UK Getaway: Yeotown, Devon.
The health and fitness retreat for new mums.
Words Elizabeth Hutton
The Health And Fitness Retreat
Designed to hit all of your reset buttons, Yeotown is a super stylish, award-winning, five-day health and fitness retreat. The idillic cottage comes complete with its very own yoga studio and sauna so is perfect for overworked mums who need a little bit of ‘me time’. Located between the moorland of Exmoor and the Atlantic Ocean, there are prime walking spots over the area’s famously rugged terrain and, if you’re lucky, great surf.
Run by surfer-cum-walker Simon Sieff and Triyoga’s Vinyasa Flow teacher Mercedes Ngoh Sieff, Yeotown is a health and fitness retreat, a place they like to call “the home of wellbeing”. In short, a stay here will improve your physical fitness, nutritional health and mental wellbeing – three things all new mums need to keep balanced and in control. The Sieff’s passion for health is convincing enough to make you want to change the way you live. Expect a full life MOT, one that you’ll probably want to maintain long after you’ve left.
The Fitness
Yogi or not, starting your day with a 7.15am yoga class is great. Undoubtedly my favourite part Yeotown’s health and fitness retreat philosophy, the morning yoga sessions helped stretch me out before breakfast. The rest of our wellbeing schedule was all about being active – on the first day we hiked, on the second we cycled, and on the third we worked out our core in an intense CrossFit class.
Adapted to suit all fitness levels, there was no moment when you felt out of sorts. As a pretty active person, I was surprised to discover that I had lost 1.5lbs during my stay, which was nothing on one of my fellow guests, who left Devon a staggering 12 pounds lighter. The difference between us? I was there to cleanse, while he was there to completely rehaul his lifestyle and diet. Yeotown is the health and fitness retreat that facilitates both making it a great place for mamas looking to lose that stubborn baby weight.
The Food
Cooked by the lovely Dora, there was plenty of delicious food to eat. From red lentil and coconut soup to white fish with green chilli and coriander, we were treated to nutritious meals everyday. Refined sugar, gluten, wheat, dairy and caffeine were all banned, and we were advised to give up these vices a week before our stay.
For those that had followed the pretox the diet wasn’t hard. Unfortunately one of fellow Yeotowners – a finance worker and mother of four – hadn’t, so she spent much of the time longing for a glass of wine. I, on the other hand, had prepared so managed to avoid any cravings. One downside was that my skin broke out, but a clear complexion soon followed and, most importantly, stayed. As for the lack of caffeine, my energy levels skyrocketed and, despite since returning to caffeine, I’ve managed to cut my two-a-day habit down to just two-a-week. For anyone that knows me, that’s quite a feat.
NO COMMENT