2013 - Page 3 of 8 - The Body Retreat

What a difference a day makes – Charity Bootcamp Day

Saturday 5th October saw our Charity Bootcamp day in aid of Breakthrough Breast Cancer and The Eve Appeal.

The day was inspired by our sharing the journey of our friend and Body Retreat champion Lulu Wisson as she beat cancer earlier this year. Throughout her treatment Lulu’s PMA remained constant and she was a total inspiration. In keeping with the qualities Lulu embodies and her passions we wanted a day that was filled with fun,fitness,fundraising and cake. Lulu has been campaigning for The Eve Appeal since her diagnosis. The Eve Appeal are a small charity that is dedicated to clinical research into ovarian cancer and currently contributed 15% of total research funding for this important cause.

I then had the good fortune to meet another inspiring woman Amanda Hobson-Jones. Amanda lost her daughter Bec at the tender age of just 33 to breast cancer 10 years ago and since then Amanda has been a dedicated campaigner and fundraiser for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. Like Lulu, Amanda’s message is about love, hope and awareness. You cannot fail to be moved and touched by both their stories.

Despite the fact that The Body Retreat is run by women for women we decided to open the charity day to both men and women and had two brave blokes sign up, so the scene was set for an exceptional day.

There were so many highlights from the day, Gene and Mike finding their inner dancer in Just Jhoom, Amanda and Emma’s unscheduled “detour”, the raffle draw with the amazing and generous prizes from ReVive skincare, Stella & Dot, Tomy, Garmin to name but a few.

We were joined by Ali Archer from MassageAid who donated her day to massage our boot campers and she worked tirelessly through the whole day. Ali’s magic hands are legendary at our retreats and it was no surprise that she was quickly booked back to back all day, fabulously helping to increased our donation pot.

We finished the day off perfectly with afternoon tea and “calorie free” cakes.

Thanks to the generosity of the ladies and gents who attended the day and those who sponsored Lulu to attend we raised and amazing £1,900!! Im just going to say that again £1,900!! We are blown away by the generosity of everyone who supported the day,

I for one cant wait to do it all again next year we had so much fun.

We need a Mediterranean Lifestyle!

It’s a well-known fact that people following a Mediterranean diet have better overall health. And, that’s certainly true for people living in Spain.

In preparation for our retreat in Spain this May I prepared a menu to reflect Spanish and Mediterranean influences, while still keeping to our nutritional requirements to suit the daily retreat activities. So far so good, however creating a menu behind a laptop in Windsor soon became unstuck on day one in Spain.

Landing in Malaga the day before the retreat started and our number one priority was the food shopping so off we went one of the largest supermarket chains in the region. I was prepared that there would need to be some element of substitution to ingredients but I was in for quite an awakening!!

The list of foods not available grew longer and longer, yellow peppers, spring onions, green lentils, wild rice even fresh spinach to name but a few!!! So the menu for the first few days of the retreat was adapted right there in the supermarket aisles.

What I learnt there and then is that the cookery books I had slaved over at home were designed to reflect UK market and abundance of ingredients we have, however the reality is that most of the Spanish menu is down-to-earth, uncomplicated food, based on the ingredients available locally or the crops grown regionally. Many dishes are prepared today using the same cooking methods and ingredients as they were two or three hundred years ago.

A recent study of food shopping habits in Spain showed that weekly produce is not only purchased in shops and supermarkets; but the traditions of obtaining directly from garden allotments, farms or other business; or received as a payment in kind is still very strong. Indeed while on retreat this May one of the nicest dishes we had was a simple green tomato salad made from produce bought from the back of the local farmers van as he went door to door.

Overall, food markets remain the most popular shopping choice in rural Andalusia and are the best place to buy the freshest produce, particularly what is in season. Most towns and villages will have a local market, and our local town was no exception.

One thing is for sure, food in Spain is fresh, abundant and full of taste and the Spanish love their food dearly. I can’t wait to go back to Andalucía in October to see for myself what the local producers have to offer and our autumnal retreat menu will reflect the local markets and produce and there won’t be a cookery book in sight.

Interval Training is it for you?

Interval Training is it for you?

Interval training is becoming know as one of the best ways of increasing fitness levels whether that be speed or strength, but also interval training is now one of the most popular exercise protocols for improving health and losing weight because it burns body fat more effectively.

One of the best things I like about interval training is that you don’t need any equipment or have to go to the gym as it can be done anywhere.

If you are not sure how interval training work or what to do then just follow this simple rule,

Alternate periods of high intensity effort with periods of short low intensity or rest periods

So for an example-

High intensity phase – High knee run on the spot 20 – 45 sec

Low intensity phase – Slow controlled Squats 10 – 15 sec

Repeat 4 times

This stop –start workout is not only teaching your body to recover quickly from the high intensity phase (improving your fitness level) but also training it to burn body fat more efficiently for energy, turning you into a fat burning machine even when you are not working out.

Charity Mixed Bootcamp Day

Charity Mixed Bootcamp Day – Saturday 5th October 2013

10am to 4pm

Latimer Place Hotel, Chesham, Bucks HP5 1UG

The Body Retreat working in partnership with Breakthrough Breast Cancer and The Eve Appeal are holding a mixed Bootcamp Day raising awareness and much-needed funds for two great causes.

Breakthrough Breast Cancer is more than a name. It’s a force. A force of thousands of people across the UK working together with a single-minded ambition to stop women dying from breast cancer. the funds we help raise support finding new treatments, discovering the causes, promoting early detection and ensuring the best possible care for women diagnosed with the disease.

Every day in the UK 53 women are diagnosed with a gynaecological cancer and 21 will die! The Eve Appeal are determined to change thisThe Eve Appeal are woking towards improving survival rates of women with gynaecological cancers through pioneering research into screening, early diagnosis and risk prediction.

This special Body Retreat event is an opportunity for you to sample a “bootcamp” day and try your hand at a wide rage of activities from circuits, Pilates, kettlebells and Just Jhoom Bollywood Dance class to name but a few. We promise that whatever your level of fitness you will have fun. We will also be joined on the day by Ali Archer from Massage Aid to offer neck, shoulder and back massages… should you feel any niggling aches and pains 🙂 All our team have volunteered their time on the day to help raise as much money as possible, all monies raised from the event are going straight to the two charities.

There will even be calorie free* cake on offer at tea time.

Your ticket price also includes a delicious healthy two course lunch and a ticket for the raffle draw – we have some amazing prizes lined up, including a Laura Mercier goody bag, Garmin Sports watch, Stella & Dot accessories to name but a few…. you will not want to miss out on these prizes.

Ladies why not get together with your friends or your other half and join us for this unique day? This fun day will both challenge and delight you. By joining us on this unique day you will not only have fun but most importantly raise valuable funds for these two very special charities.

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*We believe that cake eaten in the name of charity must be calorie free

Start embracing change today

There has been a lot of change at The Body Retreat recently and it shows little sign of slowing down right now. We are working hard behind the scenes to ensure that our retreats give not only the best results but also the best retreat experience any woman could wish for. But despite the fact that we are choosing to make these changes there are times when it can feel a bit overwhelming.

It got me thinking about the nature of change. Change is part of everyday life and yet we can often find change challenging.

Think about it, change is inevitable. At this very moment, for instance, your body and cells are changing. The earth, economy, technology, how we do business, and even how we communicate is changing.

You can choose to resist the changes that are always afoot and ultimately be swept away by them. Or you can choose to coöperate with change, adapt to change, and benefit from change.

Change, of any type or through any stage in life, is often looked upon as frightening. If, however, change is embraced with a positive attitude, seen as an opportunity or a chance to live with greater excitement and fulfillment, then moving through a change brings many benefits.

How can we embrace change? It actually pretty simple and easy – it begins by accepting that life is a journey of discovery and that change is part of that journey. Most people know this, yet change is still scary. Why?

The reason is simple really – once someone has become comfortable with the way things work they naturally find it hard to embrace something different

Remember, if you keep doing things in the same way you have done, expect the same result. Start embracing change today. Adopt an open mind, move outside your comfort zone. Look at the change not as a threat to your current situation, but as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Once you get started, you will find change is full of amazing opportunities and the change to need or want to make might just be the Secret to Success!

At The Body Retreat we help clients focus on the changes they want or need to make, then we work together to identify the behaviours that help them to maintain the change for good.