Julia Buckley - The Fat Burn Revolution Boost Your Metabolism and Burn Fat Fast

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 werent. And if you werent, 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. Ive 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 couldnt take it off. Jewellery was banned in PE class, so the teachers said I couldnt 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 didnt 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 dads 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 didnt have to do (or rather not do) PE any more.

Im a very honest person by nature, and Im not proud to have lied back then. But I wanted to admit my deception here to let you know that I do understand what its 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 cant be fit as an adult. I am in my mid-thirties now and in the best shape of my life. And Im happy to report that it is a phenomenal feeling.

Its 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. Ive never been more than a couple of stone overweight, but my weight has fluctuated throughout my life. Before I discovered the principles and methods Ill 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. Ive 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 didnt have to mean torture. Realising that getting breathless from rushing up the stairs to my bedroom at the age of 16 didnt 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 werent around and was astounded to find I quite enjoyed it. It wasnt 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 couldnt remember ever having slept so well. As a very pleasing bonus, it also seemed to help clear up my spotty teenage skin.

The only essential equipment is a set of dumbbells and an exercise ball.

So, I kept at it and found I needed to pummel the pause button a little less every time. As the weeks went by I started to be able to move faster and noticed myself getting less malcoordinated. I found I had more energy and daily tasks that had previously been physically demanding, such as walking up the steep hill to my house, began to seem easy. Something was happening that Id never experienced before: I was getting fitter.

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Eventually I noticed I could match Jane and the leg-warmer-and-leotard crew in the advanced version of the workout. I could hardly believe I was doing it. Was I, Julia Buckley, now actually fit?

I wondered if I might be capable of doing some other exercises that Jane hadnt shown me, maybe even alongside other people. So I did something I would never have imagined myself doing just a few months previously: I joined a gym.

Nearly 20 years later, I can still vividly remember what it felt like to be that young girl entering what was a very male-dominated environment in those days, whose only knowledge of exercise had been gleaned from a Jane Fonda video, trying to get to grips with the scary-looking equipment. It was daunting to say the least, but I enjoyed the challenge and was really excited about the changes I was noticing in my body and how I felt. I was also tremendously proud of myself to be even going to a gym. So I just kept going until, eventually, I started to become confident in that setting.

Ive been a gym member ever since. I sometimes wonder how different my life and body would be today if I hadnt started out exercising in my parents front room. Thanks, Jane!