It’s that time of year again…. The run-up to Christmas has really begun in earnest.

My inbox is already filling up with emails promising me the perfect Christmas Body or a Little Back Dress Guarantee.

These campaigns make us mad.

Now in the spirit of full disclosure, when we first started out life as “Brealy Bootcamps” we probably did our fair share of this type of marketing. It’s what almost everyone in the fitness industry does. There are certain times of the year when the fitness industry booms, summer bikinis, new year/new you and of course the Christmas party preparations.

The picture above sums up for us everything that is wrong with the perfect Christmas Body/Little Black Dress approach… just look at the picture for a moment.

The woman is excited and happy to have lost weight in time for Christmas, the implication is that if you want a Happy Christmas then you’d better shed some inches too.

There is so much pressure on women at this time of year. The pressure to prepare the perfect Christmas dinner for the family, to decorate the house in the perfect festive way, to find the perfect presents for friends …oh and while you are at it…better look like the perfect woman and fit your perfect Christmas body into your Christmas outfit too.

So feeling the pressure and wanting to enjoy the perfect Christmas you sign up for the diet. You then spend the next 8 weeks or so dieting, depriving yourself of joy, working yourself into the ground adding extra long workouts into your week… you shed those pounds and in triumph you get into your little black dress.

Of course then the relief kicks in and those weeks of deprivation catch up with you and you fall off the diet wagon…hard!

Crack open the Prosecco, make it a double Baileys, another mince pie, why not…I’ve been good..I deserve it!

But don’t worry about putting back on the pounds, (or the damaging effect on your metabolism of the yo yo eating patterns) because its only about a week before the same people who helped you get into your dress will be offering you the next fix of New Year New You programmes.

When we upgraded from being Brealy Bootcamps to The Body Retreat we did so not only because we wanted to offer our retreaters a more luxurious experience but also at its heart The Body Retreat is NOT just another weight loss camp.

The Body Retreat is not the place to come if you just want to look better…it’s the place to come if you want to feel better in your own skin.

That feeling of being in control, of having a positive relationship with food, having confidence in yourself, enjoying how strong your body can be, enjoying good health, a sense of wellness…none of these results is seasonal. They are for life.

So that why we don’t want you to have the perfect Christmas Body… at the end of the day Christmas isn’t about the size of your waist…it’s the size of your heart. So don’t be pressured into feeling otherwise.