I don’t normally subscribe to these ‘6-week’ quick fixes, but this is more of a final blitz to get me where I would like to be post-babies. I feel like my fitness was good, but it plateaued. 

Since I had Edward I decided that I was going to nail the fitness. The nutrition comes naturally to me but the gym…. well the gym seemed like something alien. My gym pass was redundant in between working full time, nappies and creating some new recipes. I had done home workouts to death- I could pretty much quote word for word Shaun T from T25. Although I still enjoyed being yelled at by Jillian Michaels and Shaun, I didn’t seem to be getting enough results to justify covering my lounge rug in sweat.

Whilst we were away in Jamaica over Christmas I got back into the gym. I set myself a goal of training at least every other day so that I could enjoy a drink in the evening. It boosted my confidence- the gym was pretty much empty most of the time, so if I fell over part way through a squat press, I felt less of an idiot than at my home gym. 

The results came through fairly fast and by the end of the 3 week trip I was getting some nice neat abs and my arms were looking more toned. I was ready to hit my home gym again…. until I got back to work. It seemed like an excuse but nope, January to March are always my busiest time of the year and once again the gym got cast aside for a quick 25 minutes in front of the TV.

I had signed up for the Great North Run and started to get a couple of runs in at the weekend. I’m not a great runner, in fact I would say I do not have the body of a runner at all- I’m more of a Hobbit shape to be honest, complete with large feet and chunky thighs and I look like I should be scaling Mordor not jogging on the Cheshire plain pavements. 

Enough was enough, April arrived and I gave myself a new goal- can I get ripped in 6 weeks? I approached Personal Trainer Mike Donnan whom I have known for years and set him the task-

‘Mike, make me look amazing’

‘You mean like shredded?’

‘Erm (wondering if I have over committed and I am way out of my depth)… yeah, shredded’ (GULP)

‘Ok but you have to commit 100%’

Now that, is not an issue. Set me a goal and I will smash it.

4 weeks in and it does appear to be working. I am actually focusing on something quite specific which is to reduce by body fat percentage. At 5ft 2″ it was around 17% and now I’ve passed the 15% mark, with the aim to get close to 12-14%. (This is not to be played with; requires a strict nutrition regime and a vigorous workout strategy, please do not try this without seeking professional advice).

You can follow some of my HIIT training sessions and weight lifting sessions and photographic diary on Instagram @wwsophiesay or watch this space.