2017 - The Body Retreat

Want to Sleep Better Tonight

Would you like to Sleep Better Tonight?

Women may be more susceptible to the negative effects of poor sleep quality.

The most common culprits threatening your sleep-wake cycles are unregulated blood sugar levels or poor nutrition and/or chronic stress….not to mention how biological conditions unique to women, like the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause, can also affect how well a woman sleeps. or maybe its a mixture of all of the above.

It is estimated that women are three times more likely to experience poor quality sleep than men.

It’s not surprising that the number one reason why women join us on our Stress Reset Retreat is to gain a better nights sleep. Often the women who join us have not slept well for years, sometimes decades and they are literally worn out.

They choose our Stress Reset Retreat as we have our exclusive nightly SleepHypno sessions…at the very end of the day..just before you retire helping the brain to regain the habit and pattern of sleep once more. So night after night the quality and quantity of sleep improve.

When your sleep improves your health improves and often your waistline decreases without any effort too. Which is in part why our Stress Reset Retreat is the retreat with the highest % inch loss.

So if this sounds like you then get in touch and come and join us for our Stress Reset Retreat to experience for yourself what a difference this change can make.

But if you cant join us on retreat, don’t panic, follow our seven tips to sleep better tonight. Put them into practice and you will begin to feel a difference in your sleep quality night after night.

Seven Tips To Help You Sleep Better Tonight and Every Night

1.Eat on time. Cut out all munching no later than 2- 3 hours before bed. Eating a heavy meal prior to bed practically guarantees a bad night’s sleep.

2. Write your worries down. One hour before bed, write down the things that cause you anxiety. Make plans for what you might have to do the next day to reduce your worry. It will free up your mind and energy to move into deep and restful sleep.

3. Befriend your circadian rhythm. Develop regular rhythms of sleep. Go to bed before 11p.m. and wake up at the same time each day, even at the weekend.

4. Take a Cold Shower…cooling down tells our body that its time to retire, so take a cool shower about 30 minutes before you turn in.

5. Let there be NO light. Create total darkness and quiet. Consider using eyeshades and earplugs.

6. Avoid caffeine. A big cup of coffee or another caffeinated beverage may seem to help you stay awake through the afternoon but actually makes your sleep worse at night.

7. Avoid alcohol. It might help you get to sleep, but alcohol creates interruptions in your sleep patterns and overall give poor-quality sleep.

It’s The Most Stressful Time of the Year

Women and Christmas Stress

Sing along …”it’s the most “stressful’ time of the year…there’ll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting and carolling out in the snow….”

You know how the song goes I’m sure…

But for many people, the festive season can be more frantic and frightful than festive and fun.

If you’re a woman, and particularly if you’re a working mother, then it’s even more likely that your stress levels will be higher than average as the days count down towards Father Christmas’s arrival

Indeed, a recent study found that women are more likely to be up to 10% more stressed than men by Christmas.

It doesn’t take much imagination to understand why women suffer more from ‘Christmas stress.’

Despite the facts that women are now just as likely to work full time as their partners they still carry the bulk of domestic duties, including the tasks of merry-making. From present buying, menu planning, food shopping, present wrapping, even down to writing the Christmas cards women tend to have much longer Christmas-related “To Do” lists than the men they spend their lives with (regardless of whether they work similar hours).

Next on top of the work stress and the festive pressure women are also under pressure to look “special” too and fit into that little black dress for the party season. No one is telling the guys they need to be a size smaller for Christmas, but the Party Outfit pressure is just the norm these days.

Not really surprising that so many women then “look forward” to the upcoming festive season with a slight feeling of dread.

What these women really need to help them at this time of year is …. A Wife !!

I’m joking of course, but image having someone in your corner to plan, prepare and make your Christmas special… at the end of this article, I’ll share Three Top Tips for Beating Festive Stress.

But what if you have already been experiencing high stress and anxiety before the festive seasons kicks in? What if you have already begun to feel a little overwhelmed with life in general? Then Christmas stress can add a whole other level of panic and pain.

If that is you then don’t suffer on in silence, you can still regain a sense of balance and strength before the additional festive burdens pile on. If this is you then pop over to our Facebook Page where you will find my video of my personal top tips to get your sleep back on track, support your body and mind through a stressful time.

Top Tips for a Stress Less Christmas

Drop Perfect.

There is no perfect and you can literally drive yourself made in the searching. Its ok to have standards but if you start to feel anxiety rising at not being able to meet those standards exactly then it may be time to take a step back. Think about good enough, think about great, think about suitable. Can you be happy with these as your standard in some circumstances?

Side Step Should

Drop the word Should from your vocabulary. There is only what you might and can do. Feeling like you Should behave in a certain way only leads to guilt and shame if you haven’t reached the mark. So instead think about what you would like to do, think of how you would feel if someone you loved and cared for was making themselves unhappy or worse unhealthy by trying to do what they “should”.

Make Me Time

This festive season I’m sure you will have a long list of gifts you want to buy for friends and family. ..but what about adding your own name to that list? What about giving yourself the gift of time out this Christmas? This might just be a 15 minute guided meditation, an early night with a good book, a full body massage to ease out all the unnecessary tensions or even dare I say it a few days away to really clear your head?

Whatever you do make sure that you get to enjoy the whole of the Christmas season without the stress.

Why We Don’t Want You To Have The Perfect Christmas Body

It’s that time of year again…. The run-up to Christmas has really begun in earnest.

My inbox is already filling up with emails promising me the perfect Christmas Body or a Little Back Dress Guarantee.

These campaigns make us mad.

Now in the spirit of full disclosure, when we first started out life as “Brealy Bootcamps” we probably did our fair share of this type of marketing. It’s what almost everyone in the fitness industry does. There are certain times of the year when the fitness industry booms, summer bikinis, new year/new you and of course the Christmas party preparations.

The picture above sums up for us everything that is wrong with the perfect Christmas Body/Little Black Dress approach… just look at the picture for a moment.

The woman is excited and happy to have lost weight in time for Christmas, the implication is that if you want a Happy Christmas then you’d better shed some inches too.

There is so much pressure on women at this time of year. The pressure to prepare the perfect Christmas dinner for the family, to decorate the house in the perfect festive way, to find the perfect presents for friends …oh and while you are at it…better look like the perfect woman and fit your perfect Christmas body into your Christmas outfit too.

So feeling the pressure and wanting to enjoy the perfect Christmas you sign up for the diet. You then spend the next 8 weeks or so dieting, depriving yourself of joy, working yourself into the ground adding extra long workouts into your week… you shed those pounds and in triumph you get into your little black dress.

Of course then the relief kicks in and those weeks of deprivation catch up with you and you fall off the diet wagon…hard!

Crack open the Prosecco, make it a double Baileys, another mince pie, why not…I’ve been good..I deserve it!

But don’t worry about putting back on the pounds, (or the damaging effect on your metabolism of the yo yo eating patterns) because its only about a week before the same people who helped you get into your dress will be offering you the next fix of New Year New You programmes.

When we upgraded from being Brealy Bootcamps to The Body Retreat we did so not only because we wanted to offer our retreaters a more luxurious experience but also at its heart The Body Retreat is NOT just another weight loss camp.

The Body Retreat is not the place to come if you just want to look better…it’s the place to come if you want to feel better in your own skin.

That feeling of being in control, of having a positive relationship with food, having confidence in yourself, enjoying how strong your body can be, enjoying good health, a sense of wellness…none of these results is seasonal. They are for life.

So that why we don’t want you to have the perfect Christmas Body… at the end of the day Christmas isn’t about the size of your waist…it’s the size of your heart. So don’t be pressured into feeling otherwise.

Thai Fishcakes with Chilli Dipping Sauce

Totally moreish these Thai Fishcakes can be as spicy as you like. Much lighter than traditional potato based fishcakes, these Thai Fishcakes use quinoa flakes or even a little oat, making them a perfect light supper dish.

The can be made with any fish that you like, I’ve opted for Cod here but you could just as easily switch to what you like …just a note that if you switch to Salmon (which is delicious by the way) then I’d also switch the green curry paste to red, otherwise you end up with a grey and pretty offputting fishcake.

Serves 4

200g cod fillet and 200g Salmon skinned

25g fresh coriander, finely chopped

1/4 inch fresh ginger, grated

Zest of half a sml lime

1 tbsp green thai curry paste (sugar free)

1 egg white

2 spring onions, finely chopped

40g quinoa flakes or cut oats

1 tsp Rapeseed oil for frying

Serve with ( per person )

Steamed vegetables , 60g baby corn, 60g bok choi 20g edamame beans

To make the Chilli Dipping Sauce:

Chilli Dipping Sauce: 3 tbsp rice vinegar, 2 tsp honey, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1/2 small red chilli, seeded and very finely chopped, ½ tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves, juice of ½ lime

To make the dipping sauce: heat the vinegar and honey in a saucepan until dissolved and mixture is syrupy. Stir in the soy sauce and leave until cool. Add the chilli, coriander leaves and lime leaves.

To make the Thai Fish Cakes

Place the fish, coriander and ginger in a food processor and whiz until the mixture is a rough paste and add curry paste, egg white and tbsp of the quinoa flakes or oats then whiz again. Remove from processor and work in the spring onions, lime zest and the remaining quinoa flakes or oats.
Heat the oil in the frying pan and cook small amount to check the seasoning, add more curry paste if necessary, Shape the mixture into 4 cakes. At this point, you can leave the fishcakes covered in the fridge until you are ready to eat.
Fry for about 1 minute each side ( you can now allow to cool and then freeze your fishcake at this point)
Place the fishcakes on a baking tray and cook in the oven for a further 8 minutes, until cooked thoroughly.
Meanwhile steam the vegetables and serve with the Thai fishcakes at once with the dipping sauce and a lime wedge.

Is all Weight Loss good Weight Loss?

Have you heard or read advertisements promoting weight loss products with tag lines like: “No diet, no exercise, effortless weight loss”, or “Loose lbs fast”? I even saw a product recently that suggested that you can Drink & Shrink!!! There are so many products and services that suggest that their plan can help you to shed weight fast.

While the results they sound great, you need to know what happens to your body when you get a “quick fix” and how it can affect your overall health. There is a cost to everything. Unhealthy dieting and rapid weight loss can cause gallstones, hormonal imbalances and other more serious health problems including heart and kidney failure.

Even if these magic products and services don’t cause any physical health problems, they can lead to emotional or psychological health problems as individuals get stuck on a merry go round of negative body image, negative self esteem and negative confidence.

Rapid weight loss is often not sustainable. You and your body simply can’t keep up the pace. You might drop a dress size or two in time for a wedding or special event but typically after the special day, you relax the diet plan and the weight is regained.

The only way to keep your weight off for good is to eliminate factors that cause it: body toxicity, sugar cravings, overeating, and low self esteem.

Healthy weight loss means not only fewer pounds and inches, but stabilised blood sugar and blood pressure, more flexible joints, calmer emotions and other sometimes surprising health improvements.

Healthy weight loss is surely the best option!

Developing a healthy relationship with food and exercise that is a plan for life, not a quick fix.

Does that sound like a solution for healthy weight loss and for life?

At The Body Retreat, all our programs are based on our Four Pillars of Wellbeing to make sure that while you can be sure of an immediate result at the end of retreat you have all the skills, knowledge and confidence to build upon this result at home. There are no magic wands, no silly restrictive diets and no quick fix false promises just a real focus on sustainable healthy weight loss.

Year: 2017