As you have become the fifth member of our family since I embarked on your 90 Day SSS Plan, I thought it would be nice to give you a personal update on my progress so far. This is not to say that your Support Heroes aren’t perfectly lovely, they really are very helpful and friendly. Although I have to confess I did nearly come to blows with one of them over the dairy substitute for yogurt.  I really do dislike soy but they dug their heals in about it.  Something about the macros and fat content ruining my fat burning. On reflection I’m pleased they persevered as full almond yogurt is prohibitively expensive, and the soy with a touch of almond works fine as long as there isn’t too much of it in the recipe. More on that later.

I am very pleased to say that I am now a Cycle One graduate.  Submitted my measurements yesterday and as I carry on with Cycle One rules for the time being, I am looking forward to getting my Cycle Two instructions.

Let’s talk results first. I can confirm ‘sad step’ is right. After four and a half weeks of faithfully sticking to the recipes (so much so that the scales are permanently sat on my counter), saying no to chocolate and Candy King, having only four glasses of wine over the entire month and nailing 23 cardio sessions, I have lost exactly 1kg. I have to confess, I had a wee bit of a sulk about that on Cycle One Graduation Day. I’m better now.  It’s possible that during ‘Shape’ and ‘Sustain’ the weight could still ‘Shift’ so I’m going to ignore the voice that is shouting, ‘Seriously?!? Put some chocolate on your Ocado app girlfriend, it won’t make no difference. Get used to that tummy lady, it ain’t going anywhere. And what were you doing this for anyways, no one expects a 41 year old mother of two to look good in jeans!  Baggy tops all the way pet.’  Because whilst the weight loss was pretty unimpressive, there were losses in other areas that actually have a more real effect on my life.  I lost me some inches baby! Three off my waist and two and a half off my hips. I am currently sitting in a pair of Jack Wills skinny jeans.  That’s right, not nice and forgiving GAP or Next jeans, no.  These are “we really only design for undernourished students” Jack Wills jeans. That’s progress.

I’m just going to side step the before and after photos. Apart from anything, my family read these blogs and they don’t need to see me in my Alan Whickers, never mind a rogue stranger that might stumble upon my blog.  Me and the hubby studied the ones from 30 days ago and the ones from this week and we were hard pushed to see any changes. Again, it’s early days, plenty of time to get concerned about aesthetics.

All in all, I am feeling fitter and healthier and my clothes are sitting on me a little better so these are positive results. I thank you.

When I say that you have become part of the family I mean that your name and your voice are as much a part of our household as the rest of us.  Phrases like, ‘Hurry up, we need to get home so I can do “a Joe Wicks” before dinner’ and ‘Is this something Joe says we have to eat?’ are quite common place. Your cheeky chappy voice is often what wakes up my children at six thirty in the morning, as I squeeze a HIIT in before breakfast.  I have to say, my children have very mixed feelings about you, as whilst they are quite fascinated by your workouts and even sometimes try to join in (my six year old son’s interpretation of a burpee is priceless), they have not always enjoyed the meals.

Which brings me to the food side of the plan.  I’ll tell you now, I’ve never followed a diet.  As I have always loved exercise and I’m a pretty healthy eater (apart from the serious sugar addiction) I’ve never needed to get really serious with something like Weight Watchers.  Frankly fads like the Atkins Diet seem ridiculous! So this is the first time in my life when I have had a prescribed eating plan. Due to a bulging disc followed by surgery earlier in the year and then moving back to the UK in May (by the way, when you have finished in the States, get yourself to NZ they will love you!) my eating and exercising has been terrible so I thought this would be a focussed way to learn new habits and challenge myself.  Plus I am totally curious to see if I can get muscle definition on my upper body for the first time in my life.

I already plan our family meals for the week ahead so filling in your meal planners wasn’t too much more effort.  I am the only one on the SSS Plan, but I didn’t want to have to cook separate meals in the evening so I “adapted” your meals to make sure my husband didn’t feel deprived and my children were getting the carbohydrate they need for their growing bodies.  For the most part, I think we got away with it.  Breakfast and lunches I did my own thing and everyone else had their usual.  At dinner time, if I was on a low-carbohydrate meal I would just add rice, pasta or potato to whatever I was cooking. Apart from nearly blowing off the heads of my children with your Thai chicken curry (totally my fault, I was way too generous with the paste!) and needing to pimp up the salmon fishcakes (hope you don’t mind, I added some lime zest and just a spoonful of creamed coconut to give them more flavour), all the meals were very successful.  The favourites were probably the Chicken Cashew Curry and Lean Mince.

I found lunches that worked for me.  Basically anything that didn’t require more than 40g of yogurt.  Being dairy free and even with the substitution of soy/almond yogurt, some of the dressings were just too, well yogurty. And on that note, again I hope this is OK, I changed the 235g of soy yogurt you’re meant to add to jelly for the Mousse Me Up snack to about 60g of yogurt as that first attempt was just nasty.  I am really hoping the snacks will be different in Cycle Two as I only really liked two out of this list. The day I gave a protein shake a go was traumatic.

You’ve certainly introduced me to a good selection of tasty new recipes that I will use again. Plus my husband and I have learnt that we don’t need carbohydrate with every meal to feel full and happy at the end. That said, I am looking forward to the freedom I hear I am about to get in Cycle Two as we’re all a little bored of the limited selection of Cycle One.

I found you through YouTube HIIT workouts so doing these a few times a week has been relatively easy.  Although I do love to run, and after my back surgery, doing lots of fast squats can be dicey. Therefore I balanced three 25 minute HIITS with two over-6km runs every week. Hope that’s OK?  I am preparing for the weights coming in on the next Cycle. I know this is good for a forty-something mum as my bones need to keep their density, however jumping and running keeps me sane so I am a little concerned that whilst the food side of things may take a turn for the better, pumping the iron may be the biggest challenge so far.

As I am sure you will be curious to know how I get on in Cycle Two and all this feedback is hopefully welcome by you and your team of heroes, I’ll write again in 30 days.

Love your work.

Yours faithfully, Claire