I arrived at No1 Boot Camp in Norfolk with slight trepidation after having a ‘not so amazing experience’ at the last one I went to last year with a different company. However, as soon as I arrived, I was welcomed by the lovely owner Deena and shown to my lovely comfortable room and my mind was put immediately at rest. My room had an en-suite bathroom (there are other room options that are cheaper – sharing a twin or single rooms with own or shared a bathroom). It was a relaxed setting for my 7-night stay.
There are two buildings – the main house is a gorgeous old manor house with a large lounge area with a roaring fire (which we needed as it was -2 to -6 when I was there!). The second building, which is separate a slightly more modern affair, was opposite the main building. Both set amongst a huge area of land in rural Norfolk.
After settling in I was shown around and went to meet one of the trainers – the hilarious Tom who had to weigh and measure me… Ugh! He was lovely and very professional and gave me a good understanding of what was possible to achieve and how. Basically, do what they ask and you will achieve! They planned what my food portions should be based on these readings and what I wanted my result to be – mine was weight and fat loss (though some others wanted muscle or to put on weight).
After the weigh in we had time to relax and then dinner (amazingly delicious and not as small as I thought it would be!), where we met the rest of the guests. After this we went to meet the head trainer an ex-military man called Gee who had devised the programme for the week.
Some of the guests had been there a week or even more and had already shed loads of pounds, most over a stone in a week and their body shapes changed. The guests were all shapes sizes and ages and from all different backgrounds. On my week we had an actor, accountant, business owner, doctor and builder – so a real mix and luckily everyone was so lovely and encouraging, which was also very important as the week was set to be tough. Special shout-outs to Rosie, Chan and Taylor who proved essential to get me through the camp.
First morning the call time was 5.30am starting training at 6am then breakfast at 830am – yes 2.5 hours of training. The first day you hit the ground running. All days are long but, in all honesty, goes very fast and all meals were simply amazing and made with love by Matty.
Exercise would be weights, circuits, long walks/hikes/spinning and everything in between plus a yoga like cool down. These would be led by Gee, Tom or one of two other trainers – all brilliant and motivating, and also kind. They know when to push you and when to rest – I have a bad knee, so they took this on board and worked around it. It really is bespoke, and, on our week, there were only 12 of us so we had lots of attention though I am sure that happens every week. The team there are A class!
We did exercise Sunday – Friday inclusive full on with a mid-week weigh in, not for us to see only for the experts. This was to see if we needed to adjust our eating or exercise some of us did a fast or two as well. This included me and I was actually surprised to find this easy -with a shake around 430 and a good breakfast and lunch the next meal we had would be breakfast the next day at 9am. Honestly it was great!
Apart from the daily exercise and food plan – they give you a talk on nutrition which was brilliant! There are also massages on offer which is the only additional cost which I would highly recommend delivered by a fantastic Thai lady called Nidi, who was not only incredible at her job, but also a great character. We were also lucky enough in our week to have an expert visit called Genna from Clinique Allure who offered facials, botox and stomach toning – this was also brilliant at an additional cost.
On the final morning we went for our weigh in and were measured I was delighted to have lost 5.5 pounds and several cm’s around my body.
This is 10/10 and I would highly recommend.
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