The previous post is my (lengthy-but-necessary) intro to the Educogym. Read that first if you haven’t done already by scrolling down on your daily email (subscribe here!) or alternatively click here.

OVERVIEW

Not so much to report for days one and two, which is why I have lumped them together! The gym sessions (15 minutes each) were almost a breeze – as soon as you feel that dreaded exhaustion and pain, it’s on to the next intensive exercise, and as that starts to kick in and make you feel slightly like you’d like to pack up and go home, you stop and move onto the next. Before I knew it, the lovely Zana (Zana the Fitness Warrior!) was telling me that the session was over and she’d see me the next day!

I have to go in once a day for twelve days (to coincide with the eating plan) but for many this isn’t possible. Zana tells me that people fly in from abroad for the twelve days just to attend the Educogym, but for many people there will be the odd day they’ll have to miss and in that case the ‘gym’ part of the programme is extended. I’m going to try my absolute best to go in twelve times in a row – it’s just fifteen minutes out of my day, and although I have to travel to Harley Street and back, it’s only twenty-five minutes each way. So no big mission. Overall, mood: good. Energy: OK.

DAY 1

My first meal is breakfast and I’ll hold my hands up and say that yes, it does nearly make me puke. I have a two-egg omlette with two rashers of bacon. (Unsmoked, as smoky bacon has a load of added sugar, would you believe!) That’s fine – it’s the 45g of nuts that I have to eat with it for my fat content. UGH! It takes me an hour to eat them, I’m so bored. Spousal Support wolfs down his serving and returns to the table twice to watch me eat mine – I don’t think he can quite believe that anyone could take so long to eat a pile of nuts! I turn green. Needless to say, I don’t eat lunch and I’m still not that hungry when it comes to dinner, which is a steak, salad and half a large avocado mashed with chilli and garlic into a rudimentary guacamole. Amino-something-or-other tablets have to be taken throughout the day to really push proteins back into the body, and both Spousal Support and I are very good at taking those, considering that each one is about the size of a car and you have to take five, three times a day!

DAY 2

I walk past Costa on my way to the Educogym. Coffee/tea without sugar and milk but with cream (if desired) is allowable on the plan, but I have never drunk either so that’s pretty irrelevant to me. Nevertheless, I suddenly have an urge to go into Costa and have a coffee with a croissant! I don’t eat breakfast because I’m at the gym early and, quite frankly, I’m not at all hungry. The very idea of eating makes me heave. Zana tells me that this is very normal – fat contains more calories per gram than carbs and so I have upped my energy intake by a massive amount. An important part of the plan is that you don’t eat if you don’t feel hungry. Makes sense – that’s a rule I stick to anyway, and also the inverse rule which is that I always make sure I eat if I do feel hungry.

I’m still not hungry by lunch, but by mid-afternoon I’m peckish but also lazy so I opt for one of the small breakfast ideas which is a block of cheese with 85g of nuts. Anyone here know just how long it takes to eat 85g of unsalted, unroasted nuts? Pine nuts and pumpkin seeds – I never want to see them again. Dinner is a steak (again) with guacamole (again) and roasted veggies. I’m starting to struggle with the whole ‘fat content’ thing – it’s all very rich and I’m not used to it! Every meal must contain a portion of the ‘fats’ which are: full-fat cream cheese, avocado or nuts. After the twelve days are up, it’s quite possible that I will never touch these food items again.

Over and out people: enjoy your dinners, won’t you? Grrrr.