There is another way: the Obsidian experience

So... Obsidian. I have been back from my trip to Southern Spain for a little over three weeks, and life has been as manic as ever; but I wanted to report back on the experience, and my continuing progress - so here I am. [I'm dating this entry shortly after my return, although it's being written in retrospect!]

[The above is my first Obsidian sunset. You can see my photo album of the whole stay by clicking here.]

I was introduced to the Obsidian Retreat by a local friend and business networking contact, Debi. She has achieved some inspiring weight loss herself in the last few months, as has her husband, and this was inspired and kick-started by her initial visit to the retreat. She has since become their General Manager - commuting every couple of weeks between Norfolk and Spain - and is working to raise the profile of this excellent place. She spread the word around those friends and colleagues that she knew were keen to review their health and fitness, and that included me.

So on 3 June, I set out for Spain via Stansted Airport. I arrived late that evening, and spent the next eight full days - leaving at lunchtime on Thursday 12 June - taking advantage of many of the opportunities afforded by my stay. This included:

• superb vegan food, delicious imaginative salads and amazing juices - all of which, as a lifelong meat-and-dairy girl, I found surprisingly easy to adapt to
• a 5K walk every morning (tougher in the Spanish hills than at home in Norfolk!)
• various exercise classes, from yoga to rebounding (mini trampoline), stretch & tone and Zumba, as well as higher-impact workouts that are less my personal style but clearly worked very well for other guests
• use of the little gymnasium and the swimming pool at any time of the day or night
• a thorough medical assessment and in-depth interview at the start and end of my stay, with weights and measures of all kinds allowing me to monitor progress
• cookery and juicing demonstrations
• talks relating to health, motivation, inspiration, future planning
• two visits to local seaside resorts for a change of scene and keeping in touch with real life!
• support and encouragement from all staff, including the nurse, yoga teacher, several fitness coaches, life coach mentor - and all the other guests during my stay

What about the food? Well, this is intended as a detox (although it's up to you to what extent you do this). My toughest challenge was doing without my 4-5 mugs each day of strong Assam tea. I spent the first three days in a bit of a confused fog - with attendant headache - from caffeine deprivation. However, I soon became accustomed to fruit, herbal and Redbush tea, taken without milk.

The juicing is a revelation. Imaginative combinations of vegetables and fruit made into effectively giant shakes (although there's no milk in there!) in a pretty large glass; always served for breakfast, and guests choose a juice or salad for lunch, and juice or vegan evening meal. For days 1-3 I had two juices and one meal each day; days 4-6 were spent entirely juicing; days 7-9 one juice and two meals.  I was seldom hungry, took around an hour to drink each juice, drank loads of water, and after the initial three days felt genuinely much, much better in myself.

Now, I could have done a lot more exercise than I actually did; but what I did worked well for me. My own personal fitness investment went something like this:

• 5K walk every morning (except the first one)
• several yoga classes
• one stretch & tone
• three rebounding classes
• one Zumba class
• two swims
• one gym session

I also spent a fair bit of time sleeping; talking to staff and other guests; a few treatments (facial, manicure, sports massage); a counselling session; and several talks and workshops. As I observed to a friend, the lack of 'normal' daily responsibilities is extraordinarily liberating: no cooking or housework, emails (unless you want to!) or work, means that 24 hours in each day is yours to use as you wish. If you sleep for 8 hours each night, that still leaves SIXTEEN HOURS for the other activities.

I was inspired and encouraged, as I've said, by so many people. Each day new people came and went, with different aims and lives and situations, and I never failed to be impressed by their willingness to try all that the resort had to offer. 

On my final day, I was delighted to find that I had - in the course of eight days - lost seven pounds, leaving behind the scarily imminent 'medically obese' definition (5'5" tall and 12 stone 13 pounds) and reaching 12 stone 6 pounds. Better still, my BP was lower than I believe it has ever been in my adult life: it went down from 131/95 to 114/76. I had lost an inch each from waist and hips. Best of all, I had found my enjoyment of the vegan, non-dairy, non-caffeine, non-alcohol regime had been far, far easier than I would ever have imagined, and the health benefits were very clear.

Click here to find out what's happened since I came home!

There is another way

I haven't written in this blog since 2011. Somehow I could never bring myself to delete it, as I subconsciously knew that the issue - that of maintaining a level of health that allowed me to live my life - wasn't going to go away. Meanwhile, my injuries caused more trouble and my weight topped out at just over thirteen stone - bringing me into the 'medically obese' category.

I will write a more detailed post as soon as I can (the backlog of emails and laundry after nine days' absence is rather scary) but in the meantime I just wanted to say:

THANK YOU, OBSIDIAN

In eight days, I have lost seven pounds (that's represented by the yellow stuff I'm holding in the photo). I went from 12-13 to 12-6.

Much more importantly, I have gained a huge amount of friendship, knowledge, support, ideas and inspiration from the superb staff, from coaches to cooks to cleaners.

Obsidian is a health resort near Benissa, an hour from Alicante, in southern Spain.The experience was extraordinary, relaxing, exhausting and rewarding in equal measure.

More soon, but as a taster, please check out their website here; and feel free to view my photo album here.

And expect to see me back on this blog much more frequently in coming weeks and months.

Next post: The Obsidian Experience

Hiding from y'all - and from myself

Thank you to Thirkellgirl for caring enough to ask how things are going. My prolonged absence gives you the answer: not well.

My 'mindful eating', CBT approach worked beautifully for several months (not just a few days or weeks). I shed around ten pounds between August and Christmas of last year. It remained static for the next few months, and then it was Eastertide again.

What is it about Easter? No, it's not the eggs, before you ask! Maybe it's the fact that the run-up to Holy Week, in a clerical household, is obviously frantic; perhaps it's the collapse-on-holiday that follows it each year; but it must be something more, as looking back over nearly three decades of struggle, every single time that things have gone horribly wrong once more, it's always been then. I have "got it sorted" with food, exercise, self-esteem and the rest; the effects have lasted anything from six months to two years; but the point of collapse has, somehow, always been that wretched moveable feast.

This year, we completed directing a show (wonderful, successful, a joy to work on) at our local theatre, at the end of February - but I jumped straight into rehearsing (or nearly immediately) for another one. My business activities (happily) moved up a gear. I travelled around the country, for business and pleasure. I didn't make it to the gym once in literally months. Even my regular walks-around-the-village ceased. Busy, busy, busy; excuses, excuses, excuses.

Tomorrow is the final performance of the present show (The Merry Wives of Windsor). I've been playing Mistress Page: lovely show, great part, excellent cast, huge fun. However, I have to 'fess up and say that it's been the worst time possible for self-image.

Tudor costume is not kind to many of us (a bum roll? Somebody of my figure does NOT need extra girth added...); and, because one is limited to what is available in the company's wardrobe, I've ended up in a costume that I hate. The colour, the fit, are all totally wrong. The wardrobe ladies have done their best, but they are working with unpromising material. It doesn't help that I'm back to my largest size, my nearly-a-sixteen once more; but in this get-up I look more like a twenty. When I comment on Falstaff's size ("There's no woman's gown big enough for him", the audience invariably laughs, and I am quite certain it's because they are thinking "well, yours is"). To be fair to myself, the front of the dress sits at least a couple of inches proud of my body, which makes me look even more enormous.

I am gritting my teeth and publishing a photograph here: it's about the worst image of myself ever, but it illustrates the problem. (I'm on the right, obviously: my fellow Wife, Chris, is a size-12 yoga teacher, so copes much better than I do with the fashions of the time.)

So I've spent the last couple of weeks making people laugh while I wander round the stage looking like a barge in full sail. I try to wear something more flattering to change into when I see my friends after the performance, but even that is a tough call at the moment, given the general flabbiness. My face (always the first place to show weight) is moon-like, and this is not helped by the Elizabethan requirement for hair-under-hat for married women; having a small head on a large body is even more unflattering.

All this puts me in the worst possible place. It should drive and motivate me to improvement, but right now I am so tired and defeated, and worn out by the effort of continually playing (a) the clown as my part requires, and (b) the strong woman as my life requires, that I can't find the strength.

Once the show comes down tomorrow, I have a few days to catch up; then a week with beloved friends visiting us; then a week's blessed break in a little self-catering place in Normandy. Finally, time to stop and think. And focus on myself once more.

I hope that, after that, I can respond to Thirkellgirl's kind enquiry "How's it going?" with "Brilliant, thank you".

Still on track

I've been managing one pound each week so far.

Weighed myself this morning: still on track. Six weeks, six pounds exactly.

Not on a diet. Mindful eating.

Start: 171 lb.

Today: 165 lb.

Delighted.

Two books, one very useful chap

Another strand of notable help I've received during the last few weeks.

In browsing around for more help on plantar fasciitis, I came across this book:

As the reviews point out, the book is quite small in content for something relatively expensive. However, in terms of the simplicity of explanation and scientific backup, it's well worth it. I like Jim Johnson's style: treats you as an intelligent individual, while at the same time assuming you have minimum knowledge about the subject.

I've been doing the prescribed stretches for the last few weeks. While it certainly hasn't cured it, there is no doubt but that it helps considerably with the pain I usually have first thing in the morning, and who knows? - if I continue, it may in the long run ease matters.

I looked further into the books written by this chap. I found this:

Another pretty diddy little book (although less expensive); but it says all that needs to be said. Concise, intelligent, practical and sensible. There's little here I didn't know in some form already, but seeing it so clearly and rationally expressed is reassuring and encouraging. Put simply, it strips away all the nonsense put about by most 'diets' to the very simple matter: calories in and calories out, via controlled eating, sensible nutrition and achievable exercise, are the only possible routes to weight-loss. We might not like the fact that there is no magic wand, but that's the way it is.

Using some of the wise advice in both these little books, coupled with my sessions with Jason and the other related matters in my last post, there is no reason at all why I can't return my weight and shape to the way I would like it to be.

The results so far

And what difference has all this made?

30th August: weight 171 lb (12-3). BP 137/106. 42"-37"-44"*

6th October: weight 166 lb (11-12). BP 117/88. 42"-36.5"-43"*

* (bust-waist-hips)

Five pounds down. One pound each week. Feeling better. Quiet. Managing. Not panicking.

I still miss my running dreadfully. But this hasn't really, in the end, been about that. It's been about unpicking some truly ridiculous behaviours and self-image which have been with me for forty-seven years, and finally addressing them in a way that is appropriate, healthy and right for me.

I always knew the value of NLP and cognitive behavioural therapy. But I haven't experienced it in such a specific and powerful way before.

Thanks to Jason, Clare, my darling husband, Kim, and all the friends and fellow fitness enthusiasts that have continued to put up with me.

Stay with me.

Exercise

I've been managing an average of two gym sessions each week, usually with Kim. However, I've also been walking, usually with my husband, round the village - we have four different routes. This usually happens about 3-4 times each week; each route is an average of 1.6 to 1.7 miles. Sometimes it's been grim weather, but occasionally we've been treated to some completely wonderful scenes around the Norfolk countryside, which lifts the spirits as well as the heartrate.

My foot still hurts. That's why I'm still not running. It's no more than mildly uncomfortable while I'm walking, but on my return it's generally unpleasant. But frankly, if it's going to hurt anyway (and it usually does), I might just as well get in whatever exercise I can.

... next post ...