Eating a clean diet is not something unobtainable, that only super slim, vegan, macrobiotic diet-followers can do.
I actually spoke to someone today (whilst she tucked into a plate of fish and chips) who said 'I have never eaten a salad before'....she then went on to admit she had eaten lettuce, carrot, cucumber, tomato...but never in the same sitting.
Healthy food isn't just lettuce leaves and chopped celery. You can make a pretty hot and sexy salad adding lean protein, roasted veg, beans, wholegrains...

...If the thought of depriving yourself of doughnuts is terrifying then is this really a healthy relationship with food?
No.
Sugar is a drug. You need to break the habit to lose the addiction.

Sally Reid is one of CF's yummiest mummies. The hardest part of joining CF for Sal was the diet....

"To be honest the first few days were hard to lose the craving for sweet things and a quick sugar rush. It made me realise I was eating for the wrong reasons before – tired, bored, stressed etc. Women especially are very emotional eaters. Once I weaned myself off the junk, I rarely crave it any more. You quickly adjust which pleasantly surprised me!"

Ditch the sugar - find your figure....simple ;) x

The Bloody Truth

Even though I am female I get completely grossed out when women talk to me about periods. Yes I should probably grow up and get over it but there’s a reason I didn’t go to medical school and study gynaecology.

Here goes…Periods and exercise. The bloody truth.  So once a month females go through a brief spell of bleeding out of their vaginas. What’s worse than hearing about this is the fact that when you’re on your period all you want to do is tell people. Yes I’ll have a diet coke with that and my flow is ridiculously heavy this instant.

Throw your handbags at me if you want but I feel we use this as an excuse – own up how many times have you barked abuse at your partner then blamed it on being pre-menstrual. I actually threw a saucepan at an ex when he finished my maltesers. Fucker.  “But I’m not a crazy bitch I’m premenstrual." 

Weigh-in day at the Circuit Factory and the amount of females who say ‘my weight won’t have changed because I’m on my period’. Well the fact that your diet has been shit may be the underlying cause of your 2kg weight gain.

I worked at a Health Club in the UK and there was a lady who wanted to sign up with a discount for the 12 weeks of the year where she would not be able to use the gym due to menstruation. She classed this as her ‘disability’.

This is for those of you who have been kindly describing to me in great detail the life and times of your vagina.

So like an overconfident teenage boy – let’s break it down…

I've been bleeding for 7 days and I'm not dead yet

During your monthly cycle, the levels of Oestrogen in your body cause your uterus to thicken in preparation for ‘the egg’ becoming fertilized. When this doesn’t happen you shed the lining over 4 to 7 days, if timed poorly you ruin your best pair of white silk knickers along the way.

Why am I such a moody bitch?

4 – 5 days before your period your hormones are all over the place. Oestrogen levels rise and fall making you feel emotional, depressed, irritable, angry…

You may experience increased insulin resistance which means the glucose you eat is not able to enter your cells and stays in your blood –  your brain produces more insulin and you crave more sugars as your cells are not receiving the glucose.  These ups and downs in blood sugar levels will affect your mood as well as your energy levels.

Eat a balanced diet to stabilize blood sugar levels and avoid unnecessary spikes.

I’m pre-menstrual and all I want to do is eat mars bars – in fact I’d replace my tampons with a box of mars bars if that means I get my fix without compromising the diet.

Just before your period you go through what’s known as the ‘luteal phase’. Your Oestrogen levels drop (as you have an adequately lined uterus) as do your Serotonin levels.

Serotonin – other than sounding like a 80s pop band– is a neurotransmitter in the brain that regulates your mood. It controls your mood – it calms you down and makes you happy.

Your body craves high carb foods that promote serotonin production.

Chocolate – contains a chemical that releases serotonin in the body and also enhances secretion of endorphins – another feel good chemical.

It’s proven that women have a harder time than men replenishing serotonin levels - women think they have a harder time than men full stop.  This does not give you the green flag to roll around in baked goods. 2 squares of 70% cocoa dark chocolate will suffice.

It feels like I’ve been punched in the ovaries - I will punch you in the face if you make me run on the treadmill.

Endorphins are also released during exercise. Which is why exercise is actually recommended during your period.

Regular exercise limits PMS which helps with similar symptoms during your period. Getting the right amount of exercise should help to reduce period pain and ease cramps.

Will following the Gwyneth Paltrow Macrobiotic Twat Diet help?

There are all sorts of supplements claiming to help with PMS as they improve your mood.

B Vitamins – help your body to generate energy from food. They help form red blood cells – a deficiency can lead to anaemia which leaves a person tired and zombie like. But don’t get spending your pay pack down boots on supplements – if you eat a balanced diet rich in protein and leafy greens you should get all the essential vitamins and minerals your body needs.

I’ve gone up 5 pounds, therefore the diet isn’t working and I may as well sit at home eating biscuits

Some women retain water before their period. It’s not exactly known why but they do.  You can help by avoiding foods high in sodium that prevents your body ridding itself of excess water. Salty foods like tinned soups, condiments, soy sauce, processed food. 

Another great way to get rid of excess salt and water is to sweat it out with exercise.

I’ve been through 10 super sized tampons and am contemplating putting a mattress between my legs

Oestrogen is responsible for ensuring the lining of your uterus is thick ready for fertilization. The thicker the lining, the heavier your period.  Excess of oestrogen causes Menorrhegia (heavy bleeding).

Over exercise actually causes Amenorrhea which is when you stop having periods altogether as you have such little body fat.

Try taking NSAIDS like Ibuprofen which inhibit the hormone in the uterus that helps to shed the lining and also helps relieve cramps.

Tampons at the ready

If the Williams sisters can don their tennis whites and be filmed legs akimbo on the tennis courts mid flow then what’s stopping the rest of us. You wouldn’t find Rebecca Addlington dropping out of the 800m freestyle and forfeiting her Olympic Gold Medals due to her ‘monthlies’. Even a small issue like public urination won’t stop Paula Radcliffe in her tracks never mind a bit of period pain.

Try being proactive in this situation rather than dwelling on something you can’t change. Studies show that women who exercise regularly have lighter and shorter periods.

Do yourselves, your partners and any poor sod that catches you having an emotional moment a favour. Ditch the excuses and get to the gym instead of hugging your hot water bottle and gorging on chocolate. 

Why are women such stupid bitches?

Possibly the most frustrating topic I am confronted with on a daily basis – by BBM, on facebook, text message, email, sky writing – and always from a female - is weight.

What is weight or body mass? 

This is how much you - including anything that happens to be on the scales with you, whether that be your clothes, shoes,  ‘dense bones’, a stronger gravitational pull – yes some Ben and Jerry’s addict in denial came to this conclusion once.

One such common question that makes me want to dramatically punch a wall: “I weighed myself this morning and I’ve gained since last night…why?”

Well perhaps you suffer from sleep walking and are blissfully unaware that you are emptying the entire contents of the fridge down your gullet on a night? Err... probably not – but don’t rule it out.

What is this fascination with the number on the scales? 

This is the manifestation of obsessive behaviour for 99% of the female population.

When you weigh yourself you need to consider these things:

•         Have you just eaten a 6 lb steak?
•         Have you just necked 3 litres of water?
•         Perhaps you are retaining water; were you drinking alcohol last night? have you eaten a lot of salt?
•         Are you big boned? Stop listening to your mother you sad bastard.
•         Is it that time of the month? If so please do tell me about it in the greatest possible detail.
•         Are you dehydrated – have you just trained? Have you been sat in the sauna for 3 hours?
•         Are you wearing the equal amount of bling to Mr. T?

Well ladies – and no I’m not being sexist because the fact is men just don’t give a shit (which is another thing you have to consider).

Personally I don’t weigh myself. Last time I did I had gained 4.5kg. Did this bother me? Did I feel the need to run into oncoming traffic on Sheikh Zayed Road and end it all there and then?

Not really. I hadn’t had to go out and buy a new wardrobe, all my clothes fitted me exactly the same. Probably better.

No I did not own a faulty pair of scales. I had recently changed my training and gained a lot of lean muscle. Muscle actually weighs more than fat. Throw a chicken breast and a fist full of fat into water and guess what?... the fat floats.

Not so handy if you are a chicken that can’t swim but does that make sense at least?

You can in fact change your body composition and gain weight without putting on size. 

Think of gaining muscle as being compact like a stone, and having fat being like a balloon – bigger but lighter.

BMI is a bitch. 

This is used by the likes of weight watchers and any equivalent fat fighters club. It’s a simplified way of showing you that if Jonny eats 5 digestive biscuits and Mary eats 23 then there will be no biscuits left and Mary is a fat slag.

BMI does work in some cases. If you are actually morbidly obese, your BMI will be over 30.

If you are a 6 foot solid rugby player with the body fat percentage of a lean stick then 1. Send me your number and 2. Your BMI will also be on the overweight to obese end of the scale.

So does this mean the majority of the England rugby team qualifies for a gastric band on the NHS? Probably, but that's not the issue.

BMI does not take into account body composition. Just like the scales it considers only the weight and not the matter.

On to my next point.

Every woman has an ideal weight. Usually one that is completely unrealistically obtainable. I have met women who have been under 7.5 stone before and still not happy with their bodies. In fact they looked ill and about 7 years old. Why this obsession over a number? This is where women are their own worst enemies. It’s those insecure mother f*ckers who have to be the skinniest or the lightest of have the biggest boobs or the biggest lips or the most exotic vajazzle.

With women it’s a competition like the cool group at school. You are only allowed in if you lose your virginity at 13 and can neck a whole bottle of white lightening in one go.

Even in this day and age where we have the privilege of modern technology and hundreds of years of scientific research, are women a slave to the scales.

This is sad. 

Thus justifying my belief that all women, including myself, are actually mental.

Perhaps it is time to review our role models. I like to think we saw past the Kate Moss painfully thin look when she started snorting cocaine with notorious drug addicts. This is not cool and it’s definitely not clever. 

More deserving and appropriate are the Jessica Ennis and Natalie Coughlin's of the world – female athletes with smoking hot bodies – real muscles formed by eating a healthy diet and  dedicating time and energy to some serious exercise. 

It’s the women who have these bodies that should be celebrated and put up on a pedestal, not emaciated idiots with the vitamin deficiency of a sailor from the 1600s.

Give me my 4.5 kg and a sexy squatters bum over underweight on the BMI with a bony behind. 

Now sod off with the compulsive weighing – if you eat clean and train hard and generally look after your health you can be happy and confident with peace of mind that you are mentally and physically respecting yourself.

Lifestyle vs Mortality

Why Do you Exercise?

Do you get called a ‘weirdo’ for getting up at 6 am for a run? Perhaps you have an unsupportive partner who questions the time you spend at the gym, choosing dumbbells over a night in with a chinese in front of the telly. Do your friends roll their eyes if you opt for a salad over steak? Tell them to BACK OFF.

The Facts

Keeping fit is a lifestyle choice. Personally, I want to have a long and prosperous life. As long and as healthy as possible. Now I can’t stop myself getting run over by a bus tomorrow- but there are other things that I can do to lower the risks of an early grave.

Consider natural disasters, poverty and famine where people lose their precious lives in the most unfair situation. How can we possibly put our own lives at risk with self inflicted poor health?

Depending on your religious views we each have one life and one body. Two main killers or causes of a shorter lifespan are Cardiovascular Diseases and Type 2 Diabetes. There are certain risk factors associated with each that you control, meaning  the way you live your lifestyle directly impacts your vulnerability to these diseases.

Dad – do you want to live to see your kids grow up or do you want a third pork pie?

Poor diet and low activity levels put you at a higher risk. The National Health Service recommends 20 mins of moderate exercise a day to combat this – what’s moderately walking to the fridge and back going to cure really? These are half hearted attempts to alert the public of the dangers of inactive lifestyles.

In 2006 in the UK a poll of 350,000 people showed that less than half did any activity or exercise. Even worse, 95% of the UK do not manage to achieve the recommended 20 mins of fridge hopping moderate activity per day. Scary.

Don’t just join a gym – join the longer life club.

I’m not just talking about fatties here. Being underweight is just as unhealthy. You can have a skinny person with ridiculously high cholesterol levels just as susceptible to a heart attack as someone who is morbidly obese.

Drugs

Never mind being off your tits on LSD. The UK health service has royally fucked this one.  For example, you have a young girl who is overweight. She goes to her doctor to tell him she is unhappy. Does he prescribe her a healthy dose of exercise and provide sensible dietary advice? Or does he make the drugs companies happy by dosing out Prozac by the sackful.

Sadly in many cases it is the latter.

The same goes for lowering cholesterol, blood pressure even diet pills that actually make you shit yourself if you eat fatty foods. Has modern society really been reduced to considering adult nappies rather than good old fashioned self control.

E is for Endorphins

Why is fitness important?

Believe it or not, some people actually enjoy exercise. For me going for a long run is therapeutic, it helps me clear my head, plan my day, it fills me with a sense of achievement and the endorphins I get are a natural high that sets me up for the day.  I feel good knowing I am doing good for my body – maintaining a high level of fitness and increasing my lifespan.

One of the important benefits of exercise is to lower both resting and exercise heart rate. Recent studies show that a lower resting heart has a direct impact on morbidity and mortality. There is now scientific proof that having a low resting heart rate, and subsequently a lower diastolic blood pressure, actually reduces the strain / damage to blood vessels  surrounding the heart due to relatively prolonging diastolic blood flow (flow in the circulation as the heart relaxes) versus systolic flow which is more turbulent. The calmer flow means less risk of damaging plaque and causing a heart attack or stroke. And what are the experts prescribing – a fucking pill.

Value your life – train hard and eat clean.

Carrots?

I’m not saying you have to live like a saint. I don’t exist on a diet of raw carrots. I enjoy the occasional drink – I just don’t have a pint with every meal . Moderation is key. If you lead a healthy lifestyle 80% of the time you can afford to relax 20 % of the time. The road to a healthier lifestyle especially with regard to weight loss is a longer process but once you are there you can afford to relax a bit more.

I work out.

Exercising is not just about vanity and looking good in lycra. It’s about bettering your quality of life. If getting off your arse means you get to live a longer life on earth then get moving.

The most productive 40 minutes of your day

What is the best form of exercise.

It worries me how much time people waste in the gym doing the 1 hour cardio slog, then 40 minutes weight sessions , 10 minute warm up 10 minute cool down , stretch. This means an unsociable amount of hours in the gym and for what?

There is simply no need .

If you want to lose weight and look good there is no quick fix I’m afraid but you don’t need to move your bedroom into the gym just yet.

Exercise Intensity

What exercise do you do?

If you go for a long run, say 5km plus, you are working moderately hard – open mouthed breathing heart rate fairly high, you keep going for a good half hour. This is considered aerobic – you are able intake enough oxygen to deliver to your muscles and sustain longer periods of exercise.

Anaerobic exercises is high intensity. Consider sprinting. You can only go a short distance full pelt before you stop – breathless, burning and sweating. This is anaerobic. Your body can only take in enough oxygen to sustain activity for very short periods of 30 secs to just over a minute. The oxygen deficit results in lactic acid production which is that burn you feel in your muscles and you have to stop.

Circuit Training

Increases fitness

Now let’s look at Circuit training… which I think is the dogs bollocks.

This combines both aerobic and anaerobic exercise.

Your heart rate goes up and down a lot like interval training. This improves your body’s ability to recovery from more intensive exercise, which means your fitness increases and you are able to do more and go for longer.

At your first session you may struggle to do one or two burpees. After a few classes you will see vast improvements in the number and how your body reacts – breathing will become easier and you will be able to handle the lactic acid burn. As you get fitter the volume of oxygen your body can take in and utilise (VO2 Max) is increased allowing you to go for longer without having to stop.

 

Builds lean muscle -  increased basal metabolic rate

You also build lean muscle through the incorporation of strength resistance training– a combination of stations with functional exercises to hit every muscle group of the body. Even the ‘connecting muscles’ – so fuck off Tracey Anderson. The muscle fibres built through circuits are mostly fast twitch muscle fibres (the ones that allow you to go for a short time but fast and full on). These are more dense than your slow twitch muscle fibres – the ones that marathon runners have so they go for hour and hours. This means they raise your resting metabolic rate so you burn more calories at rest. In translation, you burn more while you are not doing exercise.

Improves muscle balance

Because the exercises are functional – rather than isolated movements like when you are sat like a twat on the adductor machine – these incorporate each tiny muscle in your body otherwise overlooked, and are excellent for improving core strength – something that no number of pathetic crunches will do.

So not only is fitness increased but you also strengthen and tone your body.

This is why circuits are popular for different athletes because they make you use other muscles and energy systems you might not normally use. A marathon runner will not normally sprint or work against resistance and their form may be shit. A lot of runners develop a hyperkyphotic posture which is when your back hunches over. This can lead to all sorts of injuries in the long run. By conditioning their muscles through circuit training they improve their muscle balance and strength which can in turn improve their performance.

Burns a shit load of calories

So  why is this more effective for stripping body fat?

People looking to sustain or build muscle often stay clear of circuits or any cardio for that matter but this should not be the case. They worry CV will eat into their lean muscle. Not so, the release of HGH (Human Growth Hormone) from intensive circuit training allows fat loss with minimul muscle atrophy.

This is a potent fat burner.

When you work out to the point your muscles burn (due to lactic acid build up), your body secretes HGH. This promotes the use of fat as a fuel and spares you eating into your lean muscle.In short this keeps your body fat down and muscle mass high. This is why a lot of body builders work to the point they get DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness). This means the muscle has been sufficiently worked to the point it needs to be repaired – bigger and stronger than before.

Eat the right food

So what about the diet?

You just need to ensure you take in an adequate amount of protein to sustain the muscle.

This does not mean eating mountains of steak. You need roughly 1g of protein per day for every 1kg of lean muscle.

Most fitness professionals will recommend a low carb diet with lean protein to sustain muscle and fruit and veg for essential vitamins and minerals to keep your body healthy.

You do need carbohydrates as these give you energy. But remember fruit and vegetables contain carbs too. A lot of people ask if it’s better to train on an empty stomach ie. first thing in a morning as they will be eating straight in to fat reserves. Carbohydrates (glycogen) are stored in the muscle and liver as energy for 12-16 hours this means you will still be burning these stores if you exercise within that time frame, but there will be less available if you haven’t eaten another meal on top.

It’s when these are not used up that your body ends up storing them as fat. For weight loss you need to expend more calories than you take in so think about what you are eating and increase your training. Exercise alone is not enough , you need the correct diet to ensure maximum repair and recovery for your body and an adequate calorie deficit to ensure fat loss.

But aren’t I better off training in the lower intensity ‘fat burning zone’?

The fat burning zone can suck it quite frankly.

If you go for your lower intensity brisk walk on the treadmill you may burn 200 calories in 40 minutes.

You then check your heartrate monitor and it will say 50% calories from fat – meaning you have burned 100 calories directly by using fat as a fuel. However 1lb of fat roughly equates to 3500 calories. Ah.

That’s about 12 hours of brisk walking.

Compare this to higher intensity circuits. In one session let’s say 40 minutes you can manage to burn 500 calories. But the watch says 40% calories using fat as a fuel. Don’t be confused. You are using the fuel from stored carbs which would end up being stored as fat anyway. And in total have burned a shit load more calories overall.

Plus your metabolism burns at a higher rate for hours after training which means even more calories expended.

Plus you have built lean muscle which as discussed earlier allows you to burn more calories at rest.

How long will this take?

A circuit session usually lasts around 40 minutes to one hour, until your body has used up it’s energy stores.

This is great because you get your cardio workout and resistance training combined in one training session.

But going through the moves will not ensure results. You need to push yourself to the absolute limits – the harder the better – to get great results.

A circuit should never feel easy or comfortable. If it is you are not working hard enough. Always look to push it a step further – go faster, go harder, pick up a weight, jump a bit higher.

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it - plato

There is nothing quite like the high you feel when you are done. Sweaty, knackered and like you have accomplished something great. This is what exercise is all about.

 For elite level circuit training visit the professionals www.circuitfactory.ae

Botox Barbie

A few weeks ago I had hit a bit of a plateau and was looking for something to inspire motivation. A few of the ladies at my local gym were talking about the latest craze to hit the market…the Tracey Anderson Method. I nodded my head so as not to lose face with the gym-mother’s clique (walking on the treadmill in full make up with bottle of Evian in hand - you know the ones). Turns out there is this A-List trainer in Hollywood who has transformed the figures of many a woman. Apparently she is to thank for the red carpet bodies of Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston.

I’m not saying I believed this but I had to see for myself. So I hot-footed it to Dubai Mall and picked up a copy…The Tracey Anderson 30 Day Method…complete with DVD.

I read the book cover to cover. Tracey – the smug blonde with a botox fetish and– had been a dancer and a rather heavy one. She had grape-vined into the fitness industry and spent 10 years documenting hundreds of clients stopping and starting various training techniques until like the Frankenstein of Fitness she had created the one that she believes to work. I must admit the words ‘yeah right’ rang in my ears.

Anyway, the Tracey theory:

Empowering the small muscle groups and helping you achieve long lean muscle to leave you looking sexy and feminine.

My initial queries:

Are your small muscles feeling left out? By small muscles she must mean assisting muscles – those that would be triggered in any functional or core exercise.

Develop long lean muscle – suggesting your limps may get longer?  Most muscle attaches to the proximal and distal points of the bone so how on earth could they get longer.

I am assuming by this comment she is encouraging the false connotation that women who do strength/weight training will end up with big bulky muscles. Thank you Tracy for encouraging the common misunderstanding that has been plaguing the exercise industry for years. So back to the TA method.

There are 3 elements: The exercises to be completed daily. The cardio – 2 x 10minute options to be repeated for up to 60 minutes daily. The Diet.

Dubious

I glanced at the diet which has 2 phases. Weeks 1-3 then the final phase or as I like to call it the anorexic mouse phase.

The first 3 weeks of the method are sensible (ish) eating plans – very low in carbs, lean protein and very small portions. This alone will promote weight loss as it is a drastic reduction in calories. The food however is specific and if you are no Nigella in the kitchen or you actually work for a living and haven’t got time to grow, hand catch, prepare and cook your lime wedge and coriander tuna salad then you’re fucked from day 1.

Week 4. This is almost a full liquid diet of broths and ‘shots’ Not tequila, don’t get excited! Of course you are going to lose weight drinking vegetable juice – because there is nothing to it. As well as completely depleted energy levels and keeping you glued to the toilet, you will lose lean muscle and water as your body desperately clings on to it’s fat reserves as it enters survival mode thinking you are starving yourself! Not clever!

Still not convinced

Anyway I put my reservations aside and embarked on the ‘exercises’.

These are to be completed daily – without fail – and progressed week by week to day 30.

I inserted the DVD and was met by the Plastic Anderson – she does not crack a single smile throughout the entire workout. Caution, her infuriating smugness escalates throughout the DVD: please refrain from punching your television set during the workout.

TA goes through the movements for around 10 lower body, 10 upper body and 10 ab exercise. I cleared a space in my living room and lay on all fours trying hard to copy the routine, but it felt more like re-enacting a game of twister. Right hand blue, left leg green as I thrust it behind, up and away from my body – very close to doing the splits.

The exercises I would consider as ‘toning’ – rather like stuff you would do in yoga / pilates / legs bums and tums. They do ‘tone’ but I wouldn’t call them ‘innovative’ as TA claims.

The problem with these exercises is that they are ridiculously laborious. And with nothing to look at but Tracey botox brow it’s far from an enjoyable experience!  I had the book open…I had the DVD playing and I’m sure I still wasn’t quite getting it right.

30 days of this which took me a good 45 minutes and I’m still not convinced it is better than a run or a weights session.

You are taking the Piss!

And last but not least comes the cardio option.

I decided I would go for 40 minutes which consisted of playing all two of the 10 minute routines and repeating them. Not exactly spoilt for choice here.

Now there is a reason Mr Motivator got his name…aerobics instructors are meant to get inside your head and push you to get a really beneficial cardio workout…sadly with Prozac Barbie over here that is not the case. 10 minutes of nothing more than –make it up as you go along- dancing – can’t even call it a routine as there is no clear pattern to follow and for those of us blessed with the grace of an elephant, co-ordination is a challenge. It’s more an opportunity for TA to show off her dancing skills and sponsored workout outfits.

As for my attempt - I was half expecting Jeremy Beadle to pop up from the grave with his candid camera – I felt like a leprechaun doing a bad rendition of river dance. And was I getting a good workout? More like a work-under. Heart rate around 110 bpm so no, not really. Nothing a good shopping spree around Mall of Emirates wouldn’t beat.

The ‘routine’ involved way too much jumping and twisting and after 4 days I was left with agonizing knee pain. I consider myself a fit individual and my knees have never bothered me before so I was not best pleased about this and left to think about poor other individuals no doubt going through the same ordeal. The lady from the gym only lasted 1 week and had the same problem.

Tracey is adamant that no other training is to interfere with her ‘work’….so no gym, visits no brisk walking no nothing. This requires a certain amount of trust…you have to have 100% confidence in this woman and that your soon to be celeb-worthy body is safe in her capable hands. As I stare into her emotionless, paralysed eyes I can’t quite commit myself but there are people out there hundreds and thousands apparently who will readily believe that in 30 days they will be rivalling the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow.

Complete Bollocks!

But what do I read when I open the book for the first time.

Funnily enough who is Tracey Anderson’s business partner? None other than the Paltrow herself. She even writes a foreword at the start of the book the cheeky mare. Bet she’s rolling in the takings.

For only 70 usd you can buy a 14 day supply of Tracy’s perfect performance wellness formula. …designed to effectively execute your muscular structure workouts.

In English please. Personally I can’t sleep at night because I am so concerned about my performance wellness…and what the heck is a muscular structure workout?

To summarize, this is nothing but a clever PR and marketing strategy.

At the end of the day, if you stick to this plan for 30 days you will of course lose some weight and be able to see a bit of definition, but what happens next? Do you continue to sustain the brain-dulling routines and the celery stick diet? My pet hamster eats more than you’re advised in week 4.

Nothing beats lean, clean and basic. Same goes for exercise – anything that gets your heart rate higher than 160 bpm is high intensity – train in this zone 5 times per week – alternate your exercises, train your muscles – enjoy your exercise and mix it up so you don’t get bored.

Be a little bit wiser and save yourselves the 200 dirhams.