A WORD FROM CHLOE

Hi, I’m Chloe Madeley, and welcome to The 4-Week Body Blitz.

Let me begin by telling you a bit about myself…

I started training properly and learning about nutrition in January 2013. I had just met my then boyfriend, who, luckily for me, was a personal trainer. I was a curvy size 10–12 and body confident, but my boyfriend asked if I’d like to be his aesthetic guinea pig to help him get some more female clients. I explained to him that I liked my body the way it was, and there was no changing it anyway – before a holiday I’d run daily and cut carbs for weeks on end, but my shape never changed. I was built the way I was built, period. He laughed and asked me what I was trying to achieve in these pre-holiday weeks…

Abs, I replied, before adding that abs were obviously genetic and I simply didn’t have those genes.

He bet me he could change my body in 4 weeks, and I took the bet…

On day 1, he put an Olympic bar on my back and taught me how to squat.

That was it. I was hooked.

By week 2, I was crying like a baby because I wanted my old comfort foods back – wine, bread, cheese and chocolate.

By week 3, I was fully in the groove and I noticed my body finally starting to change.

By week 4, I had booked my place on a Personal Training course.

In June of that year, I started my blog FitnessFondue.com – I wanted to tell women what weight lifting felt like and what it was doing to my body. I wanted to explain how important nutrition is when it comes to changing your body.

Today, I have a big, beautiful fitness following, two best-selling training apps, a best-selling nutrition iBook, a supplement range and a gymwear line…

But The 4-Week Body Blitz is going to show you what I do best…

WHAT IS THE 4-WEEK BODY BLITZ?

Every health and fitness professional has a different approach to what they do.

There are the yogis who advocate a lifestyle change, daily meditation and cleansing superfood smoothies.

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There are the body builders who lift heavy weights, manipulate hormone levels and pound protein shakes to get as big as humanly possible.

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There are the cardio bunnies who challenge themselves with yearly marathons, triathlons and mountain hikes.

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There are the gym socialites who take Spin, Bodypump and Metafit classes like they’re going out of fashion.

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And then there are the fitness models and coaches who specialise in time-sensitive body transformations.

This is what I do. This is what I love.

Body transformations would ideally take place over a 12–20-week time scale, and come off the back of months of effort to build as much muscle as humanly possible.

And it’s not just fitness models who have to get in shape quickly for shoots and competitions. This short-term panic is actually very common amongst our clients and audience.

Whether it’s the January fitness surge, the summer body quest or the Christmas party season, transformation time scales can often be staggeringly short.

Oh my God, I have a holiday next month!
How the hell am I going to fit into my wedding dress?!
If my ex is going to that party, I want to look amazing.

The 4-Week Body Blitz is an instructive guide designed to show you how to get into shape in the shortest time frame possible.

First, I’ll explain how I’m going to help you alter what you eat and why; then comes my day-by-day stretching and exercise plan that shows you exactly what you need to do each day.

Don’t worry, you’re not going to have to do anything extreme – you will eat, you will train, and you will have rest days.

However, you must understand that with only 4 short weeks, there is absolutely no room for error.

We have 4 weeks to get you the best results possible.

And this means giving 110% to both your diet and training – every single day.

There is no time to mess around and no time to fall off the wagon.

There are 4 weeks to get the job done, so let’s get it done!

UNDERSTANDING THE RULES OF THE 4-WEEK BODY BLITZ

Before you start your new regime, I want to explain why the rules of The 4-Week Body Blitz are what they are.

I firmly believe that if you understand the process, you are much more likely to become invested in it and even excited by it.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR NEW DIET

CLEAN EATING

Firstly, single ingredient foods (for example, eggs, oats, fruit, nuts, vegetables, chicken and fish) are a lot less calorie dense and more nutrient rich than processed foods, so you can actually eat a lot more than you might think in order to get fit and healthy.

For instance:

1 large chicken breast has ½ the calories of 2 small pork sausages, with none of the carbohydrates and roughly 1/14th of the fat.
1 portion of berries has less than ½ the calories of 1 packet of sweets and none of the refined sugar.

Secondly, your body is able to use all the nutrients from unadulterated single ingredient foods, instead of storing wasted calories away as fat. Your body has no use for the excess sugars found in sweets and refined carbohydrates, or for the trans-fats found in most junk foods, so it has no choice other than to store them away, eventually forming adipose tissue, otherwise known as fat.

Lastly, you will be healthy from the inside out. Clean foods are rich in micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), which, surprisingly, tend to be missing from a bowl of French fries or a doughnut. Although your body may struggle without junk food for the first week or so, by week 3 you will feel great – I promise.

UNDERSTANDING TRAINING

Much like your new diet, I believe that if you understand what the specific exercises are doing to your body, you are much more likely to train hard and stay motivated.

There are 2 different types of training and they will change your body in 2 different ways:

1. CARDIOVASCULAR TRAINING – FAT BURNING

There are 3 different kinds of cardiovascular training:

› LISS (Low Intensity Steady State Cardio)

An incline walk, a steady jog – anything that gets you puffing and sweating while being able to maintain your pace for long periods of time (typically 40–60 minutes).

› MISS (Moderate Intensity Steady State Cardio)

An incline jog, a gentle run – anything that challenges you but that you can maintain for a period of time (typically 30–40 minutes).

› HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)

Interval sprints, burpees, mountain climbers, box jumps, fast-paced skipping – anything that you can give 100% effort to for no longer than a minute. You recover for the following minute and then repeat.

If you enjoy walking, cycling or horse riding, for example, please feel free to continue with them while also giving this blitz 100%!

2. RESISTANCE TRAINING – MUSCLE BUILDING

There are 2 different types of resistance training:

› Body Weight / Gravity

Sit ups, squat jumps, push ups – using your body weight / gravity to challenge and fatigue your muscle.

› Weighted

Dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, medicine balls, machines – using external objects to challenge and fatigue your muscle.

This book uses circuit training to get both your (HIIT) cardio and resistance training done in one fell swoop. (Feel free to continue any classes / outdoor activities, like running or cycling, alongside this plan.)

It is designed to change your body regardless of what equipment you have available to you.

› You do not need gym membership
› You do not need a cardio machine
› You do not need weights
› You can do every exercise outdoors or in your living room.

However, if you do have equipment at home, then please feel free to use it. Whether you have a treadmill, a kettlebell, a medicine ball, whatever, if you can incorporate it into the exercises listed further on, then absolutely do.

If you have the energy to carry on with your gym class it will only help your results.

The 4-Week Body Blitz initially requires you to train for 5 days a week, eventually working your way up to 6 days. Please note that those of you who are just starting out and have low fitness levels can take the week 1 circuits nice and slow – but you must complete them fully.

Alternatively, for 2–3 weeks leading up to starting this plan, you might want to try LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) cardio (e.g. an incline walk, a steady jog – anything that gets you puffing and sweating) for 5–6 days each week for 40–60 minutes each day. HIIT cardio is hard and resistance training is hard, so building up some mental and physical tolerance before throwing yourself into circuit training might be a good plan of action.

For those of you who are already pretty fit, though, you have no excuse whatsoever. Go straight into week 1 giving 100% and absolutely no less. Keep that momentum up until your very last workout. No excuses. Period.

DOMS (DELAYED ONSET MUSCLE SORENESS)

You will probably find, even if you are used to training hard, that you develop DOMS in the first few days of starting this plan. DOMS happens when we switch up our training or start a new exercise routine, and it is a very GOOD sign. It means your muscle tissue has torn and is on the mend, which means training is working, your metabolic rate is increasing and you are on your way to that ‘toned’ defined look. Do NOT miss a training day because you are sore. Instead, stretch throughout the day, hydrate well, make sure your protein intake is high and get a good night’s sleep. See DOMS as a pat on the back for training hard and keep going!

You may struggle to keep going with an exercise at a dynamic level for the full minute. If this happens, slow the movement down but don’t stop. You must make sure you complete the entire minute, even if you need to switch to a more gentle movement.

YOU’VE GOT THIS!

The last thing I want to talk about is the mental, emotional and motivational ‘journey’ you are about to take.

The word ‘journey’ is cheesy and clichéd but it’s also the best way to describe what the next 4 weeks are going to feel like for you.

The fact of the matter is, changing any habit is exciting at first, but it quickly becomes a challenge – and getting through that challenge is a mental battle.

There will be days when you genuinely don’t think this is a good idea any more. There will be days when you’re tired and you either don’t want to train or you do want to eat cake – most likely simultaneously.

But you must keep going and stick with it.

Remember, habits don’t start as habits, they start as daily efforts.
Remember why you started to make these daily efforts.
Visualise the results you want from these daily efforts.
Remember that they will eventually become habits.

Nobody becomes an Olympian overnight.
Nobody writes a best-selling novel in the first draft.
Nobody has ever achieved anything by giving up when it gets hard.

Junk food isn’t going anywhere.
It was there last month and it will still be there next month.

I love chocolate. I love cake. I love pizza. I love pasta. I love wine.
I love cheese. I love lying very still for obscenely long periods of time.
So, if I can do this, anyone can.

Dig deep, find your inner warrior and fight for what you want!