Holiday celebrations and snow sports often steal the spotlight during winter, but we also celebrate this time of year because it ushers in a new year and a fresh start. After you’ve shopped ‘til you dropped, had your fill of holiday indulgences, and showered your friends and family with love, it’s time to focus on someone just as important: You!
So what’s your pleasure? An intense workout that leaves you exhausted but proud of yourself? A rejuvenating spa treatment that makes you feel beautiful and comfortable in your own skin? Or a healthy, delicious treat that gives you enough energy to not just get through the day, but conquer it? Read on for some of our favorite ways to shake up winter.
Energizing Fitness Classes
Shakti Vinyasa Yoga on Main Street in Old Bellevue offers a range of dynamic and therapeutic classes, including Rejuvenation & Release, which focuses on arm balances, inversions and deep stretches to restore balance in the body.
Slip on your sticky socks and drop in to Pure Barre for a 55-minute, high-energy sculpting class that will tone every muscle in your body. Single classes cost $23, so the “First 3 Classes + Socks” package ($39) is a great deal if you’re in town for a few days.
Sign up for a wild ride at Flywheel, a stadium cycling studio that offers one of the most intense—and intensely fun—workouts in town. Classes fill up fast, so be sure to reserve your spot online, and don’t forget your water bottle or your towel—you’re going to need them!
If you’re a CrossFit devotee far from your favorite box, you can relax: CrossFit Bellevue has you covered. The 13,500-square-foot facility—one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest—has plenty of room for drop-in guests. Just call the gym before you stop by.
Guests of Hotel Bellevue are granted access to The Bellevue Club’s 200,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art athletic and fitness facility, which offers indoor cycling, kickboxing, barre, yoga, strength training and aerobics classes, as well as personal training sessions.
Is your wallet as depleted after the holidays as you are? No problem. You can get an affordable workout at the South Bellevue Community Center (SBCC), which boats a 2,500-square-foot fitness center. A one-hour orientation and $7 gives you access to treadmills, exercise bikes, elliptical machines, weights, lockers and showers. You’ll just need to bring your own lock, toiletries and towel.
And finally, if the holidays drove you just a teensy bit crazy, you can recover by literally climbing the wall at The Crag, a 33-foot, simulated-granite climbing wall also located at the SBCC. Sign up for a supervised 
drop-in session, or learn the basics at a one-hour Rock Climbing 101 class.
Of course, there are plenty of free fitness options, too, in the form of local parks, bike paths and running trails. For a complete list, visit our guides to Outdoor Recreation and Public Parks.
Rejuvenating Spa Treatments
Pamper your skin with a healthy treat. Gene Juarez Salon & Spa’s Revitalizing Pear & Green Apple Body Wrap is a fruit-filled, 60-minute service that includes an antioxidant-rich scrub, a stimulating body wrap and a hydrating massage. Yum!
For a total-body reboot, Recoop offers the 90-minute Buff + Detox + Relax package, which includes a citrus salt scrub, a detoxifying mud mask, a face and scalp massage, a relaxing rain shower and a coating of luscious, moisturizing body butter.
If you’re away from home, then Truce’s Travel Recovery Aroma Detox Massage should definitely be on your itinerary. The 75-minute rejuvenating treatment, which uses essential oils to detoxify and cleanse the lymphatic system, can help alleviate jetlag, fatigue and sore muscles.
For a truly one-of-a-kind experience, head to Salt Mine Arium, the only local purveyor of salt therapy, which is believed to relieve the symptoms of allergies, asthma, cold, flu and insomnia. The 45-minute sessions take place in rooms saturated with micro particles of Himalayan salt that, according to Salt Mine Arium, “can cleanse the lungs of bacteria, irritants and pollution.”
The unique venue also offers massage, Qigong energy work, acupuncture and private yoga sessions. How often can you say that salt lowers your blood pressure?!
For more deeply relaxing destinations, visit our local Spa Guide.
Healthy Foods to Fuel Your Day
In our experience, there aren’t many minor irritations that a healthy, delicious green smoothie can’t melt away. Chase your work stress, holiday headaches or tough workouts with a cold-pressed juice smoothie from Evolution Fresh, blended with fresh fruit and nutritious greens. The downtown Bellevue kitchen is also a popular stop for quick, healthy breakfasts and lunches.
Jujubeet, also in downtown Bellevue, offers healthy juices, smoothies, snacks, salads and sweets, as well as elixirs designed to boost immunity, reduce inflammation, increase energy and help you focus. For a more lasting reboot, consider taking home one of Jujubeet’s cleanses, which range in commitment from Beginner ($35/day) to Pro ($74/day).
We love Juice & Glow’s manifesto, which begins, “Power to the plants,” and reminds us to “always be good to yourself and others.” It’s a great reminder for a new year, and great motivation to indulge in the downtown Bellevue café’s juices, smoothies and tonics, and delicious salads and bowls.
From top to bottom: Images courtesy of Patryk Dziemja, Shakti Vinyasa Yoga, Truce, Salt Mine Arium, (Smoothie Bar) Evolution Fresh, (Harvest & Caesar Salads) Evolution Fresh
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