Body bootiful

DRESSED in high heels, leg warmers, black spandex and sitting on a backwards facing chair, curvaceous mother-oftwo Jayne Davidson could almost be posing for the cover a lads’ mag.

Instead, she is leading a Miss Booty workout session, an exercise class being offered by her new business Bootylicious Bootcamps, which focuses on making women feel good about themselves while losing a little bit of weight, rather than punishing themselves into unsustainable weight loss.

“I want to work with local businesses, as well as running the classes, to focus on making women feel happy with the way they look,” she explains. “That could mean offering discounts on makeovers, spray tans or even hypnotherapy treatments.

“I did some research beforehand looking at fitness classes and realised that it’s all about convincing women to change the way they look, rather than accepting the body they have. I want to change that.”

Now 37, Jayne has been dieting on and off since she was 13, swinging between a size eight and a size 16, as her desire to look good battled with the physical demands of pregnancy and motherhood.

Over the years she has tried almost every diet fad going, from Atkins to the cabbage soup diet, and even thought about giving Beyonce’s maple syrup diet a try.

A SELF-confessed foodie, Jayne says she loves to eat, but will wrack herself with guilt afterwards.

Getting pregnant with her first child, daughter Ellie, gave her an excuse to eat what she wanted, so she over-indulged on snacks and cakes. After she had given birth, she found she had gone up from her usual size 12 to a size 16, which stopped her from feeling confident and sent her back into another spell of dieting.

She describes being tormented throughout her life by the way she looks and feels, though admits that all the pressure comes from inside her own head.

BEFORE AND AFTER: Jayne before the bootcamp programme and right, how she looks afterwards

“I was never bullied at school, and I was never fat or anything like that, so I didn’t get called names,” she says. “My husband tells me he likes my curves, and he rolls his eyes every time I say I’m going on a diet.

It’s going out with friends that usually sparks one of these mad crazes.”

Jayne put herself on her first serious diet when she was 17, around the time she first started going on nights out. “I’m quite a plain Jane, but I do like to get glammed up for a night out and look my best.”

It was a friend’s wedding in Cyprus seven years ago that prompted her to drop from a size 12 to a size eight. She lost more than a stone in one month by eating one meal for dinner, and crackers and a small bowl of cereal during the rest of the day.

“There was a lot of pressure because I got down to the weight I wanted a month before the wedding, then the bride phoned asking for sizes for the bridesmaids dresses.

After I had told her, I had to stay at that weight until the big day.

“People were nice about it while I was there. I looked so different a couple of people said they didn’t recognise me. I felt happy at the time, but looking back I know I wasn’t. I was moody and bad tempered. I didn’t eat properly at the wedding and even had to take the dress off halfway through because it was so uncomfortable.

“Afterwards my husband actually asked me to put the weight back on because he said he preferred it. It was only after I was back to my normal size that friends confided in me that I had looked ill and miserable.

They said I looked better with my curves back.”

When her daughter came home from school making comments about how the other girls in her class looked, Jayne began to worry that her habitual dieting was having a negative effect on her family.

“I try not to worry about my weight in front of her and always tell her she’s beautiful, but they pick up on it, either from school or through the telly. We’re going to go running together now, nothing forced, but to bring her up living a healthy lifestyle and being happy about the way she looks.”

It was around that time that Jayne also decided to set up Bootylicious.

She quit her job as a part-time saleswoman and started the business in November last year. Working all hours, sometimes until 2am, she now has her first classes up and running and is bringing in people from all over the country for workshops to allow them to put on classes in their hometowns.

“This time next year,” she says, crossing her fingers “there will be bootcamps happening all over the country. It’s been tough getting to this stage, and I’m on a very tight budget now, but it feels amazing. I’m absolutely buzzing.”

􀁧􀁧 To book call 07841-054332 or see bootyliciousbootcamps.co.uk