Yup I know…..I go on about yoga and exercise, did a whole series of articles on “The diet that changed my life”, am such a goody two shoes blah blah blah….so how come the top part of my legs are going south and suddenly I’m a little, well, podgier? Mmmmm? Ok, it was a long hard winter and I’ve spent a lot of time travelling. And yes, it was to Los Angeles which may be the most health conscious city on the face of the earth, but let me tell you, they have lots of the good stuff too….by which of course, I mean bad! And besides, when you’re away from home, you eat out all the time! Even so, I’ve still been exercising regularly and I still follow the basis of the diet in my articles, (do check them out if you haven’t already) but I think my 80 (good)/20 (bad) ratio may have switched direction! To sum up my regime, I aim to only eat lunch and dinner, I exercise in the morning in a fasted state and I try to eat a gluten-free diet with very few grains. So what on earth is happening? How could I possibly gain over 7 llbs and not be super toned with all my hot yoga and gym work outs? Well, Easter, which should really be called Chocolate Madness Weekend, may have had a little something to do with it and cake, even if it’s gluten-free, is still cake! And of course, let’s not forget wine!
There’s nothing worse than when all your clothes are tight, right? Check out my favourite pair of gorgeous JCrew trousers which I can no longer fit into! And summer (well, I live in hope!) is looming which means arms and legs are about to be exposed, so I’ve decided to do a months’ body spring clean and body overhaul! I’m putting myself into bootcamp! I don’t mean literally….no camps in the wood surrounded by barbed wire or anything…..but a strict two faceted regime.
The two things to look at are obviously Nutrition and Exercise.
I started by booking myself a month of twice weekly workouts with my trainer Rhys Brooks (an indulgence I know but I’ll be saving the pennies on all the wine I won’t be drinking). I usually only see Rhys about once every couple months. He gives me a workout which I then do until I see him again. The problem is that, even though I’m very good at actually getting myself to the gym, I’m not very good at pushing myself too hard. In fact, I cheat quite a bit and leave out sets because I feel tired or because I’m in a hurry or even just because I can!
I usually alternate between a day of doing weights at the gym with a day of cardiovascular, which is a combo of treadmill, bike and cross trainer. And I do a hot yoga class once or twice a week. So, time allowing, I do work out quite a bit.
Once I’d booked Rhys, I thought I’d better check in with nutritionist Fleur Borrelli. It was Fleur who devised my eating regime and transformed my energy levels, my lean muscle to fat mass ratio and made me feel and look better in every way about eighteen months ago. This has been the first blip since then.
I will be sharing my week by week journey, with insights from Rhys and Fleur on my progression and hopefully get some answers as to what is going on. The idea is that the insights and tips will be helpful to everyone and might even inspire others to do a pre-summer overhaul!
NEXT WEEK: I presume that this all won’t be a big deal as am already quite fit. Maybe a little adjustment in how I eat and a little tune up in how I exercise? Right?
WRONG! Fleur and Rhys get tough. Hey guys, you’re taking this bootcamp thing way too seriously! Oh god, what have I started??
Comments 2
Re: Bootcamp
Please could you give some examples of what you ate each day during this process? Would be very interested to read.
Thank you
Kind regards
Sara
Author
Do check out the other Bootcamp articles for details on how I ate and exercised. As prescribed by nutritionist Fleur Borrelli in Bootcamp Begins, I ate only protein and vegetables, with a bit of fruit. I don’t eat red meat so ate lots of chicken breasts, fish, smoked salmon, and dozens of eggs! Scraambled, fried, boiled and omeletted! Cheese and mushrooms count as protein so ate those too. I didn’t eat potatoes and had very little starchy veggies but ate avocados, salads, broccoli and every vegetable in season I could get my hands on. I ate a small piece of fruit after each meal and would sometimes add coconut chunks which are delicious and satisfying.