As well as individually prescribed massages and treatments, we're told, we'll also be having a daily lecture on the latest nutritional research from visiting experts, followed by informal Q&A sessions. "And at the end of the week," she promises, "you should not only have lost weight, but learnt how to keep it off – and be healthier – for the long term."
Protein at breakfast is essential, Elaine says. “If you start the day with sugar-rich carbohydrates – toast and jam, for instance – you’re raising your blood sugar level and setting yourself up to crave sugar all day. Within an hour or two your blood sugar level will have plummeted and you’ll want something else sugary to lift it again, and so it will go on. And if you routinely live like that, you’re a strong candidate for Type 2 diabetes.”
And that’s pretty much how each day goes, interspersed with tests and treatments – a body composition analysis, blood analysis, castor oil compress, abdominal massage to improve digestion – and the occasional walk in the grounds.
Previously, when I’ve left a strict spa, despite good intentions I’ve pounced on chocolate at the first opportunity. After a week at the Mayr Clinic in Austria, I sat down for cake and coffee at Klagenfurt airport even before I’d checked in, although they’d kindly packed me some of the stale spelt roll and yogurt they make you live on all week.
But this time I don’t crave anything. No, not a twinge. I wait on the platform at Liphook railway station and remain untempted. I have to admit to a detour at Waterloo into the Maison du Chocolat shop, but only for 80 per cent and 90 per cent dark chocolate – with minimal sugar content, it is packed with vitamins and happily sanctioned by Grayshott. I eat a quarter of a bar, more because it has been a lifelong habit than because I’m driven to it.
