TRACIE BATES, 46, lost an amazing five stone in a year after booking herself into a New You Boot Camp.  My moment of truth came when I looked at my holiday photos. It was a terrible shock because although I weighed around 15-and-a-half stone, in my mind I was curvy.

After seeing those photos I knew I had to do something drastic. A friend was about to embark on the LighterLife diet but I knew that wasn’t for me. It had to be exercise because I would never have managed something that involved not eating. Then I saw the ad for the New You Boot Camp. I knew I was unfit because I didn’t do any exercise and I couldn’t walk up stairs without getting out of breath but I was more bothered about the fact that I couldn’t buy nice clothes – when I went into Selfridges they didn’t have anything in my size.

The first thing that happened at New You Boot Camp was the fitness tests. My results were pathetic – I was horrified by how unfit I was. The week was designed around military-style fitness activities like hiking, log carrying and wriggling under nets, and to be honest I hated every minute of it. I was on the phone to my husband crying every day. I’m quite competitive, and it was humiliating to be the weak one. But unlike those who were overweight and unfit and went home, I stuck it out. It was awful, but it worked brilliantly – in that hideous first week I lost inches.

I came home with a programme of running and strength exercises that would fit easily into my life, an eating programme to keep my energy levels constant and a determination to keep going. I live on the coast, so I started by running alomg the path from one bench to the other, then walking to the next one. It probably took three months before I really enjoyed it – before that I kept going because I was frightened of what might happen if I didn’t.

I went back to  New You Boot Camp three months later, and I’ve been back several times since then and really enjoyed it. I now go to the gym too and after being so resistant to changing my diet I eat far more healthily – lots of fish and fruit, although I do still indulge myself. I lost five-and-a-half stone over the next year and dropped from a size 18-20 to a size 10. Every time I dropped a dress size, I got rid of all the bigger clothes so I could never go back there again. I can honestly say that New You Boot Camp was the best investment I’ve ever made – it was a brutal way of getting myself started but it worked!!*