The Body Coach – The Shift Plan Cookbook | Review

I first discovered Joe Wicks aka The Body Coach back in 2014. I came across his now famous Lean in 15 Instagram videos and was instantly inspired. I have always loved to cook and eat good food but at that moment in my life I was unhappy with my body and my fitness routine was non-existent. I have previously written a post on the start of my Fitness Journey which you can read here.

Now that I had Joe on my Instagram feed I started using his quick, easy and healthy recipes and this was the start of my healthy eating lifestyle. 4 years on and my eating habits and food knowledge has become my everyday life and I feel so much happier and relaxed about my food choices and how mindful I am with eating well and exercising often.

I am still a massive fan of The Body Coach and I think what he and his team do is amazing. I have never done his plan even though I have thought about signing-up many times and I have recently thought about giving it a go. This brings me to the reason I am writing this post, I first picked up his first Lean in 15 – The Shift Plan: 15 Minute Meals and Workouts to Keep You Lean and Healthy last year, which I previously used once or twice but recently I decided to put it to the test to see if I could stick to a more structured healthy eating diet to see how my mind and body would benefit from this.

Now if you know me or follow me on Instagram you may have seen that I share a lot of my recipes and what I eat daily on my feed and on Instagram Stories, I’m always cooking up some delicious food. However, I’m only human and I started to feel a little demotivated and uninspired when creating new healthy recipes and found I was eating the same food and getting bored. So I picked up this cookbook and sat a wrote my shopping list and meal schedule for the coming week, using mainly the dinner recipes I used Joe’s recipes for a week or so and this is what I cooked up and how I got on.

WHAT RECIPES I TRIED FROM THE LEAN IN 15 SHIFT PLAN COOKBOOK

My Big Juicy Meatballs and Pasta – page 140 (photo above)

Prawn, Courgette and Lentil Curry – page 133

Chilli Con Avocado – page 69

Coconut and Cashew Daal- Page 96

Sausage and Lentil Casserole – page 151

OTHER RECIPES I TRIED

Joe’s Chicken Pie – page 98

Winner’s Protein Pancakes -page 105

Build- Up Bagel – page 108

In-A-Hurry Curry Fried Rice – page 118

Sag Aloo with Chicken – page 126

Black Bean Tofu with Shiitake and Rice – page 153

Sag Aloo with Chicken – page 126

Joe’s Sweet Potato Cottage Pie – page 163

Spinach and Turkey Cannelloni – page 164

WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT THE RECIPES

Overall, I really enjoyed using this cookbook, I was able to become inspired again with eating well and trying new recipes and what really worked for me was that because I am confident in the kitchen, I was able to change up the recipe or ingredients slightly to make these meals suitable for my children to eat too. They loved all the recipes just as much as I did and for me that helped as I always make the children the same foods that me and my husband eat as I am very lucky they eat everything I put in front of them.

The main things I changed was any pork ingredients, I changed these to chicken as the children don’t eat pork. This worked well for us as the recipes are very easy to follow and the ingredients are all foods we are all used to eating.

In terms of the price of shopping for all the ingredients I found it didn’t alter my weekly shopping total by much and nothing went to waste as some of these recipes used a lot of the same ingredients.

USING THESE MEALS IN CONGESTION WITH MY WEEKLY EXERCISE ROUTINE AND HOW I FELT

During this week or so of eating from this book I was also sticking to my usually work outs, I did one day at the gym where I did 20 mins of cardio, 15 minute HIIT and 20 minutes of weight training. I then had two 1 hour pilates sessions and a 25 minute Yoga session. I noticed that my body was more energised, I felt great, I didn’t have any issues with my IBS or migraines and I noticed I had lost some weight around the centre of my body (I never weigh myself) but I noticed just by looking in the mirror and from my clothes. This was just after a week!!

As a person that eats well 99% of the time I am really glad I challenged myself to do this and follow some of the guidelines Joe Wicks is always inspiring his followers to incorporate into their every day lives. This experience was just the recharge I needed to feel motivated to continue the way I eat and exercise. All these meals, lunch and dinners were very filling and made my body feel amazing and because of this I am looking to purchase the next two books in the series following The Body Coach’s SSS plan and to continue eating some amazing food because that is one thing I will not be sacrificing, I love to eat and will continue to do so!! Who knows I may even treat myself to the plan soon as I know I could work hard enough to achieve a complete new journey in my healthy eating and exercise routine.

Have you used this book before or have you experienced The Body Coach’s plan? Please let me know in the comments.

Pinar xo

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