>
Stats <
Size: 8
Personal Trainer: Torje Eike
Physiotherapist: Torje Eike
Yoga Instructor: Kisen
Weight: 7 Stone (97 lbs)
>
Yoga <
"Some people's bodies - like Geri Halliwell's - respond
drama-tically and very quickly."
Geri owes her fab body to yoga. She practices such moves as
the Crab, the Dog, the Cat and the Cobra. Yoga has helped her
to get in tune with her body and streamline her figure.
"It keeps me supple and really trim," she says.
"I do it as much as I can, and I've lost weight since I
started doing it.
"It's given me good abdominal definition and it really
helps to relax me. It's fantastic - I love it."
Geri was introduced to the ancient Indian art by the private
teacher Kisen, whose wealthy clients include Neil Tennant
from the Pet Shop Boys and Hollywood actress Elisabeth Shue.
He teaches Ashtanga yoga, which emphasises meditation and
breath control rather than the traditional yoga poses. Geri
contacted him after leaving the Spice Girls in 1998 and has
been seeing him ever since. She looks to him for spiritual
guidance as well as fitness tips.
"The general public has absolutely no idea of the
tensions that were placed upon her at that time," says
Kisen, 42, whose nickname for Geri is Gingernut. "I've
talked to her about slowing down, taking life easier, seeing
the beauty in ordinary things."
He has devised an individual fitness plan which has left her
leaner, wirier and less bulky. "It's not about
flexibility," he says. "It's about reaching a
greater understanding and acceptance of yourself. It is about
strength in the service of wisdom." Liverpool-born Kisen
says Geri is delighted by the results. He says: "She
once called me to say: 'I've just seen my new video and guess
what, Kisen? I look like a babe!'
Geri has learned to perfect Kisen's techniques at home, but
also attends the Triyoga centre in Primrose Hill, North
London, where fellow devotees include actors Jude Law and his
wife Sadie Frost.
>Excersise
<
"I'm not one of these women who will ever be naturally
thin - I really have to work hard at it."
Geri supplements her yoga with more conventional ways of
keeping fit. She runs up to six miles a day, often with her
Norwegian personal trainer and physiotherapist Torje Eike.
Geri varies her routine with swimming, cycling and visits to
the gym.
Torje knows celebrities can rarely go out cycling or running
alone and encouraged Geri to buy a bike stand that
effectively converts her outdoor bike into an indoor version.
He has explained when she should exercise to get maximum
results from her programme. Her routine includes warming up,
stretching, achieving an aerobic level of exercise, cooling
down, strengthening muscles and stretching again. Torje has
taken over from Kenny Goss, George Michael's partner, who
helped Geri lose a stone after she left the Spice Girls. She
also goes to the Buckinghamshire health club where Mel B
works out.
"The best way to reduce body fat is to combine exercise
with a low-fat, high-carb diet. This will keep you slim for
life, the best sources of carbohydrates are sugar-free
cereals, bread, pasta and rice." said Torje.
>Diet
<
"The trick to having a healthy body is to eat what you
want, but in moderation."
Geri has recently followed the controversial low-carbohydrate
diet favoured by stars such as Jennifer Aniston and Ally
McBeal's Calista Flockhart. But she opted for the more
moderate Zone version devised by American biotechnologist Dr
Barry Sears. Instead of completely cutting out carbohydrates
he recommends a daily food intake of 30 per cent protein, 30
per cent fat and 40 per cent carbohydrate - double the
protein and half the carbohydrate that mainstream
nutritionists say is healthy.
Strict no-carb dieters would typically eat an egg for
breakfast, a rare steak for lunch and grilled chicken for
supper. Now on Torje Eike's advice Geri has sensibly included
more carbohydrates, seafood and plenty of fruit and
vegetables.
She says: "If you really want a flat stomach, you've got
to make the effort to find a balance and eat a good, varied
diet. You can't deny yourself everything, but at the same
time you mustn't go overboard on the junk. I try to eat lots
of healthy foods such as salads and fish to keep trim, butI
do have a sweet tooth and love desserts - especially sticky
toffee pudding or anything with chocolate.
A typical day's food includes:
Breakfast: Wholemeal toast or low-fat bagel with low sugar,
high-fruit jam. Muesli with low-fat yogurt and fruit.
Lunch: Jacket potato with baked beans with
tabasco.Worcestershire sauce or chilli sause topped with
chopped tomatoes.
Dinner: Fillet of fish, grilled with a paste of fresh ginger,
soy sauce, lemon juice, spring onions and five-spice powder,
with noodles. low-fat rice pudding.
>
Beauty <
The old Geri wouldn't have dreamt of leaving the country
without a sackful of make-up. But she has pared down her
beauty regime to a minimum to look fresh-faced and much
younger. "My must-have product is concealer, which I use
to cover up any dark under-eye shadows," she says.
"It helps make me look more `aliveŽ and I also like
pink blusher to add a glow to my cheeks."
Geri's skin is radiant, and she looks healthier with a light
tan. But there's no doubt her blonde hair extensions demand
high maintenance. Specialist hair-care products now fill the
space in her suitcase where her make-up used to be.
>
Torje Eike <
A new man is behind Geri Halliwell's dazzling transformation
from a bulimic binge eater to an ultra-toned size six. And
no, he's not her lover but her personal trainer Torje Eike.
The Norwegian physiotherapist is one of the celebrity world's
most best kept secrets. In 1998 model Jerry Hall wrote the
foreword to "The Vitality Plan", a book co-authored
by Torje. In it, she revealed that she had followed his Total
Fitness plan for years to stay in shape. And Torje's
co-author was the royal ballets principal dancer Deborah
Bull, who confesed to years of yo yo dieting before meeting
him.
So what is the secret of his success? As a fitness advisor to
Olympic athletes and soccer stars, Torje takes the view that
the best way to lose weight-and keep it off-is to combine
sensible healthy eating with sensible regular exercise. The
key phrase that Jerry Hall and Deborah Bull use in the book
is that "losing weight is not about the things you
shouldn't do-it is about the things you should do."
Forget about counting calories and starving yourself to stay
thin. It doesn't work, as Geri, with her history of binge
eating and bulimia can testify. Eating fewer than 1,200
calories a day is bad for your long term health, the book
says, and losing weight just by dieting and not excercising
will slow down your metabolism.
The books advice contradicts reports that Geri has been
following a high-protein diet, which is currently fashionable
in Hollywood.
>
Injections <
It emerged that Geri has a private nurse who regularly
injects a potentially fatal cocktail of vitamins straight
into her bloodstream. Her publicist said: "She's under
an incredibly gruelling schedule and vitamin injections are
par for the course for many artists. It's to boost her energy
levels. She's doing 12 to 18-hour days and travelling all
over the world."
But nutritionists believe she has resorted to the injections
because she has cut fat out of her diet and cannot absorb
vitamins properly. They say it is easy to inject too much
which, in extreme cases, can kill. Claire MacEvilly, of the
British Nutrition Foundation, said: "Where a person has
a limited amount of fat in their diet, the fat-soluble
vitamins A, D, E and K cannot be absorbed properly by the
body. This is why some people who have a low fat intake can
suffer from vitamin deficiency. Vitamin injections are an
extreme and dangerous fad which has come from America - it is
not very popular over here yet and hopefully will not take
off.
"Overdosing on the non-soluble vitamins by injecting
them is easy to do and is a real concern. It can cause
cramps, nosebleeds, nausea, blurred vision, dry skin, liver
disease, weight loss, kidney stones and permanent kidney
damage. In the most extreme cases it can lead to death. My
advice for Geri Halliwell would be to snack on fruit and
vegetables throughout the day instead. The injections are a
dangerous practice."
And fellow nutritionist Dr Gail Goldberg added:
"Injecting means the vitamins get into the bloodstream
more quickly but Geri should be getting her nutrition from a
balanced diet." However Geri's publicist insisted:
"She would not take anything that would harm her. I
imagine you would have to be taking them a lot before they
would start harming you. If she had blurred vision and cramps
then it would be blatantly obvious. She 's healthier and
happier than ever. She does not inject herself. A nurse
visits occasionally - it's all monitored."
Geri has admitted to cutting out products which contain white
flour or sugar and thus excludes staple foods such as white
bread and pasta. She also rules out cakes, biscuits and
chocolate. She recently said: "My body image can be
distorted because of the disease I suffered, so it's best not
to examine all of this, for my own sake. I'll try to avoid
looking at pictures of myself. I leave it up to my stylists
and make-up people and if they think I look OK, I don't
worry. I'm taking this a day at a time. Everyone's got their
thing, their addiction, and mine's sugar."
Sun GP Carol Cooper said: "I would not recommend vitamin
injections for anyone. Most of us can get all the vitamins we
need from food. Clearly, Geri is not eating very much so she
may well need extra vitamin supplements but she could take
them by mouth. Taking too many vitamins can be extremely bad
for you. Vitamin A can damage the liver, vitamin D can give
you kidney stones and vitamin E can make you bleed too
easily. Vitamin injections are a craze.
"If things are injected you feel they are working better
but it's more dangerous because you have got all the risks
associated with injecting such as bruising and bleeding. I
wouldn't want anyone to think Geri Halliwell is going to die,
but overdosing on vitamins can be as dangerous as overdosing
on aspirin. It can lead to death through convulsions brought
on by high calcium levels. If you are eating a diet which is
so low in fat that you are not getting enough vitamins then
something is seriously wrong with that diet."
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