Last weekend (November 12/13) I hosted a 2.5 hour fitness event in my local town of Harpenden. I love hosting these events and see them as ‘mini-retreats’ as they tend to refresh and rejuvenate everyone who comes!
As people arrived they were given a Sweaty Betty bag (I love these bags!!) with a banana and bottle of water is ready to refresh and refuel them after the first fitness session!! We started the afternoon with a 20 minute HIIT class in which we did 20 seconds of an exercise followed by 10 seconds rest! The energy in the room was almost tangible! – it was a huge amount of fun albeit very sweaty fun! We had a 5 minute break in which we tucked into our snacks and managed to cool down and lower our heart rates! After that we had the amazing Fairy Food Mother come to talk to us about what foods we should and shouldn’t be eating at this time of year! We looked at foods in their colour groups and she told us why we need to eat a variety of colours (on her guidance I know have blueberries on my oats in the morning in order to help support my immune system!!). Our chat was informal as we all sat on our yoga mats whilst we listened and then she finished the session with a Q&A. I think everyone got something from her talk and I know I came home and dusted off my slow cooker on her advice!!! We took another 10 minute break and this time we had apple and ginger juice shots from test tubes and also scrummy homemade (by me!) breakfast bars full of oats, nuts and seeds! The juice shots were awesome – such a nice mix between sweet and tangy and everyone demanded the recipe for the breakfast bars – so I took it that the snacks were a hit!! Once we were nicely refuelled we ended our afternoon with an amazing yoga class held by the fantastic Marianne Williams. It was an ashtanga class which if you’ve done one before you’ll know that they are great fun but also challenging! Everyone left feeling relaxed and rejuvenated (well apart from me who was pretty frazzled by the end of it!!). These mini-retreats really are great to just have a little ‘me time’ where we indulge our ‘mind, body and soul’ and leave feeling just that little bit calmer than when we arrived!!
Like the sound of this? Then keep your eyes open as there will be another mini retreat coming soon! – hopefully in a town near you!!