Dear Diary – All About My Destin, Florida Retreat

Hi, my loves. I’ve just finished driving back from our annual Mind & Body Destin Florida Yoga Retreat. While I’d like to avoid going for the next 72 hours (hello, road fatigue!), I couldn’t rest until I told you about the retreat. Dear Diary, this is what we did!

Tuesday, November 7, 2023 – Road Trippin’

My team and I headed out bright and early on Tuesday for the long-ish drive from Marble Falls, Texas, to the beautiful beachside town of Destin, Florida. We go down at least a day before to set up the luxury retreat villa every year. This year’s location was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It was right by the boardwalk and close enough to everything for our guests (and us!) to venture out but far enough to feel like we’d genuinely escaped.

Luckily, we had no hurricane or tropical storm concerns this year so we could prepare the kitchen, guests’ rooms, and activity areas. I’ve got a GREAT team, so we were able to get everything together, plus get some Zs ahead of the guests’ arrival on Thursday.

Thursday, November 9, 2023 – Hello Friends!

Around 4 pm, our guests started to arrive, and we welcomed them with hors d’oeuvres and wine. We were so happy to see familiar faces and thrilled to meet new folks. We held our opening circle after everyone put their things in their assigned rooms, and then we grabbed our brand new beach towels for some gentle sunset yoga on the beach.

Honestly, this was one of the best sunset yoga classes – the candle light made it so surreal and beautiful. Everyone felt rejuvenated and grounded in that moment.

When dinner rolled around at 7:30 pm, we were ready for the delicious supper our amazing Suki prepared for us. 

Thursday Supper

• Salad Bar Del Mar
• Poached Gulf shrimp
• Corn Succotash
• Avocado coleslaw
• Fresh Salad bar
• Welcome Dessert

My favorite dish? Ha! None because I enjoyed every single morsel of food! After some more wine (what can I say, it’s a retreat? LOL!), we chatted a bit, then slowly drifted off to our rooms.

Friday, November 10, 2023 – Hello Friends!

Friday was our first full retreat day, and we had some relaxing activities lined up for our lovely ladies. We kicked off the morning with a come-and-go breakfast that allowed our guests to dine at their leisure before our 9 am beach yoga.

Friday Breakfast

• Hardboiled Farm Eggs
• Greek yogurt ‘n fixin’s: Homemade granola, dried fruit & nuts, dairy-free yogurt option
• Assorted Fresh Fruit
• Meats & Cheeses
• Artisan breads, bagels, jams & spreads

Morning yoga can be a tricky thing to time! You never want to go too late to catch too much sun. Sunburns were not scheduled for this yoga retreat! By setting it at 9 am, we got our Vitamin D quota without worry. After that? Free time from 10 am to 7 pm. I always say this is something other than a boot camp! We choose our luxury accommodations so our guests can rest, and we select our town because of the plethora of boutique shops and activities available.

We next gathered together for a sound bath session at 7 pm. When we wrapped up, we were ready to enjoy some delicious wine and delicious supper Suki prepared for us. 

Friday Supper

• Basil Pesto Pasta & gnocchi
• With Squash, cherry tomatoes, & greens
• Grilled asparagus
• Seasonal Salad Bar
• Garlic Bread

I won’t be made to pick my favorite for this course, either! Even though I’m a sucker for basil pesto pasta.

After that, our guests lounged around, drank more wine, and went off to bed or more exploring.

Saturday, November 11, 2023 – A Successful Saturday

The morning started like Friday on Saturday, with a come-and-go breakfast and morning yoga. This morning’s breakfast included:

Saturday Breakfast

• Cowgirl Porridge (Seasonal Overnight Oats)
• Hardboiled Farm Eggs
• Greek yogurt ‘n fixin’s: Homemade granola, dried fruit & nuts, dairy-free yogurt option
• Assorted Fresh Fruit
• Meats & Cheeses
• Artisan breads, bagels, jams & spreads

After morning yoga, guests once again had free time- and mother nature made it extra easy to stay in and relax with rain all day this day. At 6pm, we opened our stress reduction workshop & craft- we always have some amazing conversations around stress and what we can do about it. 

BTW, as I shared last year, the town had some great restaurants to visit for lunch time each day! So, we all picked our restaurants based on what tickled our pallets. I cannot say enough that it’s essential to support small businesses. At all our Mind & Body Complete retreats, we encourage our guests to venture out and try new dining experiences.

Dinner was late but amazing as usual. 

Saturday Dinner

• Gulf Coast Grouper
• Blackened Fish
• Vegetable Jambalaya
• Grilled vegetables
• Fresh salad Bar
• Smores

I’m a sucker for fish, so I particularly enjoyed those two dishes, but of course, everything else was, as per the guests, DELICIOUS! After the main course, we did a special fire ceremony and then we enjoyed some s’mores that were so delicious!

Sunday, November 12, 2023 – Goodbye Friends

The last day is always so bittersweet. Our team prides itself on seeing our guests leave feeling happy, well-rested, destressed, inspired, and rejuvenated. But…it’s always sad to see everyone head on home. We bonded a lot during our retreat; this was a rare, relaxing treat from the world’s stresses for many of us.

At 9 am, we gathered for our closing circle and last group meditation session. After that, we went out with a bang! Suki invited our guests to our end of retreat Champagne Brunch.

Sunday Champagne Brunch

• Everything but the…Frittata
• Fresh fruit
• Waffles with syrup & butter
• Greek yogurt ‘n fixin’s: Homemade granola, dried fruit & nuts, dairy-free yogurt option
• Seasonal offerings

It was now time for our guests to check out. New and old exchanged numbers; then, we sent off our guests with hugs, positive thoughts, and good energy.

Many a parting question included what we had up our sleeve for next year, ha! Come and find out! In the meantime, you can register now for our Tulum, Mexico Retreat scheduled for