I Just Got GOOP’d and I Loved It!

I was one of the 600 or so attendees who got up early on Saturday morning to go to Gwyneth Paltrow’s inaugural GOOP HEALTH SUMMIT at 3Labs in Culver City, CA.  Gwyneth, like myself, was one of the early adapters to American yoga in the early 1990’s.  People thought we were NUTS!  But, fast forward 20 years, and yes, yoga is actually good for you and it works. Miranda Kerr did yoga right before she got married. Hello!

I arrived at 8:45  just in time to check in for the Crystal Therapy with Colleen McCann.  I picked pretty stones and gave her no clue.  She got mad at me for not asking any questions.  It was like seeing a Fortune Teller.  It was fun to pick out the stones after a LONG wait and talking to other people from San Francisco.  The people with me at my session worked at UBER. They did ask her questions and got a more beneficial reading.  She told me that I was about to travel and that the Southwest United States will be next on my agenda.  (I will report back on that.)  Anyway, I walked away with a pouch of pretty stones and an idea that maybe I should travel to the Southwest US.

 

 

Then I attended a class called Foam Rolling with Lauren Roxburgh and a Shaking and Screaming class with Taryn Toomey.  Sounds mad, but just look at Taryn…  She is on to something!  The classes were designed to help make you prepare for all the sitting you were about to do while listening to all the Panel Discussions on Cosmic Flow, Gut Check, Motherhood, Sex, Fitness and How to handle too many Balls in the Air.   Healthy food and free-flowing drinks were served all over the place. All FABULOUS.  That was nice as it was a pretty pricey event.  Prices ranged from $500.00-$1,500.00 and the high tier SOLD OUT first.

 

I tested the drinks at the cocktail party afterwards and met a medical doctor from New York City.  She had received alot of ribbing about attending this event from her fellow doctors back at home.  She bought one of the $1,500.00 tickets because “As a medical doctor, you are prepared to handle disease, but prevention is rarely discussed.”  She had gained a lot of weight in her first year of practice as she worked long hours and sat at a computer and did not get enough sleep or healthy nutrition or fitness.  She liked what Gwyneth was talking about.  Preventing disease is an important area that more doctors should take seriously. You are what you eat and think.  Wellness is a process. The doctor, by the way, looked fantastic after she made herself learn more about some of the prevention and health techniques that GOOP talks about.

Some of the stuff was rather out there so to speak.  Miranda Kerr likes Leech Therapy.  Well who am I to judge?   She looks perfect. Gwyneth immediately gave the right response upon learning this: ” I thought I was bat shit crazy!?  We should do a scientific double blind study to see if leeching can still be good for you.”  OK.  As Steve Jobs once famously said:

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

GOOP is here to stay.  The next one will be in NYC in January and it will be SOLD OUT as well!  One out of ten people on the face of the earth is way too fat.  We have to do something.  Use your own best judgement, but some of the GOOP view of Wellness is right on track.  See the opening remarks by GP and MORE.

 

###AEA