Sunday

Did 62 minutes on the treadmill today which came to exactly 1000 calories. This is good, as I consumed a smidgen too much.

Alcohol is my 'problem' at the moment - it's the holiday season, of course, but once I start going back to work on Tuesday (New Year's Day, alas), that'll take care of itself. New Year's Eve tomorrow should be my last excessive calorie day for a while. Hopefully.

Saturday

First weights session in week #4 today. Went very well; surprisingly easy, to be honest, especially compared to the hell that is meant to be the 'easy' week.

As said, this week it was four sets of 8 repetitions, and I added 5-10 per cent to all weights across the board (from week #2). Abdominals remained the same.

Shaved three seconds off of my row PB, too.

Here's the workout:

And here's what I ate:

I was quite low in calories after my evening meal and felt I needed something else before I retired - hence the sandwich.

Friday (196)

First up, the Christmas miracle - I lost one pound this week. Amazing given all the crap I ate. I did make it to the gym four times, which isn't bad going over the Xmas period (which sounds like something Mrs Claus used to have.)

I did 45 minutes on the treadmill today. It's all I had time for. This means I only lifted weights twice this week, but that's sometimes how things work out. Tomorrow begins week #4 of the overall plan, which is a heavy weights week - everything drops down to 4 sets of 8 reps (except abdominals.)

Here's what I ate:

That's a basic (but tasty) spaghetti bolognese dinner, in case you're wondering. Home-made and with lean mince it doesn't have to be such a nightmare.

And here's my nutritional breakdown for the week:

Not my finest of performances, but the end result worked out okay. This week I'll mostly be keeping it leaner, with the obvious blip on the horizon that is New Year's Eve.

Salut.

Thursday

Did 60 minutes of hills at 6.8kph today instead of the weights workout. Why? I slept really, really badly after work, and felt like I was putting myself at risk of an injury. I'll do the weights tomorrow, which ends week #3.

Here's what I ate:

Not too bad. The meat in my sandwich at 'lunch' (actually overnight) was leftovers my Boxing Day dinner and so slightly heavier than normal. But I'm getting a lot of protein this week, which won't do me any harm.

Boxing Day

Much better:

See you tomorrow, where the weight session from hell will resume.

Christmas Day

Ho ho ho! Here's the damage:

I skipped dinner entirely; I was incredibly bloated after all that lot and didn't eat again until just after midnight, at work.

Not good, but could have been worse. I have a Boxing Day meal to get through but otherwise will be keeping it super-lean now until the weigh-in on Friday.

Christmas Eve

Another very tough workout. Held it together better than last time but believe me - it's a bitch.

Took 70 minutes.

Here's what I ate:

Was going okay until the late-night munchies kicked in. That's what alcohol will do for you. Was a pretty low fat meal but I'm feeling a bit bloated today, as a result. Need to try and hold it together for the end-of-week weight-in, although I'll probably do 60+ minutes on the treadmill on Friday to take some of the edge off. As I said before, if I can flatline this week, it'll be a result.

Sunday

Steadied the ship, and all that. Did an hour on the treadmill.

Here's what I ate:

Weight session #2 of week #3 later today. I'll be resting then over Xmas and Boxing Day - not by choice - and then will finish week #3 on Thursday and Friday.

My goal this week, basically, is not to gain any weight. I think if I can flatline or lose a pound it'll be a result.

Have a good Christmas.

Saturday

Right, here's a great example of how quickly one day can go horribly, horribly wrong.

Here's what I ate:

Tis the season and all that, but we can see clearly here how when one goes out how quickly it can all get away from you. I drunk a fair bit and that alone totals 1508 calories. Throw in the obligatory late-night kebab - which was another 1111 kcal, thanks to the death that is real mayonnaise, and we're looking at 2619 kcal of excess. That's more than I'd have on any normal day, all by itself. Put that on top of the rest of my day and we're toast.

Yes, it is Christmas, but I'll have to try and remember that your belly is for life. Too many of these and a lot of my tremendous - and it is tremendous - work will be undone.

Yesterday was a day off, too.

Back to the gym today - weight workout #2 in week #3. I'll do the treadmill tomorrow, then my gym closes for two days, so it'll be two forced days off, and me trying my very best to put the fork down.

Friday (197)

197 pounds - lost three this week. That's more like it. With about 14 weeks to go, I only have to lose slightly over 1 pound per week to make target.

Did 45 minutes on the treadmill. I'm off tomorrow, and actually going out, so it might end up being a bit of a high-calorie monster. Will do my best to reel it in though.

Here's what I ate:

Photos tomorrow - just didn't have time today!

Thursday

Today was the first day of week #3 - this, theoretically, is an easy week, but thanks to the shift to 20 repetitions per set... man, it was totally fucking killer. The bench/press-up, chins and dips were extremely, extremely fatiguing, to the point where, in the bench/press particularly, I had to pause for a few seconds towards the end of each set (particularly in the last two) because my muscles were toast.

I increased the rest time between sets to 45 seconds (from 30) and up to 1:30 between exercises. It was still very hard. Even though, as said, the weights were back to where they were on week #1, the overall increase in reps made this a right bastard. I mean, that's 160 reps for chest, there, with the bench/push-up, over about 7-8 minutes (with rest.) That's brutal.

Abs stayed the same (20-25-30.)

The workout took 72 minutes overall. I think these 'easy' weeks are always going to be longer simply because of the reps. With the row, I was so tired when I got there that I was just hoping to break 4:00, and I did (3:52).

(Incidentally, week #5 has 25 reps for each set, so that's going to be fun.)

Here's the workout:

And here's what I ate:

Tomorrow - photos! And a weigh-in.

Wednesday

45 minutes on the treadmill. Went very well. Feel sharp, alert, fit and strong today, and lots of other good buzz words. That also finished off week #2 of the sixteen week plan.

Tomorrow I go back to the 'easy' week, returning to the weights I used in week #1, except now the repetitions go up to 20. This will actually be quite hellish, especially on the bench/push-up combo and the pull-ups and dips. It's going to hurt.

Here's what I ate:

I swiped two chunks of Dairy Milk as a treat - man, it tasted gooooood. Here's my nutritional intake for the past week:

Apart from the blip that was the 16th, that's pretty good overall. Protein was all over the shop but averaged out to a reasonable enough figure. Fat has been very low the past three days without really even trying.

Tuesday

An absolutely cracking workout today. It's strange, because for a couple of days I've felt like I was coming down with a cold, and there's a very old rule that the absolute worst thing you can do is hit the gym hard when you're ill. However, I've never put an enormous amount of faith in it - if you're seriously ill, then obviously you'd be daft to go. However, if you're only feeling moderately unwell or just suspect something is on the cards, I often find that a gym session can be exactly what the doctor ordered. Sweat it out, and all that. However, it can still go either way.

But it went great today - felt super-strong and fit all the way around and the bench press/push-up combo was spot-on. Took another two seconds off my 1000m row, but had to totally bust my balls to do it.

Today was the last weights day of week #2. Once tomorrow's cardio is done, that's the first two weeks complete. That wasn't too bad, was it? Week #3 is back to the 'easy' week, but with more reps. I'll go into more detail about that on Thursday.

Here's the workout:

And here's what I ate:

All that lot was only 39g of fat.

Back to work tomorrow - no more alcohol for me for four days, now.

Friday I'm going to take some photos and put them up. It's a mixture of arrogance and unease but it's something that needs to be done. In fact, I'm going to put new photos up every two weeks from then onwards. There's nothing worse than seeing 'before and after' pictures in any kind of gym program that claim to be x weeks apart but quite blatantly are not (and sometimes look as if it's two different people.) So, by the end of this, I'll have eight groups of pictures, and can do a proper comparison. I'm also planning to do some shots of the various exercises in the program at some stage. How thrilling for you.

Monday

Back on the saddle again. Did an hour of hills on the treadmill, both to make up for yesterday's over-indulgence and because I was fifteen minutes short last Friday. The machine said it totalled at exactly 1000 calories.

Here's what I ate:

I'm back to work tomorrow so the alcohol intake will end for another 3-4 days. Until then, fair play. It is nearly Christmas, you know.

Sunday

Today was an example of where things can go pear-shaped very easily, with one's diet, if you let them.

Gym was good; feel like my body is now more prepared for the hellish bench press/push-up combo and I didn't fatigue anywhere near as bad as previously. Did the row in 3:42, which is a three-second improvement. That was tough, though, and I feel that I might plateau here for a while.

Here's the workout:

And here's the massive slip-up which was my calorie intake:

What-a-mistaker-to-maker! It was a treat meal day, but the problem was reaching for the second burrito. That added another 500 calories to the day. And this came on the back of an 11-hour overnight shift, which always means extra meals and snacks. I had people over and hence the couple of extra glasses of vodka; that's only another 116 calories, however. All-in-all, though, a bad combination. Remember as well that all my condiments (and cheese) were either low-fat or minimal; using normal portions and fat-level versions of these would probably have added another 500 calories or so. As it is, all that lot only totalled 95g of fat, which is only slightly above the RDA. Tis hell indeed.

I'll be keeping it very lean the next couple of days to get my average back on track.

Saturday

Took my day off today. Here's what I ate:

The Pizza Express pizza from Sainsbury's is a real find; half of the American is only 298 calories and 10.9g of fat. It tastes like the real thing, too. On the other hand, that Tesco Healthy Living Caesar dressing is some of the blandest shit I've ever put in my mouth. However, when the rival 'name' brands have as much as 35g of fat per 100ml - and call themselves 'healthy' or 'low-calorie' - you're kind of limited for choice.

Back to the grind tomorrow with the second weight session of week two.

Friday (200 lbs)

The good news first - weighed myself today and I came in at 200 lbs. That's a seven pound (half-stone) loss on the week! I'm well pleased with that. It seems a lot and I can't help thinking that a chunk of it must be water, but I have worked my arse off, so who knows? Either way, I'd expect a more healthy (and maintainable) 1-3 pounds per week from now on.

Did only half an hour on the treadmill thanks to an incident at the doctor's surgery.

Here's what I've eaten today.

My treat meal. Chinese food really is death, isn't it? I had really quite modest portions and it still totalled 930 calories. Normally I'd have eaten about 50-100 per cent more than what I had. Quite, quite shocking. Tasted great, though. Pushed my fat up to 88g for the day which is still (marginally) under the RDA for an adult male. And we're only moderately over 2000 calories (2,109). It's all good.

Thursday

Today was the first day of the second week of the plan. It's now four sets for the next five weeks, rotating on a heavy, low rep/light, high rep basis, each week. Abs remain at three sets, but have five extra reps per set.

Today was 10 reps with a 10 per cent weight increase on last week. Here's the chart:

Went pretty well; the bench/push-ups remains difficult, and four sets of pull-ups was a beast.

Managed to better my row time by two seconds as you can see. The first and last 250m were great; the middle 500m or so a total nightmare. Every 20-30 seconds I had to force myself not to quit. It was only through sheer stubbornness that I managed to beat my previous time.

Here's what I ate:

Too low on the calories; amazing what a difference even a modest intake of alcohol makes to your total, especially when you remove it. However, while I wasn't hungry all day, this needs to be a minimum of 2000 kcal. Looking back now I didn't eat a big enough lunch.

Weigh-day tomorrow. I've felt a bit bloated the past couple of days for some unfathomable reason and I hope it's not my body playing some kind of game with me by holding water or somesuch. At the very least I should have lost a couple of pounds this week.

Wednesday

Today was the last day of the first week - three weight-lifting and three cardio sessions in the bag!

Tomorrow begins the first of my 'heavy' weeks - the cardio remains the same, but the weight sessions are now made up of four sets of 10 reps, with a 10 per cent increase across the board in all weights. Abs remain the same.

Did 45 minutes doing random hills at 6.7kph on the treadmill today.

Here's what I ate:

And here's my nutritional breakdown for the week:

My protein was a bit on the low side yesterday. Whilst I continue to maintain my 'a calorie is a calorie' stance I do think 100g of protein a day is pretty much a bare minimum to support muscle development and repair. Otherwise, that's not too bad at all - the fat intake is excellent. (The 'grade', incidentally, is a Calorie-Count.com thing.)

What You Need.

Here's what I bring to the gym with me when I workout:

Weight-lifting day - towel, water bottle.

Cardio day - towel, water bottle, MP3 player.

That's it. You don't need anything else. As the heavy weeks get heavier I'll probably introduce a weight-belt down the line, but that's about it. If you want to keep your hands to the level that Fairy Liquid has helped maintain then you should consider gloves. They can help with your grip to an extent but by not using them you'll toughen your hands up (calices, and what have you) and actually improve your grip, as well as your forearm strength.

What you definitely don't need is any kind of sports drink - they're a waste of time anyway but consider the logic of busting your ass for 20 minutes or so only to lose that from the 120 calories you'll ingest from a bottle of Powerade? There is something to be said for half a can of Coca Cola before and after a workout, alongside your half banana, and if you feel you need that extra bit of sugar, go ahead. But only drink water during the workout. You're not doing an Ironman here. Believe me, your electrolytes are just fine.

I drink 1-2 litres of water every workout, basically just having a sip after every set and every couple of minutes on the treadmill. Not great gulps - a sip. The old adage about how when your mind tells you you're thirsty it's already too late is absolutely true - nothing hits performance harder (and faster) than dehydration, even on a very moderate basis. Keep sipping that water.

Tuesday

A pretty good workout overall. Same plan as before:

The bench/push-up combo is still something I'm struggling with.

I did the 1000m row in 3:47. I powered through the first 500m in about 1:40, then held on for dear life for 300m (repeatedly having to tell myself not to quit), then got it together for the last 200m. It may sound a bit redundant, but whenever you're comparing your time against a fixed distance it absolutely makes sense to go as fast as possible as you get there a lot, lot quicker. However, when the lactic acid build-up is mountain-high and your muscles are screaming bloody murder, it's a lot easier said than done. Once the finish line is in sight, however (i.e., that last 200m), it's amazing what hidden resources you can find to get it over with as rapidly as possible.

3:47, incidentally, is a rubbish time, but it's a significant improvement on where I started the week. This progress trend can't be maintained but if I can get it down to 3:00-3:20 by the end of the 16 weeks I'll be pleased.

Today was the last bout of weight-lifting in the first week of the 16-week plan. The next weights session is Thursday, which is also the first of the 'heavy' weeks (remember it's a week on/week off, easy/heavy rotation.) The first week will be officially over tomorrow when I do the last cardio workout.

Here's what I've eaten today:

It's all good. It's very good, actually - I felt like I ate quite well and all that lot was only 51 grams of fat. I need to get some more vegetables into my diet but otherwise things are going pretty well.

Monday

Food:

My highest calorie intake so far; against the average it's fine but I'll need to keep days like this in check a bit. It's less the alcohol and more the extra sandwich. All that said I only consumed 52 grams of fat today. And the low-fat, high-taste hamburger I had for dinner was a cracker (and cooked in no oil.)

Did the 45-minute treadmill hill workout as before.

Feel fit and strong, and look noticeably leaner in the mirror.

Sunday

Ah, the benefits of a rest day. Totally killed the 1000m row, although to be honest I can safely say that if I'd had to endure another 30 seconds I definitely would have puked. The bench press/push up superset is a real killer. That last set of 15 push-ups is bloody difficult. Your arms are like jelly at this point.

Here's the workout, which is unchanged:

It took 45 minutes in total today, which was a significant improvement. As said, I skipped the 10-minute treadmill warm-up but did do a routine I've done for years that puts a bit of blood in the shoulders and triceps.

I'll remind you again that the weights are constant for each set, i.e., they don't go up.

And here's what I've eaten today.

You can see where I went wrong here - that bloody Knorr sauce. I stumbled across the low-fat pork by accident (1.7g of fat per 100g of weight - amazing!) and thought it sounded great in a kind of home-made kebab. I figured the Texan Barbecue sauce wouldn't be too bad but after consuming the meal and analysing the label discovered it was quite hellish. Lesson: do check the labels and don't make assumptions.

I had the full banana before the workout today (as opposed to my normal half before, half after) as I'd slept through lunch (because of working overnight) and woke up quite hungry. However, if you're going to attempt this program, I cannot state strongly enough that you should leave it at least two hours after any kind of proper meal before hitting the gym. Otherwise, believe me, you will chuck it all up.

I won't eat again now until a stroke past midnight (I'm working - last shift until Thursday night.)

Saturday

Yesterday was a prime example of where my 'floating' rest days come into play.

I'd worked the night before, and had planned to come home, eat, sleep, and hit the gym about 7pm. Around 6.30pm I suddenly had a weird feeling, and decided to call the gym to see if they were open. They weren't. Somewhere along the line they've recently changed their Saturday closing times from 9pm to 6pm. This, naturally, sucks. I missed the workout. Saturday became, by default, my off day.

Here's what I ate:

I meant to point out yesterday that, unless specified, I never add mayo or any other condiments to anything. This obviously massively reduces the calorie count.

Friday

45 minutes on the treadmill, which burned just over 700 calories. Here's how you do it.

Set your treadmill to the following: 'random' hill mode, input your weight, 45 minutes on the timer, set the level to the maximum (in my gym, that's level 20) and the speed to 6.6-6.8kph. It's a reasonable workout and the hills ensure you burn a lot more calories than a flat walk or even a medium-paced run. Even if my treadmill is a little generous and off by a 100 calories or so, it's a decent effort. (Remember I weigh close to 15 stone which has a lot to do with the expenditure level.)

Here's what I ate:

Lower calories than I really would have liked but that's just how it worked out; I'd 'saved' myself for the treat dinner but even then it all ended up rather low. Felt fine, though.

As I said before, today I weighed 207 pounds.

Thursday (Yesterday)

Today was the first day of the new workout program. I warmed up with 10 minutes on the treadmill, then did the following:

As said previously, the first week of this program is three sets of each exercise. The table above shows the reps I did for each one. In total, the workout took 76 minutes, which is way too long. I was really suffering after the bench press/push ups. The problem was I went in too gung-ho, let my ego get the better of me and used weights that were too heavy for this level of reps and intensity. I won't make that mistake again. I was completely exhausted after the row, which is a piss-poor time.

I think I'm going to skip the treadmill warm-up from now on, both to save time in the gym (the goal was 45 minutes) and also to avoid wasting energy. I have a ten-minute walk to the gym anyway so that should suffice to loosen me up a bit. We'll see.

I'll also cut the weights down a bit for the next session.

Here's what I ate:

This was one of my 'alcohol' days. Again, not to excess, but enough to make me feel I'm not totally missing out. There's quite a variety of foods in there and you'll note the calorie total is both in line with my goals (2000-2400 per day) and actually quite reasonable in any analysis.

I had (and will always have) half a banana immediately before and after the workout.

The calories in the sesame seed bagel shocked me a bit - it was one from Sainsbury's bakery and is much bigger than the packaged variety, which I'll switch too from now on as they're about a 100 calories lighter.

The flapjack was actually a school-cooked effort from my son - I wouldn't normally have it but it's hard to turn something like that down when it's been made especially for you.

The Masterplan

OK. I've given you the spiel. Now for some detail. Here's how it's going to work.

The 16-Week Plan

Basically, this is a 16-week plan that's split into three chunks - two 6-week blocks and one 4-week. The basic workouts remain the same in terms of the exercises that will be done, but the sets, repetitions and weights will change as the body does. Additionally, the program works on a consistent easy/hard week on/week off pattern, although even that has some unique elements.

As such, the weight-lifting part of the program for weeks 1-6 is like this:

Week 1 - Moderately high reps, very low weight
Week 2 - Medium reps, slightly heavier weight than week #1
Week 3 - High reps, very low weight (as week #1)
Week 4 - Low reps, slightly heavier weight than week #2
Week 5 - Very high reps, very low weight (as week #1)
Week 6 - Very low reps, slightly heavier weight than week #4

Each weight-lifting session is a full body workout, with three major power exercises (Olympic lift, squat, bench press), then pull/push-ups, dips, bicep curls and some rotatory shoulder work, then some abdominal crunches. This covers the entire body. To finish, there's a session on the rowing machine against the clock. This will mark my progress in terms of fitness.

I'll lift weights 3 times per week, with a full 48 hours in between. On these off days, I'll do a 45-minute cardio workout. So, it goes:

Day 1 - Full body workout (weights)
Day 2 - Cardio
Day 3 - Full body workout (weights)
Day 4 - Cardio
Day 5 - Full body workout (weights)
Day 6 - Cardio

etc.

I will have one rest day per week, which I will 'float', rather than putting on a fixed point (i.e., Sunday), as there's always one day a week where the gym never seems to work out. That day will then, by default, be my rest day.

The reason why this works (or should do!), is that on every odd week (week 1, 3, etc) I'll be doing a full session at the gym but the weights will be fairly light and the reps will be high. This will give me additional cardio work and also encourage good and proper form in all exercises, as well as allowing some level of 'rest' in preparation for the even weeks (2, 4, etc) where I'll be hitting the dumbbells a lot harder. As the weeks progress, the even weeks become tougher. The off (odd) weeks allow my body to recover enough to go all-out seven days later.

In all cases rests between sets and exercises will be minimal. Really, no more than 30 seconds between sets and a maximum of a minute between exercises. The point here is to shock the body into muscle growth whilst getting the heart rate up at the same time. Weight training like this not only burns a lot of calories while you're doing it, but keeps the body working extra hard while you're off-duty (i.e., resting), too. That, my friends, is a winner.

The first week of the first six weeks of the sixteen week program (!) is basically a 'primer' or warm-up week. It has one less set than the rest of the program. This is important because the body doesn't usually do well being through immediately into the deep end. Don't lose sight that this is going to be tough. It's a bitch, is what it is.

In weeks 2-6 I'll be building a solid base that should see me safely through weeks 7-12, where the real gains should be made (in terms of muscle strength and fat loss), and finally, weeks 13-16 where I'll do fine tweaks and really be pushing the iron around. Hopefully.

Nutrition

One of my goals throughout all of this, as I said, is to prove that you can eat reasonably well and still get into decent shape. However, while I won't be living the life of a Siamese monk, I will be watching my calories.

My aim is to take in between 2000-2400 calories per day.

Now, for most of the week this will be reasonably straightforward. However, I work night-shifts, 3-4 days per week on a three days on/three days off basis, and this means my eating schedule is a little different to most other folk.

As an example, my shifts run from 10pm to 9am. I'm working tonight. What this means is that I'll eat during this shift, get home about 9.15am, have some breakfast, and then go to bed. I will sleep through lunch. I'll wake up about 3-4pm, hit the gym, have some dinner, and then repeat this routine for two more days. Hence, my 'lunch', and my snacks, are consumed overnight, as opposed to during the day. I have breakfast and dinner as per normal.

On my days off, I'll eat at a more regular schedule. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, and 2-3 snacks.

Snacks will typically consist of fruit, fat-free yoghurt, nuts, etc. I'll try to limit snacks to 150 calories a piece.

My main meals will mostly be 500 calories or less. Two to three times per week, depending on how I feel my progress has been, I'll allow myself some kind of 'cheat' meal, but I won't go overboard. This can and will include pizza, burgers, kebabs etc, but in all cases I'll set out to make the 'best' version of each (i.e., wholemeal bread, no mayo, etc.)

I will cut out white bread almost entirely, and, except on 'treat' occasions, or if I'm working late or working out late have no bread, starches (potatoes), rice or pasta after 2pm. I will eat wholemeal bread for either breakfast or lunch (remember my 'lunch' can sometimes run overnight.) I will eat a minimal amount of dairy, aside from the odd yoghurt or non-fat milk with cereal. I will be careful to measure all usages of condiments and spreads.

I will allow myself to consume alcohol 2-3 nights per week, but never to excess. I'm going to mostly avoid beer (lager) and wine, focusing instead on 1-2 glasses of Guinness (packed full of antioxidants) where at all possible, and single measures of vodka or gin, with a sugar-free, diet mixer. When you're eating less you get drunk - or at least merry - a lot faster, so it shouldn't be much of an issue.

I will only consume water, diet soft drinks and black coffee (with sweetner). These are all zero or near-zero calorie drinks. I will drink at least two litres of water per day, aiming for three or more. This will help flush out my system and help the body take care of my protein digestion.

I will eat and drink a bit more over Xmas, although I'll do my very best to limit this to 2-4 days of moderate excess.

Supplements

In the first six weeks I won't be using any supplements at all, aside from a basic multivitamin and a cod liver oil tablet. In the second six weeks I may introduce some or all of the following - creatine, glutamine and protein shakes - but will wait until the second stage of the program before making a final decision on that.

Thoughts

While I'm very confident that this will work, my main concern is sickness or injury. Either or both can seriously limit progress. I had a four-day cold just last week and I'm hoping that I won't be seeing the likes of this, or anything remotely similar, in the foreseeable future. But shit does happen; I'll have to deal with it if and when it does. Hopefully my improved diet and those crazy endorphins racing around my gym-loving body will see off the minor ailments.

At all times I'd be interested in your thoughts and comments. Spammers and haters will naturally be given short-shrift but anyone with anything interesting to say is more than welcome!

So...

My name is Shéamus. You may remember me from such other award-winning blogs as "The Soapboxx" and "A Dirty Job". This is something very different. I've toyed with this idea for some time, and it's long overdue. See the picture? That was me, about four months ago. In this photo I weighed 218 pounds. Or 15 stone 8, for us Brits. At 5ft9. "Mean" and "big" is how my friends have typically described it, and they're right on both accounts. I was mean. And I was pretty big. I was strong, too. At this time I could bench a whisker shy of three plates, deadlift four and military press a pair on either side (on the Smith, admittedly.) But in no way was I in shape. My soul purpose at the gym was to just get stronger. It suited my needs at the time because I was working as a doorman. At my height, you need to be as broad as possible, and while I never became a full-on super-fatty because I do have a reasonable amount of muscle mass, I was a long way short of being 'buff'. I may not look it - and most people are surprised to hear I weighed that much at all- but my bodyfat here is a rather shocking 25 per cent or so. While not quite at Rick Waller levels, it's not good.

So, as said, I've had this idea before. I've been hitting the gym on-and-off for some twenty years. I've absorbed an enormous amount in that time, including the endlessly regurgitated junk like Flex and Muscle and Fitness, pro bodybuilder DVDs, the opinions and views of personal trainers and gym rats, scientific studies and publications and pretty much everything the Internet has to offer. I think I know an enormous lot about working out. And, being fair to myself, I have done a pretty reasonable job of gaining muscle and strength. I'm no Ronnie Coleman, but I'm not pumping myself full of all manner of chemical goodness, either. The problem is, while for all intents and purposes I think I look strong, I don't look in shape. This has been bothering me for a while. I can hold my own in the gym, but it's no good being able to lift the (reasonably) big-ass weights if you've got a spare tire and an arse to match. Less of a six-pack, and more of a twelve. And all that.

What I want to do is challenge myself. Specifically, I want to see if I can put this twenty-odd years of knowledge to the test and see if I can bust my sagging ass into decent shape. I also want to do this in a reasonably short period of time - not stupidly short (this isn't "The Auschwitz Plan") but not over six months or a year, either. Nobody can maintain interest in something so difficult for that long. And it is going to be difficult. It needs to be.

So, I decided on 16 weeks, for various reasons. One, 16 weeks, or four months, is long enough to see significant results but short enough to maintain my interest. It also breaks down nicely into manageable chunks (i.e., 4 x 4 weeks, and what have you). And, better, it'll take me into the early part of April which means that, assuming this is all a success, I'll be in great shape well before the summer when I'm actually going abroad in 2008.

In short (he says, after ten thousand words), these are my goals:

1. To lose bodyfat whilst maintaining as much of the muscle mass I have now as possible.
2. To get something resembling a six-pack.
3. At the end of it all, to weigh 180 pounds, which will represent a total loss of 38 pounds.
4. To accomplish all of this whilst spending no more than 45 minutes in the gym.
5. To eat fairly freely; whilst calories will be observed, no food is 'off-limits'.

This is my target weight. Naturally, I reserve the right to modify it downwards (not up) if it doesn't seem sharp enough to accomplish goals #1 and #2.

I also want to prove that it's possible to get into great shape without having to adopt some ludicrous diet, give up alcohol completely and not allow yourself a few (hefty) treats a week. Yes, I'll have to make some major modifications and will be keeping a close eye on the old calories (and fat), and will be improving my overall diet considerably, but not at the expense of removing all of the enjoyment out of life. To that extent, I'll be kind of putting Mike Mentzer's 'a calorie is a calorie' stance to the test. It's something I've always felt had some merit.

Mentzer was also known for his adoption of the approach that "a calorie is a calorie", and would often torment bodybuilders who were strictly dieting, by freely eating Danishes and other off-limit foods close to competitions.

Mentzer, of course, went on to become a bit of a mental but it's hard to imagine that had much to do with his philosophies on diet.

It's generally considered unrealistic to attempt to gain muscle mass without also gaining some fat as well. You can't stay super-lean whilst putting on muscle tissue, at least not consistently or to any great degree. The body doesn't work like that. However, I do believe it is feasible to drop a reasonable amount of fat whilst sitting on as much muscle as possible - certainly, I think one can drop double-digits in bodyfat without losing even a quarter of that in muscle. Pros do it all the time.

Hence, no food is really 'off-limits'. It's a case of meeting the diet somewhere in the middle; everything in moderation, and all that jazz.

To assist me in this program I'll be using the free resources from the good folks at Calorie-Count.com and publishing my data from there each day. I'll also be including my workout routines in full, including sets, reps and weights, just in case you want to take part in this crazy-ass experiment as well.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, to be honest, I'm not even sure I'm telling anyone anything at all. At this stage I'm not sure if this is something I'm going to spam to all my friends or whether it's just a tool in my self-motivational arsenal. However, if you plan to stick around, I can promise you some objective and independent advice, actual 'before and after' results, with photos, maybe the odd video, training tips, nutritional information, general gym advice and much, much more.

I'll also be weighing myself (at the gym on the proper scales) every Friday and publishing the results later that day. So at the very least, check in once a week. As of today (Friday, December 7) I weigh 207 pounds. Why the drop from the number above? Well, truth be told, I've been in and out of the gym quite a bit in the last month or so. I turned the wrong side of 36 in mid-November and it was all a bit of a wake-up call. Mid-life crisis? No, not really, but possibly a third-life one. I've been experimenting with different combinations of weight-lifting, circuit training and cardio in this time and feel I've put together a package that's totally first-class. I actually started this program yesterday (Thursday) and will be putting the results and data from all that up next.

This, then, will be a live experiment if you will. Visitors to this site will share in my successes and, I dare say, failures. This will be fun for you.

Just sixteen weeks to go...