I have been going to Viva Mayr for over 10 years, first introduced by a friend from Australia who scared me a bit when he said, ‘you’ll be drinking salt water daily before breakfast’. That’s enough to scare most from going for any cure, so what is the cure, and do you get cured -?

Some friends laugh about it, but it works and when at Viva Mayr you’ll have a very busy day, from morning until night you are booked with treatments. These treatments all depend on your severity of your problems and a few are a part of your regular routine.

In my particular case there was a good reason to come here because at a certain time of life if you’re eating habits go wrong, you’ll need to correct them, and if you don’t your body will be dysfunctional and it gets sick.

I am not saying that if you eat right it is a sure thing but ut can’t hurt and you get pampered by the Viva way of life, and no doubt there is plenty of pampering going on but the most important elements of the treatment for the cure they call it starts with the food.

Viva Mayr’s cure is a way of life and it’s a matter of what you put in, is what you get out. People go for all different reasons, some have serious issues and have suffered cancer, while others come for weight loss. Let’s say the majority come and recognise the importance of rejuvenating; the idea of resting your digestive system is mostly why I go. In my regular routine outside of Viva Mayr I have very little control over my eating habits. I eat too late, eat too much, indulge in drinking and in general my body is being forced to work overtime.

If someone would ask me why I go to Viva Mayr as often as I do, it’s probably because of the kitchen and chef Emanuela Fisher.

We’ve got to know Emanuela over the years by taking her cooking classes, reading her cookbooks and she was very capable and managed to provide a fantastic variety of foods mostly based around the neutrality of ingredients, those easy to digest. She managed to create the most relaxing dishes with herbs and local products – not only delicious but when you eat them you feel so damn good.

Since almost 3 years she retired and has been replaced by Mario Waldhauser who is equally as capable. He is an Austrian chef and has innovated the kitchen and maintained the philosophy of Viva Mayr and added his touch.

During the cure your body goes through a digestion period and the fasting period a period of rest. The digestive system is working 24/7 and it’s very important that you eat smaller quantities of food and you focus more on your energy the energy you get from the food. Well it’s true that most of us are used to eating whenever we want, and whatever we want but there are a few rules here you have to follow and probably one of the most important is ‘chewing’.

You masticate your food and you create the proper enzymes for digestion and secondly you don’t drink any water during dinner. Your stomach has a much better chance of digesting foods without interference of water which makes good sense because ultimately the liquids make you make you feel heavy. Now that doesn’t go for wine but there’s no wine here.

So chewing is very important and the quantity of food you eat is very important and so they’re looking for foods which are alkaline, not acidic. There are plenty of potatoes and I can tell you that if you eat potatoes they are unlike any other potato you’ll ever eat. The potato’s here are about farm to table with the minimal interference, principally boiled and it’s very important that you eat small quantities.

You can imagine that for the first five days of the cure your body is acclimatising to the changes of a new way of eating sleeping because eating here is totally different. The principal meal of the day is breakfast and lunch and dinner is a small meal as its very common in Austria. Here unfortunately for some people they get hungry at night but you can drink tea and there’s always time for you to be distracted until it’s bedtime.

The days go by quickly especially if you get out for a walk or a bike ride, as most people here have a busy day with meeting the doctor. The doctors test you to see what your tolerances are by using kinesiology, I not telling you that you have to believe in kinesiology however it can help identify those foods intolerances.

It’s true you’ll have to make some life changes if you really want to continue in this vein but for a lot of people they don’t have a choice. They need to develop a new way of thinking, a new way of living in order to feel good inside and outside. That’s perhaps one of the very difficult parts about life in general is trying to find the equilibrium between what you like to do and what’s best for you.

If you’ve never been to Viva Mayr and you’re looking for a totally new experience which is definitely something you need to get used, using magnesium or Epson salt and you’ll be taking base powder in order to try to keep your body balance and stable. It is a definite learning curve but an important learning curve and there is no doubt that coming here will give you an absolutely different perspective.