The Ultimate Body Plan: 75 easy recipes plus workouts for a leaner, fitter you
Gemma Atkinson
Fed up with dieting? Have you tried everything before and failed? Has your sel-esteem and body confidence dropped through the floor. If so, then Gemma’s plan is for you.80 delicious, easy recipes plus a 12 week workout that can deliver real results this Plan can motivate everyone on their way to achieving a fit, strong healthy body and a postiive mental attitude to boot.Gemma Atkinson has spent over half her life in the public eye – from playing Lisa Hunter in Hollyoaks at 15 to now, aged 33, writing her first book. Almost 20 years of pictures across TVs, newspapers and online and accompanying comments have taken their toll. For the last 5 years she’s decided not to care and has found her inner happy and her inner warrior..Watch out Wonder Woman!
COPYRIGHT (#ulink_012d6416-230c-5961-ba67-717417971511)
HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
FIRST EDITION
Text © Gemma Atkinson 2018
Portrait and exercise photography © David Cummings 2018
Food photography © Martin Poole 2018
Strictly Come Dancing photo by Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
All other images reproduced with permission of the author
Jacket design by Micaela Alcaino © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Jacket photographs: front, back (middle) © David Cummings 2018; back (left/right) © Martin Poole 2018
Contributing writer: Jo Usmar
Personal trainer: Steve Chambers, Ultimate Performance Manchester
Exercise programme: Olly Foster www.action-reaction-training.com
Gym: Ultimate Performance Manchester www.upfitness.co.uk
Portrait photography: David Cummings
Stylist: Lucy Denver at Reebok
Hair and make-up: Thembi Mkandla, Bella Campbell and Cinta Miller
Food photography: Martin Poole
Food stylist: Kim Morphew
Prop stylist: Jo Harris
Recipe consultants: Heather Thomas, Olly Foster
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
Gemma Atkinson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 978000309299
Ebook Edition © November 2018 ISBN: 9780008309305
Version 2018-11-26
While the author of this work has made every effort to ensure that the information contained in this book is as accurate and up-to-date as possible at the time of publication, medical and pharmaceutical knowledge is constantly changing and the application of it to particular circumstances depends on many factors. Therefore, it is recommended that readers always consult a qualified medical specialist for individual advice. This book should not be used as an alternative to seeking specialist medical advice, which should be sought before any action is taken. The author and publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors and omissions that may be found in the text, or any actions that may be taken by a reader as a result of any reliance on the information contained in the text which is taken entirely at the reader’s own risk.
CONTENTS
COVER (#uf2d70f25-16eb-5e4c-9b24-9fe167f025dc)
TITLE PAGE (#ubf9abf77-086d-5fc1-810c-bbebb01122e3)
COPYRIGHT (#ulink_42c40d61-b254-5856-b74f-f8ca04ba4559)
INTRODUCTION (#ulink_874db377-100b-58f3-8ab8-bcac13b55b7b)
MY 10 ULTIMATE BODY PLAN COMMANDMENTS (#ulink_63025ba1-f34b-5674-8fb4-82f5e85d3b4e)
YOUR GOALS (#litres_trial_promo)
RECIPES (#litres_trial_promo)
MAKING CALORIES WORK FOR YOU (#litres_trial_promo)
BREAKFASTS (#litres_trial_promo)
SNACKS (#litres_trial_promo)
LIGHT MEALS & LUNCHES (#litres_trial_promo)
MAIN MEALS (#litres_trial_promo)
TRAINING (#litres_trial_promo)
THE 12-WEEK FAT-LOSS TRAINING PLAN (#litres_trial_promo)
WARM-UP/COOL-DOWN (#litres_trial_promo)
PHASE ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
PHASE TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
PHASE THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
YOUR PROGRESS (#litres_trial_promo)
LISTS OF SEARCHABLE TERMS (#litres_trial_promo)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (#litres_trial_promo)
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER (#litres_trial_promo)
INTRODUCTION (#ulink_d895e690-6eec-5396-818a-db58fbd04ac4)
Dear Reader,
Hello and thank you for picking upThe Ultimate Body Plan. This 12-week nutrition and exercise plan will make you leaner and fitter and give you the body you love. How do I know? Because I did it!
My name is Gemma Atkinson. I’m an actress, radio DJ, model, dog fanatic, pyjama-wearing supermarket-goer and proud Mancunian, who can often be found sweating it out in the gym.
In the last couple of years my life has changed beyond recognition, and, as some of you may have noticed, so has my body. I train. I watch what I eat. I take looking after myself seriously. At 34 years old, I feel more confident about how I look now than I did when I was in my twenties. With that confidence comes so much else: I’m healthier, I’ve got more energy, my skin is clear and I sleep like a baby (when I want to…).
You may know me as sulky schoolgirl Lisa Hunter from the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks. Or you may recognise me from Casualty, Emmerdale, Strictly Come Dancing, the lads’ mags I used to model for, my Hits Radio show, or even solely from the fitness-inspired posts I upload to Instagram. Or perhaps you’ve never seen me before in your life, but picked up this book because 12 weeks to a shiny new you sounds like something you want to get on board with. However you arrived here – to these pages of my very first book (argh!) – welcome! I’m so excited you’re up for making changes, because the plan detailed here transformed my life and it’ll do the same for yours too.
I’m really proud that I’ve found what makes me happy and what makes me feel good, that I’ve learned how to appreciate my body for what it is and what it can do and that I can share that with others. So many people go their whole lives without feeling good about themselves. You can do this. Just change your environment for 12 weeks and I can guarantee you won’t ever want to go back.
By picking up this book you’re taking the first step on a journey that will change your life. All you have to do is decide to commit and you’ll succeed.
Good luck!
How it all began
So, what inspired me to write this book? Well, since getting my first TV acting role when I was 15 years old (good old grumpy Lisa Hunter), I’ve spent nearly 20 years having my appearance scrutinised, analysed, criticised, complimented or casually dismissed in the press or online. You know what? I’m fine with it.
At least I am now.
Because since I started training and properly respecting my body and what it can do, I feel AMAZING.
I have learned to not only give zero f***s about any negativity directed my way about how I look, but to actually love my body and truly appreciate the skin I live in (it’s true; stop rolling your eyes please). How? By discovering my inner Xena Warrior Princess, inner Jet from Gladiators and inner She-Ra (yep, spot the 90s kid). I can chest-press 15kg dumbbells for three sets of ten reps and deadlift 100kg. If you don’t understand a word I just wrote, don’t worry – I didn’t until a few years ago. But I do now, and trust me when I say that challenging my body and understanding how it works has boosted my confidence and self-esteem no end. It’s also changed my perspective on everything: ambition, family, friends… even love… Sound a bit dramatic? That’s because it is!
This 12-week programme incorporates 75 delicious recipes, carefully curated to give your body what it needs, with monthly phased workouts – both home-based and gym-based, so you can choose what works best for you – that increase in intensity as the weeks go on. There is a ridiculous myth that women shouldn’t do weights. Bollocks! Weights are the only way to get truly lean and sculpt your body. This plan will make you fitter, healthier, stronger and leaner (and curvier in places you want curves – hello J Lo bum), but, most importantly, it will totally alter how you see your body. Instead of hating your ‘thunder thighs’ (a personal one for me – more details on that particular nickname in the next section), you’ll credit them for getting you around for 34 years, for being half of your mum and half of your dad, and for being able to do four sets of 20 walking lunges with 15kg dumbbells in each hand.
All I’m asking is that you dedicate 12 weeks – just 12 weeks! that’s nothing in the grand scheme of things – to seeing how far you can go and how good you can feel. The results will be dramatic. You’ll lose fat, gain muscle, and even see other subtle changes like your skin, hair and nails becoming visibly healthier. Loads of people message me saying, ‘What creams do you use on your skin?’ Nothing but Egyptian Magic skin cream. My skin looks good because I eat well, exercise effectively and get proper sleep. That’s my not-so closely guarded secret!
Follow this plan and you’ll see physical changes in just 21 days and discover a whole new attitude to life. If you really throw yourself into this and take it seriously, you’ll feel more capable, more positive and more able to deal with whatever comes your way. By the end of the plan, you’ll have learned how to break bad habits, how to stop punishing yourself for not being or looking like someone else, and to accept the things you cannot change. We’re all different and are built in different ways. This plan is about appreciating your body for what it is, working with it and trying to be the best version of you that you can be, both physically and mentally.
Let’s get one thing straight right off: this is not a quick-fix diet plan that promises you’ll weigh a certain amount in a few weeks if you starve yourself to near-death and stop doing everything that makes life fun and worth living. I think those plans are unsustainable and bad for you. (Plus, I’ve always hated that the first three letters of the word diet are ‘die’ – I think that says it all really.) This plan is a lifestyle change – something that you’ll learn to fit into your daily routine that’ll overhaul things long-term. The longer you do this, the more your body will adapt and the stronger it will become, so when you do slip up (because hello, that’s life), or need a little time off, it’s fine, because you’ll know exactly how to get back on track. And the best bit is, you’ll want to keep at it because you’ll feel so much better doing it than not doing it.
Sure, it’s easier to carry on watching TV than to work out, but it’s also going to be easier putting on that outfit and feeling good about yourself, than putting it on and crying because you feel like absolute crap. In 21 days your stomach and thighs will feel tighter when you sit down, your arms will look more toned, you’ll feel less bloated, you’ll be sleeping better and you’ll have more energy. And that’s in just three weeks. Imagine how good you’ll feel in 12.
It’s time to look after yourself and to stop neglecting your body – it’s yours, and if you’re lucky, it’s going to be with you for a long time. So often people do everything to look after their kids, partner, dogs or mates, while disregarding themselves. It’s time to spend some time on you, for you.
Nothing looks better on someone than confidence – and I’m going to help you find that. I’m going to help you feel and look great, so you can rock that bikini with pride, stride into that job interview with your head held high, get over that ex who didn’t deserve you, and give a big middle finger to anyone who says it can’t be done.
Tomboys and thunder thighs
Growing up, I was a tomboy. My family would wind me up saying if I’d been born first, my parents wouldn’t have had another child, because our kid, my elder sister Nina, really was the perfect baby. She slept through the night. She’d say, ‘Mummy, dirty hands’ and hold them out to be washed. She’d help with the food shopping and the chores. She was just all-round great. Then, seven years later, I arrived. I never slept. When I helped out I would sulk about it, or at least ask for some pocket money in return! I was trying to hustle from the age of 10, ha! I used to go and hide in my dad’s pickup truck, lay flat on the trailer and come in covered in mud. Mum would panic whenever I went out as I’d always come home with cuts on my head and scraped knees. Plus, I spent all my time in the garage with my dad and granddad, ‘helping’ them to build the Caterham Super 7 cars (two-seater sports cars) that my dad raced. I remember him working on this white and silver one for a year and when it was finished he’d take me and my friends, one-by-one, for a ride in it on Sundays. Whenever he raced, we’d make a weekend of it, piling into the caravan to go watch him with our packed lunches. Of course, this meant a lot of the time I was covered in oil and grease and I absolutely loved it!
I was into Ghostbusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Barbies and stuff? No chance. I had a WWE wrestling belt and ring instead. I had all the wrestling stickers and books. People still say to me actually, ‘You should be a WWE Diva’, and if anyone from the wrestling world is reading this – sign me up!
Because I was into kick-ass women – the Xenas, the Jets and the She-Ras – whenever there was a chance to do sports at school, I took it. I did hockey, netball, rounders, athletics and trampolining. I also ran the 100m and was the fourth leg of the relay for local club Manchester Girls. I absolutely loved it for the comradery, being part of a team, and getting stronger, even though I didn’t come first (although at the time I clearly thought I was Sally Gunnell).
That’s where the nickname ‘Thunder Thighs’ came from: the fact that I was both a runner and had big legs. At the time it never bothered me because it was only ever said in a funny, affectionate way, and it never stopped me from doing what I loved. But I think subconsciously it may have got under my skin a little because I do remember thinking, ‘My legs are quite muscly, I don’t really want to get them out,’ and I’d always wear trousers at school when we were allowed to, during the winter. Plus, wearing trousers also meant I didn’t have to bother shaving my legs! (Shaving – what a total, utter and absolute ballache.)
That brief history might give you some idea as to why I responded the way I did when my mum picked me up from school one day when I was 15 and, instead of taking me to the dentist like she’d said, took me to a modelling agency. ‘No way! ABSOLUTELY NOT!’ I roared as we pulled up. Which is exactly what she’d known I’d do, which is why she’d kept it secret. Me? Modelling? I’d got hairy legs and didn’t own a single lipstick. I lived in trackies and dungarees. ‘Listen, a few people have seen family photos of you and said I should enrol you here. You never know what it’ll lead to,’ she said, ushering me in, while I mentally prepared my escape route.
So we turned up at Manchester Modelling Agency (MMA) and I genuinely couldn’t believe I was there rather than at home on my Playstation. Surprisingly, bearing in mind the confused, gormless look on my face, the agency signed me up. They took some photos, made me a portfolio and sent us on our way. I didn’t think anything more about it. Then, about a month later, they called saying there was a casting for Hollyoaks. The soap was looking for a grumpy schoolgirl called Lisa Hunter and the agency thought I’d be a great fit! Charming. But I did the audition and two hours later they told me I’d got the job.
And that’s where it all started, and I’ve got my mum to thank for everything! She was spot on. I loved it as soon as I did it. But had she told me her idea before arriving at MMA, I wouldn’t have gone. All the things I’ve done and achieved in my life resulted from that very first audition which I got because my mum believed in me. Thanks, Mum!
Calendar girls
I’d never acted properly before. Drama classes at school mostly consisted of sitting in the common room chatting for an hour a week. I’d also never even seen Hollyoaks! When I got the job, my family and friends were way more excited than I was, saying, ‘Oh! You’re going to get to work with Gary Lucy and James Redmond!’ while I had no idea who they were. I didn’t realise it was a big deal. It was only after the show came out and people started stopping me on the street asking if I was on the TV that I thought, ‘Ah okay, people other than my mates watch this’.
I did an acting course before shooting my first scene and found the whole thing exciting, but I think being so young made me quite blasé about it. Mum wouldn’t let me extend the initial contract until I’d passed my GCSEs though, so I got the grades I needed to study sports therapy, which is what I’d always wanted to do, then I signed up to Hollyoaks full-time for a year. That ended up turning into seven altogether; five on the main show and two on the spin-offs Hollyoaks: Let Loose and Hollyoaks: In the City.
Chilling with my dad. I always felt safe up there on his shoulders
Rocking my one-piece in Tenerife. I’m fuming because Mum made me cut my hair short the week before
Helping Dad build our back fence! I was probably getting right in his way, right under his feet and right on his nerves, but still he always let me help
Fifth year of high school in my PE kit. My fringe hair-sprayed within an inch of its life!
My first BMX. I fell off at least 20 times in the first week learning to do wheelies… But I always got back on!
I always joke with my friends now that it’s a good job social media wasn’t around when we were at school. I didn’t have that extraordinary pressure young people face now to look a certain way. I remember the first moment I ever felt truly insecure about how I looked: when we shot a Hollyoaks calendar in Ibiza when I was 17, I was with beautiful women who were two or three years older than me, were quite slim and also more physically developed, like the lovely Sarah Dunn who played Mandy, and Elize du Toit who played Izzy. When I saw the photos I thought, ‘Oh gosh, I don’t look like these other girls. I look heavier, my roots are quite bad, and my nails are all bitten’. They’d all had manicures and pedicures and their hair done, but, because I was young, I thought that’s just how they looked all the time. It didn’t occur to me that they had got their hair and nails done specially. It was the first time I really questioned my appearance.
Earlier that year, in April 2002, my dad passed away. It was, and still is, the single biggest thing that’s ever happened to me in my life and it hit me massively hard. While I didn’t go off the rails as such, I did stop looking after myself a bit. I’d think nothing of going out and sinking five shots of vodka of an evening. My friends and I would go out on Friday and Saturday nights drinking, have a McDonald’s on the Saturday and a Chinese takeaway on the Sunday. None of us would ever think, ‘I’m going to feel like crap tomorrow,’ or ‘We’re going to get fat’. We just did it. It’s only when I look back now that I realise, ‘that’s why my face was puffy, my skin used to break out, and why I didn’t sleep very well. I mean, we used to get a flight to Magaluf on a Friday, come back on Sunday and then head straight to work on the Monday. We weren’t on our phones trying to get our best angles to upload to Instagram, we just let ourselves be and we needed that. I needed that. That whole period was full of laughter and love.
But it all took its toll, meaning I definitely didn’t look my best when shooting that Hollyoaks calendar. It was, I think, my very first insight into what social media is now – being forced to compare myself to other women. I spent that whole week in Ibiza thinking, ‘This is so embarrassing. I look chubby, young and stupid.’ I even wondered if the press people would regret me being in it. Then, when it came to promotion, the agency said to me, ‘The Daily Star, The Sun and The Mirror all want to use your shot to advertise the calendar.’ My photo – out of all of them. I couldn’t believe it. Many of the papers did use my photo. Then, off the back of that, the agency said, ‘The response has been great. We want you to do your own calendar.’ So I shot my own, the whole time thinking, ‘Is anyone actually going to buy this?’ But then the lads’ mags picked up on it and it basically kick-started my modelling career. Which just goes to show, you know? I spent an entire week – and all the lead-up to the calendar being released – panicking about it. Panicking that I didn’t look right, that I was too big and un-groomed, too much of a tomboy; that I didn’t look like everyone else. Yet off the back of that I ended up shooting five or six of my own calendars. Something great came from a week of stressing over something that was all in my own head. It taught me that we never know the full story, that we can look at an Instagram post and think, ‘Oh, look at her with her perfect life’, not realising she’s spent the day doubled over with anxiety about something or other.
That was a big lesson for me – how comparing yourself to others can send you down a spiral of self-doubt. And, as my modelling career took off and papers and magazines started becoming interested in my personal life, I’d have a few more lessons coming my way…
The heartbreak diet
I started going to the gym when I was 20, but had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I’d run on the treadmill for half an hour every day and do some dumbbell curls and that was it. I’d also read somewhere that cutting out carbs was the thing to do, so I did that… and was always totally knackered. My skin turned grey, my hair stopped growing properly and I looked awful. I didn’t have a clue about training or nutrition, wasn’t getting the energy or nutrients I needed, and was just flogging my body on this treadmill. I lost a lot of weight quickly due to crash dieting and endless cardio and, as is often the case when that happens, my boobs were the first things to go.
I’d always had big boobs – they run in the family – but I was soon saying to my mum, ‘Look at my boobs, they look so saggy, they’re awful,’ as I could actually pick up the skin where they’d deflated, like balloons. During photoshoots I would have to wear push-up bras because I didn’t feel comfortable in a bikini any more. I became really self-conscious. I just didn’t look like me any more.
I told my mum I wanted a boob job. ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ she cried. ‘If you think they’re saggy now, wait until you have two kids like I have!’ She joked about it, but soon realised how serious I was and how down I felt. We’d go shopping and I’d stand miserably in the changing room because clothes didn’t hang right or like I wanted them to. She eventually agreed to come with me to meet a doctor at Transform, the plastic surgery clinic. He explained the process and showed me photos – I think Mum was secretly hoping that would put me off, but it didn’t at all. I was determined… and so I did it. Just before my 22nd birthday I got my old boobs back(!) and moved to Mum’s while I recovered from the surgery.
It was part of my career to do photoshoots in a bikini – that was a big part of how I made my living. I couldn’t cover up and I didn’t want to feel crappy about it. So I didn’t – and still don’t – regret having them done for a moment. I immediately felt like the old me again. I didn’t do it for anyone else, I did it for me. To make me feel good, because my body had changed shape and I wanted to feel confident again.
When I was 22, I met Premier League footballer Marcus Bent and we started dating. It was my first ‘high-profile’ relationship. I was naïve about what that meant at the time and so was totally unprepared for the press interest. During the time I was working with the lads’ mags, I tried to remain as unaffected by the press coverage and constant analysis of my life and looks as possible. When I hadn’t been living in the heart of the tabloid loop, it was easy-ish… but that all changed when I met Marcus. There were articles guessing how long it would last, wondering whether we were going to move in together, get engaged or have a baby. We’d be snapped when we were out and people would comment on what I was wearing or whether there was something wrong if we weren’t together.
We got engaged in 2008, a few months after I got back from filming I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, but split later that year, just before my 24th birthday in November. I found it incredibly tough, even though it was my decision. Marcus was extremely kind and caring, but something just wasn’t sitting right. Yes, I could have stayed in an okay relationship and had no financial worries due to his profession, but I’d grafted my whole life to get where I was (moving out to live on my own at 17), so I had my own money and besides, that’s never been a driving factor for me in a relationship. I wanted the little things money can’t buy – glances across a crowded room and loving Post-it notes left on a mirror. I remember Mum saying, ‘Gem, do you see yourself with this person forever?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know’, and she said, ‘Well, you categorically cannot marry him then because with the right man, you wouldn’t think twice about answering yes to that question.’ That was it, I knew I had to end it.
I was devastated. It can be as hard to break up with someone as it is to be broken up with, especially when that person has done nothing wrong. You’ve got this overwhelming sense of guilt and then the worry over whether you’ve done the right thing. I’d wake up in the morning and for a split second feel fine… then I’d remember what’d happened and feel physically sick. I was walking hunched over because if I stood upright my stomach would hurt. I couldn’t eat much and so lost even more weight. Then the weirdest thing happened. People started telling me how great I looked! My eyes were hollow, I was shaky and anxious, my skin was grey and my hair was lank, yet just because I was skinny, people said, ‘Oh God, you look fab! What’s your secret?’ I wanted to reply, ‘Heartbreak and misery, pal’, but of course I didn’t. I said, ‘Thank you’, while thinking, ‘Do you really think I look good? Because I feel like absolute crap. What does that say about what you think looks good?’
I was dealing with all of that, plus the split was being played out all over the media. It was surreal. Especially when every article focused on what I must have done wrong – that there must have been something wrong with me. It all added to my stress, anxiety and self-doubt.
I was filming the live-action segment for the game Command & Conquer around this time and you could see my ribs in pictures. There’s a promotional image of me in the uniform and my hands dwarf my waist, my legs look like drainpipes and my cheekbones are nearly cutting my skin. The thing is, it is a glamorous photo – I’m all made up and posing like a professional. You could look at it and think, ‘She looks nice,’ but because I know how I felt when it was taken, I see it now and think, ‘I never want to look like that again’.
At the time I said to Mum, ‘God, if I feel like this every day, life’s going to be horrific’. She said, ‘Oh Gemma, I’ve got news for you. This won’t be the last time you go through heartbreak, but it also won’t be the last time you get over it. You will get through it. And then you’ll get heartbroken again and get through it again.’ It’s totally true, but when you’re in that state yourself, you can’t see it or hear it. You think it’s the end of the world – that you’re going to end up an old spinster living alone with ten dogs.
While everyone was being so complimentary about how great I looked all I could think was, ‘Hang on, if I look great now, didn’t I look good before?’ and the insecurity cycle cranked up again. That’s when it struck me, how twisted it all was – that the only reason I looked supposedly ‘great’ was because I wasn’t eating or sleeping and felt horrendous. How is that something to aspire to?
It dawned on me that I’d rather feel good than look a certain way. I could try to get over the break-up, sort myself out, and yes, be a bit heavier, but be happier and healthier. I thought, ‘Sack what I look like – I just need to feel happy again’, because yes, people can look a certain way, but you have no idea what they’re going through below the surface. It’s like, ‘Your insides are rotting, but you look great! Heartbreak’s the secret! Just get shat on and you’ll look lovely!’
With my mum Sandra and stepdad Peter. Holidays with them are still so much fun.
Heartbreak is something most people have gone through or will go through. My mum and dad divorced when I was ten and my mum has told me since that it was the hardest thing she’s ever had to do. She said, ‘I would have left sooner but you were so young. I couldn’t do that to you.’ But I said, ‘What about yourself, Mum? Why would you stay with Dad if you weren’t compatible any more?’ She said, ‘When you have kids yourself you’ll understand.’ And some of my friends have stayed with men that weren’t right for them and I’ve thought, ‘But you’re miserable and wanting to kiss other lads at the weekend when you’re drunk because you’re so unhappy. How can that be better than leaving? Isn’t it better for kids not to live with two sad parents?’
Bottom line is: we have no idea what anyone’s going through or dealing with. People could look at pictures of me at the time and think I was on top of the world. Work was going well, I looked ‘great’, I was young, single and free. Supposedly. When actually I was incredibly unhappy.
When things weren’t getting any better, my sister Nina sat me down and said, ‘You lost Dad five years ago and you dealt with that – and that’s the hardest thing any young girl can deal with. So who the hell is an ex-boyfriend in comparison to Dad?’ I thought, ‘Oh my god, she’s right! If I can get through losing Dad – a man who loved me unconditionally and who I assumed would always be around – I can get through losing a guy I’ve spent two or three years with.’ It made me realise that I was stronger than I knew. That although I might think, ‘I can’t cope with this’, I can. I’ve got through 34 years of both my best and my worst days and I’m still standing.
I had to channel those thoughts again when things kicked off in the press in exactly the same way after I called off my engagement to Liam Richards in 2013. Actually, that time was worse because they now had two ‘failed engagements’ to pin on me. Liam and I were together for three and a bit years, but split because we were both working so hard we rarely saw each other during the last year. The headlines screamed: ‘She has the career, she has this and that, but she can’t find love!’ Or ‘What’s wrong with Gemma? Why can’t she hold on to a man?’ All the time I was thinking, ‘But I ended it! Maybe I didn’t want to settle for something that wasn’t right?’ Mum said, ‘You’re getting stressed about something you have no control over. Will them saying this about you matter in five years? No. So why waste five minutes on it then?’ That five years-five minutes rule is one I’ve carried with me throughout my life.
Working things out
I still assumed that to be fit the aim was to see numbers drop off the scales. That if I exercised like a demon, I’d look as slim as I did when I was heartbroken, but actually feel great too, rather than wanting to crawl into a hole and cry. But lo-and-behold that didn’t happen. No matter how many miles I sweated away on the treadmill or half-hearted dumbbell curls I did, I was still a 5ft 9in woman with muscly legs and broad shoulders. Who’d have thought it, huh? The saddest thing was that I hated my body for it. I was still convinced that to look good, and to look fit, I needed to be smaller – somehow less than I was now. It never occurred to me not to want to get smaller.
Everything changed for me when I started exercising with personal trainer Olly Foster in 2014 at the Ultimate Performance gym in Mayfair when I was working in London. Olly said to me, ‘If you could look like anyone, who would it be?’ and I said right away, ‘Kylie Minogue. She’s tiny and petite. She looks great.’ He looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘You are NEVER going to look like Kylie Minogue. NEVER. You probably looked like Kylie Minogue when you were 12 years old. Let’s be realistic.’ My jaw dropped. How could he say that?! I was incredibly offended. It was this man’s job to make me look like Kylie Minogue.
But then I looked around that gym – at all the women weight-lifting and loving it – and realised they weren’t using their bodies to look a specific way, they were using them to improve their health, posture, stamina and mental outlook. To improve everything. They were putting looks aside and prioritising how they felt. All different shapes and sizes, all mucking in, grunting and sweating and looking like total badasses! Then it hit me: of course I’m never going to look like Kylie Minogue. It’s ridiculous! And nor should I want to, because I’m simply not built that way.
‘Oh my God…,’ I said, and sat down, kind of stunned, as Olly started working out a programme for me. It’s like someone telling you, ‘The entire way you see yourself is messed up’ and realising they’re right. Olly said, ‘You’ve got really strong legs, maybe we could up the weight and you could use them more’, and again I was speechless. Instead of saying, ‘Let’s try to slim down your thighs’, he wanted me to make them more muscly?! Hell yes he did. He understood that my ‘thunder thighs’ could be a good thing. A great thing even. That my body could work in my favour. That instead of trying to be incredibly thin, having drainpipe legs and a pancake bum, I could have strong legs that would carry me further and faster, below a curvy bum. I realised that before now, I’d not only not been using my body to its best advantage, I’d been actively working against it, punishing it for looking the way it did, trying to bully it into being smaller, weighing less, being less. While all the time, all these women in the gym were doing the total opposite.
Think about that for a moment: think about how much you punish your body – treating it badly, hating on it – for not looking like something or someone else. You will look your absolute best – not my best or Kylie’s best – when you accept what you cannot change and start working with your body, not against it. I learned an incredibly important lesson that day – I shouldn’t want to get fit to look a certain way, but to feel a certain way. Looking good means nothing if you don’t feel good.
Good things come to women who weight(lift)
Repeat after me: ‘weight training will not make me look like a man!’ You won’t become ‘too big’ by lifting weights. Women have nowhere near the amount of testosterone they’d need to ‘bulk up’ to the point that they look masculine. All weight training will do is make you leaner and fitter so you’ll still look and feel like a woman, but a warrior woman who can carry all her own bags, thanks very much.
Here are just a few of the benefits of resistance training for women:
1) It burns more fat. Yes, it’s true that while you’re actually performing the exercise you’re burning fewer calories weight-lifting than you would doing two hours on the cross-trainer (no, thank you). However, you’re actually increasing your metabolic rate, which means you’ll be burning more calories for longer afterwards.
2) You can eat more. Your muscles will get denser and bigger, so you’ll need to eat more to maintain them. Or, looking at it the other way, you can handle a lot more calories. Result.
3) You’ll get stronger bones. The pressure weight training puts on your bones encourages your body to invest in making them stronger and sturdier. This counteracts the natural propensity for women’s bone density to decrease from their 30s onwards.
4) Your immune system will thank you. People who lift tend to have better eating habits and better quality of sleep, lower stress levels and improved circulation, all of which makes you healthier, period.
5) You’ll feel like a combination of Xena, Jet and She-Ra.
Please remember that the photos you see of me working out in the gym are taken when my muscles are swollen with blood to help me lift the weights. That’s why people look pumped during workouts: their muscles are literally ‘pumped up’. Bodybuilders and fitness models go out of their way to look bigger and more defined on shoots or at shows, enhancing their muscles (and even making their veins ‘pop’) through a careful diet, dehydration and fake tan. People can see those images and think, ‘I’ll look like that all the time if I do weights, even just at the shops!’ You absolutely won’t. You’ll just look toned. Lifting weights won’t make you ‘butch’ or ‘manly’; it’ll make you more confident, energetic, stronger, leaner, fitter and happier.
Struggling, sweating and swearing
I started training with Olly properly in 2014 and, because I was now training with direction, the changes I went through – both physical and mental – were pretty much immediate. It’s not just the natural high that comes from exercising, but eating right also has a huge impact on your mood and body and therefore behaviour. Once you start something good, your body craves it and you feel better for having taken action. I had not only found one of the best personal trainers around, but a great boyfriend too! Olly and I were together for around two years and I’m happy to say we’re still mates to this day.
I started posting videos and pictures of my workouts on Instagram and saw how I was able to connect with people in a positive way. Lots of people were into the fact that I was working out to feel good first, and look good second. For that reason I’ve made it my mission to always be open and honest, both about how I feel and how I look.
Then the trolls arrived. The keyboard warriors who spend all day sitting alone in their parents’ basement venting about others because they’ve got nothing else going on. Lads message me and say, ‘You’ve gone too far, you look like a man’ and I’ll reply and say, ‘Well, lift heavier and maybe you will too!’ Yes, that kind of stuff makes me angry, but I’ll take a moment and choose to react differently – I actually try to take those comments as compliments now. I mean, at the end of the day, they’re still looking, aren’t they? If they weren’t interested, jealous or annoyed they wouldn’t be doing it. No one else’s opinion should have the power to make you happy or not. You can’t control other people’s actions, but you can control how you react to them. You can either wallow or brush it off.
My plan from the start has always been to just be me. We all look different, we all have crap days and we all slip up: welcome to the club – there’s seven billion of us in it. I want to show that if I can do this, you can too. Commit to looking after yourself, get to know your own body, take social media with a pinch of salt, be honest about your intentions, ignore the naysayers and people who don’t want to support you, and cut yourself some goddamn slack.
Evil Steve
The Ultimate Body Plan
While my training now had more focus and my aims had changed (no more Kylie hang-ups!), when the summer of 2017 rolled around, I knew I wanted to give myself a new challenge. Olly and I had split up totally amicably in 2016 and I was training back home at the Manchester branch of Ultimate Performance. I was still hosting my radio show, but had just left Emmerdale where I’d played Carly Hope for around two years. I absolutely loved the job and the people there, but wanted to change things up. But while I was still hitting the gym, I’d got into a bit of a training rut. So I signed up to the gym’s 12-week training plan that promised to transform both your body and your mindset, and started working with personal trainer, Steve Chambers. He soon became known as Evil Steve!
I didn’t have a holiday booked or want to get in shape for a specific event, I just wanted to challenge myself. I was seriously curious to see what my body and mind were capable of. Plus, I respond well to stricter routines. It’s when you’re left to your own devices that you half-heartedly do some weights before heading home and eating three bags of crisps.
This plan is 100% focused on feeling great rather than on vanity. You’re far more likely to stick with something if you’re doing it for sustainable long-term results (to feel great) than to hit a certain number on the scales (like some faddy diets promise) because, if you don’t reach that goal you’ll feel like crap. More often than not, even if you do reach it you still feel rubbish because you’re not dealing with the cause of your feelings, both mental and physical – bad diet, poor sleep, stress, low self-esteem, lack of energy etc. You’re just dealing with what you think is a symptom (weight). You’ll then keep punishing your body because you won’t know how to feel better, constantly moving the goalposts: ‘I’m now a size 8, but I still feel exhausted, run-down, stressed and unhappy. Maybe I’ll feel better at a size 6.’ No, you won’t. This plan offers a total lifestyle overhaul with no unrealistic expectations to falter under. In feeling stronger and more positive, you’ll be in the best position to take on everything – with looking great a happy side effect.
The plan meant I had to start cooking and prepping meals in advance, which you will too. People can feel daunted by this, but you can make time for it. If you’re serious about change, you’ll get up 15 minutes earlier to make your breakfast, or put aside a couple of hours on a Sunday to prep your food for the next few days like I do. Once you get into the routine of it, it becomes second nature. Also, I find it extremely motivating to remember that I’m eating to fuel my muscles, to feel great for the rest of the day. Cutting out rubbish that makes you feel sluggish isn’t a chore when you can really feel the results.
So, on day one of the plan, I put my leggings and crop top on and looked in the mirror. I took the top photo opposite (taking progress photos is part of the programme; see here (#litres_trial_promo)) and thought, ‘Right, this is how you look now. You’ve had 32 years on these feet, these legs, looking how you do, feeling how you do. Now it’s just 12 weeks to see where it can go and what you can do!’ I really psyched myself up for it, getting into the mindset of an athlete before a fight.
The transformation
The first week of the 12-week programme was horrendous. Horrific. The worst. I felt sick, I was shaking and dripping with sweat. ‘God, I can’t do this,’ I thought. ‘I want to quit. I want to die.’
But I didn’t quit. I didn’t die.
What I did do was lose fat, which proved I’d had it to lose in the first place. My body was responding immediately to working out, and after 3 weeks I’d lost 1.5% of my body fat. But it was actually more the mental changes that struck me first. I started feeling proud of myself – knowing I’d sweated, had had a good session and burned loads of calories. Something changed in my body language – my shoulders went down and my chin up and I even walked with more confidence. Plus, I started sleeping better. I already found myself waking up, checking my phone and seeing it was ten minutes before my alarm was due to go off. I wasn’t waking feeling sluggish, exhausted or bloated as I’d had a good meal the night before.
Three weeks in, I noticed more definition in my arms. When I sat down my stomach and thighs stayed tight. My entire body was getting leaner and I felt much more energetic. Friends and family also started seeing changes, which is always a huge motivator.
Depending on your fitness levels to start with, your results at this stage will probably be even more dramatic than mine were. If you stick to the plan 100% it’ll be a shock to the system and you’ll shed weight and body fat. However, be warned – you may still be craving the sweet stuff. They say it takes between two to three weeks to cleanse your palette. Keep going! Push through. Your body is essentially detoxing so your skin may actually break out as it gets rid of all the toxins – but then, once they’re out and if you keep at it, at around this point your skin will really start to glow!
Before I started the Ultimate Body Plan
After 12 weeks I’d lost 13lbs and 5% of my body fat.
These changes will spur you on. Your body wants to get better, it wants to get healthier, so as soon as you start nourishing it and treating it well, it’ll respond, like it’s saying ‘thank you’.
Week five was a strange one for me because I actually put some weight back on, hitting around 11 stone – fine for someone of my height with broad shoulders. So don’t panic if you put on weight! People can read that I weigh 11 stone and freak out, but I was losing a lot of body fat while gaining muscle mass. So many factors affect women’s weight – everything from eating more salt, where you are in your menstrual cycle, and even the weather! (As we tend to drink more water when it’s hot.) I felt great, was leaner, my clothes fit better and I was as healthy as I’d ever been. Instead of losing weight, I was aiming to beat my personal bests every week. If I could lift one more rep on a Tuesday than I did on a Monday, I knew I was progressing. I felt amazing, while looking completely different to what was considered ‘perfect’ in the public eye, or what was considered beautiful by most people. Yes, some magazines think I should be a size 8, but I’m simply not built that way. I’m a size 10–12, but I can squat 90kg.
About midway through the 12-week programme I was asked to be a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, the biggest show on national telly. I told Becca, my agent, that I didn’t think it was the right time and I’d like her to turn it down. I was happy with my life the way it was. I loved working on the radio show, I was training hard and I had time for friends and family. For the first time in a long time, there was no press intrusion in my life. I wasn’t in the public eye as much and I was really enjoying that.
During week seven I went on holiday with some mates and didn’t put a sarong on to walk from the pool to the bar as I felt 100% comfortable in my bikini now. I also had no desire to binge just because I was on holiday – I didn’t want to throw away all my hard work. So I took a skipping rope with me, downloaded some HIIT workouts onto my phone before I left, did lots of swimming and went on big walks along the beach. I ate healthy meals and had some treats, but was surprised by how much I didn’t want to eat crap, drink loads and sit on my butt all day – not because I felt I had to keep to the plan, but because doing all this had made me feel so good.
It’s a strange process actually – realising that you feel incredible. Noticing that you’re waking up feeling energetic and determined rather than uncomfortable and tired. I find working out very therapeutic; whether you’re doing HIIT or weights, your head goes somewhere else. Some of my best ideas come to me when I’m exercising. You have space and time to yourself – often the only time of day you get that.
At the end of the 12 weeks I took my final set of progress photos and actually got quite teary. The results were shocking – in a good way. I still looked very feminine, but a lot leaner, a lot less body fat. My skin was way clearer. My hair had grown faster and thicker and so had my nails. Even my eyes looked brighter. While my weight had fluctuated on the plan, overall I had lost 13lbs and 5% of my body fat. I felt amazing and was so proud of myself. I’d put my body through so much with fad diets and gruelling gym punishments, and I’d put myself through so much mentally trying to get over men and dealing with guilt and regrets, that I’d really neglected my body. I felt this intense gratitude that I was able to nourish it and look after it and heal it, so to speak.
Strictly come laughing
I think I must be the only contestant in the history of Strictly Come Dancing to put on weight during the show. But how did I end up waltzing on the sparkliest dancefloor on TV after turning it down? It was all down to Oprah. No, really.
After I’d finished the 12-week plan, I went on Jason Vale’s Juice Retreat in Portugal. I go every year to detox, unwind and re-set. Each guest is given a book in their room when they check in and that year I was given Oprah Winfrey’s biography. I picked it up and the first page that opened had a single quote on it, from a song by Lee Ann Womack. Of all things, it was about choosing to dance if you have the chance.
Now, I’m a big believer in signs, chance and circumstance and all that, but even if I wasn’t, there was no denying that was a bit weird. I showed my mum, who’d come with me, and she simply said, ‘Get Becca on the phone’, so I rang and said, ‘Let’s do it.’ I knew Strictly was a huge opportunity and I also knew I was in a far better headspace to deal with being back on primetime telly again. I was more confident, self-assured and mature. I felt like I could handle it. Thank you, 12-week programme!
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t nervous as hell. I’d never danced properly before in my life! Actually, I tell a lie. I went to a local dance school when I was six or seven years old for a few months before swapping it for karate. That was the sum total of my dancing experience. It also didn’t help that when my name was announced I’d get tweets saying, ‘Ha! You’re too big to dance’ or ‘Can’t wait to see you try to dance in heels’. In the back of my head I was thinking, ‘My mum used to call me a baby elephant… and I am rubbish in heels. What have I done?’ (My friends actually got me a bracelet with a baby elephant on before the live shows and I’ve not taken it off since.)
I was very lucky in the partner I had, Aljaž Škorjanec. It was never a case of learning the dance and him going, ‘Right – off you go!’ I’d tell him I didn’t feel elegant and he’d say, ‘Well, you’re an actress, aren’t you? Act that you are.’ Before each dance, he’d remind me how well I’d done in training saying, ‘You’ve got one minute thirty seconds to prove everyone who says you’re too big to dance or too muscly to be in a ballgown wrong!’ We must have done, because we got to the final! During week 4 though, I tripped up the stairs as we were walking off and I think you can hear me say, ‘Oh shit!’ on the telly. I was like, ‘I can’t even walk up the frigging stairs in heels!’
Aljaž is not only an incredible dancer, but one of the funniest people I’ve ever met and I was having such a good time I let my diet slide, putting on nearly a stone. Everyone was like, ‘You’re dancing every day – how can you put weight on?’ But the dancing was nothing compared to the intensity of the training I was used to and I was still getting up at 4.30am every day for the radio show, so I simply didn’t prioritise food. I could have, had I really tried, but I wanted some time off, so if Aljaž and I fancied jacket potatoes with cheese, we’d have them! Whereas normally I’d think I can’t really eat like I was every single day, because I was having such a laugh – and because I knew what I needed to do coming out the other end of it – it didn’t bother me.
When I went back to the gym when the show was finished, I had my measurements taken. My body fat had increased, but my muscle mass had stayed the same. Evil Steve, my trainer said, ‘It’s fine, you just need to get back on track with your diet and carry on with your training,’ and two and a half weeks later, my body was back to how it had been. Once you start training and keep at it, your body responds amazingly quickly to changes in environment. I knew mentally and physically what I had to do to get back on track, so I had no fear in letting myself relax for a bit. I can’t be lean 24/7, 12 months of the year. I’ve got Christmasses, birthdays and all sorts I want to celebrate. I want to live! With this plan, I can. The muscle memory of someone who trains is incredible. Your body is so clever. All it wants to do is heal.
Taking chances
Strictly didn’t just teach me to dance, break me out of my shell again and re-ignite my fondness for jacket potatoes – it also introduced me to Gorka Marquez, the man I’m now in a relationship with. One of the professional dancers on the show, Gorka and I started hanging out behind the scenes, having coffees and a laugh together. Gradually we realised we liked each other. A lot.
He’s the first boyfriend I’ve had who truly makes me feel attractive in just a T-shirt. I’ve got the odd stretch mark and some cellulite on the top of my legs, like every woman, and he tells me every single day how beautiful he thinks I am. The first thing he says in the morning is, ‘Good morning. I love you. How did you sleep?’ I know there’s time for that to stop – I’m aware we’ve not been together that long – but I’ve never had that before. And it brings this ease with it; the fact I can walk around without breathing in and I don’t need to wrap a towel around me when I have just my knickers on.
We work out together – which I think has helped us to get so close. There’s something incredibly supportive about someone having your back in that way, being on the same journey, wanting you to succeed and being proud of you. I talked to him about my insecurities when we had a joint PT session once. I was saying to Evil Steve, ‘My cellulite’s quite bad at the moment,’ and Gorka jumped in and said, ‘Gemma! You’re a woman! You have hormones. Jesus!’ It’s true. Our hormones do all sorts of things to our bodies and our moods – that’s our nature – but it’s easy to forget that in our quest to be ‘perfect’.
I post things about my life with Gorka on social media because I like the fact that other women can see I’m with someone who loves me despite me wearing no make-up in the gym and despite me not always looking pristine – it’s real. Actually, wait. You know what? Just writing that made me realise that the word ‘despite’ is wrong! We’re not good together despite all that, but because of it. Because we’re open and honest and just ourselves.
Also, for the first time in my life, I am allowing myself to be vulnerable enough to be looked after by someone. Because I’ve always been totally independent it’s a big deal for me to let a guy do anything – I can change a tyre, thank you very much, and I don’t need you to pull a suitcase for me! I’ve struggled letting people in and showing my feelings – even down to batting off compliments as they make me uncomfortable. But letting go a little is something I’m finally allowing myself to do. It’s frightening at first because I always think the minute you let someone take care of you, it’s harder to recover from if anything goes wrong. I think subconsciously this comes from losing my dad. I was always scared that if I allowed someone to get too close and to break down my barriers, it’d be harder to deal with if they then weren’t around any more. But if you constantly put barriers up, you’re always going to miss out. You’re never going to give yourself the chance to experience something truly amazing. So I’m letting my guard down a bit. Plus, letting someone else pull my suitcase gives me a spare hand to hold my giant duty-free Toblerone. Winning!
By improving my self-esteem I now have a much stronger belief in my ability to cope if things go wrong. I really believe that this 12-week plan will change how people view themselves. It’s given me the confidence to know my own self-worth. The physical and mental changes that happen when you do this plan truly will change your perspective on everything. You’re lifting weights, you’re owning it and looking after your body. Suddenly you find yourself thinking, ‘I’m not going to let anybody walk over me any more. I deserve good things and good people around me’.
And, because you’re doing it for yourself, you’ll find you attract like-minded supportive people. People who are also secure within themselves so don’t drag you down. When you feel that way, you stop comparing yourself to others. Training will help you to discover what makes you happy personally and will give you the courage and mental and physical strength to go after it.
12 weeks to a whole new you
If you’re reading this book, you’re clearly up for making changes. For bettering yourself. For feeling the best you can be. Congratulations and hurray! That is the biggest step on this road to getting the body you love and discovering a leaner, fitter you. I feel so excited at sharing what has undoubtedly completely changed my life. It’s so simple really: eat well, train well and your body and mind will thank you for it.
Whether you want a new challenge or are struggling with low self-esteem, please throw your all into this plan and I promise you’ll see results that will alter how you look and feel forever. You do not have to settle for feeling sluggish, lethargic, bloated, unhealthy, overweight, insecure or bored. Feeling out of breath walking up a couple of flights of stairs isn’t normal. Feeling puffed out while chasing after your kids for two minutes isn’t fun. Struggling to get out of bed every single morning isn’t okay. You can change those things!
Please don’t do this in order to look good for someone else, for a one-off event, or to try to live up to some crappy notion of what you ‘should’ be. Do this to feel happier, healthier and more confident within yourself. I always think the universe doesn’t give you what you want, it gives you what you need. You picked up this book for a reason, so give it your best shot.
You’ll need to learn how to prep your food and not get annoyed about it – make the time, it’ll be worth it (see here (#litres_trial_promo)). Soon it’ll just become part of your day. The other day I made myself some chicken and rice with lots of spices, put it in a Tupperware for my long train journey the next day and then, when I was on the train and the trolley packed with sweets, biscuits and sandwiches went past, I ate my pre-prepared meal instead – saving both money and that horrible bloated ‘eugh’ feeling that inevitably comes with eating processed foods.
This isn’t about making life hard – these recipes are delicious, healthy and filling. Plus, you don’t miss what you don’t want!
Your body is unique. It’s got you this far. Why not thank it by focusing on it for a while. Start playing for keeps rather than for instant gratification. Sometimes I still think to myself, ‘My legs could be a bit slimmer, my waist, bum and hips could be a bit more J Lo. I’m quite straight up and down…’ But then I catch myself, give myself a metaphorical slap, and think, ‘You’re 34 years old, you’re half your mum, half your dad, and you’ve got good strong legs that have carried you everywhere you’ve ever been! Get over yourself.’
Make a commitment to change how you live for the next 12 weeks. Yes, it’ll take some sacrifices. But is it really so awful to give up boozing and eating junk for just 12 weeks if it will utterly alter your life? 12 weeks! That’s it!
MY 10 ULTIMATE BODY PLAN COMMANDMENTS (#ulink_bbaeb7cd-7a2b-56ee-8e3a-8a78484b7903)
This chapter contains the 10 commandments you need to follow to get the most out of the 12-week plan. This entire process is about feeling empowered, about making yourself accountable for your own health and wellbeing. By pledging to follow these commandments, you’re promising to give this the best possible shot you can. You’re vowing to take it seriously, to not throw in the towel at the first sign of trouble and to give up all faddy diets that have never and will never work. Make a commitment to change, right here and now. Take these commandments on – remember them, write them down, put your favourite as an alert on your phone to ping up during the day – and re-read them whenever you need a kick up the backside.
I’ll remember that I don’t have to be great to start, but I have to start to be great
The quote, ‘You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great’, has pushed me to do a lot of things in my life, because we can all get held back by fear. It’s easy to see yourself at the end of the journey – to picture yourself lean and healthy and loving life – but the reality of getting there can seem massively intimidating and a lot of work.
I’ll be clear: this 12 weeks is going to be tough. It’s going to demand sacrifice and you’re going to struggle at times along the way. But there’s no magic pill that’ll give you these results (not even on the dark web). There should be no embarrassment associated with getting fitter. So what, you have to tell your friends you’re not drinking for a while because you’re on a fitness plan? So what, you’re so exhausted after 10 kettlebell reps you have to lie on the floor in a puddle of your own sweat? That’s bloody great! You’re working hard, you’re committed and you’re getting stronger.
Stepping out of your comfort zone is good for you. If you never start, you’ll never finish and so will never know what you can achieve. Yes, you’re nervous. Yes, gyms can seem intimidating. Yes, you won’t know what you’re doing to start with. But you were petrified on your first day of school and you got through that. Your first kiss – you got through that. Your first day at work – you got through that. You got through all of those major things so, no matter what size or shape you are right now, you can sure as hell get through starting a fitness plan, okay?
I will try everything at least once and ask for help when I need it
Remember that story I told you about my mum keeping secret the fact she was taking me to the modelling agency? I’ve always been dismissive, uninterested or suspicious about things I don’t know. When I was younger, if someone was doing something I wanted to do but was too scared to try, I’d say, ‘It’s not for me that, I can’t be arsed with it.’ When inside I’d be thinking, ‘I’d love to be able to do that!’ Stop talking yourself out of trying something through fear: ‘I can’t do that because I’m not tall enough/slim enough/funny enough/fit enough/good enough’, or ‘I simply don’t like it’. You’ll miss out on things you might actually love and that could really improve your life.
If this sounds familiar, catch yourself the next time you do it and force yourself to have a go at whatever it is you’re avoiding. You might think you ‘can’t’ do Swiss ball exercises because you’ll look like a plonker, but who cares? If you don’t try you’ll never learn. If you’re working out at home and don’t get how something works, google it and watch a video or log onto an online forum and chat to others about it. Call up a friend who works out and ask them. Or bite the bullet and book a one-off personal training session. Make it work.
The same goes for food! You can’t ‘not like’ something if you’ve never tried it before (just ask my mum!). And you can’t dismiss certain recipes because ‘I don’t know how to cook’. Just try! So what, you might make a couple of mistakes. No one ever learned anything or improved themselves by being perfect first time.
I will fit in training (and food prep) like an important meeting
I treat training and food-prepping schedules the same way I would important meetings. I book them in and that’s that. There can be a tendency to think of training as something lower down the priority scale than everything else. We often de-prioritise things we’re doing for ourselves, which is silly because training is partly what gets me through the day – it’s what gives me the energy to do everything else. Without it I’m sluggish, angsty and not at my best. I wouldn’t be on form for the radio show first thing if I hadn’t worked out or eaten well the day before.
If Becca, my agent, messages, ‘When are you free for a chat?’ I’ll say, ‘I’m training until 2pm, but after that I’m free’. Same with my friends. If we’re organising a lunch, I’ll say I can come after training, and it’s never an issue. This is something I do that’s important to me – and you need to make it important to you too. It should never be, ‘Oh, it’s only the gym’, or ‘it’s only food prep’ – things easily cancelled for anything else. It’s essential you change your mindset about exercise, eating and looking after yourself, otherwise they’ll become a drag and you’ll give up. This plan shouldn’t be a drag! How you prioritise it will determine what you get out of it.
Looking after yourself should be at the top of your list. We often put other people’s time, comfort and schedules above our own. This is your time. This is something you’re doing for you. What is more important than that? So book it in – people will get used to it, respect it and it’ll save a lot of stress and guilt.
I will ignore my mind when it tells me to quit
It’ll be your mind that wants to quit first, long before your body. That whiny little voice in your head will say, ‘You’re done. You’re exhausted. You’re not fit enough. This was a mistake. You need to stop’, and so on.
I did a bungee jump once and all the way up in the cable car I was thinking, ‘This is ridiculous. I won’t be able to do this. I don’t want to do this!’ and so before I’d even got to the top I’d already talked myself out of it. Luckily someone talked me into it again, because I did do it – and bloody loved it! So much so that I went and did it again straight after because I’d enjoyed it so much.
We always doubt ourselves before we try anything new. It’s a protection mechanism. But you must push past it. You CAN do this! The first three weeks are going to be the hardest. You will ache and hurt and want to gorge on chocolate, because that’s safe and comforting, but I promise that if you give this your absolute all for just three weeks, you then won’t want to quit. Fitting the plan into your life will have got easier (scheduling in workouts, prepping food, giving up some ‘bad’ habits, and letting friends and family know you’re serious), plus, by that stage, you’ll start seeing and believing the results. You’ll already be getting leaner, fitter and healthier. You’ll also feel incredibly proud of yourself for having kept at it. Your thoughts will have changed from, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to do this workout today’ to, ‘Oh good, I get to do this workout today’.
I will listen and pay attention to what my body is telling me
We’ve become experts at ignoring what our bodies are telling us, dismissing uncomfortable physical symptoms as ‘normal’ and just things we have to put up with. For example, feeling so bloated after lunch you have to undo the button on your jeans, or your heart racing so hard after your fifth mug of coffee that you have to sit down clutching your chest. These things aren’t normal and you don’t have to just ‘accept’ them.
We can get into habits of doing things because we ‘always have’. I used to have chippy tea night every Friday. Doesn’t mean I have to do that for the rest of my life – especially if I don’t feel like it. Just like you don’t have to drink a bottle of wine when you’re with that certain mate. This plan is about becoming accountable to yourself.
What is your body telling you? Is it full? Bloated? Hungry? Thirsty? Heavy? Sluggish? What does it actually need? Is it truly craving junk or is that in your head? Start taking notice. Accept that your body will change at different stages of your cycle (there are apps that monitor mood and physicality during your period). Trust what it’s telling you. If you do need to stop, don’t be a hero – have a rest day. Look after yourself. If that happens once in eight or nine sessions, fine, but if it’s happening once in every two or three sessions, address the reasons why. Might you be eating too much or too little? Eating the wrong things? Pushing yourself too hard? Or might it actually be your mind giving up rather than your body…?
I will surround myself with supportive people
Taking this step to improve yourself is a great thing and should only ever be commended. However – and I hate that I have to say this – those close to you, and perhaps even strangers, might be negative about it. I’ve had: ‘Your body’s fine, it doesn’t need to change’, or ‘You looked better before’ directed at me. People can get really annoyed when it comes to you giving up booze, feeling it somehow reflects badly on them. Fuelled by their own insecurities, they get defensive. Brush it off and stay strong.
If you’re committed to this plan and to feeling your best, surround yourself with people who’ll support you – and distance yourself from those who don’t. Tell those closest to you what you’re doing; their support will be invaluable. Even better if they’ll do it with you! However, just having someone who understands that this is important to you, whether a friend or partner, will make things easier. When I was doing the 12-week programme, I’d tell my friends I’d drive because I couldn’t drink, and they didn’t once say, ‘You’re so boring! Come on!’ They said, ‘Great! A free taxi home!’ It made all the difference.
We women need to stick together. We all know how awful it is to be brought down or made to feel like we don’t measure up. The other day I saw so many women in the gym’s weights section and wanted to go over and high-five them all, saying, ‘It’s a Sunday, you could be hung-over and lying in bed, but you look incredible!’ So I did! That’s what this is all about, supporting each other to be the best we can be, until eventually we change the ‘Why are you doing that?’ questions to ‘How are you doing that?’
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