The Body Retreat

Photo: Sweaty Betty

Don't worry, I'm not going all New Year, New You, I just want to mention a fantastic health and fitness retreat. As regular readers may remember, last summer I was invited to a De-stress Bootcamp: four days of healthy eating, exercise and relaxation. Where I arrived completely unprepared with my tatty old sports kit, a couple of secret bags of mixed nuts and two party tops (for going out in). Alright, alright, I'd never been to anything like this before - apart from Brownie camp, which was fine until midweek when the coachful of mums arrived and I cried until they left - and yes, I had envisaged breaking over the wall and making a run for the local pub. Sadly, we were miles from anywhere so that wasn't to be. Here I am below (second from the left in the grey sweatshirt and jeans) with some gorgeous serial bootcampers, back for more detox and fitness action. They view retreats as a kind of spa break with benefits. Funny, that.

The Body Retreat is the only health and fitness retreat in the country run exclusively for women, by women. 'We wanted to create a space for women to be inspired that didn't involve big burly blokes putting you through your paces,' co-founder and fitness expert Julie Brealy explains, 'This is all about empowering women to define themselves and not be defined by society and the scales.' Good stuff.
This retreat was all about de-stressing and so activities included: yoga, pilates, swimming, Nordic walking, and Boxercise and there were sessions with a nutritionist and a mindfulness expert built in, too. As the other co-founder and nutrition expert Jules Abernethy points out,' This is a space for women to come where there are no distractions or excuses, where they can concentrate.' Ahem, even though mobile phone usage was banned during the day I managed to surreptitiously communicate with the outside world. Instead of being mindful in my room, I was pinging text messages to Mr That's Not My Age and whingeing on Twitter about how hungry/exhausted I was. Thank heavens for WiFi.

Situated in Somerset, one of my favourite things apart from the camaraderie, was a daily walk in the beautiful countryside. But, by day three, I was broken. Weak with hunger and obsessing over food, I regularly reeled off a list of my favourite meals and found watching fellow bootcampers leave leftovers, on their plates at mealtimes, unbearable. I can still see that untouched stuffed red pepper going back to the kitchen. I longed for cheese on toast, coffee and red wine. Thankfully, I was not alone. One woman announced she was, 'Thinking of finding a fox and stealing its scraps.' She was even more delirious than I was.  

The Body Retreat is run by two lovely women who genuinely care about their clients and have created a nurturing environment for women to go and focus on their health and wellbeing.  I can  highly recommend it, I'd been having a horrible time at work and this was a brilliant way to reboot and get away from it all. Needless to say, I was straight off the train in south London and into a local cafe for a cup of coffee and a cake. Bliss.