WIP trip: Kea 2019

 

Brady came back from a vacation with her love and texted, “I have an idea.” The next day at work we went for a walk and she pulled out a pamphlet – a map of the Greek island of Kea. “I think we should do a fitness and nutrition retreat here,” she said. Obviously I say, “Yes,” and here we are.

Prep for Kea

Luckily, Brady knew what to expect when it came to traveling to and getting around the island – so we felt comfortable in that respect. However, we didn’t know what to expect when it came to group dynamics. There were a few strangers and a few friends in our group of 9 participants. We knew we had a great program planned, but you can’t anticipate the unpredictable like…

  • Will everyone get along?

  • Are we being too ambitious with our plan?

  • Will everyone like the workouts?

  • What do we do if they miss the last ferry?

  • How do we plan for sickness or injury?

  • How much do people eat?

… and so on. After weeks of planning, countless Saturday meetings at Hallesche Haus, and long streams of consciousness on WhatsApp, we arrived on Kea one day early with two suitcases full of goods. OK, there weren’t only two suitcases, there were a couple of tote bags and backpacks too.

We spent the first day getting some last groceries, doing meal prep, testing workouts and taking silly pictures like this of me holding all of the Grounded Factory mats that I brought along in my suitcase.

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The food

The menu planned was super simple – we took advantage of what the island had to offer like fresh veg, feta cheese, big tubs of Greek yogurt and other noms. We ended up bringing things from Berlin like my homemade granola, a few bags of quinoa, chia seeds, and other ingredients we weren’t confident we’d get on the island. Breakfast would always be a spread of chia pudding, granola, yogurt, boiled eggs, and fruit. Lunches would be packed in a jar and taken to-go each day (to the beach, on a hike, etc.) – that’s what all the quinoa was for. Dinners were Greek-inspired and prepped daily (+ two dinners eaten out).

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The workouts

For workouts, we had a lot planned. There would always be a morning workout (at an amazing beach-front spot) and a PM workout (always at our cute little villa). On one day, we also went on the most epic of hikes up to the capital city. We are so proud of everyone for working their hardest during each workout – it was truly incredible to see people move out of their comfort zones, try new workouts and movements, and push their limits.

The takeaways

The island of Kea is truly magical. We were super lucky to have an amazing, trusting group of humans on our first WIP retreat. We learned to trust the process and trust our guts. We also learned that we could scale back on the program because everyone was happy to spend time relaxing on the beach, swimming, chatting with others, reading by the pool, and so on. We didn’t need to occupy every moment of their time with nutrition knowledge bombs and movement.

Surprisingly (or maybe not), we were able to make the biggest impact in those moments of downtime. Slowing down and having real conversations about the food, the workouts, and our own journeys to finding balance between real life and a healthy life… that’s where the magic happened.

We were so happy to be able to create an experience and offer a space were people felt comfortable to be themselves, to enjoy fresh, healthy meals, and to indulge in a drink or two by the pool if they wanted. We can’t wait to go back to Kea in fall of 2020. Who’s in?!

 
Emily Gokita