This program is for people who want to heal their relationship with food. People who are ready to stop dieting and getting stressed out about the details of health, calories, weight, and wellness, and are ready to find freedom with food, their bodies, and their self-worth. This is for people who appreciate personal growth, self-awareness, and expanding their consciousness.

This community primarily caters to women because the intense conditioning that comes with diet culture and weight loss often targets women the most. We invite all self-identified women and non-binary individuals who want to experience piece with food and self-image to join. 

(To experience the long term benefits of the program, you must be willing to commit to developing a 20-minute meditation practice per day. You will receive all of the guidance, tools, information, recordings, and support necessary to do this.)

I was a fitness trainer and health coach helping people lose weight. We’d track their macros, restrict, they’d lose the weight—only to gain it back later. Once I woke up to the truth of food as a coping mechanism being emotionally rooted, I realized that, until we did the healing work to acknowledge that emotional pain, no lasting weight loss was possible; it was like a bandaid. I decided to stop helping people lose weight after that, and to only work with people who deeply want to heal, grow—and actually love themselves and food.

Given the intense conditioning imposed on us by society regarding food, body, and health, it’s “normal” to want to lose weight. For some people, this desire is rooted in health, and for some people it’s rooted in judgment, comparison, anxiety, and shame. Either way, if the goal is to shift the way you relate to food, we need let our focus be completely on that—we need to go back to the basics, and that means letting go of focusing on weight loss.

It would be impossible for me to say “stop caring about losing weight” and expect anyone to do that, so it’s okay if there’s still some lingering fear in the background. But it is important to have the primary intention be getting to know yourself and your relationship with food as it is, in order to make a shift.

What I have found is that the people who are ready to make a deeper change ultimately do end up losing weight—but that is not the intention of this work. Some lose weight, some don’t—but the goal is that we find more peace and acceptance within ourselves as we are now—we can’t make a change without meeting ourselves where we are. I will touch on how to integrate nutrition knowledge and external sources of wisdom to support your continued health journey, so you will be resourced to navigate this moving forward.

In three days? Probably not. Quick fixes rarely work. In the past, I ran this program with a small group over 8-12 weeks, which allowed more time for integration, but people often felt frustrated by the slow progress without seeing immediate benefits.

I chose to host this in-person retreat because I believe in the power of a “retreat high”—those paradigm shifts and moments of inspiration and clarity that can ignite real change. These “aha” moments, experienced in a more focused timeframe, become lasting sources of motivation and momentum.

You’ll also receive a 12-week support guide to help you continue the journey more deeply. Since healing happens when you’re ready, there’s no need to wait for the “perfect moment.” While the work won’t be finished in three days, I’m confident you’ll leave with the tools, practices, science, and self-connection needed to heal on your own timeline.

This program is evidence-based and designed to support those struggling with disordered eating. However, it is not suitable for individuals currently diagnosed and undergoing treatment for an eating disorder.

In my decade of helping people with food relationships, I've never met a woman with a perfectly healthy relationship with food. If you know that sometimes you restrict or binge, but are not currently undergoing treatment for a diagnosed eating disorder, this program would be a good fit for you.

If you have been diagnosed with an eating disorder by a professional within the past year, this program is not a good fit. Please allow at least one year of recovery before applying to this program.

Research indicates the practices in this program are helpful for those with a history of restriction, anorexia or binge eating disorder, but it is not appropriate for those diagnosed with bulimia (characterized by purging without restrictive tendencies).

While it's typically not necessary, we have a licensed mental health professional on call during every retreat as a safety measure given the sensitive nature of this work. We take your physical, mental, and emotional health very seriously, and hold your well-being and the work you're there to do with great care.

To get the most out of this program, it’s important to be in tune with your body’s natural hunger and fullness cues. Since GLP-1 medications like Ozempic can impact these interoceptive signals, we ask that participants be off these medications for at least six weeks before joining.

You will leave with a 12-week support guide, a library of videos, meditations, recordings and tools, and a supportive community with facilitated monthly calls. You will also receive a 25-minute one-on-one call with Alyssia before and after you attend.

Meals are catered on-site by Calistoga Motor Lodge’s talented culinary team, featuring a custom wellness menu. You’ll be fueled by plenty of wholesome options (including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, salads, and nourishing proteins, etc.)

With diet, there’s a difference between a dietary restriction (where you have learned that a particular omission is necessary for your individual body’s well being), and a dietary preference. When it comes to healing our relationship with food, a big part of the journey is gaining awareness of the intense conditioning that we’ve been subjected to regarding food and health. Many people come to restrict categories such as gluten, dairy, sugar, fat, carbohydrates, etc., because they have been told these are “unhealthy” options—without really knowing what it means to trust yourself or your own body—and without being encouraged to do so.

This work is about food FREEDOM. Freedom means autonomy and agency. Healing your relationship with food requires coming into consciousness with food, and to your ability to make authentic choices in life. It may be possible that you ultimately choose not to include certain foods in your diet of your own volition, because you learn that it serves your mind/body. However, we must first confront the conditioning, as well as the fears we have around eating certain foods.

For that reason, I ask everyone I work with on this healing journey not to follow any particular diet (keto, paleo, low carb, IF, etc.) during the first phase of the journey. There’s room to incorporate external sources of wisdom later on, once a strong sense of your own “inner wisdom” has been developed.

So if you haven’t eaten gluten, dairy, or sugar in a while because you have judgments about it, have learned it’s unhealthy, and are in some way “afraid” of it, it’s important to open up to those on this retreat. There will be wholesome meals, and there will also be desserts, sugar, dairy, gluten, and processed snacks—some of which will be used in-session for exploration.

Allergies will be accommodated, and there will be vegetarian options for those who do not consume meat.

To do this work, you must want to heal your relationship with food. Come ready to learn about yourself, challenge your beliefs, face your fears, and take on new perspectives and new ways of being. You do not have to know HOW to do this—you just have to be open and curious. I will guide you through the rest.

The primary focus cannot be weight loss. I ask people not to weigh themselves throughout the retreat (or the 12-weeks post-retreat if you choose to follow the support guide after that).

You must commit to developing a daily meditation practice throughout and after the retreat, as well as the month before. You’ll receive recordings to support you in shorter 5-10 minute meditations beforehand, as well as 20 minutes per day for the 12-weeks post-retreat. This is an important component because mindfulness meditation is the foundation of the evidentiary support regarding the efficacy of this program. 

After registering, you'll receive a pre-work document to complete one month before the course starts. This exercise will take a few hours, and is a chance to reflect on your past and present relationship with food, as well as your future goals. While it's primarily for your own insight, Alyssia will review your responses before the pre-call to better understand your experience and provide personalized support throughout the program.

You will also receive information including a video and various recordings to support your meditation practice before arriving (5-10 minutes per day the month before).

This transformational experience has been thoughtfully and intentionally designed based on a thorough examination of modern mindfulness research, scientific literature on eating disorders and stress eating (with a particular focus on healing through mindfulness practices), emotional healing and psychological frameworks, and contemplative neuroscience.

The wealth of evidence, combined with Alyssia’s decade of coaching and emotional healing work, as well as live facilitation and speaking experience, make for a completely unique program offering that does not exist anywhere else.

The intention for this program is to give you all of the tools and information you could need—along with access to your own self-trust—so you never need to spend another dollar on diet culture or healing your relationship with food.

The program costs $6500.

The rate is all-inclusive:

• Pre-Call with Alyssia (25 minutes)
• Pre-Work
• 3.5 Days of In-Person Retreat Programming
• 4 nights in the Calistoga Motor Lodge & Spa (4-star hotel)
• Meals: 4 Breakfasts, 3 Lunches, 3 Dinners
• Program Swag Including Learning Journal & Workbook
• 12-Week Post-Retreat Support Guide
• 1 Post-Call with Alyssia (25 minutes)
• 1 Cohort Community Reunion Call facilitated by Alyssia
• Access to Relish Retreat Online Platform for 1 Year (includes library of videos, meditations, recordings, and tools, as well as community social threads. 1 Year included—$399/year after that).

Not included:

• Dinner Thursday Night (arrival)
• Airfare & transportation to and from hotel

• M.A. Mindfulness Studies

• MB-EAT® qualified instructor

• Qualified mindfulness meditation instructor

• TSM (Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness®) training

• Certified health and nutrition coach

• Certified Hoffman Process Teacher & Coach

• Certified professional fitness trainer