I want to look like Jennifer Aniston but without the price tag

Toned and healthy looking Jen – a great outcome to shoot for, or an unobtainable body only available to a celebrity?

I need a goal you see. I have been writing here about my diagnosis with familiar hypercholesterolaemia and how I have, without drugs, brought my cholesterol down to a “normal” level, despite 3 doctors telling me that it could not be done with lifestyle alone. So I need to keep motivated, and while I have made a huge impact with just food alone, exercise is next up on my list for boosting my good HDL cholesterol and further reducing my bad LDL cholesterol. So I’ve chosen to dig into Aniston’s health regime.

I quickly recoiled in horror once I read articles like this one, that revealed it costs about  $141,037.97 to maintain Aniston’s look for a year. But, getting past the initial shock, which the article was designed to elicit, it soon became evident that a lot of the things that were deemed “mandatory” to get the Aniston look, are not officially “necessary” in my book. I don’t need to buy her exact makeup, go to her exact hairdresser etc. I am only interested in how she worked out to develop her great body. If you look at the jacked up price it seems that Aniston’s look is unobtainable. But I don’t think the essence of it is. There was one teeny item on the list that, at only $14.95, really caught my eye.

The mini-priced gem is the at-home version of Aniston’s personal trainer: Mandy Ingber. Yes it turns out that for a mere few bucks, or exactly £8 in my case, I can “sculp sleek muscles” and “unwind my mind”. The goal so close in hand, I blithely logged into my amazon account, and got myself a copy. The word you could also use to describe this, internet-purchasing-scene-of-the-crime, could also be giddy.

It’s weird but I felt like I had found this super secret cheaters club. This is going to be so easy! One DVD. Super-celebrity trainer! It says on the DVD case that I not only get me into the best shape of my life, but I will also unite my mind and body, and enhance my day to day experience.

Also, the reviews on Amazon are 95% 5 stars – a good sign. Bonus rounds galore! Super score!! Seriously, did I mention the giddiness – I was feeling pretty proud of myself for this find.

So I whip the Yogalosophy DVD out of the case and pop it in. I get to watch the intro with Aniston (very, very short -was wanting more …), which was suitably motivating – ‘I’m in the right place… Jen was here,’ I thought to myself.

And then we begin. Mandy comes on, and she’s funny! Not perky and over-trying-to-motivate-me, but silly and fun and not taking this getting in shape thing too seriously.There are moments, when she’s telling us tongue in cheek that her mantra is “I have a great ass”, and others where you feel like you’re getting permission to flounder awkwardly like a fish, look  awkward and feel half-crazed, but just know that it is so going to be worth it in the end.

But of course you know what comes next. This thing is hard! The burn is incredible. I don’t think I’ve had such a leg burn before. But so too, I don’t think I’ve seen results quite so quickly as the butt lifting I have started to see after only a week of doing this. So yes, celebrity shapeliness is not magical, it’s bloody hard work!

I am not quite so daring that I am ready to publish my “before” pics quite yet, but we’ll see. I have taken them, and will see how I am faring by February 2013 after extensive whispering of “I have a great ass, I have a great ass…” In the footsteps of a bikini touting goddess I now travel…