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The Body Retreat

The Body Retreat

Women Only Weight Loss & Wellbeing Retreats

Author: Jabernet

Spiced Chickpea Balls

Spiced chickpea balls are our version of falafel, using cooked chickpeas instead of dried. Traditionally falafel is made using dried chickpeas or dried fava beans soaked overnight. It is usually deep fried for a crisp outside and soft centre. Our version is made easy by using cooked tinned chickpeas and more health conscious than the deep fried version but still packed full of flavour.

You can be experimental with the different spices and herbs and use this recipe as a base. Add more garlic or spring onion, reduce the coriander and add mint. I love fresh herbs so always end up adding more of each as well as fresh mint and a a little bit of chilli.

I add a little bit of bicarbonate of soda to help with the falafel’s fluffy texture. I have chosen bicarb rather than baking powder as there is some acidity coming from the lemon juice but use baking powder if you have no bicarb to hand.

The spiced chickpea balls can be made in advance and kept in the fridge or freezer. I like to fry them first for a bit of colour then let them cool before putting in the fridge. When your ready to eat them just put in a hot oven for 15 minutes (add 5 mins if cooking straight from frozen) and always check they’re pipping hot inside.

Serves 2

1 x tin cooked chickpeas, drained

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

2 spring onions, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 lemon zest

1 tbsp lemon juice

Salt & pepper

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

Method for Spiced Chickpea Balls:

  1. Put all the ingredients except the baking powder in the food processor and pulse 5 times or until mixture is well mixed but there is still some texture to the chickpeas.
  2. Take out half the mixture and place in a large bowl. Blitz the rest into more of paste like consistency (roughly another 10 seconds mixing). Combine the two mixtures togetehr, check the seasoning and add more spices, herbs, lemon, salt and pepper to taste.
  3. At this stage you can fridge the dough for a few hours as it can be easier to shape but it’s not neccesary. Roughly divide into into 7-8 portions and shape into balls. Alternatively you can weigh each ball at 40g.
  4. Heat 1 tbsp rapeseed oil in a frying pan. When hot gently place the balls in the hot oil. Fry hot for 5 minutes, making sure to turn the balls half way through cooking,
  5. When ready to eat heat the oven to 200C (180C fan) and bake the falafel for 15 minutes until golden and hot in the middle (5 minutes longer from frozen).

We like to serve with salad, tahini dressing and hummus or as a lettuce sandwich.

Chickpea balls are also a great vegan alternative to meatballs, delicious served on spiralized courgette with arribiata sauce.

Why is Wellness for women so elusive in our time?

Is technology helping or hindering wellness for women?

We live in crazy times, never have we had access to so much information or technology and yet our health and wellbeing seems to be regressing. 

These days we have meal delivery services, calorie counted ready meals in every supermarket, smart watches, trackers to count calories, steps,, even glasses of water, mediation apps, workout channels , even stationary bikes linked to trainers round the world 24 hours a day….all of this support and yet despite all these helpful aids we are becoming sicker, fatter and more stressed.

It can seem like you can’t win.

What if I was to tell you that you don’t need a single one of these aids to help you achieve and maintain the body , health and wellbeing you want???

What if I told you that you have all the resources that you need already? 

Would you believe me?

The human body and brain are truly wonders of the natural world.  This dynamic system that can self regulate to ensure that you don’t over heat, that wounds mend, that fight infection …you don’t have to figure out how to make these things happen.  You just need to let them happen.

It’s the same system that can help us to achieve and maintain the body and health we want.

When we are born we have a natural “stop eating” switch which allows us to recognise when enough is enough, we also have a desire to move our bodies.  However we have evolved to over ride these functions, we have stopped listening to our bodies for so long that now we can fee totally disconcerted. 

It’s this disconnected feeling that lead us to look outside to have external help to manage our appetites, to help us move our bodies.  Now having support and guidance is one thing…but feeling lost if you don’t have a perfect nutritiously balanced meal ready, feeling upset if you forget to put your fitbit on as you will have “missed steps’, feeling guilty if you miss a booked PT session, cutting foods out of your daily diet as they make bars on your tracker app tip into the red.  All of these actions, while on the face of it may seem small and positive, can be dissolving your own personal resolve, your internal resources and so your feeling like you cant do it without all the support.

It comes down to TRUST.  You need to learn to trust yourself again.  This can seem really difficult if you have been overweight for a long time, if you have yo-yo’d back and forth for years or decades. 

It’s what we do on our Weight Loss Retreats, we are about creating sustainable wellness fo women. Yes we are debunking diet myths and offering clear practical guidelines for how to eat well and move smart, but there are no absolutes.  We encourage you to start to listen to your own body, to begin to recognise and prioritise your health needs, to begin to reclaim control.

It’s not for everyone, I’ll be honest and tell you that in the 10 years that we have now been running I can count on one hand the number of women who really don’t like this approach, they want absolutes, they want a diet, they want us to tell them how every day should be, what to eat , when to move…but real life isn’t like that.

Of course you want to be armed with the right information, you want to have the confidence in yourself that you can recognise and make positive choices…but you also want and need to have the flexibility to be able to listen to your body.  So some days start with wake up work out and bowl of power porridge and others start with coffee, croissant and the papers….one isn’t good or bad.  They are different and together you choose to create a balanced lifestyle. 

When it comes to long term wellness for women it really is one intuitive positive choice at a time….there isn’t an app for that …YET!!!

Exercise New Year Resolutions = Injuries !!!

Exercise New Year Resolutions

Exercise New Year Resolutions = Injuries !!!

Although we love exercise New Year Resolutions we are not great fans of at The Body Retreat.  While we can applaud making a conscious decision to begin to take better care of yourself, of shedding the weight that is unnecessary for you, of improving your health and wellness; we don’t feel that there is any special time of year when you “should” make these changes.

How about you?  Are you an Exercise New Year Resolution maker?

Would you be surprised to learn that exercise New Year Resolutions could actually work against your health???

Have you keenly thrown yourself into a new fitness regime?

Are you enjoying the benefits, feeling strong fit and healthy? 

I hope so….but you might actually be feeling a bit sore and sorry for yourself right now.

January is a boom time for the fitness industry, as millions of the guilt-ridden flock — at least temporarily — to health clubs, gyms and bootcamps to try to shed excess pounds acquired over the holidays or to make this year the year that they do shed their unwanted  weight.

But for the inexperienced, this going from zero to one hundred in a workout regime can pose unexpected hazards. Many fitness wannabes are not familiar with how to use exercise machines and other equipment, they don’t take time to learn the proper technique or focus on their form and can easily sustain head, eye, back, neck, hip, leg and ankle injuries.

According to a recent survey, sprains, joint inflammation and other overuse injuries are among the most common maladies doctors, physios and osteopaths see among resolution-makers.  Mostly seen in people who have taken the phrase “no pain, no gain” literally.

What’s the best advice to prevent Exercise New Year Resolution injuries?

  • Yes exercise – its good for you but know your own limitations and work within in these to begin with as you slowly start to build up your strength and stamina
  • Plan a simple program (ask your physio, PT, gym supervisor for some help)
  • Learn the correct techniques!!  It is much better form to do less of the correct technique that lots of poorly executed reps that do little to build muscle or worse could be setting you up for injury.
  • Warm up, Warm up, Warm up.  Its doesn’t have to be very much or even very long but never go straight into exercise cold.
  • Listen to your body and don’t fail to find the intensity, frequency of exercise that is right for you. You can always build on this as you progress.
  • Vary your exercise, this not only can prevent injury from over use but also prevents boredom.

Making exercise and movement a regular part of your lifestyle is a fabulous goal to make for yourself.  Just take it slow, find out what works for you, something you enjoy.  Then you will find it easy to keep the momentum going, safely and healthily. 

If you still are not an exercise lover or haven’t found anything that ticks your movement boxes check out our blog on Enjoying rather than Enduring Exercise.

Vegan Pesto

You can make a tasty pesto without using dairy. Packed full of flavour and a lovely vibrant green colour pesto is great to make in advance and have ready in the fridge. Vegan pesto is delicious added to roasted vegetables, on top of soup and mix through salads.

Vegan pesto is super simple to make. It’s a great way to use up leftover herbs and odd bits of nuts and seeds. Walnuts, almonds and pecans make great tasting pesto’s. If you need a completely nut free recipe make with just sunflower and pumpkin seeds and try adding some hemp seeds.

You can substitute the basil for parsley, spinach or coriander.

Serves 6

30g of basil

2 tbsp pine nuts

1 tsp pumpkin or sunflower seeds (or 1/2 tbsp of each)

1/2 lemon zest

1 dsp lemon juice

1 clove garlic

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Salt and pepper

Method for Vegan Pesto:

Put all the ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor and pulse 3 or 4 times. Do not leave motor running as you want the pesto to have some texture.

Add the oil and blitz again. If you don’t want the oil to emulsify, mix it through with a spatula or spoon rather than the food processor.

For a thin pesto add a little water (1-2tbspn). Check the seasoning and add more nutroinal yeast if needed.

Use straight away or put in a jar. Make sure the pesto is topped with a little olive oil and it should last a couple of weeks in the fridge.

On retreat we like to use vegan pesto to top tofu, bake in the oven and serve with ratatouille. Let me know what recipes you like to use vegan pesto for.

Kale, Beetroot Hummus & Lentil Salad

This month we are celebrating plant based recipes with a new vegan recipe every week. If you’ve been on retreat this will be some of meals you have already enjoyed and may not even realised they are vegan. At the body retreat we cater for all dietary requirements and are regularly substituting dairy products for plant based and using other protein sources that aren’t meat or fish. We hope even if you aren’t vegan this will help give you some new ideas and recipes to try out at home.

Kale and beetroot are great staples during winter months but not always used for salads. This kale, beetroot hummus and lentil salad is light has balanced protein, fats and fibre as well as a variety of textures and flavours.

We massage the kale before using it which helps to break down the cell structure making it easier for some people to digest. You can do this with salt and oil. First we massage just with salt and leave it for 30 minutes, giving it time to tenderise and then massage again with the dressing before plating up. If you are preparing your salad ahead of time you can skip out the step on massaging with salt and simply dress the leaves and leave in the fridge. The acidity in the cider vinegar will break down the cellulose in the kale the same way the salt does.

You can find our Beetroot hummus recipe on the blog and if you’re not a beetroot lover, substitute with plain hummus. The recipe will make a slightly bigger batch of hummus which will last up to 5 days in the fridge. You can use the leftovers as a spread in a wrap, as an afternoon snack with crudites or have in our lettuce sandwich along side a mug of soup.

For the salad use whatever vegetables you have in you fridge but keep it varied, its the different textures that help make this a tasty dish. Our staples are cucumber, radish and celery. Peas and broads beans can be used from the freezer, just pour boiling water over and leave for 5 minutes to defrost.

Serves 2

2 handfuls of kale

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp beetroot hummus

50g cooked puy lentils or yellow split peas

5 cm piece of cucumber

1/2 stick celery

1/4 pepper

4 radish

1 spring onion

1 cooked beetroot, chopped into chunks

30g of peas, defrosted

6 walnuts, chopped

2 tbsp sprouted seeds

Dressing:

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 tsp apple cider vinegar (with the mother)

1/4 tsp mustard (optional)

Pepper

Method for Kale, Beetroot Hummus and Lentil Salad

  1. Strip the kale leaves from the stalk, tear up the leaves into smaller pieces and place in a bowl. Sprinkle over the salt and massage the salt into the kale, leave for 30 minutes.
  2. Prep the salad vegetables, slicing into small bite size pieces. If uncooked, boil the lentils for 20 minutes or until aldente.
  3. After 30 minutes, mix the dressing together and pour over kale, massage into leaves, check seasoning and adjust as necessary.
  4. To plate up place the kale at the bottom of the plate, dress with the prepped vegetables, lentils and sprouted seeds. Top with beetroot hummus and scatter walnuts. Enjoy!