The Company Team's January Challenge: The Third Weigh

The Company Team\'s January Challenge: The Third Weigh

The Challenge: Decrease body fat percentage, drop a dress size, get fitter and tone up with a personal trainer.

The regime: London\'s Third Space Gym launch \'The Third Weigh\' this month, a 12 week weight management programme which uses the latest fitness kit, treatments, nutritional assessments and a personal trainer to get rid of your mince pie thighs.

The details:

Membership of the Third Space (thethirdspace.com) costs £124 per month. The Third Weigh which includes 22 personal training sessions, use of the Ki Fit Armband, one massage and one colonic hydrotherapy session, nutritional advice and a detailed eating plan as well as a weekly fruit and vegetable box delivered to your door costs £1600.

Click through the gallery to see how Emma got on...

The Third Weigh: Week 1

I\'ve tried dieting and have had a personal trainer before but neither has shifted an ounce of fat or given me muscles like Madonna. The main problem is I lack willpower so I\'m not convinced this \'Third Weigh\' is going to work. I have to be chained to the treadmill before I\'ll run on it and have been known to have a fag on the way to the gym. Plus I love cheese and ate A LOT of it over Christmas.

The good news for my waistline is that this year, I\'m more determined than ever to get in shape so I vow to give my personal trainer Holly Pannett 110%. She\'s a friendly New Zealander based at the Third Space who has over 8 years of experience in personal training as well as a Masters in nutrition. She\'s also the brains behind the Third Weigh. My previous trainer was a man and I\'m sure I spent most of my sessions flirting rather than sweating so it\'s actually a relief to have a woman to train me. I like and trust Holly the first time I meet her which is lucky considering I\'m in my underwear after just 10 minutes having dreaded \'before\' pictures and measurements taken*. I\'m shocked when Holly says my body fat percentage is a whopping 38.5% which she promises to reduce to around 30.

She explains that I will have two 30 minute sessions with her per week but she expects me to put in another two sessions in the gym (luckily my regular dance classes count) plus 25 minutes of extra cardio to warm up each time I see her. I feel exhausted just thinking about it especially when the first session is booked in for 8am the next morning.

Luckily Holly also gives me a very cool fitness gadget to help with the motivation. The Ki Fit armband (kiperformance.co.uk) is described as the only multi sensor monitor which can accurately track how many calories you\'re burning, what physical activity you\'re doing, how many steps you take and the quality of your sleep. It\'s basically like having an electronic personal trainer attached to your body - not great if you fancy a piece of cake.

You have to wear the armband 24/7 (so avoid short sleeves if you don\'t want people to keep asking what\'s wrong with you) and record absolutely everything you eat in an online food diary. By logging in to their website where all your details are stored, and uploading the data recorded by the armband, you can get a pretty accurate picture of exactly how many calories you\'ve put in and exactly how many you\'ve burnt off.

I got really excited for the first couple of days because I was only eating 1,500 calories but somehow burning off over 2,000 which by my calculations would make me a supermodel in no time - and very hungry. Sadly I then realised I didn\'t include lunch and not all the foods I ate were listed (they don\'t have Nando\'s on the list for a start!). It might be geeky but I\'m getting strangely addicted to analysing my daily physical activity chart and seeing exactly when I\'m burning the most calories. In fact by day 3 I know the calorie content of every Pret sandwich and avoid Nando\'s altogether. The major benefit is it makes you think carefully about what you\'re eating because you can see just how long it takes to burn that extra glass of wine off. Luckily Holly only wants me to wear it for this first week so she can get a better idea of my metabolic rate, diet and general fitness. She\'ll then work out a personalised plan based on the results - something the Ki Fit can\'t do on its own.

My first 8am gym session was hell. Getting up while it was still dark outside made me feel sick and I cursed Holly as I pulled on my trainers. Bizarrely though when I actually got there I did quite enjoy it. Her session targeted my legs and wobbly bum with squats and lunges as well as specific exercises she tailored to my body and the muscles she felt I needed to build up (i.e. all of them!). I know it worked because I couldn\'t walk - or sit on the toilet - for the next 3 days. But the best thing? The hugely smug high I had when I got to the office pumped full of endorphins and feeling at least half a stone lighter with saintliness. I just hope I can keep it up for the next 4 weeks. . .

*I don\'t get paid nearly enough to post them on here - sorry!

The Third Weigh: Week 2

I\'m still feeling smug about the fact I managed to get to my gym (thethirdspace.com) at 8am TWICE last week. Not to mention the fact I went FOUR times in total. That is a record for me and I feel very proud of myself. Then I realise it was only the first week and I have a whole month of this to go.

Having worn the Ki Fit armband all week I have 7 days worth of data on exactly what I ate, how many calories I burnt each day and when, what physical activity I did and how many steps I took as well as info on my sleep patterns. The good news is I\'m not as naughty as I thought and do have some healthy habits. The bad news is there\'s still a lot of hard work to do if I\'m going to lose weight.

But I am sure if anyone can help me Holly can and after viewing all of my info online she works out exactly what I need to do to start seeing results at the end of the month.

As well as my usual two sessions with her this week I also have a nutrition consultation. She tells me that I don\'t have nearly enough protein in my diet and I need this to help my muscles repair after all the exercise I\'m now doing. As well as pointing out all the foods which have a high protein content (kidney beans, meat, fish, lentils, nuts, cottage cheese) she says a quick and easy way to get protein especially on days I am training is to drink a protein powder drink - she even offers to buy one for me cheaply online. She gives me recipes for protein smoothies and tells me I can also add it to porridge on freezing winter mornings which doesn\'t sound too bad.

She also recommends I take a probiotic complex this month, eat more oily fish like mackerel and salmon and chew everything slowly (it helps with digestion). But my favourite piece of her nutrition advice is to actually EAT more often not less. Fab! Apparently I should be eating five times a day to help stabilise blood sugar levels and therefore avoid the highs and lows which can happen mid afternoon and mid morning. So I stock up on nuts, seeds, oat cakes and hummus to snack on at my desk.

Every time I see Holly this week to train she asks me what I\'ve been eating and because she\'s taken so much time personalising a diet plan and recommending things I feel guilty if I haven\'t followed it. I now know what I should eat (we all do really) - the challenge will be actually eating it. I still crave naughty things like fish and chips - I blame the snow.

Oh - and next week I have to have colonic hydrotherapy (another part of the Third Weigh!) and Holly says there\'s no hiding what I\'ve eaten then. Yuck!

The Third Weigh: Week 3

Shit, it\'s time for a colonic. If you\'re squemish please don\'t read on. I have friends and colleagues laughing at the thought of me lying in a room with a tube up my bum. I meanwhile am crying. The good news is colon hydrotherapy is apparently one of the fastest ways to a flat stomach.

So I book in with Katalin Cziranku at the Third Space Medicine (thethirdspace.com) whose treatment is all part of the Third Weigh programme. My personal trainer Holly says she had a colonic with Katalin recently and it was great. I immediately notice the fact she has a very flat stomach.

My first consultation helps put my mind at ease. ‘Will it hurt?\' I ask Katalin repeatedly as I stare at the hoses coming out of a big machine at the end of the bed. ‘Not at all, and you\'ll feel so much better afterwards,\' she promises. She shows me lots of diagrams of the colon and explains how it gets deformed over time which means we\'re all left with some areas that are stretched larger than normal and others that become narrow and restricted meaning excess waste builds up and is unable to pass through.

She asks me to describe my bowel movements and point at pictures of, well I\'m sure you can guess. I think I have quite a healthy digestive system as I go at least once a day but apparently that\'s not nearly enough. If we eat three times a day we should have bowel movements three times a day too.

As she examines my stomach she tells me that the average person carries between 5 and 25 extra pounds of waste around with them. Basically I\'m told I\'m ‘pregnant with poo!\' Nice.
The whole point of a colonic, which involves flushing warm purified water up through the colon, is to cleanse and flush out this excess waste. There\'s something infectious about Katalin\'s passion for poo (honestly!) that makes me feel this is one of the most important things I\'ll ever do.
\"Colonics can help you in so many ways,\" she says. \"It can help clear up skin conditions like acne, psoriasis and eczema, reduce bloating, relieve IBS, prevent bad breath and excess gas, ease menstrual problems, backaches and even headaches.\" It\'s the ultimate detoxifying cure-all.

I lie on the bed (completely covered up with towels so there\'s no embarrassment) and wait for it to start. Without being too graphic the only slightly uncomfortable bit is when the hose is first, er, inserted. The actual process of flushing the water in and out gently as she massages my stomach and feet is actually quite relaxing. As the pressure builds up it can feel a bit uncomfortable but it honestly isn\'t nearly as bad as I expected.

Katalin talked the whole way through which kept my mind off what was going on below my waist. Finally after about half an hour she told me to go to the toilet and stay there until I\'d released any excess water. I honestly skip out of the WC feeling half a stone lighter. In fact I feel light as a feather for the rest of the day, well at least until I eat dinner.

If you\'ve never been for colonic hydrotherapy before Katalin says it\'s important to go in for at least 3 or 4 sessions close together to ensure as much excess waste is flushed out as possible. I did and by the end of the week I\'m convinced my stomach is flatter - in fact I know it is because I suddenly had everyone from my Dad to my boss commenting on how much weight I was losing on the programme. Oh and Katalin cares so much about her patients she text me after each session to ask how I was feeling - once asking me about my poo while I was waiting to interview the Prime Minister at No 10!

* On mentioning this blog Company readers can get a special discounted rate for a course of 4 or 6 treatments. Take 4 treatments for the price of 3.5 and 6 treatments for the price of 5. Individual treatments cost £75 per session. To book call 020 7439 7332 or visit thethirdspace.com