2018 - Page 2 of 3 - The Body Retreat

Five Reasons to Start Meal Prep This Weekend

Top 5 Reasons to Meal Prep

If you’re like most of the women who join us here at The Body Retreat, you’re super busy!

There just never seems to be enough time in the day to accomplish everything on your to-do list. Striving to live a healthier lifestyle becomes more of a distant memory, rather than something achievable.

However, by planning and preparing, you’ll be more successful in achieving your health goals. It’s the same principles that you would apply to becoming a successful business professional or entrepreneur.

In order to be successful you have to plan, prepare and practice.

Although you may argue that you try to make it to the gym and that’s enough, it’s not. What you put in your mouth is much more important, you cannot out train a bad diet.

Now don’t get too carried away and cancel your gym membership or cancel your personal trainer; fitness still plays an important roll in your health and wellbeing.

To get started, pick a day (typically Saturday or Sunday) and meal prep for the week.

Doing this will help you reduce stress and overwhelm.

Here are 5 reasons to get you on board with meal prepping.

Ingredient Control. When you purchase packaged foods and or eat out, you expose your body to a host of food additives that are toxic. These additives can disrupt your hormones, and promote inflammation; some have even been deemed as carcinogens. Choosing quality foods and spending time in the kitchen, can help reduce the toxic load in your body.
Peace of Mind. The one thing we all strive for is peace of mind. I’ve never met anyone who jumps for joy because they enjoy chaos and frustration. You have a hectic life as is, take the load off by meal prepping. Just imagine getting home from work and realizing you don’t have to cook from scratch but still enjoy a delicious nutritious meal! Just the thought of one area of your life being organized, brings peace of mind. Why? One less thing to think
Save Money. Do you know how much money you are spending by purchasing “convenience foods.” If you took the time to add up the cost of purchasing and preparing your own food vs. buying food on the go, you’ll realize that you save a money by home cooking.
Slimmer Waistline.. Prepping your meals gives you the opportunity to control portion sizes, and helps you keep track of what you are putting in your body.
Quality Time. Busy schedules leave you limited time for family, friends, relationships or other personal desires. Not having to think about cooking food from scratch every night when you get home will be a sigh of relief. All you have to do is grab your food, heat it up, and you’re good to go.

If you want to conquer anything in life, it starts with a mindset shift.

Don’t convince yourself that you don’t have time to meal prep. I promise you that once you get into a routine, it’ll become second nature. Start by researching some new healthy recipes, then make a list of ingredients, head to the supermarket and when you return home, put the radio on and enjoy spending some time cooking / prepping. An hour well spent on the weekend brings a week of content.

If you lack inspiration for healthy meals then check out our Conscious Cooking Blog or even check out our Conscious Cooking Book on Amazon. These recipes are simple, quick, easy to make. You’ll spend less time in the kitchen while you lose weight, have more energy, less food cravings and more mental clarity.

It’s Time to Stop Eating Less & Moving More!

Eat Less and Move More!

You’ll have heard it said many times before…if you eat less and move more you will lose weight. It’s simple mathematics.

The old Energy Balance Equation.

Energy In (Calories) – Energy Out (Exercise) = Weight Loss.

Except that it doesn’t work…

Well, let me be very honest… it does work …to a point.

Usually a very short lived point.

That first couple of weeks on your new diet, when you are watching what you eat like a hawk, weighing out tiny portions of food, hitting the gym like a demon or working out in morning bootcamp every damn day… the scales move in the right direction and you think HURRAH!!!

Diets work, I am eating less and moving move…it is working. It was me all along. I was too lazy, too greedy, too relaxed, too slow, too generous.

But then… the weight loss slows down or even stops. You eat a little bit less, you go to an extra class, your Fitbit is sending you messages about how you have climbed Kilimanjaro and Mount Fuji you are walking so many extra steps….still, the scales don’t budge.

You are exhausted … you are hungry… you are off the diet!!

Sound familiar???

We hear this story time and time again on retreat.

Just like you, these are smart, intelligent, educated women who have run companies, raised families, held down important jobs, become experts in their own field… all beating their heads against the diet brick wall.

Why doesn’t it work… it makes sense.

It’s logical.

Calories In minus Calories Out and you lose weight. Everybody knows that!!

“What the hell is wrong with me that it doesn’t work for me!!!!”

They feel that they have failed at something that had such a simple set of instructions, Eat Less and Move More.

But here’s the thing…they didn’t fail the diet ..the diet failed them.

The Real Energy Balance Equation

If we were going to use an equation to lose weight it would look a bit more like this

Energy In

(the real amount of food eaten & the actual calories consumed – the food not absorbed)

minus

Energy Out

(your resting metabolic rate, + the thermic effect of eating + exercise & movement energy use + non exercise thermic energy use)

Many parts of this equation you’d need a week in a lab with men in white coats testing to even come close to your actual numbers.

The reality is that how much weight you lose is determined by your metabolism, your age, your sex, your genetic make up, your stress levels, your water intake, your sleep pattern, your gut microbiome…to name those factors we now understand better.

Eating Better & Moving Smarter

For us here at The Body Retreat we prefer to focus on Eating Better and Moving Smarter.

Yes, you do need to watch not only what you eat, but how and when you eat it…you cant just live on coffee all day and then wolf down a pringle pizza for supper. Likewise, you can’t simply hit the gym and attain your calorie number on the treadmill or your step number on your Fitbit.

It’s a much more subtle ‘equation’ than just eat less and move more. It’s not one size fits all…but then let’s be honest … you have probably already figured out that that isn’t working for you.

Three Top Tips to help you start to make a shift today away from Eat Less and Move More

Eating Better

Focus on good quality Protein at every main meal. Enjoy meat, fish, seafood, eggs, tofu, beans and pulses, nuts and seeds.
Eat the rainbow. When you look at your plate you want to see more than three colours
Eat your main meals sitting down. Even if its only for 5 minutes, this will improve your digestion and absorption.

Moving Smarter

Move your body every day. Even if your day job is sedentary make it a habit to move your body regularly through the day.
Find something you love and commit to doing it every week, it might be swimming, dancing, spinning etc. It doesn’t matter so long as you are having a blast while you do it. This means you are less likely to get bored and just stop.
You are going to have to sweat. If you want to change your body shape and size and improve your fitness then you need to be sweating every exercise session….not just glowing. It doesn’t have to be for long, but you need to be sweaty at the end.

Spring Clean Your Health This Weekend

After those long dark winter months, when we survived the “beast from the east 1 & 2” when we feel that we have forgotten what it feels like to enjoy the warm glow of sunshine …the clock spring forward, British Summertime starts and suddenly the days seem lighter and brighter. Its time for a Spring clean.

The days are finally beginning to stretch out giving us light mornings and dare I say it even light evenings too. There are rashes of pretty spring flowers in gardens, parks and hedgerows and the sun is just beginning to warm up the middle of the day. It’s little wonder that we think of springtime as the perfect time for a fresh start, everything around us brings us hope for the warmer days to come.

So this weekend why not shake off winter and embrace a new regime for springtime and a healthier year. It is a great time to start a health spring clean …

5 Easy Steps to Spring Clean Your Body & Mind

1. Restock Your Cupboards

Ensure that you have a good selection of nutritious staples in the cupboards so that you have the component parts to make healthy meals and snacks. Over the next couple of weeks add a few additional items to your basket each time you shop and you will soon have a larder to enable you to rustle up healthy nutrias meals easily. So pick up cans of pulses and beans, whole grains such as oats, rye flakes and spelt. quinoa flakes, dried herbs and spices. At the same time get label savvy… begin to look at the labels of the foods you eat most often, how many ingredients do they contain? Are there lots of ingredients with unpronounceable names? Remember that the closer you stay to nature the closer you stay to health so the fewer added ingredients and simpler the ingredients the better for your health, so you may find a few shopping swaps in order too.

2. Catch Some Sunshine

Get as much natural light during the day to help boost your Vit D levels, aiming to catch at least 15 mins of daylight. March sees us enjoy up to 12 hours of daylight now and even on these dull early spring days the warmest part of the day is between 11.00am – 2 pm to its the perfect excuse to get out for a short walk at lunchtime.

3. Boost Your Vitamins & Minerals

Not getting enough key minerals and vitamins can leave you feeling low and lacklustre. It really is time to spring into action if you are feeling sluggish. So make an effort to get a well balanced diet. In particular for women magnesium and chromium are good to help boost your energy levels by supporting your bodies ability to extract the energy from the foods you are eating. So have a small handful of seed and nuts( include 3 brazil nuts) every day for magnesium and include broccoli and organic chicken in your weekly meal plan for chromium. These two simple diets swaps will not only increase your energy levels but can also be very helpful in staving off the sugar and carb cravings that are often associated with low energy.

4. Make time to Relax

Here’s the thing with relaxation, you will hardly every FIND the time to relax, sure you might grab a couple of minutes here and there to sit with a cup of tea or watch your favourite programme, But when was the last time you really switched off and recharged? This weekend, MAKE time to really relax and calm your body and mind. For a mini mindful relaxation session, all you need to do is find yourself somewhere that you have reasonable chance to not be disturbed for about 10-15 minutes. Sit or lie and make yourself comfortable, allow your eyes to gently close and take 3 long slow deep breaths. Breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Follow your breath in and out. Allow your attention to just focus on your breath, the rise and fall of your chest and your heartbeat. This simple exercise is so soothing that after just a few minutes you will feel as though you have had an hours rest.

5. Get Writing

Do you have a health goal? Perhaps you want to shed the weight you feel is unnecessary for you, perhaps you want to take part in a charity sporting event or perhaps you want to feel less stressed? The key to success can lie in keeping a journal. I know it sounds like another job to do in what I’ll bet is an already busy workload, but research suggests that those of us who write down our goals and track our progress have a vastly increased success rate. So making time every day, just 5 minutes will do the trick will help you to keep on track.

So there you have our top 5 tips for a spring clean for your body and mind.

What spring changes do you make to your diet and lifestyle for a healthier mind and body?

Please leave us a comment in the box below as we’d love to hear from you.

Pesto Crusted Salmon

This Pesto Crusted Salmon is both dairy and gluten-free and makes a great midweek supper dish.

We serve this on our retreats with ratatouille and greens.

(apologies for the poor photo…this was taken on retreat just before service …so not my best LOL)

serves 1

1 medium salmon filet ( approx 120gm)

For the Broccoli Pesto

1/2 sml head broccoli

25gms walnuts nuts

5gms sunflower seeds

handful fresh parsley

handful fresh basil

½ clove garlic

freshly squeezed lemon juice

rapeseed oil

black pepper

Pesto Crusted Salmon

Make the broccoli pesto….Firstly blanch the broccoli for about 2/3 minutes. Then immediately place in cold water to stop the cooking. When broccoli is cool add all the dry ingredients to a food processor and add a generous glug of the oil. Give it a couple of blitzes, you can begin to see how much oil you may need to add. You want it to for a thick texture and its ok to still see whole seeds in the mix.
Cover the salmon fillet with the pesto crumb pressing into the flesh
Place the fish on a baking tray and cover with baking parchment and bake (oven 180) for 10 mins until cooked, then remove the paper and grill the top until golden.

Do You Need a Healthy Holiday?

Have you ever considered making your next holiday a Healthy Holiday?

What do you look for in a Holiday?

Plenty of time for rest and relaxation, time to really unwind and leave behind the stresses of every day life?

The opportunity to enjoy local culture, countryside and of course some local cuisine?

Do you enjoy being active on holiday, a little time by the pool with a book s great but too much drives you crazy?

Plenty of laughter, literally feeling yourself becoming lighter through the week as you share fun times with friends?

How about a holiday that blends all of these together?

A healthy holiday doesn’t need to mean aching muscles and bursting lungs as you are put through your paces on bootcamp. Our Healthy Holidays are much more about pleasure than suffering.

Our active Healthy Holiday is about moving your body, but it’s about stepping away from the everyday, doing something different and returning home from a holiday that leaves you feeling relaxed and restored and ready for whatever life throws at you.

Spanish Sunshine

Get in shape and enjoy a boost of Spanish sunshine at our Andalusian Healthy Holidays May and October. The programme mixes high intensity workouts with daily walks through olive and almond groves, toning classes, nutrition & motivation workshops. All set in a beautiful traditional Andalusian cortijo (farmhouse). This really is getting away from it all. Join us in either May or October as this is the perfect time to enjoy warm days and cool evenings making Healthy Holiday perfection.

Charante Charm

Or perhaps you would enjoy the warmth of summer into autumn in South West France and join us in July, August or September at a wonderful converted cognac manor house set in fields of sunflowers. Enjoy a range of activities and treatments to help you create a more balanced and healthy lifestyle. Our programme includes walks, cycling, swimming, stretching all mixed in with bursts of high intensity exercise to help you shift pounds and inches and return home a dress size smaller.

This is NOT a bootcamp

Nothing is compulsory…this is a holiday after all. So you choose the pace and intensity of your week.

Whichever venue you choose your accommodation is of the highest standard you can choose from suites, ensuite rooms or a twin bedded room.

You will also enjoy a meal plan based on local cuisine but don’t worry that you will spend your days starving counting the hours from meal to meal… yes we do serve portion controlled meals but no whole food is excluded and all the meals are prepared to your personal dietary requirements so you can rest assured that you will be nourished and have the energy you need to really enjoy your holiday.

Come alone or with a friend

Probably 80% of our retreaters come alone, for many women it is the first time that they have travelled alone and probably the first time they have chosen an active holiday.

No need to worry, we keep our groups size small so you won’t get lost in the crowd or have to mingle in a large room. From the moment you arrive everything is taken care of making sure that you can enjoy your Healthy Holiday from the get go.

Stepping away from your everyday life to relax and feel restored is no longer seen as an indulgence. Rather, it has become a necessary safety valve in our fast-paced world. Handing yourself over to be tended to by a team of experts in women’s health can be an absolute pleasure. You won’t be disappointed.

So why wait…make this the year that you take a Healthy Holiday and see for yourself what a difference a week can make.

Year: 2018