Welcome to my first HWP post!

For those of you who are new to reading my blog – Welcome! At the end of last year I decided that 2016 is going to be the year I learn to love myself ‘Mission Love Me’ and to aid with said mission I have upped my dates with gym and suffer weekly torture (he assures me it will get easier) PT sessions with Phil.

So ‘Mission Love Me’ I guess has a few levels to it, however my starting point is to lose weight and tone up my jiggly belly, thighs and bingo wings in the hope that I’ll actually be able to look in the mirror and love the reflection I see and in turn love me.

About a month ago now whilst at Nuffield Newbury, I was approached by Helen and asked if I would like to take part in the Summer Healthy Weight Programme. A 12 week journey to a fitter healthier me – 12 weeks closer to perhaps completing my own mission, and so HWP has commenced.

The course officially started Thursday evening, however prior to this I had a meeting and consultation with Kim (the lovely also a little barmy Kiwi) nutritionist to discuss my goals and also my current eating habits. Part of the HWP is to work out what does and what doesn’t work for each individual. For me I know that one of my big downfalls is not having time for breakfast in the morning (make-up, hair straightening and outfit co-ordination takes up all my time) so Kim has suggested smoothies could be the answer for me (welcome Nutribullet stage right – my new best friend). We will also be working on balancing my blood sugar levels along with hormone balance.

As part of the programme we have a meeting with one of the Personal Trainers at the gym who again ask what our goals are and they devise a work out plan for us to follow with the aim of helping us achieve said goals. My session was with Steve. Now as I already have weekly PT sessions with Phil, Steve decided to put me through my paces with a cardio workout which consisted of a work out on a Wattbike and Lateral Trainer – Both pieces of equipment that I’ve used only a few times as quite frankly they look a little scary! This was ideal for me as when I visit the gym on my own I don’t tend to use the free weights or machines, I tend to stick with the exercise bikes or cross trainers. It can often be a little daunting going into the gym and using new equipment so these sessions with the PTs are really helpful and beneficial.

So Thursday evening, myself and 7 others attended the first of 12 ‘classes’. This was more of an introduction to the programme and a chance for us all to meet each other and share our goals and reasons for attending. It would seem that following on from our individual meetings with Kim that we all thought we ate relatively healthily, but according to Kim not as well as we all thought! Oops! Given that the programme is called “Healthy Weight Programme” it does somewhat go with out saying that we all want to shed a few pounds and become healthier, but like me I think many of the others are looking for a little more and they want to feel better about themselves overall, the whole package.

If you think about it food and what we eat (and drink) makes us what we are. What we put in comes out and in many different forms. We need food to fuel us, to give us both mental and physical energy. It also affects how we look, in both our cosmetic appearance and our physique. And at the end of the day its our life line. Eat well and we’ll live well, eat badly and that life line shortens.

Over the course of 12 weeks Kim will be covering topics such as portion control, emotional eating and exploring weight loss myths. Helen (she may look innocent and sweet, but don’t be fooled) will be putting us through our paces with 30 minute workout gym classes – These started Thursday evening – Ouch!

Warm-up consisted of 3 of us on the rowers and the others on the bikes for 5 minutes. This was then followed by a circuit of 7 exercises including Kettlebell Russian Twists, Medicine Ball Slams and Sit Jump Squats! First round we did 30 secs before moving onto the next exercise, this was followed by a short break (which I extended slightly as all the jumping around left me needing a wee); Second round was for 45 seconds with another minute or so break before finally round three we had to do each task for a whole minute! Now when you say a minute or even 30 seconds it seems like no time at all, but I’m telling you in the gym these short measures of time seem to last a life time. By the end of it I was very red faced and a bit of a sweaty betty, but I was feeling good (if not a little dead).

My experience so far has been great, Helen and Kim are fab, very relaxed with the aim of helping us all achieve our goals (they have 100% success rate so far – No pressure) and I’ve made a new friend who like me doesn’t really like using the weights on her own so we plan to workout together every now and then, after all Team Work = Dream Work.

Week 1 – Complete!

Please follow my progression over the next 11 weeks and if you’re interested in taking part in the next programme get in touch with the either Helen (helen.moisley@nuffieldhealth.com) or Kim (kim.chandler@nuffieldhealth.com) who will be happy to speak with you.

L x