Week One

Having read Neil's plan it's fairly straightforward to follow. Putting into practice though could be another matter. You have to start somewhere though and I started on Tuesday. It's hard trying to revamp your whole diet and it can be quite expensive, but so far I've managed to do it. Before I couldn't be arsed to steam veg and therefore rarely ate it, but I've had it every day so far this week, along with fish every day, plenty of chicken and turkey and of course the obligatory sirloin!

So my diet's pretty much getting itself sorted, but that's the easy part. I put in an order for protein as I was due to run out any day, and now the hard work starts!

I went down the gym last week and they have brought in new machines and equipment all round, however this has led to a decrease in space around the free weights are, making it even harder to use the equipment you want at the time you want. The gym gets really busy of an evening and you can easily end up losing motivation or not doing the routine you want. There was only one thing for it, I'll have to do my workouts before work.

The gym opens at half 6 and this is what time I aim to get there. The one good thing about having a baby who's a year old (in my case anyway) is that he acts as my alarm clock. Every day between 5 and half 5, he wakes up without fail. On Tuesday he woke me at 5:40, the ideal time for getting up to get to the gym for when it opens. Today it was 5, a bit earlier than I'd have liked but I was up nonetheless. It's amazing how an early morning workout can put you in a good mood for the rest of the day, plus the gym is empty at that time so I've got the place to myself.

My workouts are still taking shape, on Tuesday it was Deads, Squats, Chest Press, Chin ups and dips (although I'm ashamed to admit the latter two are assisted at this time). Today it was Chest Presses, Deads, Military Press, Bent Over Rows and Bicep Curls. All 4 x 8.

Thirty five minutes, gives me time to shower, get home, feed the lad, get ready for work and get to work for 9. Perfect!

First week almost complete and so far so good. However I have a stumbling block tomorrow in that I'm off to Wembley for the football and then watching the rugby, so it will be a bit of a session. I'm not going to allow myself to get obsessive over this so I'll allow myself a good drink every now and then, but it's the hangover and the temptations to eat absolute shit that's the hardest part, so if I can get through Sunday with a minimum of fuss I'll be pretty chuffed with my first weeks work.