Be the best version of yourself

I first heard the name of this clinic last year, being discussed in hushed whispers. I was told that it was a favourite detox destination of celebrities. “Viva Mayr is a place in Austria that actors go to lose weight,” is how one industry person described it to me. There were murmurs that Arjun Kapoor and some other actors had gone there. But it didn’t become quite the obsession — every week a B-Town actor is checking into the clinic — until Parineeti Chopra’s fabulous transformation and director Farah Khan’s drastic weight loss.

Not a fat farm

I must admit that after seeing Parineeti’s stunning metamorphosis, I was intrigued. I had to find out more about this place. No one was talking about it. So I began reading up and researching the clinic. I soon realised it was not the fat farm that people had labelled it. The clinic offered a lot more. From treating allergies to hormonal and fertility issues. Detox treatments, infuses to fix deficiencies in your body, diets to cure conditions ranging from Candida to IBS. The by-product of the treatments offered at is glowing skin,  weight loss and age loss (yes, you will return feeling and looking 10 years younger).

De-stress and reboot 

Booking at Mayr Worth online was easy, because it was off-season. Given that they have just 40 rooms, and get clients (I choose not to use the word patients) and celebrities from all over of the world, you’d be advised to book in advance. I announced to friends and family that I was going to Viva Mayr. Most of them asked, “Why, but you don’t need to lose weight.” No, I didn’t. At 53 kilos, I would have been happier five kilos lighter.  I had gained five kilos in the last year because of stress eating. My mother, who has always been healthy had been to the hospital thrice in the last six months for different life-threatening medical emergencies. A gym-rat, I suddenly had no energy to workout anymore. I was feeling fatigued all the  time. I’d begun to feel jaded and was functioning on auto-mode for months, even though I love my job. I just didn’t feel like myself. I had severe water retention and insomnia. I felt like a zombie. I needed to reboot. So I packed my bags.

Switch off and relax

After a long flight, I was dead but I felt refreshed just walking into the Maria Worth property. There was something calming about the mostly-white interiors. I saw guests lounging in flip flops and bathrobes — not an attire I’d don in public — but after the first day, it was what I lived in. Something about the place just lets you be. You quickly shed the I-shouldn’t wear-this or I-can’t-do-that, and you accept what you are and what you want to do. Use of phones is frowned upon in the dining area, and you’re advised to use it sparingly everywhere else. There is no wi-fi in the hotel except in the lobby, to limit the use of laptops. However, for those who need it, there is provision for internet in the room. Given that I spent most of my day staring at my phone or laptop, this was a relief. It’s hard to switch off, but if you want results, it’s necessary. I was advised to take a break from newspapers and television. and not think about work. Keep interaction to the minimum. Allowing the mind and body to rest. It took me three days to do that, in which I suffered severe headaches (all part of detox) but my doctor said, “Take the painkiller only if it is unbearable.” I didn’t.

Change for the better

After the headaches subsided, I began to feel the changes. I didn’t remember being this relaxed in two decades. While at home, I’d toss and turn in bed till dawn, here I was sleeping at 9 pm! I was also waking up early. Rising early and going to bed early is something that happens because of the early breakfast and dinner time. I was sleeping a lot. Even during the day. I was told, I shouldn’t worry that the body needs rest and I shouldn’t fight it. Most of my days began with an abdominal massage by my doctor, Dr Werner Zancolo, and detox treatments like Nasal reflex therapy (boon for those with sinus problems and migraines), electrolysis foot bath. After several tests applied kinseology, blood tests, free radical measuring, body-fat analysis and mineral analysis. Based on the results, I was prescribed medicines, vitamin infusion, and colonic irrigation. There is no fixed program. It differs from person to person. I could see my body (lose five pounds in five days), and my skin change for the better. I felt lighter, at peace and more energetic than I had in a long while.

Food and fun

Breakfast, lunch and dinner was at fixed times, and if you missed any meal, there was unlimited veg broth and green tea available on tap. Depending on your treatment, your schedule will leave you just a few hours a day to yourself, in which you can go for a swim, sauna, and steam. Hiking, Nordic Walking and biking are two popular outdoor activities. I did most of it on different days. The gorgeous setting and the weather being perfect, helped.

There are as many tables in the dining area as there are rooms. Each person is allotted one table, and you are encouraged to eat all your meals there, and in silence. One of the most important things is learning how to eat.

What I learned at the training session was: Chew your food till a pulp because “you have teeth in your mouth and not in your intestines.” My favourite part of the day was post-dinner. When everyone would come to the lounging area before retiring to their rooms. There was a TV producer from New York, a writer-producer from London, a recently-divorced girl from Paris, a cancer survivor from Romania, who was there to remove the toxins from the radiation treatment from his body. We’d talk about our day, the treatments and how it was working. I think it’s important to go alone so that you can disconnect from the world you know, and connect with yourself and a different world. One night I watched part of an India-Pakistan match on the laptop of a guy who was supporting the other team!

General well-being

The amount of wrong foods we keep putting into our intestines day after day, year after year, takes a toll on digestion. resulting in weight gain. One of the things that almost everyone is advised to do is: Drink epsom salts in the morning as soon as you wake up. You will be running to the loo several times a day but like Dr Zancolo told me, “A person can have upto five to six pounds of rotting food in our intestines that needs to be removed.” I met an 84-year old man at the clinic, who told me he’d been visiting for the last 20 years. There was a lady with him, who was a first-time visitor like me. I assumed she was his wife. Turned out she was his daughter! Viva Mayr may well be the secret to eternal youth and well-being. I would recommend to everyone go there once, whatever your problem. They seem to have the cure. I returned back feeling recharged and rejuvenated. Would I go back? Yes, because whoever visits, returns as a better version of themselves.