What our members say… Christina Smith’s experience of our 21 Day Transformation Programme

Having recently returned to gym-life after a break of about a year due to pesky minor health problems, I decided it was time for an overhaul, conscious that, to maintain my now reasonable good health, losing a bit of weight wouldn’t go amiss.

For the first time ever, I decided to diet and embarked on the Inspire Fitness 21 Day Transformation programme.  Once signed up, I considered my objectives and expectations.  First, of course, was weight loss – a couple of pounds a week was a target.  What else?  I was aware my eating habits weren’t entirely healthy, no routine, going without meals and too ready to have enough butter on my toast to leave teeth marks!  So regulation and routine might be not bad thing.  I haven’t slept well in a long time, but refuse to take sleeping tablets, therefore, I was keen to see whether there would be any impact on my sleeping patterns (or rather, lack of sleeping patterns).  Although quite modest objectives, I didn’t want to push too far and end up disappointed – so the line was drawn there.

The diet sheets came in and I was horrified to see spinach all over the place – in the smoothies, in the frittata, just everywhere.  I’ve spent several decades turning my nose up at spinach and succeeded, up to this point, at keeping it at arms length.  However, I was in this now (and the gym team would be watching!)  But really it wasn’t that bad, in fact I’ve got to liking spinach.  The smoothies were a revelation, they are now my favourite way to start the day – I never particularly liked eating first thing in the day – so having a healthy and filling drink suits me.  Also, I love the date protein bars – no cooking needed!

During that diet period, did I feel hungry? Not at all.  I think because my eating prior to the diet was dis-organised and irregular, the first week I felt like I was eating too much and found I would eat and leave half of the meal to go back to about 30 minutes later.  Was I thinking about food all the time? No!  Was it boring and bland? No. Meals were tasty and, importantly, all the recipes were easy to follow.

An important aspect of this 3 weeks was keeping the fitness regime going too, to maximise overall benefit.  Therefore I set myself the target of at least 3 sessions in the gym each week, as well as continuing with running (on a treadmill) on non-gym days.

I’m grateful to the team here at Inspire, who were supportive and helpful all the way.  Of course, it helped me stick to the plan knowing someone was looking over my shoulder.

So, what about results: to my delight 8.75lb have been lost and 4.25 inches, all in just 3 weeks.  My sleeping is improving, with no more mid-afternoon sluggishness (this could just be coincidence, but as my sleeping has been erratic for a number of years and I was prone to very low energy dips mid-afternoon, I’m happy to think not).  And I feel so much better for the weight loss.  An unexpected bonus was a reduction in sweating, which has been a problem for most of my life.  Perhaps some carbs in my previous diet weren’t agreeing with me and I didn’t know it!  Who knows?  With the support from the team at Inspire Fitness my initial targets are met.

My aim now is to keep coming to the gym at least 3 times a week and to continue with the principles of the Inspire 21 Day Transformation programme, (perhaps I might slip up occasionally, but we’re all human!)  I shall be adapting some of the Inspire recipes and trying one or two of my own – low calorie, plenty of protein, of course!