It’s not every day that actual James Crossley AKA Hunter from Gladiators offers to train you. I still can’t believe it actually happened, but it did. James is the boyfriend of my friend Pandora (check her out on my squad page) and when he offered to train me for 6 weeks it was an offer too great to refuse.
Now I know I am by no means fat, and I always eaten relatively healthy, but for some reason no amount of exercise can rid me of what I like to call my flabby bits, plus I fractured a rib at the end of last year, so I was excited to start the transformation.
Diet
James began by making me write down everything I ate for three days, and so I did, and I sent it to him. I’ve always had what I consider to be a big appetite; I’ve never skipped meals or eaten lettuce leaves for the sake of losing weight, so I was shocked to learn that I was only eating about 800 calories a day. He explained that it meant that despite doing lots of exercise, my body wasn’t creating muscle as my body was retaining all the food I ate to function. Eating under the recommended amount also means that you’re tired as your body has less energy.
James therefore put me on a strict 1500 calorie meal plan through Total Diet Food, who delivered all my meals and snacks to my door every single morning. Being on this plan changed my life, as a lot of the time I am too busy to prepare food, so it ensured I had food with me (providing I remembered to take it out with me!). I felt like I had so much more energy too!
On top of my meals, James also recommend Definition Nutrition protein to me so that I could replenish my body after every workout. I really enjoy this protein actually as it’s strawberry flavour - I just pop it in the NutriBullet with banana and almond milk.
The workouts
I went to a gym called Motus Strength in Fulham three times a week to train with James. During our workouts I would do lots of compound exercises including squats, deadlifts, military presses and chest presses etc. Like a true Gladiator, James also made me do different versions of strongman movements in order to get my heart rate pounding so I would burn as much fat as possible. This including running up and down pulling weights and lifting tyres (which was very tyring - I’m sorry, I just had to!).
I also went to about two Barry’s Bootcamp classes a week on top of our training. And I did notice my body build muscle much faster - I guess a combination of James’ targeted workouts and my improved diet!
After about 6 weeks, we were ready for the Body Transformation. I have definitely been ‘skinnier’ in the past but I haven’t felt as healthy in a long time - I have more energy and definition thanks to James. I hope you like the transformation photographs, they were shot by SNHFoto, and Phoebe Taylor did my makeup.
If you interested you can have a look behind the scenes from our shoot here:
Let me know if you found this post useful or motivating and if you have any questions then feel free to ask away.
Speak to you soon,
