So I do what most girls do and lust over fitness gurus on insta. I will never be like that - I love pizza, pasta, and just general carbs too much. But I really do need to make some kind of effort to get in shape. One particular insta who caught my eye was Emily Skye. Her 28 day shred sounded perfect for me because it was quick and high impact. I always need to see quick results or I get demotivated and just bail.
I didn't actually finish the plan. And I'm going to tell you why.
Ok. So to start:
- I really like Emily Skye. There's been loads of scandals and whatever around her, but in my opinion she's always came out clean, and she seems really lovely and down to earth.
- I dont mind her story, the 'skinny' girl to 'fit' girl. It's obviously not relevant to me (fat girl needing be a bit less fat girl), but I respect her honesty and isn't pretending she's lost 10 stone and 'you can too with my amazing plan'.
- I also like her attitude, in her guide she's very fair and hard talking. She talks about dedication, planning, no excuses, no mistakes. I like that, because I would just take the piss.
So on to the actual plan...
THE FOOD
So she writes a full meal plan, and shopping list for meat-eaters, vegans and veggies. I think this is awesome! In most plans you'd have to buy all three menus! So I read through the meals and their recipes, and thought 'yeah, I could eat this' and was pretty happy. Then I put the stuff into my basket.. No exaggerations here: one week was approx £100. A hundred pounds! I am a poor student! That was a no-go for me. I decided to alter the meals and make them cheaper (which she says categorically not to do as she's written it to be followed exactly, oh well).
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Sweet Potato & Smoked Salmon Omelette |
On top of that, the meals are okay. But they are pretty bland, and huge (not much meat, 30 eggs a week, 3 tonnes of veg a day). And you eat 3 huge meals and 3 snacks a day, you will NOT get hungry. I just couldn't afford it, and I couldn't even eat all the food! The meals are things like 5 egg omelettes, bean salads, stuffed peppers.
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Chicken & Roast Veggie Salad |
And is it weird that I felt the meals were very 'Australian'?! Fair enough that's not her fault, being Australian, but I just think she needs to work on 'translating' the meals over to other countries. We don't get kangaroo here easily.
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Tuna & Veggie Stack |
So.. in the end I just made my own food under her kind of principles: I basically ate porridge, chicken, sweet potato and asparagus for 3 weeks.
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Salmon with Pesto Green Veg |
THE SUPPLEMENTS
There are sooo many supplements. Like literally loads. She did say there were 'optional', but if you wanted to go hard or go home, you'd have to buy them. There are 7 different supplements, which come up as $$$$$. She does tell you exactly why you should take them and when, and what they do for you.
THE EXERCISE
This is the only bit of the plan I think is even worth it. It's really well planned, really easy to follow and it definitely works! Without giving away her whole plan, it's basically this:
- 40 minutes steady cardio a day
- Weights everyday (rest day every fourth day)
The cardio: the 40 minutes of cardio I found boring and useless. I swapped did HiiT and running alternating. And funnily enough her NEW plan has no steady cardio AT ALL and HiiT instead!
The weights: I absolutely love these workouts. She's isn't clear on what size weights to use, you can kind of guess with common sense. She writes 2 different workouts for each day, so you can do it at the gym or at home. You focus on different areas every day, and I just did it in front of the TV with home weights. They aren't any thing as intense as Kayla Itsines circuits' but they are really hard.
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An example of a day on the shred ^ |
SUMMARY
I did this plan for about 2 weeks and lost about 10lbs. I felt toned, fit and really energetic. I'm sure I would have amazing before/after pics if I carried on. But I just didn't have time. Morning cardio and afternoon weights but didn't fit in for me. The plan doesn't allow flexibility on this at all. It about 2 hours of exercise daily which is just way too much for me, as I hate hate hate exercise. And if I missed a day, I feel really really guilty.
BUT! Emily herself says that this isn't what you should do for the rest of your life. This is what she uses before a fitness competition, and we should just use it to kick start our healthy lifestyle - which I really think it does. I may try it again though in the holidays, when I have literally nothing to do.
PROS
- Clear, concise, easy to follow
- Full plan written out for every single day
- Weights workouts are good!
- Fully written meals for all diets
- Full shopping lists
- Loads of tips, tricks and advice!
- It WORKS! (For me)
CONS
- The actual plan is really expensive, if you don't get it off someone else on eBay
- Meals not to my particular taste, and HUGE
- Food is very expensive
- About 2 hours of exercise a day
- Lots of expensive supplements recommended (although they are optional)
Have you tried this plan, or any other from Emily Skye? Let me know what you think!