Wellbeing

Change your life in 28 days

Discover how a combination of Reiki, yoga and a vegan diet can help to transform your life with BBC Two’s new series The Retreat

Discover how a combination of Reiki, yoga and a vegan diet can help to transform your life with BBC Two’s new series The Retreat

Here at Natural Health HQ, we consider ourselves long-serving patrons of the wellness movement. Always the first to try an alternative therapy or new yoga class, we’re leading from the front. And now it seems we may be joined by our favourite TV builder, DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles.

He may seem a surprising fit but after attending a 28-day ‘complete wellbeing’ programme alongside his DIY SOS co-stars Billy Byrne and Julian Perryman and seven others, Nick lost a staggering nine kilos in 24 days and his experience was captured during a fly-on-the-wall style five-part documentary which starts tonight on BBC Two. The father of one has completely transformed his way of living. Swapping his hard hat for a yoga mat and his regular cafe visits for a vegan diet “80 percent of the time”, the 53-year-old’s spell at the retreat has kick started his new healthy life.

“This [experience] has truly changed my life,” Nick claims. “I’m less stressed, fitter, and low in cholesterol like a good spread. I now part own two vegan restaurants and practice yoga, [although I still have] a healthy fear of fundalentilists – people who bully others into being vegan.”

As well as featuring the team learning the weight loss advantages of a healthier diet and lifestyle, the program also shows how lovable DIY SOS electrician Billy discovers the full benefits of therapy – he is finally able to discuss the passing of his 20-year-old daughter Emma to cancer without breaking down.

Another participant in the experience, an 18 stone Type 2 diabetic London taxi driver, is no longer diabetic after seven days at the retreat and 57-year-old Maggie learns to cope with the loss of her mother.

The Retreat proves that alternative practices such as yoga and Reiki are advantageous to everyone and also highlights the mammoth benefits of a vegan diet and therapy.

The Retreat airs every night from Monday, September 26 to September 30 at 7pm on BBC Two. For more information visit retreattv.com

Article by

Lauren Godfrey

Content Writer

Article by

Lauren Godfrey

Content Writer