Hillmotts Boot Camp

At the end of October I packed my bags and headed into deepest rural Cotswolds to Hillmotts Residential Bootcamp for lots and lots of exercise and some bonding time with my mum and sister.

So what does 3 days at a residential bootcamp entail?

Accommodation

The Hillmotts cabin is about 10 minutes from the Cotswolds town of Chipping Norton. It is off a track even further down a track...seriously remote with no 3G and even worse no phone signal whatsoever. 

An initial check in included a brief chat with one of the trainers about your goals for the 3 days. Your food likes and more importantly dislikes and a quick check through you medical history before stepping on the scales for a weigh in if weight loss was something you were interested in.

As I was travelling with my mum and sister we had checked into a triple room with en-suite. The room was very warm and comfortable with country chic decor.

 Food

Straight up there is not a lot of it. You are told in the initial orientation that you will be given around 1,400 calories a day. Everyday before your early morning session (more on this later) you are given half a banana (and only half) with some green tea to get that metabolism kick started. After the first session you are treated to breakfast; porridge with fruit compote  / honey or weetabix. A mid-morning snack is 2 rice cakes with humus or peanut butter and then lunch which consisted of white fish and salad on the first day and butter nut squash soup on the second. 

By the end of the day dinner was much anticipated. On day one we were treated to lemon chicken and peppers, wholemeal spaghetti pesto, sweetcorn and roasted pine nuts. Day 2 was lamb moussaka, steamed broccoli and quinoa. I have to say that the food was restorative and filling as well as being damn delicious. 

This is not a military boot camp or jail and you can take food and snacks in with you, you are just reminded at orientation to think about and focus on your goals. I did take some snacks with me that consisted of satsumas, unsalted peanuts and some ginger nature valley bars. I ate them all!

Exercise

I'm afraid that I didn't manage to take any photos of us doing exercise, I was too busy preparing myself for the inevitable pain and hard work that the exercise would entail but it was a jam packed schedule.

There was a total mix of exercises but the idea was that you started the day with the most intense (aka fat busting) exercise and then got in to some more specific exercises. There was also a couple of choices; whilst I chose Speed, Agility and Quickness others were offered Kettle Bells and I chose Interval Training while others went for another round of boxing. 

No matter what the session there were different levels so you could work as hard as you wanted to. There was no shouting at you but you were encouraged to work at your maximum for your own benefit. 

It was hard work and oh I ached but I loved the mix of exercise that was offered and being given new challenges. There were some things that were really tough especially the hill run which made up the interval training on day 3 but completing that was also a personal highlight.

Downtime

There was also a little time for some R&R so we made the most of spending some time together away from the distractions of children, TV and Internet. 

At the end of the three days I left 4lbs lighter, feeling mightily refreshed and dare I say it happy. I returned to work full of energy and raring to take on the world again, motivated to keep going with this weight loss journey. 

I went home and did a little bit more of this...and cannot wait to go back at the beginning of next year.