The difference between fasting and lifestyle changes.

SR Cheers sunset L
SR Carla con leche
SR Regen dinner

As most of my clients know, I periodically fast, or as I like to put it "I'm just trying to balance the books."

Nobody bats an eye when we collectively gorge ourselves at Christmas or let’s face it, any excuse to indulge, it’s a Thursday night. We are super spoilt in London. We can eat what we like, when we like, any season, almost any ingredient, home cooked or delivered to our doors, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I have been experimenting with my diet since my early 20’s. Stiff sore joints were initially my motivation and are still a barometer for when I have been on the indulgent side of life a little too much. I have always tried to maintain my health through diet. It’s about feeling well in the here and now. I was lucky that pain at an early age meant I developed some knowledge and good habits.

Last week I completed the 5day fast that we do on our Regeneration Retreat. I try and do it a number of times a year. It had been about 8 months since my last one and I really struggled to find the motivation. I had been putting it off for months, always finding an excuse why this week was not a good week to do it.

But then, with absolute clarity, the week was now, and I went into it with the right mindset: determined to succeed. This is rule number 1.

Like it or not, food means so much to us. We all have a relationship with food and choosing to restrict yourself will bring up an emotional response. Each time I do it, it brings up old and new responses. Different each time and always interesting.

The science is simple: Fasting will first put you into ketosis, which by the way is a natural and healthy state that the body feels good in. Soon after, autophagy starts, which is the bodies own cleansing mechanism. At this point your body starts to cleanse on a cellular level, killing off damaged cells and using these as a fuel source. (help, I’m starving) Then finally the reason we fast for 5 days is to get to the time of Stem Cell renewal. This is when healing may happen, depending what you as an individual need and what is possible for your own body.

The joy of this fast rather than a water fast is that you eat 3 precise meals a day and still remain in a fasted state. It’s almost a walk in the park, though my energy levels do not allow such activity when fasting. When doing this in London, I still go to work every day, I just make sure that I add in lots of rest, think slow mornings and Epson salt baths in the evening. I also always book myself in a massage or two as a reward.

A week later my head is still clear, my digestion is better than it has been in months, my desire to stay healthy and repeat the fast is strong. I’m calm, productive, less achy, my clothes fit better, and people keep telling me I look well.  I do this so I can indulge. It is not a lifestyle change. It is part of my lifestyle.

It’s about being able to drink champagne and eat schiacciata when I want, it’s about trying to create a balance in the indulgent world that I love to live in.

Fasting and it’s benefits are all over the internet, juice, broth, water, there is almost too much information and too many choices. The reason we chose to work with this 5 day fast on our fasting retreats is due to the research behind it. Professor Longo studied exactly how much you can eat and remain in a fasted state. It’s doable, it’s not extreme and once done with support, you can repeat it at home easily.

If you want your hand held metaphorically then come and join us for The Regeneration Retreat in June or September in Italy.

If you fancy indulging with me, then our Tastes and Treats retreat may be right up your street.

LET'S STAY CONNECTED
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All of our retreats include healing treatment, set in this stunning environment. Whether you choose The Regeneration Retreat, to fast and heal your body, the Creative Writing or Actors retreat, to enhance your skills and ignite your imagination, or the Tastes and Treats retreat where you have the holiday of a lifetime taken to the best spots Tuscany and Umbria have to offer…this moment…this treatment and coming outside to this view will be part of it.
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The views, the trips, the tastes. These are the things that can be hard to describe when we explain everything included on each retreat, but are the very fabric of what makes a retreat come alive.
Here you see our writers taking breaks from creating, to get out and enjoy the best places to explore and be inspired. @aga_lesiewicz
Join us on retreat and come alive this year.
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Have you thought about joining our Writing through cancer retreat, “Beautiful, Precious ME retreat”? Are you curious about what it will be, if It is right for you? Well, so have I… Will we only take breast cancer patients? Will anybody be in active treatment? Will somebody join knowing they are terminal? How would that affect the dynamic of the group, when we are talking about process, recovery & moving on? All these questions are running through my head right now. I have my answers to these curiosities, I also know people never fail to surprise me, I am always given more than I expected in challenges and gifts.

Or are you supporting a loved one, a friend or a neighbour through their own personal cancer reality? Are you living with the loss of a loved one and want time and space to connect, share and process?

What I would like to share with you is that there is no right person for this retreat, sadly I suspect almost every person I know could join this retreat. Few of us get through life without Cancer affecting ourselves or somebody we love.

Having had first-hand experience gives you a perspective but it is just one tiny prism of reality. There is no right way to do Cancer, only your way, only somebody else’s way. All valid, it is about time we stopped believing there are right ways to live, work, parent, be ill or die.

I think it is natural to believe in the choices you make, why would you choose to do something unless you believed it was the right choice? But when it comes to major decisions, like cancer treatment, most of us are inexperienced, ill equipped to even understand the language and choices ahead, let alone the fact that you are usually in shock at this time, the overwhelm is overwhelming. So with this retreat, we create a safe space for dialogue, writing, resting and processing.

If you want to bring your questions to me @octigan
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Space to think, to rest, to create, to discover. Time to Shine in 2024.

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As we bring in the New Year here at Siliano Alto, we do the normal looking back and dreaming forward.

Our gentle home held space for many creative and healing moments. We made life long friendships and explored ideas, passions and longings.

Running retreats is a huge privilege and a complete pleasure. As someone who has worked in the service industry for 39 years now, I know the power of connection. The feeling you get when others leave you feeling better than when they had arrived. I remember loving my early days of hairdressing back in 1984, I’m quite sure I didn’t fully appreciate why.

With so many difficult realities happening globally, too many to do any sort of justice to, with some sort of trivialising list. We commit to making 2024 about simple, human connections at Shine Retreats.

A promise of time, of space and of kindness, it really was all in the name, A time to Shine, for us and for all who join us here in this gentle house.

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