Monday 22nd October

Well, into week three and I've hit a stumbling block. I had a terrible nights sleep last night due to my boy being up and down all night, but still dragged myself out of bed to go to the gym this morning as tomorrow is his birthday which means a gym free day, plus I knew I wouldn't have the energy tonight.

As soon as I got to the weights I realised I wasn't up for it at all but set out to do my 4x8 routine regardless. It was one of the worst workouts I've ever done, and although I increased the weight on the bent over rows and squats, my form wasn't up to scratch and I've ended up doing my back in. I've had a history of back problems but have found that deads and bent over rows have helped strengthen it, but I made the mistake of increasing weight when I knew I wasn't up to it.

So, I had nothing in my back to do the deads and called it a day. As it turned out the deads were the only things I didn't manage but it put a downer on the start of the week as I hate not coming out of the gym feeling I've achieved something. Now I'm just hoping that I get some decent sleep and rest under my belt and that my back sorts itself out ready for a fresh workout on Wednesday morning.

As far as the food plan goes, the one thing I have changed on Neils advice is now I won't eat mackerel after my workout, it's porridge all the way for me now in the mornings and on workout days the mackerel is now consumed in the afternoon instead.

I've done ok over the weekend, other than a £100 shop on fish, chicken etc! I resisted temptation of a bender for the rugby and stayed in and watched it instead. I had five cans to drown my sorrows but five cans has to be better than nine or ten pints! Then yesterday we had a party for our son and there was a buffet on offer, the usual crap, pork pies, sausages, everything you'd expect and everything that would usually have tempted me, especially the sausages. However we also had a whole salmon that had been cooked so I opted for that with some salad and felt very pleased with myself at the end of proceedings, so at least I've proved I can resist temptation when it's put in front of me.

I've just got to get a killer workout under my belt so I feel back to normal once again...