Happy New Year! Hope you had a good Christmas and your new book is selling well.

Thanks to you, I had a good start to the New Year. I graduated from the 90 Day SSS plan on Saturday 6th January.  I had worried that my interpretation of Cycle Three had been too flexible and my results would have started going in the wrong direction.

This is not to say that I went careering off the rails. But it was December, there were nights out, family gatherings, Christmas Day for heaven’s sake! I had planned to have blow-out days on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, but as the days (and nights) went on, it was obvious there were going to be quite a few mini blow-outs along the way. I had a few nights were I had a festive tipple and with a lot more treats in the house, I ate way more chocolate and sweets than I had in the previous cycles.

All that said, I did carry on with all the exercises and even threw in the odd extra 20-minute HIIT when I knew I was going to have an off-plan meal. Whilst I was pretty naughty by 90 Day SSS Plan standards, I would say it’s the healthiest Christmas I have ever had!

Once again, I wasn’t expecting too much on results day. My dread was that I would have put on some weight or inches so that in a couple of weeks with a few indulgent days my final results would be less of a reflection of all the hard work and disciplined days I had put in for the other 10 weeks. As it happens, like a Christmas miracle, I had still lost a bit more weight and a few more inches.

I don’t want to share my table of results with the world, because I feel like it leads to comparison.  Our bodies are all so unique and measurements are too. They are just numbers and they don’t reflect shape, water retention, menstrual cycle, bone density any of that. But I do want to give you credit where credit is due and show that your programme does make a difference. So I’ve put my overall results on the picture above. Hopefully this encourages someone else, who reads this and is wanting to get healthy and lean, to consider the 90 Day SSS Plan as something they could do.

For me, instead of starting 2018 feeling like I need to make the usual resolutions of eating better, giving up sweets, exercising more; I was walking into the New Year feeling pretty happy about my regime. I do now have the challenge of keeping up with the healthy lifestyle that I’ve developed on your programme. In some ways that is more challenging than the challenge itself, because now I am flying solo. No heroes to help me along. No prescribed meals and exercise sessions. Just Claire, committing to not eating Haribo every afternoon whilst cooking the dinner.

I do have hope though; that I will keep this up.  I’ve learnt so much and certainly I have changed my eating habits. The heartening thing is that it wasn’t terrible for me. I don’t miss having starchy carbohydrates with every meal. Eating more protein hasn’t turned me into the Hulk. When I eat lots of sugar now, it doesn’t make me feel great, in fact I feel really horrible sometimes. I like eating three big meals a day. I am going to find some different healthy snacks though, that soy yogurt with sugar-free jelly really was a low point!

I thought what would help, is for me to make a list of “rules” I have learnt along the way and that I can use as a focus, as I go forward without you. These aren’t strict but if I can aim for them, then I may have a healthy lifestyle for life.

• Only have carbohydrate in meals after workouts. Although if I am going out for dinner and I haven’t worked out in the last 90 minutes, it’s OK to have the rice served up on my plate.
• Only drink alcohol on the weekend.
• Exercise five days a week. This can include long walks, Pilates and playing football with the children.
• Do weights a few times a week. Got to keep that bone density!
• Have (healthy) snacks in the day time, rather than the evening.
• Add protein powder to smoothies and porridge.
• Eat more lean protein in general; turkey bacon, chicken, fish, lean red meat, pulses, mushrooms, eggs are all good with me.
• Drink at least 2 litres of water a day.
• Have two meat-free dinners a week.
• Be disciplined whenever possible but break the rules if I need/want to.
• Choose dark chocolate before Candy King and Haribo.
• Enjoy food, experiment, make up new recipes, give tofu a chance.

I have one resolution for this year – have the same measurements at the end of the year. The only way to achieve that – choose the healthy option. When in doubt, ask ‘what would Joe do?’

It’s been a great experience and I got what I was looking for: develop healthy food habits, get stronger and leaner, fit back into clothes I’d grown out of and graduate.

Thanks so much for doing what you do. All the best to you and your heroes!

Claire x

PS I didn’t get a six-pack…I knew it was too much to ask.