Start the new year on a healthy note! A wellness-focused brunch is just the ticket to jump-start a fresh new year. Invite like-minded friends with a desire to eat healthy and work up a sweat on a morning or afternoon in early January at your house, a spa, a park, a rented room, or the gym.
PARTY BASICS
Vegetable centerpieces, spa water, a DVD of your favorite workout to do with friends. Fill out new year’s resolution cards and read them out loud to empower people. Lead a group meditation.
PARTY UPGRADES
Craft a workout wheel where people spin to choose their exercise. Watch a documentary on eating healthy (Hungry for Change, The Magic Pill, Food Matters, and That Sugar Film are all good choices). Use your home printer to create cards or pamphlets with ideas for living a healthier life. Provide yoga stones with messages and make-your-own meditation beads for inspiration.
OVER-THE-TOP IDEAS
Hire a personal trainer or yoga teacher to teach a class, or make it a spa party with do-it-yourself facials, manicures, and pedicures. Give out party favors like reusable water bottles, headbands, and jump ropes. Send invites that look like rolled-up yoga mats.
WHAT GUESTS CAN BRING
A food journal, yoga mats, sweat towels, water bottles, or instructions for their favorite exercise regimen on paper or on their cell phone.
GET GUESTS INVOLVED
Ask someone to arrange the vegetable platter, arrange a healthy fruit bowl, and set up the bar. Friends can set up the workout area and lead a set of exercises.
WHAT TO WEAR
Sweats, yoga pants, exercise clothes.
THE TABLE
Set out a new yoga mat as a tablecloth. Make the table feel extra fresh with lots of green, yellow, and bright blue accents in the tablescape and flower arrangements.
THE FLOWERS
Cabbage roses, artichokes, Brussels sprouts on the stem, bunches of fresh herbs, brightly colored flowers.
THE DRINKS
Different-flavored spa waters, a make-your-own-smoothie bar with all the fixings (yogurt, fruit, protein powder, flaxseed) and a blender.
PLAN AHEAD
• Three Days Before: Freeze berries for the smoothies.
• Two Days Before: Make the quinoa for the scramble.
• One Day Before: Make the dip.
ACTIVITIES
Do a yoga class. Watch a movie on healthy living. Bring in a nutritionist to give a talk.
PARTY PROJECT
Make-Your-Own Mala Beads: Supply guests with everything they’ll need to make a strand of mala (meditation) beads: beads, tassels, cording, and scissors. Ask everyone to sit in a circle as they make their mala strings and state an intention for the new year.
GIFTS FOR GUESTS
Yoga towels, insulated water bottles, healthy snack boxes, sport socks, sunscreen, a great fitness hat.
KEEP THE PARTY GOING
Corral the group for an impromptu run around the neighborhood.