Boot Camp

I joined a boot camp last year in New York. It was eye-wateringly expensive, and borderline humiliating, as it required me to do undignified exercises in the Hudson River Park, in full view of promenaders. Still, it worked. You can do the same thing in London, at British Military Fitness, which looks muddier and more humiliating, but is at least cheaper. The equivalent some of my LA friends go to is Barry's Boot Camp, which takes place in air conditioned privacy. Obviously: it's not unusual for LA girls to workout in full make up, and they need to stay cool so that it doesn't slip off. (That's why the girls who run outdoors wear baseball caps - not to protect their skin from the sun, but from prying eyes).

What these bootcamps all have in common is that the exercises are tough, and the coach won't accept any slacking.

Now I'm applying everything I learned at Bootcamp Republic - and TLOML is applying his knowledge from years of serious swim training - to the bootcamp we are now running from Fox Corner. It has just one member. Jack, of 'fat Jack' fame.

Last week the vet told us he is 50% fatter than he should be. We switched his regular, low fat food for a prescription-only 'Obesity Management' one. But the real problem is his sedentary lifestyle. Hence the boot camps.

Here he is in training:

As you can see, he is a master of the 'limited movement' workout. Basically cat callanetics. But we're working on that.

In addition to the 'cork on a string' regime, he also now has a blue ball which dispenses his food, which means he can only eat if he pushes the ball around. Annoyingly he has worked out how to dispense it without pushing it very far. We're going to start pushing it around for him and forcing him to walk at least a few paces for each meal. And we're expecting a feathery-thing-on-a-spring to arrive any day now, which - until he outwits it - should provide the calorie burn we want him to get.

Sadly there is no 'Quick Trim' for cats. We're in it for the long haul I'm afraid.