The Fat Burn Revolution

Part I: the
revolution
starts in the mind

Welcome to the Fat Burn Revolution. My name is Julia and I am a fitness journalist and personal trainer. I devised this 12-week programme to enable you to get into
outstanding physical condition and finally shed the excess fat that has dragged you down for way too long.

If you love exercise and thrive on the amazing feeling of being in great shape, you and I definitely have at least one thing in common. But if, on the other hand, you are not a
typical fitness fanatic we have that in common too. I grew up hating playing sports. At school Physical Education was a horrible, humiliating experience where friends seemed to morph into vicious
opponents or seething ‘teammates’. The teachers in charge were no help. Their attitude was that you were either a talented sportsperson or you weren’t. And if you weren’t,
they made no secret of the fact that you were a waste of their time. Unfortunately, I was well into the latter category.

It got almost to the point of a phobia. I’ve never admitted this publicly before, but in my last year at I school I used to pretend that the silver christening bangle I wore on my wrist
was too small to fit over my hand and I couldn’t take it off. Jewellery was banned in PE class, so the teachers said I couldn’t join in unless I had it cut off. I refused, saying it was
sentimental. So instead of taking part in games, they sat me at a desk in a corridor and made me copy out the rulebook of a different sport each week. It was supposed to be a punishment, but I was
more than happy with the arrangement – that indignity didn’t come close to the mortification of being the last girl on the bench when teams were picked.

It was only a few days after I left school at 16 that I noticed my hand had grown and now the bracelet would not come off. The irony. Without a second thought, I took a pair of pliers from my
dad’s toolbox and snapped through it. It almost felt like cutting the chains that had tied to me to that lonely shameful desk in the corridor – at last I didn’t have to do (or
rather not do) PE any more.

I’m a very honest person by nature, and I’m not proud to have lied back then. But I wanted to admit my deception here to let you know that I do understand what it’s like to
feel like a carthorse in a dressage show. I want you to have no doubt that not being a sports hero when you were growing up does not mean you can’t be fit as an adult. I am in my mid-thirties
now and in the best shape of my life. And I’m happy to report that it is a phenomenal feeling.

It’s never to late to start exercising or to change the way you train and improve your diet.

I also know what it is like to carry extra fat around. I’ve never been more than a couple of stone overweight, but my weight has fluctuated throughout my life. Before I discovered the
principles and methods I’ll share with you in this book, I was locked in a constant battle to either get to or maintain a body shape I felt happy with. I’ve also worked with many people
who have lost a lot more weight. The Fat Burn Revolution programme has made incredible and lasting changes to their lives.

I was in my late teens when I began to understand that fitness didn’t have to mean torture. Realising that getting breathless from rushing up the stairs to my bedroom at the age of 16
didn’t bode well for the future, I decided I ought to force myself into some kind of exercise. I went to Woolworths and bought a Jane Fonda workout video, which was all the rage at the time
(this was in the mid-1990s!). I gave it a go in the living room one day when the rest of the family weren’t around and was astounded to find I quite enjoyed it. It wasn’t easy, in fact,
I found it incredibly tough, and had to pause the tape several times to catch my breath before re-joining Jane and her leg-warmer-clad aerobics class. (I still have no idea why woollen leg-warmers
were considered necessary for sweaty indoor exercise classes back then.) But doing it felt good. It helped that I was on my own with no one there to snigger or shout at me for getting things wrong.
The calming sensation of physical tiredness afterwards was a revelation too and I couldn’t remember ever having slept so well. As a very pleasing bonus, it also seemed to help clear up my
spotty teenage skin.