As I come to the end of week 3 on the 4 week body blitz it dawned on me that it might be helpful for those thinking about doing it or those already on it, to write a blog post about my experiences.
Firstly, in summary, I lost in total, 6lb weight. I didn't do measurements (but I suggest you do), and I believe that my body fat reduced by 1.8% or thereabouts. I do recommend the book, for sure. As I come to the end of the plan I'm hoping this is the first step towards a permanent healthier lifestyle.
First, the best bit of advice I can offer to people on, or looking to start the plan, don't expect miracles. That's not to say, don't expect change, because change you will get. But I know that I went into this still carrying some post-Christmas weight and I did fully expect to come out the other end with a near-Madeley body which wasn't realistic.
Second, be very wary of the scales. Chloe herself says this time and time again that the scales are not an accurate representation of what's going on with your body. I didn't lose loads on the plan, certainly not as much as some other instagrammers I've seen and definitely not as much as I'd expected from a four week plan and 5/6 gym sessions a week, however, like an idiot, I did not take measurements at the start.
I can see the difference though. And having to use the next loop on my belt is evidence in itself.
What to expect through the weeks
You have to go in ready to stick the whole damn thing out. For me, this was a completely different diet to my usual fare and because I had injured my back at the beginning of January and then experienced my first flu in the beginning of February, I was more out of shape than my usual dipping in and out of gym visits.
Now, I chose to post daily on instagram about the plan, and anyone in my office who walked into the kitchen while I was dishing up my breakfast or lunch and who made some kind of comment, was informed of the plan I was on. I guess I'm someone who is more likely to stick it out if I feel I'm being held accountable. That is a personal choice but I do feel like it helped me.
It's also a bit demotivating knowing you're on like, day 3 of 28 for example, knowing how far you have to go.
As you get to the end of week 2, if you're anything like me, you're getting really fed up with your limited pre-prepped breakfast, lunch and dinner options (though I will point out you don't HAVE to stick to the recipes in the book and Chloe explains how to build your own meals, I was just straight up too lazy to put that extra work in). The best advice for those in week 2 and hitting the 'what's the point' moment, just stick with it because once you hit week 3 you very much feel that you're over the hump and it's all downhill from here.
Entering week 4 I'm feeling pretty great. Already proud of myself for completing it, even though I have a week to go. It just very much feels like, I've come this far, this last week is going to be cake, figuratively speaking.
Today is my final day of the plan and it coincides with the 'rest day' so I'm enjoying some downtime. I feel really great for having finished it even if I did expect greater results and I'm very determined to stick with the lessons I learnt and to stay on this fat loss trajectory.
Weekdays vs weekend
It's difficult to say which is hardest. The week days, if you follow the plan to the letter involve the HIIT workouts which increase in duration each week, and if, like me, you have a full-time, office-based job, it's not necessarily easy to fit that in. I planned my starting date a little in advance and I purposefully did not make any evening plans for those four weeks. Once or twice when we did decide on a little movie night or something, I dragged myself out of bed before work and got my workout out the way first thing.
However, something about the routine of being in work made the diet easier. You kind of don't have a choice in that you've prepped your lunches to stay on course and once that's done and you're there, in the office, it's fine. You drag yourself to the gym after work and it's done.
The weekends, don't necessarily include a workout on the plan (you pick your options and the details of this are in the book) which you would think make them easier to get through and I'm sure for some this is the case, for me though, the weekends weren't necessarily easier because I always have plans at the weekends. And these plans usually involve a drink, especially when the six nations are happening. So, right now at time of writing I am on the third week and it is St. Patrick's Day and, full disclosure, I'm making an exception to the no-drinking rule. My meals will be in line with the diet but I am having a few drinks. I made this choice at the outset of the plan and I'm hoping by keeping it sensible (and dancing away some extra calories) that it won't derail me too much.
Update: I did keep it sensible on the day and managed to maintain a calorie deficit of approx 380 calories.
But anyway, the first weekend of the plan we had friends staying over and we spent Saturday in a pub and again, last weekend, we met friends in a pub for the France v England game (but let's not talk about that). Now, I did have an enjoyable weekend both times, my friends are good fun regardless of whether the drink in my hand is a diet coke or a beer...or a glass of red...or a G&T..., so it was still good fun, but I am fully comfortable in saying that I love a good drink and sitting with a diet coke did not quite cut it for me. Not to mention the unnecessary comments indicating I must be pregnant *eyeroll* winding me up slightly.
So, which is easier? It really depends on you. I'd vote the week days are easier. I'm a fan of routine.
The diet
I've been following Chloe Madeley on Instagram since she was featured in Women's Health in July 2015 (stalker alert!) so I remember a long time ago when she first mentioned she was bringing out a book, and I commented asking whether the ingredient list would feature options that are readily available in your local Tesco or whether it's more likely to be found in your bigger Holland & Barretts kind of stuff and she responded (exciting times for me) to say they are all easy to find ingredients. This has always been my annoyance with cookbooks. I have quite a few and I read the ingredients and think, yeah got that, got that, got that...what the fuck is fenugreek?! And it usually means that I give up hope of making the dish properly (I mean, I'm not a great cook at the best of times) and the cookbook gets donated or gathers dust on the shelf.
However, Chloe was true to her word and the recipes are straightforward and, thank goodness, they are quick to make. There were one or two that didn't work for me and one or two that...yeah I'm going to go ahead and overreact here, changed my life. Who knew it was so easy to make protein pancakes? I did not, and game changer! Also, going to be obsessed with the breakfast shakes for some time I think, and I am not one who usually enjoys drinking my breakfast.
I was rarely hungry, I really enjoyed my meals (though my new years resolution to have one vegetarian day a week meant I had a lot of quorn courgetti bolognese which I got sick of, fast), and I learnt to love some great alternatives to unhealthy snacking (stick with 90% chocolate, you will learn to love it).
Calorie counting
Chloe does not disclose the calorie intake you are on in the book but has said that the plan is a calorie deficit. I have been a user of myfitnesspal for years so I know roughly how much the plan is per day though it does vary a bit depending on your meal and snack choice. On occasion (I think though maybe only 1 or 2 days) I had a little extra something to eat within the plan as I'm very wary of having too few calories in a day. For me this would be if I fell below 1200 calories. This was my personal choice. I do tend to clock up about 12k steps a day so, add in these workouts and I just didn't want to eat what I decided for myself was too little.
My average calorie deficit (calories burnt against calories eaten) was 945 daily. Which I just worked out (thanks to diligent food tracking and my fitbit) and which is actually quite massive. Of course there's always massive debate about how accurate fitness tracking and calorie counting is, so, by all means, take that with a pinch of salt.
Weight Loss
As mentioned earlier, the scales are not a great tracking option and it would probably benefit a lot of people to measure yourself and use this to track your progress, however, I did want to share what happened for me in terms of weight loss, and it may help others stay on track. As mentioned previously, I lost a total of 6lb on this blitz. BUT, it was came in spurts, like I would lose a couple of pounds within a few days and then nothing for ages. Here is a breakdown of loss:
Day 1: starting weight
Day 2: 1lb loss
Day 3: no change
Day 4: 1lb loss
Day 5: 1lb loss
Day 6,7,8: no change
Day 10: 1lb gain
Day 11: 1lb loss
Day 12,13: no change
Day 14: 1lb loss
Day 15: 1lb gain
Day: 16,17: no change
Day 18: 1lb loss
Day 19: 1lb loss
Day 20-28: no change
As you can see I had the odd day when it jumped back up a pound for no understandable reason. So whatever's going on with the scales, ignore it and don't let it demotivate you and stick it out for the whole four weeks. I'm pretty damn glad I did.
What I learned about myself on the plan
Firstly, I seem to do well when I have very clean cut rules. This plan has a set list of foods you can eat. You can look at it negatively and think, this is all I can eat for four weeks? Or you can appreciate that with such defined terms, you just have to adhere. That's how I looked at it. I had these meals and these options and that's it. So when someone brought Ben's cookies into the office for their birthday, it wasn't a case of, ooh if I have this and then do an extra twenty minutes at the gym it'll cancel out. It was just like, cookies, well, I can't eat those, damn they look good, better get out the kitchen. Learning this, going forward and moving off the plan I'm putting in place some new rules for myself.
The second thing I learnt was that all those times when I'd told myself, you know what, I really can't face the gym today, I really can't squeeze in a workout that day, or oh I really need a rest day, they were absolute bullshit. I made it to the gym five times a week minimum for four weeks. And yes, sometimes it was really, really hard to get myself there, but I did it, and I got through the workouts, and I found time for it. So that excuse is gone now, no more intentions without following through. And I'll say, there was never a workout that I didn't appreciate. Even the days when they were tough as hell from beginning to end and once I finished, I didn't linger, I grabbed my stuff from my locker and headed home dreading the fact I then had to make dinner, I still did it. If I can do it once I can do it again, and if I can do that for four weeks, I can always do it.
My new four week plan
So after my last week is complete on Chloe's 4 week body blitz I will start my own four week plan which I will revise again at the end of the next four weeks. This, I hope, will enable me to always stay on track. Knowing that if I'm really struggling with something, I will revise it in four weeks time to make it work in the long run for me.
So the next four weeks, firstly, I'm recycling the workouts and starting again with Chloe's week one HIIT routines as a base level. Since week 4 of Chloe's plan has six workouts, week 1 of my plan will have five workouts. And at 40 minutes minimum. Week 2 will have four workouts. Week 3 will have five workouts and then week 4 will have four workouts. This is my minimum. I can sub-out the HIIT routine for a gym class, and if that gym class is 30 minutes I'll tag on some gym work to meet 40/45 minutes minimum. I can also sub one workout per week with minimum 40 lengths swimming or minimum 3 miles run. I have downloaded Chloe's "Weights for Women" app today as well so I'm going to start implementing some weight training. In terms of fitting it into the above plan, I'll pair it with 30 minutes HIIT. I won't necessarily stick to hitting all the workouts during the week but I do think I'll do my best to do this because I don't want to find myself on a Sunday trying to fit in that last workout, I'd rather have all my workouts under my belt come Saturday (when possible) and then anything I do on the weekend is a bonus.
Second, well, diet-wise, I'm going to keep a lot of these meals involved. And I'm thinking that I want to keep carb cycling to a degree but not keeping to the rules as strictly. I'll just try and keep the days in the plan that are meant to be high protein/high fat as exactly that, but I won't be keeping the carb list as restrictive, so I'll reintroduce fruit and some higher carb veg. I'll be trying to keep my macros mainly protein and fat, but I expect the percentages will not be as unequal.
Third, I will be introducing "cheat meals", though I don't really want to term them this...deviant meals? Indulgences. And these will be either some kind of sweet treat (for example the packet of Joe & Seph's salted caramel popcorn that I'm saving for the end of this plan), or they will be a nice meal, for example, if we go out to eat and I have pizza or if we decide to indulge in a takeaway. These will be once a week only. And I will be monitoring how they go over the four weeks and whether they are really hindering me and need to limited more or if they're making it harder to stay on plan. Also, having a drink is not included as a cheat for me, but it is limited to one day per week, and will be kept sensible.
These are entirely my own rules based on my preferences and my lifestyle. They may not work but I will evaluate where I am on April 21st and make a plan going forward from there.
I hope this helps anyone on the plan or thinking about the plan to go for it or stick with it!
And on a final note, I have chosen to not post any 'before and after' pictures for several reasons. One, I don't really want pictures of me in underwear, not in my preferred shape, available online to the public. Two, my progress has nothing to do with your progress, my changes will not be the same as your changes, and my goals are not your goals, so where I started and where I finished have nothing to do with anyone but me. Third, as much as there are a lot of before and afters of people who have completed the four week body blitz, seeing some of the incredible progress that some people have made gave me some unrealistic expectations for myself which wasn't helpful. All my own fault, I didn't take my own advice that I am giving now (see point two) which is, don't compare yourself. Four, like most people, I am a work in progress and my after will hopefully not be my best.
Those are my personal reasons. I have before and after photos and they are for my eyes only, and Ben's because he had to take them, haaa!
Firstly, in summary, I lost in total, 6lb weight. I didn't do measurements (but I suggest you do), and I believe that my body fat reduced by 1.8% or thereabouts. I do recommend the book, for sure. As I come to the end of the plan I'm hoping this is the first step towards a permanent healthier lifestyle.
First, the best bit of advice I can offer to people on, or looking to start the plan, don't expect miracles. That's not to say, don't expect change, because change you will get. But I know that I went into this still carrying some post-Christmas weight and I did fully expect to come out the other end with a near-Madeley body which wasn't realistic.
Second, be very wary of the scales. Chloe herself says this time and time again that the scales are not an accurate representation of what's going on with your body. I didn't lose loads on the plan, certainly not as much as some other instagrammers I've seen and definitely not as much as I'd expected from a four week plan and 5/6 gym sessions a week, however, like an idiot, I did not take measurements at the start.
I can see the difference though. And having to use the next loop on my belt is evidence in itself.
What to expect through the weeks
You have to go in ready to stick the whole damn thing out. For me, this was a completely different diet to my usual fare and because I had injured my back at the beginning of January and then experienced my first flu in the beginning of February, I was more out of shape than my usual dipping in and out of gym visits.
Now, I chose to post daily on instagram about the plan, and anyone in my office who walked into the kitchen while I was dishing up my breakfast or lunch and who made some kind of comment, was informed of the plan I was on. I guess I'm someone who is more likely to stick it out if I feel I'm being held accountable. That is a personal choice but I do feel like it helped me.
It's also a bit demotivating knowing you're on like, day 3 of 28 for example, knowing how far you have to go.
As you get to the end of week 2, if you're anything like me, you're getting really fed up with your limited pre-prepped breakfast, lunch and dinner options (though I will point out you don't HAVE to stick to the recipes in the book and Chloe explains how to build your own meals, I was just straight up too lazy to put that extra work in). The best advice for those in week 2 and hitting the 'what's the point' moment, just stick with it because once you hit week 3 you very much feel that you're over the hump and it's all downhill from here.
Entering week 4 I'm feeling pretty great. Already proud of myself for completing it, even though I have a week to go. It just very much feels like, I've come this far, this last week is going to be cake, figuratively speaking.
Today is my final day of the plan and it coincides with the 'rest day' so I'm enjoying some downtime. I feel really great for having finished it even if I did expect greater results and I'm very determined to stick with the lessons I learnt and to stay on this fat loss trajectory.
Weekdays vs weekend
It's difficult to say which is hardest. The week days, if you follow the plan to the letter involve the HIIT workouts which increase in duration each week, and if, like me, you have a full-time, office-based job, it's not necessarily easy to fit that in. I planned my starting date a little in advance and I purposefully did not make any evening plans for those four weeks. Once or twice when we did decide on a little movie night or something, I dragged myself out of bed before work and got my workout out the way first thing.
However, something about the routine of being in work made the diet easier. You kind of don't have a choice in that you've prepped your lunches to stay on course and once that's done and you're there, in the office, it's fine. You drag yourself to the gym after work and it's done.
The weekends, don't necessarily include a workout on the plan (you pick your options and the details of this are in the book) which you would think make them easier to get through and I'm sure for some this is the case, for me though, the weekends weren't necessarily easier because I always have plans at the weekends. And these plans usually involve a drink, especially when the six nations are happening. So, right now at time of writing I am on the third week and it is St. Patrick's Day and, full disclosure, I'm making an exception to the no-drinking rule. My meals will be in line with the diet but I am having a few drinks. I made this choice at the outset of the plan and I'm hoping by keeping it sensible (and dancing away some extra calories) that it won't derail me too much.
Update: I did keep it sensible on the day and managed to maintain a calorie deficit of approx 380 calories.
But anyway, the first weekend of the plan we had friends staying over and we spent Saturday in a pub and again, last weekend, we met friends in a pub for the France v England game (but let's not talk about that). Now, I did have an enjoyable weekend both times, my friends are good fun regardless of whether the drink in my hand is a diet coke or a beer...or a glass of red...or a G&T..., so it was still good fun, but I am fully comfortable in saying that I love a good drink and sitting with a diet coke did not quite cut it for me. Not to mention the unnecessary comments indicating I must be pregnant *eyeroll* winding me up slightly.
So, which is easier? It really depends on you. I'd vote the week days are easier. I'm a fan of routine.
The diet
I've been following Chloe Madeley on Instagram since she was featured in Women's Health in July 2015 (stalker alert!) so I remember a long time ago when she first mentioned she was bringing out a book, and I commented asking whether the ingredient list would feature options that are readily available in your local Tesco or whether it's more likely to be found in your bigger Holland & Barretts kind of stuff and she responded (exciting times for me) to say they are all easy to find ingredients. This has always been my annoyance with cookbooks. I have quite a few and I read the ingredients and think, yeah got that, got that, got that...what the fuck is fenugreek?! And it usually means that I give up hope of making the dish properly (I mean, I'm not a great cook at the best of times) and the cookbook gets donated or gathers dust on the shelf.
However, Chloe was true to her word and the recipes are straightforward and, thank goodness, they are quick to make. There were one or two that didn't work for me and one or two that...yeah I'm going to go ahead and overreact here, changed my life. Who knew it was so easy to make protein pancakes? I did not, and game changer! Also, going to be obsessed with the breakfast shakes for some time I think, and I am not one who usually enjoys drinking my breakfast.
I was rarely hungry, I really enjoyed my meals (though my new years resolution to have one vegetarian day a week meant I had a lot of quorn courgetti bolognese which I got sick of, fast), and I learnt to love some great alternatives to unhealthy snacking (stick with 90% chocolate, you will learn to love it).
Calorie counting
Chloe does not disclose the calorie intake you are on in the book but has said that the plan is a calorie deficit. I have been a user of myfitnesspal for years so I know roughly how much the plan is per day though it does vary a bit depending on your meal and snack choice. On occasion (I think though maybe only 1 or 2 days) I had a little extra something to eat within the plan as I'm very wary of having too few calories in a day. For me this would be if I fell below 1200 calories. This was my personal choice. I do tend to clock up about 12k steps a day so, add in these workouts and I just didn't want to eat what I decided for myself was too little.
My average calorie deficit (calories burnt against calories eaten) was 945 daily. Which I just worked out (thanks to diligent food tracking and my fitbit) and which is actually quite massive. Of course there's always massive debate about how accurate fitness tracking and calorie counting is, so, by all means, take that with a pinch of salt.
Weight Loss
As mentioned earlier, the scales are not a great tracking option and it would probably benefit a lot of people to measure yourself and use this to track your progress, however, I did want to share what happened for me in terms of weight loss, and it may help others stay on track. As mentioned previously, I lost a total of 6lb on this blitz. BUT, it was came in spurts, like I would lose a couple of pounds within a few days and then nothing for ages. Here is a breakdown of loss:
Day 1: starting weight
Day 2: 1lb loss
Day 3: no change
Day 4: 1lb loss
Day 5: 1lb loss
Day 6,7,8: no change
Day 10: 1lb gain
Day 11: 1lb loss
Day 12,13: no change
Day 14: 1lb loss
Day 15: 1lb gain
Day: 16,17: no change
Day 18: 1lb loss
Day 19: 1lb loss
Day 20-28: no change
As you can see I had the odd day when it jumped back up a pound for no understandable reason. So whatever's going on with the scales, ignore it and don't let it demotivate you and stick it out for the whole four weeks. I'm pretty damn glad I did.
What I learned about myself on the plan
Firstly, I seem to do well when I have very clean cut rules. This plan has a set list of foods you can eat. You can look at it negatively and think, this is all I can eat for four weeks? Or you can appreciate that with such defined terms, you just have to adhere. That's how I looked at it. I had these meals and these options and that's it. So when someone brought Ben's cookies into the office for their birthday, it wasn't a case of, ooh if I have this and then do an extra twenty minutes at the gym it'll cancel out. It was just like, cookies, well, I can't eat those, damn they look good, better get out the kitchen. Learning this, going forward and moving off the plan I'm putting in place some new rules for myself.
The second thing I learnt was that all those times when I'd told myself, you know what, I really can't face the gym today, I really can't squeeze in a workout that day, or oh I really need a rest day, they were absolute bullshit. I made it to the gym five times a week minimum for four weeks. And yes, sometimes it was really, really hard to get myself there, but I did it, and I got through the workouts, and I found time for it. So that excuse is gone now, no more intentions without following through. And I'll say, there was never a workout that I didn't appreciate. Even the days when they were tough as hell from beginning to end and once I finished, I didn't linger, I grabbed my stuff from my locker and headed home dreading the fact I then had to make dinner, I still did it. If I can do it once I can do it again, and if I can do that for four weeks, I can always do it.
My new four week plan
So after my last week is complete on Chloe's 4 week body blitz I will start my own four week plan which I will revise again at the end of the next four weeks. This, I hope, will enable me to always stay on track. Knowing that if I'm really struggling with something, I will revise it in four weeks time to make it work in the long run for me.
So the next four weeks, firstly, I'm recycling the workouts and starting again with Chloe's week one HIIT routines as a base level. Since week 4 of Chloe's plan has six workouts, week 1 of my plan will have five workouts. And at 40 minutes minimum. Week 2 will have four workouts. Week 3 will have five workouts and then week 4 will have four workouts. This is my minimum. I can sub-out the HIIT routine for a gym class, and if that gym class is 30 minutes I'll tag on some gym work to meet 40/45 minutes minimum. I can also sub one workout per week with minimum 40 lengths swimming or minimum 3 miles run. I have downloaded Chloe's "Weights for Women" app today as well so I'm going to start implementing some weight training. In terms of fitting it into the above plan, I'll pair it with 30 minutes HIIT. I won't necessarily stick to hitting all the workouts during the week but I do think I'll do my best to do this because I don't want to find myself on a Sunday trying to fit in that last workout, I'd rather have all my workouts under my belt come Saturday (when possible) and then anything I do on the weekend is a bonus.
Second, well, diet-wise, I'm going to keep a lot of these meals involved. And I'm thinking that I want to keep carb cycling to a degree but not keeping to the rules as strictly. I'll just try and keep the days in the plan that are meant to be high protein/high fat as exactly that, but I won't be keeping the carb list as restrictive, so I'll reintroduce fruit and some higher carb veg. I'll be trying to keep my macros mainly protein and fat, but I expect the percentages will not be as unequal.
Third, I will be introducing "cheat meals", though I don't really want to term them this...deviant meals? Indulgences. And these will be either some kind of sweet treat (for example the packet of Joe & Seph's salted caramel popcorn that I'm saving for the end of this plan), or they will be a nice meal, for example, if we go out to eat and I have pizza or if we decide to indulge in a takeaway. These will be once a week only. And I will be monitoring how they go over the four weeks and whether they are really hindering me and need to limited more or if they're making it harder to stay on plan. Also, having a drink is not included as a cheat for me, but it is limited to one day per week, and will be kept sensible.
These are entirely my own rules based on my preferences and my lifestyle. They may not work but I will evaluate where I am on April 21st and make a plan going forward from there.
I hope this helps anyone on the plan or thinking about the plan to go for it or stick with it!
And on a final note, I have chosen to not post any 'before and after' pictures for several reasons. One, I don't really want pictures of me in underwear, not in my preferred shape, available online to the public. Two, my progress has nothing to do with your progress, my changes will not be the same as your changes, and my goals are not your goals, so where I started and where I finished have nothing to do with anyone but me. Third, as much as there are a lot of before and afters of people who have completed the four week body blitz, seeing some of the incredible progress that some people have made gave me some unrealistic expectations for myself which wasn't helpful. All my own fault, I didn't take my own advice that I am giving now (see point two) which is, don't compare yourself. Four, like most people, I am a work in progress and my after will hopefully not be my best.
Those are my personal reasons. I have before and after photos and they are for my eyes only, and Ben's because he had to take them, haaa!