2018 - The Body Retreat

Choosing the Weight Loss Retreat that is right for you

Choosing a Weight Loss Retreat to suit you

Anyone who has ever been on a diet or exercise plan will know just how difficult it can be to stick to. You eat as little as you can manage and you try to squeeze in as much exercise as is possible and the weight starts to shift. Then it sticks, then you get frustrated and stop the eating less and moving more and the weight just seems to pile back on

Even if you do manage to reach your target weight, it can be equally difficult to maintain it.

That is why heath and fitness bootcamps are so popular. They are designed to put you in an environment conducive to successful weight loss, with people facing similar challenges.

There are many different types of weight loss retreats– or bootcamps as they are often known – so making sure you choose the one that is most suitable for you will help you achieve your goals.

At The Body Retreat we offer a range of different retreats to suit you and your lifestyle. We take a holistic approach health, fitness and weight loss, focussing on the ‘Four Pillars of Women Wellness – Mindset, Menu, Movement and Maintenance. You can read more about them here if you like.

So, what do you need to consider when choosing a retreat?

What are you trying to achieve – a quick fix? Or weight loss and maintenance?

What is your goal?

A rapid weight loss where the ends justify the means. You may be happy to only consume juices for several days? Or exercise like a beast in military style bootcamp classes.

Or do you want a programme which will educate you on how to shed weight successfully – and maintain that weight loss?

At The Body Retreat, we offer the latter. We know that old habits are impossible to break and, in some cases, there may be other obstacles to maintaining your weight loss (such as understanding why you reach for that biscuit tin when you get that 3pm slump, or that glass of wine as soon as you walk in the door after a bad day).

On our weight loss retreats for women, losing weight is just one part of the programme. We have a personalised, holistic approach consisting of an equal balance of behaviour exercise and nutrition on all our events.

Our aim is to provide you with a new framework for your life so that you can learn how to shed ht weight that is unnecessary for you and then maintain your weight through a mixture of healthy eating, exercise and new behaviours (such as dealing with stress, or foregoing pick me ups such as caffeine when you are tired).

Big groups – or one-to-one attention?

Do you want one-to-one or one-to-few attention? Do you want or need and environment where you can exercise at your own fitness levels under the expert eye of a trainer? Or are you happy to be part of a large group where you just throw yourself in the deep end and hope you don’t injure yourself because no one is telling you if you are doing a particular exercise correctly?

On all of our retreats, we have small groups so that everyone gets a personalised service. Our groups tend to be a mixture of all levels of fitness, ages, shapes and sizes, and our programmes are tailored to each individual so that they can meet their goals.

What is included in the cost?

You may see some weight loss retreats advertising themselves as cheap – while this is all well and good, do make sure you know what is included in the cost before you sign up.

Some of these so-called “cheap” camps will charge you extra for things like en-suite rooms, towels, snacks and even bottled water!

At our retreats, everything is included. Your food, snacks and drinks will have the emphasis on being healthy while still being tasty and satisfying. Main meals and snacks will ensure that you never go hungry, plus herbal teas and water are on tap!

And all our venues offer clean, luxurious, and (usually) en-suite rooms – no dormitories!

What variety of Activities is available?

If their website details it, check out the sort of activities you’ll be doing to make sure that they:

are varied, so that you get to try lots of different activities as well as work different muscle groups;
do not require lots of equipment (meaning that when you go home, you can keep up with the new routines you’ve learnt, without having to join an expensive gym);
appeal to you – well at least a bit! For example, if running for a bus is the only running you do, suddenly being thrown into lots of 10k runs and very little else won’t make for an enjoyable time at your camp.

For us we love variety so you can expect a varied mix of activities – such as indoor and outdoor based exercise classes and workouts intermixed with sessions on nutrition, workshop activities and low impact exercise such as yoga, pilates, and Nordic walking etc – We think this is ideal, as it meets all the points mentioned above.

Finally, whatever weight loss retreat you decide to attend, don’t forget to check out the credentials of the Team – being in the care of qualified and hopefully experienced people will help you achieve your goals – as well as give you peace of mind.

Choosing the Weight Loss Retreat that is right for you should not be a quick decision, unless you are happy with a quick result that is likely to disappear just as quickly after you return home.

If you would like to chat about how we might be the right retreat for you then CLICK HERE to set up a call back.

5 Steps to Quit Your Fizzy Drink Habit

5 Steps to Quit Fizzy Drinks.

If there is one thing that you should ditch from your regular diet today, this is it.

It’s time to quit fizzy drinks.

When you drink fizzy drinks, you’re ingesting a slurry of controversial chemicals that are messing with your weight, your health, your energy levels, your mood and your life.

If you read my last blog post on 5 Reasons to Quit Fizzy Drinks you’ll know the impact of fizzy drinks.

It is possible to quit fizzy drinks with a minimum of fuss or withdrawal symptoms with this simple plan.

Aim to put this plan into action over a two week period.

The Body Retreats’s 5 Steps to Quit Fizzy Drinks Habits.

WHY? Start by thinking about why you want to quit fizzy drinks. This probably sounds like a no brainer, but it is an important step. Depending on how long you have been drinking fizzy drinks, how many you drink a day or week will dictate what your withdrawal will be like and how long it will last…because this is not going to be easy…but it will be so worth it. Those first few days will be hard and so it will really be helpful for you to keep in mind why you want to quit.
WATER. Next is to up your H20. Remaining hydrated is really important. You are probably using fizzy drinks as a way to hydrate and to bolster flagging energy. So really make a concerted effort to up your daily water intake. Aim for at least 2 litres of water.
PHASING. Depending on your fizzy drink habit it might be a good idea for you to begin to phase out your drinks. Starting by reducing your intake by 50% in the first week and then in the second week reducing by 50% again. Slow and steady is the way to ensure long term success.
REPLACEMENT. Have a replacement drink to fill the gaps. The water you are drinking is to keep you hydrated and giving you energy…but there are going to be times when you will want a long cool refreshing drink. This is when you will be vulnerable to fall back into your old fizzy drink habit. Why not try our Citrus Green Tea Cooler as a great replacement.
SLEEP. Last but not least, for these two weeks make sleep your priority. The fizzy drinks have perhaps been propping up your energy levels and when you take them out there is going to be a short period when you are feeling a bit pants. Sleep is going to help you feel a whole lot better.

If you have any experiences, questions or suggestions, feel free to add a comment below. Also please share this replacement plan with your friends and family. Making this change is one of the most important things a fizzy drinks drinker could do for their health.

5 Reasons to Quit Fizzy Drinks

5 Reasons to Quit Fizzy Drinks

I love a fizzy soft drink. I grew up in a household where you were offered milk, water or tea as drinks to accompany a meal or when you were thirsty.

Unless it was a Wednesday.

You see on Wednesdays the Maine Man visited our street. The Maine Man delivered our local soft drinks. Every week I was allowed to choose two bottles of soft drink. Cola, Lemonade, Cream Soda…rows and rows of brightly coloured, highly sweetened drinks.

I was supposed to make my two bottles last me until the following Wednesday ..but that never happened!! I was lucky if there was a little dribble left by the weekend.

My grandmother was steadfast and she never allowed me to have more than two bottles…but I felt that needed more. So as soon as my pocket money increased beyond 10p I started to buy more soft fizzy drinks.

I could so easily down a can of coke in about 2 or 3 big gulps. I felt the rush of energy it gave me, it slated my thirst like nothing else. Afterwards I felt wonderful, full of bounce.

I was hooked…literally. By the time I went into high school I was a fizzy drink addict.

I was also very over weight. An over weight teenager at a new school becomes very body conscious. So I switched out my daily fizzy drink to diet drinks. I felt I had made a good choice… my weight didn’t change, but it felt good to be consuming less sugar anyway.

Fast forward 15 years and I was working in hotels in central London and my boss had a serous Diet Coke habit, so much so that he had a fridge installed in his office and it was available to all his team. Free diet coke was a god send, especially when you are working long shifts. I found it could easily drink at least 6 cans of Diet Coke a day.

Since I left the corporate world and started to become more interested in my own health and wellness I knew that my fizzy drink habit had to go.

Those of you who have met our Nutritional Therapist Kate or attended her workshops will know that she takes a very dim view of soft drinks, even the diet versions… she talks of them as “anti-nutrients” robbing the body of nutrition to metabolise them.

Don’t think that drinking the diet version is a good choice…the sugar is replaced by artificial sweeteners like AcesuifameK (200 times sweeter than sugar) or Sucralose (600 times sweeter than sugar). Nothing good for your health here.

When I have worked with Kate in 1-2-1 she would ask me if had stopped drinking fizzy drinks!!!

The truth was that I had reduced my intake but never made the leap to total abstinence.

5 Reasons to Quit Fizzy Drinks

Diabetes

Just one can of fizzy drink per day means 26% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and 36% greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome which impacts insulin resistance. Don’t think that by switching to diet drinks you have avoided this trap… the sweetened used to replace the sugar increase your tolerance for sweetness and may actually increase your desire to eat more.

Increased appetite

It appears that consuming fizzy drinks might actually stimulate the appetite and/or stop people from feeling full. One study found that people given soft drinks consumed 17% more energy than in their typical diet, even after taking into account the extra energy from the soft drinks showed that drinking fizzy drinks led to an increase of the levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin

Bone Strength

Just one can per day has been linked to lower bone mineral density (BMD) in women. A lower BMD places women at risk of osteoporosis. This is because of phosphoric acid in the soft drink , which can leach calcium out of the bone.

Weight Gain

Regular consumption of fizzy drinks means that your waist is likely to be 3 inches larger than women who drink no soda. A recent study suggests that just one can of soft drink per day increases your visceral fat by 1/2 pound each year. It doesn’t sound like much but over time this stealth fat soon adds up.

Gut Health

Fizzy drinks are a mix of phosphoric acid, high sugar and artificial sweeteners and this concoction interferes with the bacteria in your gut. In particular artificial sweeteners may favour the growth of bacteria that make more calories available to us, meaning that we store extra fat.

I had tried many times to quit fizzy drinks…but I always found it difficult to get past day three. How about you? Have you quit fizzy drinks because you wanted to improve your health and wellbeing?

Next week I’ll be sharing our 5 Step Plan to Quit Fizzy Drinks.

Are you intoxicated by Carbohydrates?

Are you addicted to carbohydrates?

Take this short quiz to find out.

Do you often feel hungry very soon after you have eaten?

Do you feel that a meal is not really complete unless you have some form of starch included (bread, pasta, rice, potato, qunioa etc)

Do you sometimes feel sluggish after you finish a meal?

Do you find it difficult to say no to starchy or sugary foods?

Do you struggle with energy levels?

Do you need to snack between meals, especially mid afternoon?

Do you crave starch or sugar?

Do you find your concentration improves quickly after you have eaten starch or sugar?

Do you find it difficult if not impossible to stop eating certain foods until they are all gone?

Do you snack or graze daily?

Now.. count up your Yes answers

0 – 2 You are probably not addicted to carbohydrates

3 – 5 You appear to have a mild carb addiction which, at times, you may be able to control and with some difficulty.

6-8 Your score indicates that you are moderately addicted to carbohydrates. At times you may be able to control your eating but you may find that stress, premenstrual changes, tiredness, boredom, unexpressed anger or pressure may increase your carbohydrate cravings.

9-10 You have scored in the severe carbohydrate addiction range. You may be struggling to control your eating without realizing that your body has been fighting you, literally driving you to eat and then storing the excess food energy as fat.

You may not be surprised by your score or you may think that surely everyone is in some way a little addicted to carbs in some form.

Perhaps you know that you have a problem with carbs in whatever form that takes but you cannot seem to break the cycle of eating.

Hands up here….I am a total Carbohydrate addict!!!

I thought I was just greedy or that I didn’t have enough willpower to resist the sugary or starchy delights.

I was wrong…. Being a carb addict is not about greed, hunger or willpower.

Let me explain.

It all starts in childhood.

I was brought up in the 1070’s by an Irish grandmother.. It was the beginning of the snack era. I can still remember the adverts for Milky way Chocolate bars..”the treat you can eat between meals and not ruin your appetite”. I could eat about a dozen of those little morsels, then there was the lemonade van that came door to door every Wednesday I was allowed two bottles for the week of whatever garishly coloured highly sweetened beverage I liked. But its wasn’t only the treats that were changing, the food we eat regularly at home changes too, the bread became more processed, in addition to meat and two veg there was now exotic dishes like pasta or curry and rice… add into the mix that an Irish grandmother is also a big fan of having a pudding after supper EVERY EVENING and you can see where the trouble began.

My sweet tooth was almost insatiable.

Next comes college.. living on cheep student fodder of pasta, pizza, cheesy chips, pot noodles ( no judgement pls) choosing to fill myself up on cheep stodgy foods actually felt like I was nourishing myself. But basically when you add in the alcohol consumption as well the college years are just one long carb feast!!

Then there are the corporate years. For me that meant years of working in hospitality, so shift work and availability of restaurant food meant that I was often eating rich indulgent foods at all times of the day and night…oh and then add in the social life. More eating out, more alcohol…more sugar , more starch, more carbs!!!

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

This is the story of how I became addicted to carbs. Your story may be slightly different but it probably follows a similar pattern.

Year after year, decade after decade you have eaten progressively more and more carbs.

You began to change your taste buds, you changed your glucose tolerance threshold, you change how your brain reacts to sugar and starch… slowly but surely you become more addicted. Need just a little more sugar, a little more starch, more carbs to just feel normal. Its feels difficult to function properly if you don’t have enough “fuel” and for you fuel need to be fast acting…fuel needs to be carbs!

The diet industry doesn’t help…for years we were told to eat less fat…fat makes you fat!! Of course the problem was that what we were left with was CARBS… and when you take the fat out of a dish or product you have to replace it with something that adds in not only flavour but also texture… enter in sugar, starch and artificial sweeteners.

You can find yourself on a starchy sugary carb fuelled rollercoaster. Needing more each day to get through the day.

We meet so many women week after week at The Body Retreat who are are struggling to regain control from addiction to carbohydrates they try to quit the habit at home but find it too difficult…if not impossible to get through those first few days.

The problem with many at home plans is that they focus too much on what you need to tae out of our daily eating…this void leave you at the mercy of cravings. Which is why on our retreats we focus equally on what you put into your daily diet alongside those foods you are looking to remove or reduce.

Rather than building your diet around carbs we focus on increasing the amount of protein, fat and fibre.. which help to keep you feeling satisfied and not at the mercy of blood sugar cravings.

What is your biggest challenge when it comes to starch, sugar and carbohydrates? Do you think of yourself as being addicted to carbohyrdates? Let me know in the comments below.

The Body Retreat Top Ten Stress Busting Tips

Stress Busting…

Do you really need to relax? Do you feel a bit overwhelmed? Perhaps you have been feeling the negative impact of stress for a while now…but you are so in the zone that you can’t really even give yourself the time to focus on what you might need. Just keeping on, keeping coping, keep moving, fearing that if you stop you might never be able to start again.

We hear this time and time again from the women who choose to join us on our Stress Reset Retreat. They reach the point where they know that something has to give and so before they go quietly mad, or fall into the abyss or burnout they come to us and reset.

We are here to support busy women reclaim a sense of balance, a natural energy, a positive outlook and for some most important of all a good nights sleep.

If retreat resetting isn’t right for you right now then perhaps our Stress Busting Tips can help.

Top Ten Stress Busting Tips

Plan your week so that you can factor in rest time. Not just time when you are not working.. because so often that gets filled with other peoples stuff very quickly. But actually, plan in some non-negotiable me time. Time to read a book, take a bath, practice yoga…whatever. But it has to be just time for you. Start with just planning in 30 mins of you time. That’s just 30 mins out of an available 10,080 minutes in the week. That’s doable, isn’t it?

Get Outside. We can spend days if not weeks racing from our front door to our transport, to work, back through the transport and back inside. Never taking time to just be in nature. Aim to spend 15 mins a day outside. You can walk, sit, jog, practice some yoga or mindful meditation…but you cannot read the paper, watch your tablet or catch up on social media. This is a time to unplug and reboot. You will be amazed just how much better you feel after even just a few minutes in the fresh air.

Eat Green. We often think of our mind as the organ most affected by Stress but actually, it’s our liver…by the time you are conscious of the negative impact of stress your poor old liver has spent months trying to keep your toxin levels in check. When your liver is overloaded you feel sluggish, tired, headachy, prone to infection and virus. By eating a clean diet that is low in processed food (more work for your liver) and high in Greens (supportive and cleansing for the liver) this means your liver is in better shape and so ultimately you are better able to cope with your stress reactions.

Know your energy curve and start to manage it. We all have an individual energy curve, by which I mean the amount of time your body takes to completely use the fuel you have provided until it reaches empty. On average it takes between 2 – 4.5 hours for this process. But it depends on the food type you eat.. for example if you have a coffee and a muffin and you will be flying for about 45 mins then you crash and burn. Your energy levels are rock bottom and you’d sell a kidney for a sweet treat. This energy crash adds to your biological stress. Focus your diet on high quality proteins and vegetable carbs for sustained energy and no crashes.

Have a Cup of Tea…not just any old tea. I’m talking about having a mindful cup of tea. Almost all of us have a hot drink at least once a day, but often its taken on the go, drunk without any thought. While at the same time we are so time poor we tell ourselves that we haven’t got time to be mindful. Turning at least one cuppa into a Mindful Tea every day can bring about amazing stress relief. ( I have written a whole blog on this.. Put The Kettle on its time to Relax)

Learn how to say no. Its such a small word isn’t it. No. But if you feel a surge of guilt, angst, fear or any other negative emotion when you say no to people then it really is time to learn to say no your own way. Saying no isn’t saying you don’t care, it isn’t saying you aren’t capable, it isn’t saying you are superior. Too often people shy away from No and add too many unnecessary Yes requests into their already busy schedule bringing unnecessary pressure into their lives. Just say no.

Embrace Tech. Technology should be enhancing our lives not sapping them. Are you using technology to make your life simpler? Online shopping and baking are given these days, right? You are doing that aren’t you? Using apps to streamline tasks, act as reminders, even using your phone voice record app to get stuff out of your head without the worry of forgetting it.

Reject Tech. (Tech is great…see point above ) but the problem arises when technology begins to encroach into every hour of our lives. When we are expected to be “ON’ logged in, contactable, engaged at all times. It takes it toll…mentally, physically and emotionally. How many of us cannot claim to have become a little bit addicted to some form of tech, be that checking work emails at midnight or a quick look at Instagram the moment we wake. Tech was always supported to make our lives easier so that we could spend time doing other stuff…the problem is we just spend our time using other tech. So for just one day each week, give yourself a digital detox. No surfing, no social media, no gaming. If that sound like the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard then you really need to detox digitally as it’s a sign that you might be addicted to tech. Just one day per week off the hamster wheel will give you time and perspective.

Forget About Sleep. It seems like the most ludicrous thing for someone who specialises in sleep and stress to say. Here’s the thing.. sleep is the first casualty of stress. When sleep becomes elusive then it quadruples your stress perception. You send hours through the night tossing and turning worrying about your inability to sleep, worrying about your ability to work the next day. You brain is so active with all the thoughts about elusive sleep that the last thing it can do is relax let alone sleep. So focus on rest instead… sleep will come in time..maybe not as much as you want right now…but it will come. As you begin to focus on rest and relaxation you mind begins to still, you re breathing begins to slow, your muscles begin to unwind and guess what? you begin to drift off.

Focus on Done rather than DO. There is always so much to do these days but that doesn’t mean you have to the person to Do it all. What matters is that its all gets Done..so its time to outsource, delegate, share the load and maybe even relax your standards a little. Cut yourself some slack.. you don’t need to the person to Do every chore, every report, every task. Share the load.

Let me know in the comments below which of these stress busting tips feels most relevant to you right now.

You don’t have to embrace every tip, you will know which are just right for you right now. Start there and begin to create a cycle of calm and balance … you may just surprise yourself with how much more you can achieve without burning out.

Year: 2018