How to lose a size in two weeks (and never miss a meal)

Everything happens for a reason

For years I have been trying to find an ideal form of exercise for women over 40. Trite but true: “After forty, if you want to look good you need to choose between the face and the rear end. You can have either but not both”. It was certainly true in my case: I trained myself down to my ideal size in 1990, when I was 41. The figure looked fab, the face looked fifty and drained! In my rare visits to gyms, temples of modern exercise, I am always taken aback by seeing granny faces attached to almost waif-like pre-pubescent shapes.

Enter Janie – an incredibly fit, beautiful and tall occupational therapist and my colon hydrotherapy graduate from South Africa, in her mid- to late- twenties. She pumps, spins, cycles, runs, holds an emotionally and physically challenging job in the health service and assists me at training courses, all without losing any sleep, and preserving her beautiful features, sharp wit and a wicked sense of humour. Not a single wrinkle on her face as yet, needless to say.

We talk. She says moving out of the rat race to a seaside hospital, “the graveyard of ambition”, has saved her life. I complain about “losing face” when I start exercising properly. “Get a vibrating plate”, she says. It’s all the rage in South Africa. You only need to exercise 30 minutes three times per week, and it’s as if you were exercising three to four hours per week. My parents’ friends, a couple in their late forties, have a Vibrostation™. They exercise on it thee times a week for 30 minutes, they look fantastic, feel great and can still gave their wine and cheese. SOLD!

As they say, “the penny dropped”

I am a great fan of using vibration therapy. If you have had a colonic in Wellbeing Now, you would have been on our Stress Buster Chi Machine for a few minutes before the start of your hydrotherapy. I use, with great success, ultrasound vibration with my massages and facials, to ensure deeper penetration of nutrients in creams and masks and speedier recovery from injuries.

I go on Google and do my research. There are plenty of genuine articles and knock-offs on the market – from 129 to 6,000 pounds. I decide to go for Vibrostation™ – they are not the cheapest but not the most expensive, UK-based, offer references, answer sensibly technical questions over the phone and offer an unconditional 2-year warranty.

The Vibrostation™ arrives in Wellbeing Now a week later. Steve, my partner and our manager, installs it in no time. By that time, I secured my training partner or “lab rat” Jessica, who is by means a stick insect and is going away for Christmas on the same day with me.

To achieve our goal, we need a structure

It’s now 29 November Thursday. We have exactly two weeks to lose a size.

My professional background in physical exercise and personal training helps: I understand straight away that by simply standing on the vibrating platform neither I, nor Jessica would tone up in two weeks. The only way to tone up is to move more and eat less.

Move more

I can see how Vibrostation™ helps move more: any exercise conducted on a vibrating platform would engage, as usual, the muscles involved in performing the exercise. However it would also involve into multiple contraction and relaxation movements those core stability muscles that usually would be in a balanced static contraction during the exercise performed on a mat or using gym machines. This does mean, in fact, that you move more while standing on the vibrating platform than while completing your reps and sets in any other way.

The other secret to moving more is to keep your abdominal muscles slightly contracted – not pulled in so that you can’t breathe, but just tensed enough so that your awareness embraces them while you exercise.

Eat less

This is a tough one: endless Christmas drinks and parties seem all to take place in the first two weeks in December. How can output possibly exceed intake (this is the formula you need to lose weight permanently) when a glass of wine is around 200 calories?

The answer is – “one glass only” at parties and no starches after 2 pm – just vegetables and proteins. Finish all food at 7 pm. A chromium supplement taken with or immediately after lunch should do the job (if you want to try it make sure you are not contraindicated!). It reduces sugar cravings, suppressed appetite and stops me from wanting to drink the second glass of any alcohol. Jess decides to go for the same, but without the chromium, just on willpower.

And, to give us a little bit more of a boost, we’ll have a colonic each.

To see how we got on, please wait for the next installment!

Read Jessica’s account of the events.

More to follow

Before and After 2 weeks


Before and After 2 weeks