How to shift your midlife middle
Kathryn Flett meets the trainer who says she has the secret — especially if you hate the gym
SO, HERE’S the latest Happy New Year health statistic from Public Health England: ‘Eightythree per cent of people between the ages of 40 and 60 are either drinking too much, are overweight or not taking enough exercise.’ It’s because we’re ‘too busy worrying about children, ageing parents and work’, apparently.
Ring any bells? Yup, thought so. Mine are boing-boing-boing-ing like Big Ben: I’m 52, my 81-year-old father is about to have an operation and, far from being an empty-nester, my youngest son is just ten. As for work — well, juggling writing with being a seaside landlady, a sixday working week is pretty common.
The upshot is that, like many women my age, I’m so busy taking care of business and family that there’s precious little time left over to take care of myself.
Factor in the perfect storm of The Menopause with its accompanying ‘Mystery of the Permanently Disappearing Waistline’ and suddenly a glance in the full-length mirror becomes more of a confrontation than a validation.
I’m 5ft 7in and throughout my 20s and 30s — until I had kids — I was still a respectable 10st and a size 10-12. After children, a flat tummy appeared to be a thing of the past.
Clothes-shopping meant I started gravitating towards trousers with elasticated waists (stylish, sports casual elasticated-waists I liked to think, but still . . .) and whenever I tried on a size 14 something very peculiar appeared to be happening: size 14 was clearly being cut to smaller patterns.
So I bought my first post-maternity size 16 with a sigh. Then, a few months later, in 2016, my first (and, I vowed, my last) trousers in an 18.
So I step on to the scales and deploy the tape-measure with some trepidation: 13st, 7lb (85.72kg) and a 39in waist. Yup, something’s got to give — and not just my elasticated bottoms.
I could have chosen to be bootcamped by a scary, hard-bodied twentysomething or subscribed to the latest ‘clean eating’ fad, but instead I find myself being bossed around by Annie Deadman.
Annie is extraordinarily fit and enviably hard-bodied but also — phew! — a proper grown-up, a 56year-old mother-of-two, who makes ladies of a certain age her speciality.
With menopausal women in mind, she has devised something called the Blast! programme, which promises results in just seven days (for midlife women with zero willpower like me) or really quite radical transformations after 21 days.
‘About 80 per cent of my clients are women aged 40-50,’ says Annie. ‘For women over 40, life can be more complicated and demanding with family and full-time work. Therefore finding the time (and the discipline) to stick to a fat-loss programme takes a huge amount of willpower’. Tell me about it!
‘By the time some women reach their mid-40s, they’ve tried every diet going.’ Nature’s working against us, too. ‘As we get older, we lose muscle. Also, as our oestrogen levels drop, we have a propensity to lay down fat.’
THEN there’s the selfconsciousness factor. ‘The idea of going to the gym or to classes can be daunting. Women of our age may not want to be working out with anyone at all, especially if they are not happy with their bodies.’
Prior to her interest in fitness, Annie had an office-based professional life, which means she understands those of us who effectively sit down for a living. She’s also warm, funny, kind and entirely nonjudgmental as well as being totally kick-ass. Frankly, every woman of a certain age should have an Annie.
Despite the fact she’s based in South-West London and runs inspiring in-person boot-camps and fitness classes for locals, those of us who are out of her catchment (I live 60- odd miles away, on the South Coast) can access her talents via her online diet and fitness regimes.
So, unable to attend her weeklong rather terrifyingly- named ‘ Blast!’ sessions for fat loss in person, I nonetheless sign up for a long-distance seven-day blitz.
The nuts and bolts of Annie’s regime aren’t rocket science. The focus is very much on eating right (the eating plan contains high in protein and low — rather than no — carb recipes), while building up muscle through strength work such as squats and lunges.
‘ The fitter you are, the more chance you have of a milder menopause,’ she says. ‘ Keeping sugar consumption low and increasing exercise will keep fat levels down and your spirits up.’
But what is refreshingly new is Annie’s attitude. When I read on her website that ‘she loves cycling, running, lifting horribly heavy weights. And cake,’ I warm to her at once.
Annie may describe herself selfdeprecatingly as ‘ not a size eight and a bit of an old wrinkly who likes a gin and tonic’, but she’s clearly also super-fit (no surprise there) and incredibly petite — a proper pocket-rocket.
Unsurprisingly, I feel at my most galumphing when we meet at the start of the course for her to put me through my paces. Yet as we get moving Annie kindly says she’s impressed by how bendy I am, and that therefore I’m ‘going to be fine’. I’m not so sure, frankly.
I look away when she measures me and makes notes; we’ll be back to compare and contrast how I’m getting on in one week. One week! What can possibly happen in just one week?
‘You’ll be surprised!’ says Annie, and I agree that yes, I probably will — though not necessarily in the right kind of way.
The thing is, I can’t bear the thought of letting her down. She’s so lovely that I actually want her to be proud of me. But it won’t be easy. According to Annie, ‘the way to shed fat is to eat unprocessed food and to train in such a way that your body switches from munching on muscle to re-fuelling on fat’.
Annie spurs on her long-distance ‘BLASTERS’ with what she describes as ‘inspirational, motivational chat to keep people uplifted — plus some information too, with links to fact sheets about carbohydrates
and insulin, for example.
‘On my diets no one must ignore carbohydrates — you just have to earn them after a workout.’ Annie is all about ‘good normal food, inch-loss not weight-loss. None of this means you can’t ever again have half a bottle of wine and get a bit drunk with your husband on a Friday night, or enjoy cake and scones — you can. It may sound a bit hair shirty, but you just have to earn them.’
Two days later, I’ve stocked the fridge with protein, veg and lots of mineral water, while removing any temptations (bread and cheese, mostly). Annie supplies helpful menus to which I’ve added a few of my own by sticking to her rules. (We’re allowed one caffeinated drink per day, for example.)
Annie sends encouraging emails and links to the four workouts I’ll be doing in the first week. I decide not to preview them, just to dive straight in on the day. And I try to remember to drink a lot more water than I do, which is never enough.
Meanwhile, I’m fully expecting to feel a bit tired and generally rubbish on Day 3 when a) enthusiasm flags and b) the chocolate calls.
But, guess what? Much to my delight that doesn’t happen: I’m able to do the workouts (just!), partly because I’m relaxed, at home and not having to force myself into designer Lycra and partly because two of the exercises are only 20 minutes and the other two are half an hour.
Preceded by a warm- up and finished with a cool- down, there are two ‘strength sections’ followed by two ‘cardio sections’. And while I wouldn’t know a ‘switch-kick’ from a ‘mountain climber’ Annie’s online videos are so easy to follow it really doesn’t matter if you’re not
au fait with the fitness-jargon.
AND I’m surprised by how much I enjoy the workouts — and by how much I sweat. Fortunately, there’s no one around to judge. Plus, it feels great to be able to reward my efforts with the ‘right’ kind of carbs (sweet potatoes, brown rice, quinoa).
In terms of motivation, then, Week One turned out to be dramatically easier than I thought it would be. Thrillingly, having started the regime on Sunday, by Thursday I dared to weigh myself . . . and discovered I’d lost 3lb (1.36g).
By the end of the week I’d lost 5lb but, more impressively, my measurements, which Annie says are the real gauge, were lower off almost every bit of my body. I’d lost two inches off my lower belly (measured three inches below the navel); an inch-and-a-half off my bottom; an inch off my thighs; and even three-quarters-of-an-inch off my upper arms.
Annie was right; something was definitely happening after just one week! And because I knew I didn’t have to be perfect, I’ve also started incorporating her wisdom into my daily life. No alcohol ‘treats’ during the week, for example, and I still have to earn my carbs — even if that’s via a brisker-than-usual 15minute walk with the dog rather than a 30-minute workout.
If Annie’s taught me anything it’s that doing something — anything — is better than doing nothing. Both my waistline and my heart are very grateful.
EXCLUSIVE offer for Mail readers: Annie Deadman’s Online 21 Day BLAST Plan is available for the special price of £50 (usually £70) for the months of January and February 2017 only. Use code
BLAST50.Website: anniedeadman.com/weight-loss/the-21-day-online-blast-plan.