Sally goes to a New You Boot Camp

Boot camps – residential holidays which combine an intensive exercise programme run by military or ex-military instructors with a restricted diet – are the latest fitness craze to sweep the UK.

The New You Boot Camp, run from offices in Bournemouth but held at locations across the south and in Wales, invites you to drop a dress size in a week.

For anyone who isn’t 100 per cent happy with their shape and fitness levels, it’s a tantalising idea.

I leapt at the invitation to spend a week at the women-only camp and only thought later about what it would involve.

It was when I read the kit list, detailing walking boots, high visibility jackets had head torches for those morning runs, running shoes, numerous tracksuit bottoms and tops, I began to realise that, while this was a holiday, it wasn’t going to feel much like one.

As our instructors reminded us regularly “It’s not Champneys, girls!”.

With the range of boot camps on offer, it’s worth looking at the finer details to pick the one for you.

For instance, there are ones which run with the military theme, where you sleep in a dormitory and have to get involved in preparing your meals and even one where the staff yell all sorts of foul language at you in a bid to get you motivated.

Happily, the Signature New You Boot Camp is for women who want to work hard during the day with some firm encouragement but have a bit of luxury at night.

We were based on the Kingston Estate near Totnes where we were housed in charming cottages of three or four in either shared or private rooms.

It was a wise choice – I think if I had had to face a night of listening to other women snoring and getting up to go to the loo after 12 hours’ exercise every day I might not have made it through the week!

Given the military theme of the camp and my rebellious nature, I had visions of leading a revolution by day four.

But as Iain Reitz – or Staff Reitz as we called him – explained to us on our first day, the staff were there to motivate us, not bully us.

And I have to say, all three of them pitched their instructions and encouragement at just the right level, pushing rather than bullying and offering a bit of sympathy if it was all too much. I haven’t been called a “good girl” so much since I was teacher’s pet at primary school.

Every day at boot camp was different, but there was one thing which was always the same – the pre-dawn, pre-breakfast run.

We then launched into up to 12 hours of intense exercise.

As a regular gym-goer I didn’t expect to find boot camp that tough. I admit, I expected to be surrounded by overweight people with extremely poor fitness levels, among whom I would shine.

How wrong I was. Boot camp attracted a wide range of women. A few were very overweight but some were already fit by most people’s standards and looking to raise the bar. The majority were ordinary women, who would like to lose a few pounds and get in shape, and had the motivation to do something serious about it.

The exercise programme included coasteering – jumping off rocks into the sea, swimming to the next rock, jumping off it again, military exercises, weightlifting, mountain biking, an all-day hike, circuits, games, stretching sessions and more.

We also had two nutritional lectures as well as a one-to-one session to talk about our diet.

For the first couple of days, food was an obsession for most. Days were punctuated by meals: breakfast (often porridge), snack (sometimes a yummy seed bar, sometimes two bits of celery with a bit of bean spread), lunch (starter-size), another snack and dinner (again the size of a starter in a decent restaurant).

I had expected to be laying awake at night with a rumbling stomach and feeling dizzy but although I probably eat twice as much as this a day in normal life, I was never really hungry.

One of the things I found strange about being at boot camp was how quickly we became institutionalised.

It didn’t seem strange to “fall in” and generally do what we were told. In fact, I, and a number of other women, said we felt rather lost when we returned to “civilian life”!

The willingness to follow instructions and the sense of camaraderie were key to keeping everyone taking part and working hard.

Apparently, it’s normal by the half way mark for at least one person to have shut themselves in their room and for various mini-mutinies to take place but there was no such thing in our group.

However, there were tears from most people – me included.

It was mountain biking that got me. I was exhausted, nursing a few injuries and worried that if I fell off the bike – having not ridden one for a good 20 years – that I might do myself some damage, especially to my already bad back.

When I lost control on a hill and veered into a hedge I’m afraid I had a few tears but the staff were so nice about it that I felt I had to give it another go and was soon struggling up hills and whooshing back down with everyone else.

It was one of the many occasions when I had a huge sense of achievement about what I’d done. Pressing on through the discomfort which often makes you abandon exercise when you don’t need to, working your body hard and feeling your strength and fitness improve give you a great buzz.

And the sense of going through these intense experiences really brought the women together. Friendships were forged during the week that would normally take months to build and reunions were being planned before we had even finished.

But did it work? Having lost 8lb, as well as an inch and half off my waist and an inch off my hips, I’d have to say yes.

The only downside is keeping it going. I picked up an Achilles tendon injury on my last day and haven’t been able to exercise since I got back, over a week ago. I’m also a bit obsessed with food and being able to choose what I eat, having spent a week eating only what I was given.

And having lost so much weight and seen my fitness level and body shape improve so much I’m horrified at the idea of all that hard work being undone.

There were a few times during the week, during a particularly intense session, when I asked myself why on earth I was there but now I miss it and would love to go back – if only to be called a “good girl” by a man in uniform again!

WEB SITE www.newyoubootcamp.com or phone 0871 223 0066