Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LISA RILEY DAY
When I was on Strictly Come Dancing, the Russian dancers used to tell me if it doesn’t hurt, you are not doing it properly.
So I now know if you want to change your life, the first thing you need to do is show your body you mean business, and that means following my 8-Day Kick-start plan.
I went to a weight-loss boot camp when I very first started out, and it was integral to changing my thought patterns and showing me what my body was capable of.
It proved to me I was capable of losing weight, after all. But it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.
This Kick-start plan is about saying to your body, “Can you hear me, loud and clear? I don’t want to be overweight any more.”
It’s designed to produce rapid weight loss initially. I won’t pretend it’s easy, but seeing a big difference after eight days will give you a great confidence boost and lots of motivation to keep going.
Before you run for the hills, consider this – it’s only eight days out of tens of thousands you’ll live in your life. Eight days. Not much more than a week!
If you do fall off the wagon, pick yourself up and give it another go.
There is no limit to how many times you can take that first step. The most important thing is that you take it.
During the Kick-start, you may get hungry and feel a bit rubbish at times, as your body adjusts to receiving less food.
Drink a lot of water to help stay hydrated. If you currently drink a lot of tea and coffee, you may also experience caffeine withdrawal, often in the form of headaches, but cutting down gradually can help avoid this.
Try switching to decaf, herbal tea or hot water with lemon, so you can still enjoy hot drinks.
It’s really important to be as kind to yourself as you can during this time. Your portions will be small and your exercise level will be high, so try to get as much sleep as possible so your body has the chance to recover, heal and re-energise. You’ll need to rest your body ready for the following day.
The first week is going to be tough, but it’s when your body will start burning fat.
After the initial 8-Day Kick-start, it’s time to ease your body into your new long-term eating regime. As for exercise, you need to sweat every day while on the plan, and ideally afterwards too. I’m very strict about that.
And if your clothes aren’t wet, you haven’t worked out properly.
At this stage you want to be burning fat, and that means at least 45 minutes of cardio a day.
That may sound like a lot. If you haven’t exercised for some time, you might need to take things slowly to start with and build up, which is fine.
Start small and build up by five minutes a day until you get up to the full 45 minutes.
One thing I should mention is that you usually go to the toilet more when your body begins working as it should. Don’t be too posh to talk about poo. Ideally, you want to poo an hour or two after every meal, and at least once a day. If you think you’re not pooing enough, have an apple or a handful of berries to help move things along.