How to lose weight sensibly and keep it lost

I didn’t tell you about my recent retreat, did I?  It was fabulous, it really was – and I figure it might be interesting to those of you who are still looking for that magic weight-loss bullet.

I love The Body Retreat and this is the third of their breaks I’ve tried.  I met trainer Julie Brealy years back, when I did something nasty to my Achilles and my pal Trisha recommended her sports massage.  She was working for a local bootcamp in Devon at the time but now runs The Body Retreat alongside hypnotherapist and food guru, Juls Abernethy.  Most of their retreats are UK-based but twice a year they ship out to a gorgeous cortijo in Andalucia.

Yes, there’s a lot of exercise – and you know how I love to get my exercise fix.  But the interesting part for me was the food.  I’ve been doing a lot of juice fasting lately (reporting for Queen of Retreats) and, while you certainly do lose weight on these, it doesn’t stick.  It’s a great thing to do if you know you have been really poisoning your body and need a clear-out, but if you want to lose weight and keep it off, I’d go for something that combines sensible diet and exercise. 

The Body Retreat programme is precisely calibrated to optimise sustainable weight-loss and the aim is to instil sensible eating and exercise habits you can continue at home. It’s not endless salad either – we ate great paella, tortilla and even got to make our own (healthy) pizzas.  Can you make healthy and delicious pizza?  Yes you can!  

You get three meals a day at the BR plus three snacks, so you’re never hungry, but the portion sizes come as a shock.  I eat pretty healthy stuff at home but I swiftly realised that I’m simply eating way too much.  And yes, you can put on weight with too much healthy stuff.  J

Seriously.  If you want to shift pounds, you really do need to think about portioning down.  Don’t be tempted to skip meals – that will only play around with your blood sugar levels and hormone levels – in the long run, eating too little can actually cause you to pile on pounds as your body panics itself into holding onto fat.  So, three balanced meals plus three small snacks in between is the optimum – it keeps everything nicely ticking over and it means you don’t get hungry and then blow it all with a vast pig-out.

How small?  Take a look at the meals we ate and bear in mind these are small plates – a 9 inch side plate, rather than a dinner plate.  A couple of inches of smoothie, rather than a tall glass-full.  A small handful of nuts, not a bag of peanuts. 

The other thing Juls insists on is paying serious attention to how you eat.  Her golden rules:

• Always sit down to eat in a mindful manner (rather than grabbing something on the run or eating at your desk).
• Take a ‘posture reset’ – before you eat, sit up straight and take three long, deep breaths.
• Smell your food.  Lift the plate up and sniff it. 
• Really taste your food – sense each mouthful – notice how it feels in your mouth, its texture, its temperature, as well as its taste.
• Chew really well.  Digestion begins in the mouth.  And put your cutlery down while you eat. 
• Wait until every last morsel has been swallowed before picking up your knife and fork again.
• Keep checking in with yourself.  Are you full?  Are you satisfied?  When you feel satisfied, stop eating. 
• Regardless of whether you’re full or not by the end of your meal, always leave something on your plate.
• Oh, and don’t drink water with your food – it dilutes the digestive enzymes.   The odd glass of wine is okay, curiously enough, but just bear in mind it packs a heavy calorific punch.

Does it work?  Yes.  I shed nine pounds in a week.  And the lovely Wendy, who gamely volunteered to be pictured with me in the shots we took for the Daily Mail, has lost over six stone with these guys.  She keeps coming back (this was her eighth retreat), not because she needs to lose more but because it’s become her favourite type of holiday.  ‘It’s addictive,’ she says.  ‘No normal holiday makes me feel so good.  It’s not just about losing weight and feeling fit either; it’s about self-belief. Everyone’s so supportive and I’ve made really great friends.’ 

She’s right.  Yes, it’s hard work but there’s also plenty of down time by the pool and everyone was just so damn nice.  Seriously, just lovely, lovely people. 

See www.thebodyretreat.co.uk for a full list of breaks and holidays.

Big thanks to easyjet who flew me to Malaga. www.easyjet.com

You can see my report for the Mail here:  

And check out the full photo album on my Facebook page.  

Bringing the peace back home...maybe.

So I’ve been to four retreats in the last couple of months, reviewing them for Queen of Retreats.  The Body Retreat.  Vital Detox. Middle Piccadilly.  The Sanctuary Somerset.  All very different and I’ve loved them all.  But, as someone pointed out on Twitter recently, it’s all well and good if you can afford to swan off to these places but if you can’t…?  And I thought, fair point.  I also thought that really, I need to find a way to bring the peace and serenity on retreat back into everyday life.  As Juls at the Body Retreat said, if you only make a few small changes, they will lead on to bigger changes.  And Paola, the yoga teacher at The Sanctuary said that, even if you do just one yoga move every day, you will start to shift.

So. Since I’ve been back, I’ve been getting up and hour earlier than usual. I light a candle, fire up a joss stick and bung on a CD of Tibetan chanting. And I’ve been doing some simple yoga moves before settling down to meditate for about half an hour.  Okay, so it’s early days but so far, so good. 

But I can’t do yoga, I hear you say. Oh, but the first few bits of this are so so easy.  Really.

1. Neck rolls.  Simply stand in a balanced easy posture and slowly, ever so slowly, let your ear drop down to your left shoulder, then circle down so your chin is moving towards your collar bone and then up to the right shoulder and (very gently) backwards.  Repeat several times...really really slowly... and then go back the other way. Releasing, letting go.  

2. Shoulder shrugs.  Arms by your sides. Bring each shoulder up to your ear in a rapid alternate shrugging motion.  It’s quite vigorous but you can alter the pace to suit yourself.  Keep it going for a few minutes.  Energizing, loosening, awakening, creating heat in the body. 

3. Now stand still.  Find the bottom of your sternum.  Place the first three fingers of your left hand under it. Take your right thumb and poke it into the point directly under the fingers.  Take away the left hand and start to massage the point with your right thumb in a clockwise direction.  It may be tender or even painful – adjust the pressure so it’s bearable.  Keep going for several minutes if possible and then swap thumbs and work the same point with your left thumb in an anti-clockwise direction.  This point is three finger widths from the bottom of the breastbone (sternum). This is a point called the Sea of Tranquillity and it’s helpful in the relief of tension in the chest, anxiety, nervousness, and depression.

4.  Let’s just finish with the simple standing forward bend.  Padahastasana. This stretches out the entire back of the body, from head to heels, lengthening the spine and helping it become more flexible.  It massages all the internal organs, especially the digestive organs (so can ease constipation).  It can relieve sciatica, invigorates the nervous system and increases the supply of blood to the brain. It’s also said to remove fat from the abdomen!  On an energetic level, it is grounding, earthing, energizing and it shifts inertia, allowing you to move forwards. It stimulates and balances muladhara chakra, the base chakra situated around the perineum. Not bad, huh? 

a. Stand up straight, shoulders relaxed, ankles and knees touching.  Now inhale as you reach up, arms straight over your head, arms touching your ears. 

b. Exhale and bend forwards from the hips (don’t collapse), keeping your back straight for as long as possible. Keep your legs straight.   Don’t worry if you can’t touch the floor, just keep the idea of it in your mind.

c. Stand firmly and visualise earth energy coming up through your feet and passing right through your body and down into your hands.  Eventually, with practice, you will be able to place your hands under your feet and bring your head to your knees.  But even if you just hang, that’s absolutely fine. 

d. Stay for as long as feels comfortable, breathing comfortably and enjoying the sensation of earth energy moving into and through your body.

Actually, she looks a bit unbalanced but you get the idea.

That’s enough for one day, huh?  Even if you just try one…it could be the start of something.  J