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...