#HolidayHealthClub Bootcamp with Travel Supermarket

(photo & text heavy post- be warned!)

Many of you will know through my twitter/ instagram that last weekend I was invited away to the No1 Bootcamp in Norfolk with Travel Supermarket as part of their Holiday BFF campaign. When the lovely Charlotte from Travel Supermarket first emailed me about the weekend I replied with a yes before I'd even fully read it. As someone who's had her fair share of body issues, bad sessions at the gym and stepping on those oh so depressing scales, a fitness boot camp seemed like something that would finally kick me and my big booty into gear. The weekend was full of the most intense workouts, walks and inspirational talks from the team. I'll do my best to relay it to you guys in a somewhat chronological order whilst not leaving out any of the amazing-ness that was the experience.

My Boot Camp Diary

Saturday

First things first, bootcamp is hard. No matter how fit or how fat you are it will push you to your absolute limits in the best and worst possible ways. There was moments I wanted to cry- cue 6am intense work outs before breakfast- and moments when I felt more proud of myself than ever before. So come last Saturday got my sorry ass up at 5am and headed off to London. I met some fellow bootcamp bloggers Cameron, Scarlett and Sabrina at Kings Cross then met Remi and Marin along the way. After two trains a coach another train and a taxi ride we arrived in Norfolk ready for our bootcamp weekend.

We were greeted by the lovely 'Camp Mummy' Paula, who showed us to our rooms. I was just a tad over excited by our personalized hoodies, vests and tees cutely folded up on the end of our beds! After settling in we all gathered in the lounge to get to know each other and got introduced to the total babes from Travel Supermarket. Enter the amazing trainers- Craig, Ali and Will, all ex military and all easy on the eyes! We were then taken outside to begin an intense load of exercise, we did some warm up games, running and trial exercises to make sure our squats were up to scratch and then the hard work began. One bit of training had us doing continuous squats or burpees whilst our partner ran round the field, followed by what they called the 'Gun Run' which consisted of all 20 of us carrying huge logs, tractor tyres, sand bags and med balls up a country lane then re-assembling and disassembling them into what looked like a huge cannon at various points on the circuit, it may not sound that hard spread between 20 of us but it was a work out that wore us all out and left me with splinters in the most awkward of places!

We then settled down for a well earned gourmet dinner cooked by the amazing camp chef Pete. Each meal we had was exquisitely delicious, my favorite was the homemade burger with veg and tatziki! We were limited to a 1200 calorie intake daily so the portion sizes were pretty small which a lot of us struggled with, but it helped me get a better understanding of what my daily intake really is! Craig then gave us an amazingly helpful nutrition chat after dinner which I'll talk about a bit lower down in the post. Me and some of the other girls then took an walk through the picturesque country side, we were blessed with some gorgeous weather so it was a perfect end to the evening.

Sunday

At 6:30 we were out on the field ready for a work out. Unbelievably this was one of my favorites and I've actually been doing it at home with the boyf! We started with doing 10 reps of squats, doing a shuttle run then adding another exercise each time so by the finish we were doing 100  reps of different things including crunches, burpees, press ups and all sorts doing 550 reps in total, not one of my best pre-breakfast experiences but it was an amazing session and we did it in just 25 minutes. 

After a bowl of fruity porridge we did another circuit, this time with weights. We took turns to shuttle run and do different exercises with dumbbells and kettle-bells in groups of three, it was called 'Work Rest Play' and doing it to music made it the most fun bit of training we did. After more team games we started 'Boxercise.' This was so much fun to start but doing it in a pyramid form made it bloody tiring, I partnered up with Cam and both of us had dead arms by the end of the challenge! This was followed by lunch, (see the delish fritata photo!) and an inspirational chat from Paula, they don't call her camp mum for no reason. With a background in helping people she's not just a shoulder to cry on but the one to encourage you when you feel like giving up, and sharing her story of weight loss and coming to camp was really lovely. She's also with bootcamp trainer Craig which is super cute! We then had a little chat with an inspirational girl called Katie. She'd been at camp for 10 weeks and had lost 4.5 stone already and was an amazing example of what No1 Bootcamp can do for peoples lives. 

The afternoon ended witha 7 mile hike which I actually really enjoyed, what was also great about it was we'd done so much cardio before hand it was purely fat-burning! Next up, ice bath time. As you can see from my face in that god awful photo I was not most impressed, but it was better than I thought and eased the pain in my muscles.Then it was time for a rest and for dinner. Having downtime with the girls goes a long long way after the hardest day of training, but even after dinner we found ourselves wanting to go for a walk!

Monday

6am and I felt like death. I could barely move and felt sick as a dog, and I wasn't the only one. Our morning work out got changed to a walk to the beach, and a few of us went. Half way there my blister got so bad I had to take my shoe off and head back, my worst part of the weekend as I'd so been looking forward to going to the beach, and to add insult to injury I threw up on the way back. I curled up in the lounge feeling sorry for myself but also kind of proud I'd pushed myself to the absolute limit. 

After breakfast I felt right as rain again ready for tractor tyre and log flipping. I was so surprised that I managed to lift the 75kg tyre and actually walk with it- it was such a simple task but having the trainers and fellow bloggers shout and cheer you on really made the sense of achievement amazing. My most shocking and proud moment was getting the best time of 23secs for flipping three (gigantic) logs! To end the morning we had such a helpful nutrition and exercise discussion again from Craig, he answered all of our questions and settled some of the myths and truths of dieting.

After lunch I couldn't quite believe how sad I felt to be leaving, I'd lost 2 and a half pounds in the short time I was there and didn't want to stop pushing myself further. It was one of the most intensely incredible experiences and I would love to go back. After a 7 hour journey and sushi stop in M&S I arrived at my boyfriends, ate some food and went straight to bed.

What I learned about Diet, Nutrition & Exercise

01. Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise. No matter how many calories you burn off at the gym, you won't lose weight if you aren't eating right.

02. Cut out or really cut down on carbs if you're trying to lose weight. Protein is really important especially if you're training, try to have as much as you can. 

03. Fitness is not just about being great in one area, to be truly fit you need to be equally rounded in the following areas; strength, flexibility, skill, speed, endurance, balance, agility, power and have cardiovascular strength.

04. EAT REGULARLY. I don't know about anyone else but eating less and not often seemed better than 'eating regularly' to me. But as last weekend (and this past week) has proved to me eating something every 2-3 hours speeds up your metabolism and really really helps the weight shift.

05. Stay away from white foods! If your trying to lose weight stay away from white carbs; potatoes, white rice, bread, cereals and bananas. These will make your glucose and sugar levels spike throughout the day and make you crave foods you shouldn't have and wouldn't usually want- again protein is a great food to keep you satisfied.

06. Stop using machines in the gym and isolating muscles. It's much better to do exercises on the mats like burpees, squat thrusts, crunches and add weights in that will work your whole body instead of one particular muscle group- for practically the same amount of energy.

07. Track your progress. Record your results often and monitor your intake so you can see whats working and whats not- the My Fitness Pal app is my savior!

08. REST REST REST. Make sure you're getting your 8 hours girls.

09. Pushing yourself is so worth it. My weekend at boot camp has changed my outlook on a healthy lifestyle, I want to eat healthy and look forward to going to the gym now. 

10. No1 Bootcamp is truly incredible. I've been privileged enough to see first-hand how they can change peoples lives for the better and produce amazing results. I implore anyone that is looking for a serious change or even a kick start into a healthy new lifestyle to check them out and give it a try.

It goes without saying that I can't thank Travel Supermarket enough, the girls were beyond lovely and a huge well done and thank you to Charlotte for organizing such an original event, and an unforgettable experience. I've further lost a few more pounds with eating every 2-3 hours, around 1200 calories a day and training 3-4 times a week. It's not a huge amount but I've never felt better health/ fitness wise, and looking back through some insta pics I can see a difference already. If anyone has any questions I'll be sure to reply to your comments, or pop me an email luciathomashowardx@live.co.uk. Have a look at the #HolidayHealthClub hashtag on instagram & twitter for more info, pics and posts!

Travel Super Market are also running a couple of competitions including the World Wide Wardrobe and Beauty and the Beach 2 both with fantastic prizes of a £200 wardrobe, holiday and up to £1500 prize which is ah-mazing! I'll be entering so keep an eye out for these future posts. 

Taken the week before Bootcamp/ Taken this morning before the gym

(photo & text heavy post- be warned!)

Many of you will know through my twitter/ instagram that last weekend I was invited away to the No1 Bootcamp in Norfolk with Travel Supermarket as part of their Holiday BFF campaign. When the lovely Charlotte from Travel Supermarket first emailed me about the weekend I replied with a yes before I'd even fully read it. As someone who's had her fair share of body issues, bad sessions at the gym and stepping on those oh so depressing scales, a fitness boot camp seemed like something that would finally kick me and my big booty into gear. The weekend was full of the most intense workouts, walks and inspirational talks from the team. I'll do my best to relay it to you guys in a somewhat chronological order whilst not leaving out any of the amazing-ness that was the experience.

My Boot Camp Diary

Saturday

First things first, bootcamp is hard. No matter how fit or how fat you are it will push you to your absolute limits in the best and worst possible ways. There was moments I wanted to cry- cue 6am intense work outs before breakfast- and moments when I felt more proud of myself than ever before. So come last Saturday got my sorry ass up at 5am and headed off to London. I met some fellow bootcamp bloggers Cameron, Scarlett and Sabrina at Kings Cross then met Remi and Marin along the way. After two trains a coach another train and a taxi ride we arrived in Norfolk ready for our bootcamp weekend.

We were greeted by the lovely 'Camp Mummy' Paula, who showed us to our rooms. I was just a tad over excited by our personalized hoodies, vests and tees cutely folded up on the end of our beds! After settling in we all gathered in the lounge to get to know each other and got introduced to the total babes from Travel Supermarket. Enter the amazing trainers- Craig, Ali and Will, all ex military and all easy on the eyes! We were then taken outside to begin an intense load of exercise, we did some warm up games, running and trial exercises to make sure our squats were up to scratch and then the hard work began. One bit of training had us doing continuous squats or burpees whilst our partner ran round the field, followed by what they called the 'Gun Run' which consisted of all 20 of us carrying huge logs, tractor tyres, sand bags and med balls up a country lane then re-assembling and disassembling them into what looked like a huge cannon at various points on the circuit, it may not sound that hard spread between 20 of us but it was a work out that wore us all out and left me with splinters in the most awkward of places!

We then settled down for a well earned gourmet dinner cooked by the amazing camp chef Pete. Each meal we had was exquisitely delicious, my favorite was the homemade burger with veg and tatziki! We were limited to a 1200 calorie intake daily so the portion sizes were pretty small which a lot of us struggled with, but it helped me get a better understanding of what my daily intake really is! Craig then gave us an amazingly helpful nutrition chat after dinner which I'll talk about a bit lower down in the post. Me and some of the other girls then took an walk through the picturesque country side, we were blessed with some gorgeous weather so it was a perfect end to the evening.

Sunday

At 6:30 we were out on the field ready for a work out. Unbelievably this was one of my favorites and I've actually been doing it at home with the boyf! We started with doing 10 reps of squats, doing a shuttle run then adding another exercise each time so by the finish we were doing 100  reps of different things including crunches, burpees, press ups and all sorts doing 550 reps in total, not one of my best pre-breakfast experiences but it was an amazing session and we did it in just 25 minutes. 

After a bowl of fruity porridge we did another circuit, this time with weights. We took turns to shuttle run and do different exercises with dumbbells and kettle-bells in groups of three, it was called 'Work Rest Play' and doing it to music made it the most fun bit of training we did. After more team games we started 'Boxercise.' This was so much fun to start but doing it in a pyramid form made it bloody tiring, I partnered up with Cam and both of us had dead arms by the end of the challenge! This was followed by lunch, (see the delish fritata photo!) and an inspirational chat from Paula, they don't call her camp mum for no reason. With a background in helping people she's not just a shoulder to cry on but the one to encourage you when you feel like giving up, and sharing her story of weight loss and coming to camp was really lovely. She's also with bootcamp trainer Craig which is super cute! We then had a little chat with an inspirational girl called Katie. She'd been at camp for 10 weeks and had lost 4.5 stone already and was an amazing example of what No1 Bootcamp can do for peoples lives. 

The afternoon ended witha 7 mile hike which I actually really enjoyed, what was also great about it was we'd done so much cardio before hand it was purely fat-burning! Next up, ice bath time. As you can see from my face in that god awful photo I was not most impressed, but it was better than I thought and eased the pain in my muscles.Then it was time for a rest and for dinner. Having downtime with the girls goes a long long way after the hardest day of training, but even after dinner we found ourselves wanting to go for a walk!

Monday

6am and I felt like death. I could barely move and felt sick as a dog, and I wasn't the only one. Our morning work out got changed to a walk to the beach, and a few of us went. Half way there my blister got so bad I had to take my shoe off and head back, my worst part of the weekend as I'd so been looking forward to going to the beach, and to add insult to injury I threw up on the way back. I curled up in the lounge feeling sorry for myself but also kind of proud I'd pushed myself to the absolute limit. 

After breakfast I felt right as rain again ready for tractor tyre and log flipping. I was so surprised that I managed to lift the 75kg tyre and actually walk with it- it was such a simple task but having the trainers and fellow bloggers shout and cheer you on really made the sense of achievement amazing. My most shocking and proud moment was getting the best time of 23secs for flipping three (gigantic) logs! To end the morning we had such a helpful nutrition and exercise discussion again from Craig, he answered all of our questions and settled some of the myths and truths of dieting.

After lunch I couldn't quite believe how sad I felt to be leaving, I'd lost 2 and a half pounds in the short time I was there and didn't want to stop pushing myself further. It was one of the most intensely incredible experiences and I would love to go back. After a 7 hour journey and sushi stop in M&S I arrived at my boyfriends, ate some food and went straight to bed.

What I learned about Diet, Nutrition & Exercise

01. Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise. No matter how many calories you burn off at the gym, you won't lose weight if you aren't eating right.

02. Cut out or really cut down on carbs if you're trying to lose weight. Protein is really important especially if you're training, try to have as much as you can. 

03. Fitness is not just about being great in one area, to be truly fit you need to be equally rounded in the following areas; strength, flexibility, skill, speed, endurance, balance, agility, power and have cardiovascular strength.

04. EAT REGULARLY. I don't know about anyone else but eating less and not often seemed better than 'eating regularly' to me. But as last weekend (and this past week) has proved to me eating something every 2-3 hours speeds up your metabolism and really really helps the weight shift.

05. Stay away from white foods! If your trying to lose weight stay away from white carbs; potatoes, white rice, bread, cereals and bananas. These will make your glucose and sugar levels spike throughout the day and make you crave foods you shouldn't have and wouldn't usually want- again protein is a great food to keep you satisfied.

06. Stop using machines in the gym and isolating muscles. It's much better to do exercises on the mats like burpees, squat thrusts, crunches and add weights in that will work your whole body instead of one particular muscle group- for practically the same amount of energy.

07. Track your progress. Record your results often and monitor your intake so you can see whats working and whats not- the My Fitness Pal app is my savior!

08. REST REST REST. Make sure you're getting your 8 hours girls.

09. Pushing yourself is so worth it. My weekend at boot camp has changed my outlook on a healthy lifestyle, I want to eat healthy and look forward to going to the gym now. 

10. No1 Bootcamp is truly incredible. I've been privileged enough to see first-hand how they can change peoples lives for the better and produce amazing results. I implore anyone that is looking for a serious change or even a kick start into a healthy new lifestyle to check them out and give it a try.

It goes without saying that I can't thank Travel Supermarket enough, the girls were beyond lovely and a huge well done and thank you to Charlotte for organizing such an original event, and an unforgettable experience. I've further lost a few more pounds with eating every 2-3 hours, around 1200 calories a day and training 3-4 times a week. It's not a huge amount but I've never felt better health/ fitness wise, and looking back through some insta pics I can see a difference already. If anyone has any questions I'll be sure to reply to your comments, or pop me an email luciathomashowardx@live.co.uk. Have a look at the #HolidayHealthClub hashtag on instagram & twitter for more info, pics and posts!

Travel Super Market are also running a couple of competitions including the World Wide Wardrobe and Beauty and the Beach 2 both with fantastic prizes of a £200 wardrobe, holiday and up to £1500 prize which is ah-mazing! I'll be entering so keep an eye out for these future posts. 

Taken the week before Bootcamp/ Taken this morning before the gym