Healthy Eating - Page 2 of 5 - 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.

Can You Spoil Yourself Without Spoiling Yourself?

Do you have a healthy food relationship? Do you enjoy your food? Do you enjoy eating out? Do you like to “treat” yourself with foodie treats?

Almost all the women who join us on retreat enjoy their food, in part its often one of the reasons why they choose to join us here at The Body Retreat. Food is such an important part of every Body Retreat that one of our pillars of wellbeing is Menu. For us Menu is about choice and variety of food as this is very important part of health…no tired lettuce leaves…no tasteless clear soups…. no eating the same thing day in day out here at The Body Retreat.

Welcome Foodies!

We welcome foodies on every retreat and we strive to make sure that our menus have something to surprise and delight every guest.

Of course our menus are based on clean eating principles but no whole food groups are excluded. Our daily menus are balanced to suit the activity levels of the retreat as well as the individual dietary requirements of the guests. Very few of our guests experience true physical hunger on retreat ( that is not to say that some don’t experience hunger at times but very often its a desire to eat something to feel different …not the same as hunger at all)

But one common term comes up again and again… how do you treat yourself when you are trying to eat clean. If you spoil yourself with a foodie treat does it mean that you spoil yourself, spoil your motivation to shed the weight that is unnecessary for you?

Is That Treat Really Treating You Well?

Many of the women who join us on our Weight Loss Retreats for example will have already spent years if not decades trying all sorts of diets… Weight Watchers, Slimming World etc etc … and these Diets all have something in common… Treats! Often they are horrid little bars of “Frankenfoods” covered in a chocolate tasting coating .. you know the kind of thing I mean. Of course these treats simply train you to eat sweets and when on the diet you eat the “Frankentreat” but when you stop the programme …which of course always happens… the behaviour of treating oneself remains. Only now you move up to the real chocolate or some other non -diet treats.

Its a depressing future that doesn’t contain treats….enjoying the odd delicious bite from time to time whether that be a pudding, a snack or a whole afternoon tea is a part of life. Rightly so.

We should all enjoy delicious foods, foods that make us smile, foods that lift our day.

I’d like to think that we can enjoy these foods regularly, after all life is too short to not take enjoyment from the foods we choose to eat.

Im a real foodie, I enjoy reading about food, watching food on tv, eating out, eating in, cooking for friends or just playing in the kitchen. Not everyone has the time or inclination to spend as much time on food as I do…but they still want to enjoy the foods they eat.

Developing a Healthy Food Relationship One Plate at a Time

We have just finished our Conscious Cook & Tone Weekend in Somerset. It has to be one of my favourite retreats. Its all about developing a healthy loving relationship with food.

Over the course of the weekend we have had workshops on meal planning, shopping to develop a healthy kitchen and larder, we also had tutorials on The Anti-Sandwich Lunch (getting hands on making non bread portable lunch options), one on Juices & Smoothies and finally Healthy Treats and Snacks. Getting ideas, recipes and experience of how to rustle up quick and healthy food at home, food that feels as though you really are treating yourself.

The highlight of the weekend for me is our Gala Dinner…so often our retreaters fear eating out or going to celebrations as it seems that they are in conflict with the commitment to eat healthily…not so!!! Our Gala Dinner starts with cocktails & canapés and we even enjoy some organic wines with the four course meal. “Its such a treat…can it really be healthy?” “Will I put on weight”? Some of the retreaters are sceptical at first… but the great thing about this Gala Dinner is that it is our Conscious Cooking Principles in practice.

Learning how to enjoy food without guilt or angst. When it comes to achieving the body and health that you deserve then having a healthy food relationship is the place to start.

Its time to ditch the diets, time to let go of the guilt and time to embrace real food. Imagine feeling good about food, never feeling deprived, never worrying that if you eat just a little “treat” that it means that every thing is spoiled and that you may as well then just keep on eating.

Cultivate A Healthy Food Relationship

Embrace the flavours and textures of real food. When was the last time you took time to really taste your food? When we slip into automatic eating we rarely taste what we are actually eating. Taking time to reconnect with food.
Avoid Frankenfood. On no account think that you are treating yourself with Frankenfood. You are actually setting yourself up for a dysfunctional ongoing relationship with food. Much better to eat a little of real foods, regardless of the calorie, fat or sugar content ( I know you are hearing me say that) eating real food is always the better choice.
Ditch the Guilt. Often we grow up with mixed messages about food, this leads to us feeling a sense of guilt when we eat certain foods that we feel we should or should not be eating. Keep a journal, see a therapist, or talk it out with friends. It’s hard to get away from certain cultural food pressures, but you have to decide for your yourself how you want to deal with that pressure.

Regardless of what your current relationship with food is it is possible to make significant changes, our retreats prove that time and again.

So if you are a foodie who is ready to regain a loving healthy food relationship then get in touch.

Get Back On Track 3 Day Plan

If you have a few pounds to shed after the excesses of the festive season then don’t panic, it really only takes a few days to get back on track.

Our Get Back on Track 3 Day Plan is designed to help you to over come those sugar and carb induced cravings that lead you to want more and more sugar and carbs, it will balance your blood sugar levels meaning your energy levels will stabilise and you will loose the bloat and an inch or two from your tummy.

If you have really over indulged over the festive period then you might find that you do feel a little hungry on day one of this plan, but the key to be consistent with the timing of your meals and to keep your water levels up. that way by day 2 or 3 you will have gone over the hunger hump and be feeling great again.

This plan is not devised to be followed long term, it really is a short kick start.

The Rules for the Three Days.

NO added sugar for three days
NO added salt to cooking or any meal
NO salad dressing apart from freshly squeezed lemon juice and black pepper
No Fruit other than the apple and avocado
Start each morning with a mug of hot water with the juice of 1 lemon.
Unlimited salad veggies but no prepared salad, coleslaw or beetroot etc
Keep starchy veg to a minimum at night (carrots, parsnips etc)
Choose mainly green veg and salad items, eg spinach, celery, cabbage, spring onion, cucumber, peas, broad beans, broccoli, cauliflower, courgette etc
You Must eat every 3 to 4 hours
Nut Butter should be 100% whole nut, with no added oil, sugar or salt etc
Drink at least 8 glasses of water through the day.
Only herbal teas for rest of day
No carbonated drinks, no diet drinks.
8 Min HiiT workout Every morning before Breakfast.
Walk for at least 30 mins every day to a rate where you can not hold a conversation

Let me know how you get on if you follow the Get Back on Track 3 day plan, I’d love to have your feedback.

If you know anyone who might find our 3 Day Plan useful then why not share using the social media buttons

10 Ways to Get Back on Track after Christmas

Not so long ago, in-fact just a few short weeks ago, you were energetic and determined to maintain your healthy lifestyle. Then Christmas happened!

You had intended to enjoy the holiday, Christmas after all is a time to eat, drink and be merry with family and friends.

So you ate an extra piece of Christmas cake, had some chocolate from the kids selection boxes at breakfast and rekindled your love of Bailey’s coffee.

Every time you ate or drank something you knew it was a choice you were making, but its Christmas……. Why not indulge a little.

But soon you find that each small mouthful is taking you further and further away from the path of your healthy lifestyle.

Realising you had “blown” your diet, you ate another mince pie and another and couldn’t get it together the next day either.

Of course in the run up to the big day itself, you have been so busy that you missed one workout, and that turned into a whole week away from the gym.

Now it feels as through your momentum to start over again is gone.

In your head you tell yourself tomorrow ill try…

Every time you misstep on your healthy journey, you have two choices:

To keep walking backwards, ignoring how bad you feel, beating yourself up because you have in some way failed a test (who made that rule anyway???) every day takes you even further away from your goals.

You can choose to accept your lack of perfection as normal and forgivable, so ditch any guilt you may have been feeling about your Christmas treats, now is the time for positive thoughts not negative ones and so now you can choose to take not one, but two positive steps down the path that brings your closer to the body and fitness that you want and deserve.

So now, instead of waiting for the next day, week, month or even year to overhaul your habits, start TODAY, right now!!.

Start small. You can’t go from the sofa to running for an hour or from cake to carrot sticks in a day. But you can do one, two or even a handful of small things that will help you regain your momentum for healthy living.

Below are The Body Retreats 10 ways to helps get you back on track right now!!

1. A short HIIT workout. Even five minutes is better than nothing. For ideas browse our back catalogue of workouts on the website.

2. Create a new recipe. Cooking healthy foods can be fun and it never has to be bland. Be creative with those turkey leftovers.

3. Eat a healthy breakfast. Your morning meal sets the stage for the rest of your day, so start if off right!

4. Drink your water. Aim for 8 glasses each day and you’ll soon feel the difference!

5. Get outside for at least 20 mins. Walk around the block, take your bike out. exercising outside will give you an boost as well as helping you to get that all important Vit D top up.

6. Write down what you eat and drink across the day. No matter how it adds up, you’ll learn from it and it will help you to make a new choice tomorrow.

7. Share your goal to get back on track, why not post us on our FB page, let us know what is working for you.

8. Cut the carbs at night. Plan your evening meal at night to be refined carb free and give your digestive system a rest in the evening.

9. Mix your drinks… and by that we mean for every alcoholic drink you have, have a glass of water or soda to help keep hydration levels up.

10. If you feel like you are way off track and need further help and support then book yourself onto our next Weight Loss Retreat where we guarantee you will drop those unwelcome festive pounds you have gained.

Tag: Healthy Eating