Wiggle the weight away with Lorraine Kelly’s moves
TV star Lorraine Kelly is in the shape of her life thanks to her unique disco dance workout. And here she reveals how YOU can wiggle your weight away
LORRAINE Kelly’s transformation from homely, blouse-wearing presenter to glamorous queen of daytime television was sealed when, last summer, she stripped down to a bikini to pose for the cover of a women’s magazine.
This alone was an extraordinarily bold move for the then 55-year-old mother of one – but she had one further demand: that the pictures were not retouched or airbrushed.
‘What you see is what you get,’ she said at the time. The reaction was rapturous. There is no arguing that, as lovable as she always has been, the Lorraine of today looks sensational.
But the TV host is at pains to point out none of this happened overnight. And as she launches a fitness DVD intended to inspire other women of all ages to get into shape, she reveals: ‘I’ve just turned 56 but I don’t feel it. I was looking recently at pictures of me taken 20, 30 years ago and I honestly think I look better now than I did back then.
‘It’s taken me a long time but I finally feel I’ve arrived at my ideal body.’
Dance-floor diva
Alongside careful dietary advice from her show’s chef, nutritionist Sally Bee, Lorraine credits her fabulous figure to twice-weekly disco dance aerobics classes with her fitness guru Maxine Jones.
She is now so hooked on the workout, Lorraine chuckles as she recounts a dilemma she had recently when she discovered an interview with heart-throb actor Hugh Jackman had been scheduled for a Monday evening – the same night she attends one of Maxine’s classes.
‘I panicked. Nothing could stop me from going [to the class]. As it happens, it was fine – there wasn’t a clash. But it shows you how my mind is now working,’ she says.
‘On a Monday, I have this little oasis in my mind – at 5.15pm, I’ll be in my hour-long dance class with 30 or so other girls doing something that makes me feel better and that I actively enjoy.’ Her transformation started just over two years ago. Lorraine was looking for an exercise class near her weekday Central London bolt-hole when she came across Maxine’s dance aerobic sessions. ‘The next day, I hurt in places I didn’t know I even had places,’ she recalls.
Lorraine says she was a real disco queen in the 1980s, so a class that is inspired by moves she once proudly pulled off was always going to appeal. ‘But I hadn’t danced like that in years,’ she admits.
Intensity and vigour
Lorraine and Maxine, 46, have now collaborated on a DVD, Living To The Max, in which dancers from the two classes are shown being put through their paces.
Obviously, Lorraine is pleased to have lost weight. ‘But I’ve kept it off for more than two years now and that’s much more gratifying,’ she says. ‘I used to wear size 14 clothes but now I fit easily into a size 10.
‘But I don’t want to lose more weight – it’s about maintenance now. It’s about being healthy.’
So what is involved in the dance classes and why are the moves so effective? ‘It’s all about controlled movements combined with intensity and vigour,’ says Maxine. ‘I encourage my ladies to pull in their buttocks, which will increase the intensity of what they’re doing, and tighten their tummy muscles. For slower numbers, I’ll focus on squats which work the legs, bum and tum.’
Lorraine is far from faddy about her food intake but then, as she points out, there’s no need if you exercise regularly.
It’s porridge for breakfast and an early lunch might be a salad or a stir-fry. Around 6pm, she’ll have a big bowl of soup. She drinks water during the day but only touches alcohol, usually red wine, at weekends.
The result of all of this is that she is a new woman. ‘And it all began with Maxine,’ Lorraine says. ‘I don’t say this lightly but she’s changed my life.’
Living To The Max with Lorraine Kelly and Maxine Jones is available now from Universal Pictures DVD and digital download.