F45 challenge, Week 8: Was it all worth it?

After eight weeks, was it all worth it for Stacey Hunt? Photo / Getty Images

Meet Stacey Hunt. She loves wine, hates protein powder and has zero willpower. How hard could sticking to a gruelling eight-week fitness challenge be?

After two months of turkey mince, kale, too much turmeric, a constant internal battle with protein powder and more squats and burpees than my math-challenged brain can handle, I found myself at the finish line.

Having never stuck to any sort of diet for more than a few days I was pretty happy with my efforts. Even if I strayed from the food plan on occasions.

The final week was pretty uneventful. Even though I was well and truly over the food I was in a rhythm with the meal prep and the classes.

I was pleased it wasn't finishing any later in the year as with the festive season in full-swing it was getting harder and harder to follow the plan. To stick with it 100 per cent you would need to forego a social life - you couldn't eat out, or even go to someone's place for dinner. It does make life pretty restrictive, hence why I deviated from the plan.

Shout out to the Westmere butcher whose meat packs made my life so much easier during the challenge. Not only did it help with prep time but having high quality meat to pair with all the kale and spinach made it just that little bit more bearable.

I was pretty happy to have reached the end to be honest. The amount of time you have to put into meal prep gets to be pretty draining. So much so that heading into the last week I'd already ordered a week's worth of paleo pre-made dinners for the first week after the challenge. I wanted a break from all the time spent in the kitchen but didn't want to throw away eight weeks of work so figured this was a lazy but still healthy option to ease back into post-challenge life.

I was also looking forward to being free from the feeling of guilt that would hit me anytime I ate something I shouldn't have, or indulged in a wine or two.

Eight weeks done - so was it worth it? Photo / F45 Training Facebook

The results

I was a bit nervous heading into the scan knowing I hadn't stuck to the plan completely. While I was feeling fitter and healthier I didn't feel like I'd undergone a dramatic transformation.

I felt like I'd invested a lot of time and energy into the eight weeks but perhaps if you didn't do multiple classes per day and live 100 per cent by the meal plan you're results weren't going to be so noticeable?

This feeling wasn't helped by an article I read on the F45 website titled: 'Deviating from the meal plans can ruin your results'.

Excellent.

And so as expected my final scan wasn't as great as I would have liked. Initially I was pretty upset and had enormous feelings of regret and guilt about all the times I'd eaten foods I shouldn't have or drunk a glass of wine instead of having water.

Remember how I said I didn't regret all the treats I'd eaten in Hawaii? Well now I did.

I'd seen all these Instagram images of the global winners of previous challenges and had seen some amazing transformations within my own studio over the past eight weeks so I was, as so many females do, comparing myself to everyone else instead of focusing on my own journey and achievements.

My before and after pics are virtually identical. I didn't do the underwear shots like recommended so perhaps that made the results harder to see but I doubted it.

I walked out of the scan wondering if I'd wasted eight weeks of my life for very little reward.

Once I sat down and looked at the results a bit closer though it wasn't all bad and I realised it was totally worth the effort.

I was down 3.1kgs and had lost 2.2 per cent body fat. This was the part I was disappointed in to be honest, I had expected more.

But taking in the positives I'd lost 9.1cm from my abdomen and 4.6cm from my chest. I'd also dropped two points in my visceral fat level - a recording which indicates the amount of fat surrounding internal organ - so this was a good result for my overall health.

My verdict

I got a bit of a surprise opening the challenge app during the last week and spotting that there were 'maintenance phases' for the four weeks post-challenge.

I took one look at it and went "absolutely not". I need a break from prepping three meals and two snacks a day. I need a break from weighing out food portions. I need a break from the bland food.

What I don't need though is a break from the classes. The strict food plan might be in the bin for a while but my commitment to the classes wasn't going anywhere. I love them. I love the feeling of accomplishment after finishing a challenging class. I love how I feel stronger and fitter than I did eight weeks ago.

And while I'm done with the food side it's definitely prompted a permanent change in my eating habits. I now know I can eat a lot better and that I can cut carbs and sugar and survive.

My before and after pics might look the same and I may have felt disappointed by that, but I felt a lot better in myself overall. I may not look like the a Victoria's Secret model and I'm not exactly ready to tackle an Ironman but I feel like I've toned up a bit and improved my strength and fitness in a big way. Plus I feel happier, am sleeping better and have much more energy during the day.

So yes it was hard, time consuming and at times boring, but it was actually a lot more manageable that I thought going into it. The first two weeks in particular were hugely beneficial for me and I'd happily but myself through the torture of those weeks again when I need to re-boot my system.

The challenge is expensive. F45 as a gym isn't the cheapest option (different studios offer different pricing) and the food bills each week do add up, but I consider it money well spent.

You also do need to be quite self-motivated. The instructors are there to help you in the classes and the challenge app is full of great advice, but there's no one there each day making you stick to it. You're not being weighed each week to check your progress so it's very much up to you to stay on track.

Despite the amount I have moaned about things over the last eight weeks I actually think I'd do it again. Maybe mid-winter when I'm hibernating though!