Highland boot camp

All-round body and mind training

The last time I was up at quarter to seven in the morning, I apologised and went back to bed.

This time I had some venison sausages and scaled Ben Nevis – the highest mountain in Britain. That was the goal at the end of our five-day Boot Camp in Scotland where we went to learn a more holistic approach to life, to lose weight and to get into shape.

As we approached the mountain trail, I remembered that what I’d neglected to mention on the fitness form was that apart from a fear of mice, lice, rats, bats and hats, I also suffer from vertigo. Just a few hundred feet into the 4,408 foot climb, the realisation that I was vertiginous, as well as mildly bilious, made me throw myself to the ground and cling desperately to the rocks as I tried to divert my eyes from the majestic Highland scenery unfurling in the mist far, far below.

As memories of being rescued by Swiss men and stretchers from another mountain twenty years ago threatened to topple me over the edge, I began to hyperventilate. Frozen to the rocks and proving something of an obstacle to passing walkers, I was eventually coaxed into standing up by Alex, our unflappable mountain leader. Holding out his hands for me, Alex carefully guided me over the gully and onto a bridge to safety.

Several hours later, during the pitch-black descent into the dark Highland night, Alex confessed that I wasn’t alone in being struck down by debilitating fear; he had recently seen an experienced climber airlifted from exactly the same point.

Aiming high

After a few days of circuit training, cycling and Highland games along the shores of Loch Ness, Alex and Tony, our fitness instructor, decided that the group (two mid-30s, a 47-year-old who put us all to shame and a pair of twenty-year-old girls) could cope with the challenge of reaching the top of the country’s highest mountain and the most famous of Scotland’s 283 Munros.

Named after Sir Hugh Munro, the Victorian explorer who first catalogued Scotland’s most towering peaks, a Munro is classed as any mountain over 3,000 feet and many climbers who are slightly braver than me, try to do the lot.

Two hours into our climb, after again casting myself to the ground as I stoically awaited death in the snow, I contemplated trying to become a ‘Munro Bagger’. I then concluded, quite rapidly, that it probably wouldn’t make a fulfilling life swap.

Not long afterwards, I was convinced for a third time by Alex that it would be better to push on to the top than expire in a flurry of melodrama on the slopes. Battling vertigo, cold, exhaustion and hunger, I eventually – with the help of a banana – made it to the howling, frozen, swirling summit shrouded in snow, mist and cloud.

And nine hours after setting off and three hours after the rest of the group had begun making morbid bets as to the status of my life from the comfort of the car, I was back, having learnt two lessons; firstly, never to go up another mountain again; secondly, that a banana provides a remarkable burst of energy.

Eat your way to the top

I now know that a banana provides the quickest natural sugar rush with an instant release of sucrose, fructose and glucose. Unlike artificial snacks, a banana eater won’t suffer the subsequent energy lull that comes from eating less natural energy foods. You may begin to notice at this point that my stay wasn’t just about tramping up mountains.

During our time at the Loch Ness Boot Camp, Tony, who is also a trained holistic lifestyle coach, sought to educate the group in the six foundational principles of a healthy life – one of which is nutrition. Head chef, the multi-AA rosette awarded Nick Sharp is happy to passionately discuss the fundamental importance of a balanced diet.

He expertly combines a scientific knowledge of nutrition with a savant’s flair for taste and style into some startling Boot Camp menus. Along with the other five principles – breathing, exercise, hydration, thoughts and sleep, all of which are intrinsically linked to the way our minds and bodies perform – these basic elements of life are often hugely overlooked. If any of the six principles are not correctly incorporated into our daily life, the Camp teaches, then our general health and well-being will inevitably be severely skewed.

According to Tony, they work so closely together, that most of us have no idea that our minds and bodies are not functioning as well as they could, leading to an accumulation of physical and emotional stress.

We were taught seemingly basic, but essential elements to help improve our lives – drink water before you get thirsty, move as much as possible to ensure our internal organs are regularly massaged and try to go to bed before midnight.

According to Tony, our sleep patterns are vital to maintaining a healthy mind and body. While we sleep, our bodies physically repair themselves between 10pm and 2am and then our minds are given a refreshing overhaul until six in the morning.

Here comes the science part

Another reason for hitting the sack earlier than most of us are used to, is because man has evolved to go to bed when it’s dark and get up with the sun – all of which keep the body’s two corresponding nervous system in tune to their natural state. The two systems – the sympathetic and the parasympathetic – are of paramount importance to our stress levels, Tony explained.

The sympathetic nervous system controls the release of adrenaline and cortisol, the two principal hormones that help the body cope when under stress.

They give us sudden energy boosts for innate survival, heightened memory functions and lower sensitivity to pain. But although they are both essential to life, an excess of these hormones flowing around our systems has negative effects on our health. Our cortisol levels are higher during the day (stimulated by light on our eyes) and fall at night when the parasympathetic nervous system naturally releases repairing hormones.

But because of the constant light and activity of modern society; working, drinking booze and caffeine or watching television late into the night, this fools our bodies into producing more cortisol at the expense of the reparatory hormones.

Eventually, the Camp teaches, we suffer from constant stress and adrenal fatigue – difficulty waking up in the morning, sluggishness, poor memory and concentration and a general sense of apathy and lack of motivation.

All of which are compounded by failings in the other five principles – a poor diet, using the wrong muscles to breathe, not enough water, inactivity and a negative frame of mind. To ensure we all functioned as well as we could during our stay, alcohol and bread were rigidly banned along with any form of processed food. Four and a half thousand feet above the clouded peaks of Scotland, did I really care about my vodka and sandwiches?

The next Boot Camp is from 24-29 January 2010 at the Inchnacardoch Hotel near Fort Augustus on the southern tip of Loch Ness.

Participants will be given individual feedback and training programmes and the cost is £850 per person, including meals, activities (yoga and pilates to wind down in the evening), accommodation and collection from Inverness Airport or Fort William.

For further details visit www.motivationcompany.com or www.inchhotel.com