of the five-star Pan Pacific London ‘wellness’ hotel, housed in a 43-storey tower in Liverpool Street.
Inside, it feels like a hermetically sealed spaceship of serenity and soft lighting: a universe away from the hot bustle of London. And then there’s the wellness floor: more than 1,000 sqm dedicated to ‘the most innovative health and wellbeing haven in the capital’.
Personal wellness has become a huge industry and a middle-class obsession. Daisy Waugh (pictured) has checked out the five-star Pan Pacific London ‘wellness’ hotel
For once, the publicity may not be exaggerating. Aside from the infinity pool, with views of the city skyline, and the spa, there is the gym. It’s equipped with stateof-the-art fitness-monitoring appliances which, until now, were the preserve of sports champions. The Pan Pacific has made them available to the public for the first time. ,
I’m not immune to a bit of a health obsession myself. I play tennis three times a week, I run four times a week and, last autumn, I qualified as a yoga teacher.
But at 55, it feels as though the slippery slope is just around the corner. What happens when my body seizes up and I have to stop? Never mind running for the fun of it — I won’t even be able to run for a bus.
So when I was invited by Robbie Leung, Pan Pacific’s director of wellbeing, to undergo its Body Assessment treatment, I leapt at the chance (as long as I’m not paying: the test is £300, but it’s only available to hotel guests and prices start at £325 per night.)
Maybe a body MOT will help to waylay the slippery slope ahead. Plus, it would be interesting to know if I’m as fit as I like to think I am.
I also found the idea of checking into a swanky hotel and emerging more in tune with my health and fitness rather appealing.
Daisy with Robbie Leung, Pan Pacific London’s director of wellbeing. Robbie, now in his early 30s, was an elite sportsman himself, playing hockey for Great Britain
After all, at this time of year most of us return from sojourns bleary-eyed and half a stone heavier after having too many pina coladas while putting our feet up by the pool. Rare is the woman who finishes the summer fitter rather than fatter.
Robbie, now in his early 30s, was an elite sportsman himself, playing hockey for Great Britain. After that he worked in Formula One as a human performance coach. Pulling together his knowledge of sport psychology and technology, he designed the Body Assessment.
Robbie tells me that by the end of our two hours together, he’ll know more about me than I do.
With the help of his space-age machines, he says, he’ll find out how I breathe; how my heart beats; my
