My 90 days with The Body Coach

Picture borrowed from @TheBodyCoach instagram

Unless you have been living in a bubble I am pretty sure that you will have heard of Joe Wicks and the instagram sensation that is 'Lean in 15'. If not, well, in a nutshell Joe is a personal trainer who exploded in popularity following his 15 second instagram videos claiming to be able to get people lean by eating more and exercising less using simple recipes and high intense interval training (HIIT). I know what you are thinking, sounds too good to be true.

Well, a friend in work had mentioned his instagram account to me last year so I followed him for a while, like a lot of people, wondering whether the transformations he posted were too good to be true. It was less than four months before our wedding, I had been training harder than I ever had before and was not getting the results I wanted so I thought, what have I got to lose?

I took the plunge and signed up, paying £147 for a three month (or 90 day) plan. I had to fill in a questionnaire detailing my current activity levels and an example of what I would eat each day in an average week. The less fun but oh so necessary part of this initial stage was to take and submit a variety of measurements and 'before' pictures.

Now being a serial 'weight watcher' I have known for a while that the scales are not so reliable and inches are super important but until I signed up to the 90 day plan I had never monitored this too much. I had certainly never taken pictures of myself on a regular basis to review...the horror!

I received my plan within a couple of days and off I went, I was so excited.

How hard was it all to digest?

Cycle One was 90 pages so it seem daunting when it landed in my inbox but once I printed it all off (4 to a page) and organised myself it was pretty straight forward.

My biggest tip would be to stick post-it index notes on each section so when you are looking for a low carb meal or a carb refuel meal you can go straight to the section you need.

What did you get for the money?

At £147 the plan may seem expensive but my thinking was that it would cost me a hell of a lot more to pay a personal trainer for three months, especially in London!

You receive:

-a 90 day plan consisting of three cycles (shift, shape and sustain as the name of the plan suggests) detailing what to eat, what exercises to do and what supplements you can include for support.

-an individual contact for online support who you could email direct with your queries

How was the support?

I would rate the support from my online 'coach' as just OK. In general they were helpful but the fact that most responses took 24 hours resulted in my asking more questions of the unofficial Facebook group 'The Body Coach 90 Day SSS Plan Unofficial Client Community'. Most of the time when I had a query I was planning on cooking something that evening or was in the midst of cooking at the time, so couldn't wait 24 hours for the answer.

I had one issue when I received cycle two as I thought that the wording around the exercises wasn't clear and I read it as 'carry out all of the exercises (weights and HIIT), then repeat'. Which I thought sounded like quite a lot given the shorter HIIT exercises cycle one had consisted of. I emailed my coach to query this and he confirmed that you did have to repeat the exercises, and so off I went and spent nearly two hours in the gym! That lunchtime I bumped into my friend at work who said that she hadn't 'repeated' and so I went back to the coach again to triple check. I soon received a reply apologising for the incorrect advice, from another member of the coach team. 

I do like to think that this was a simple human error and that in general the coaches are trained to give correct and consistent responses. If in doubt I would advise anyone to ask the Facebook group as everyone there is so helpful and will share the responses that they have received from their coaches if they have had similar queries.

What were the greatest lessons I learned?

The benefits of HIIT

HIIT or High Intense Interval Training is not a new phenomenon, however I had never really appreciated it's benefits until I embarked on this plan. I was at the point where I was going to the gym every day, sometimes twice a day and sometimes doing two classes in one sitting, and still wasn't seeing massive results. After four weeks of cutting back my training to the HIITs recommended by Joe, I could see noticeable differences.

Carbs are not the devil

'No carbs before Marbs' is just one of the many popular phrases that kind of demonises carbs. What I learned from this plan was that by cutting out all carbs I was limiting my bodies ability to recover after all of the exercise and in some instances was hampering the muscle growth. I learned that you need carbs, but not necessarily with every meal. Previously I had been between two phases, I would try (and it was hard) to cut out carbs completely, or I would eat them with most meals (but mostly wholemeal thinking if it was brown then I could eat as much as I liked. 

I found cycle one worked best for me where I only ate carbs as a refuel after exercises and had low carb meals for the other two meals and on rest days, so this is the general principle that I try to stick to in my graduate life. Everyone is different though so if you do the plan you should note how your body takes to each of the cycles to feel what is best for you.

You've got to eat fat to lose fat

Fat is another food group that gets a bad rep, supermarkets are full of low fat this and zero fat that, but fats are an essential source of energy for your body. The key here is in the type of fat (no an avocado and ice cream are not the same kind of fat) and in the timing of when you eat fat (not directly before or after exercise)

The reason for Protein shakes

I have found myself for years wondering what all those people in the office are doing with those protein shakers. What is it for and when do you actually need to have them? I had tried once to have them as a breakfast replacement and just found myself 'hangry' (hungry and angry).

Following the plan, this is my understanding: protein is needed to build muscles, when you restrict calories (which many of us ladies do) and do not keep the protein level high then it is more likely that you will lose muscle rather than fat. The protein shakes are just a convenient (and cheaper) way of easily upping your protein intake, and work better as a snack or post-exercise rather than as a meal replacement.

If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail

Now we all must have heard this saying at least 100 times throughout school. Who knew it would be so true in everyday life?! Preparation on this plan is key. By having meals prepared, acceptable snacks in your bag and a list before you go shopping, you avoid the temptation of just picking up that sandwich on the go or whatever else tickles your fancy. If you know you will be eating out try and check out the menu before you go so you can make lean choices ahead of time and not be tempted by something less lean when you are in the moment.

You can't be 100%, 100% of the time

We are all human, we will slip up. The main thing I took from this plan was the ability to accept that piece of chocolate I had given into and not letting it turn into a 'oh well I have started now so I might as well eat everything all weekend then start again Monday' kind of attitude. I began thinking differently about 'treats' and even took my gym stuff on holiday (and honeymoon) so that I could do a quick 15 minute HIIT if I knew I wanted to have a treat.

So, was I transformed like those in the hall of fame...?

No I was not. As you would expect, and rightly so, only the most dramatic transformations are shared by Joe. I was not one of those who had a hugely dramatic transformation however I was happy with the changes in my body and I am so glad that I done the plan. I didn't lose a single pound but the inches came off and I actually started to see abs. By the end of the three months I had actually stopped worrying about having to be seen in a bikini by all of our family and friends (we got married abroad so this was unavoidable).

So I guess I can't talk about my results without showing you. Disclaimer: when these pictures were taken there was no intention that they would be shared and so I apologise for how poor quality, wonky and not in-line they are.

I hope you have found this helpful, I would love to hear about your 90 Day SSS experience or any other plan which has helped you?

Love Jade

xxx