One month into my campaign to get fit(including my ski holiday at the start). Well what are the results? My weight has dropped a stone exactly from 13st 5lb to 12st 5lb, my arms are less chicken wingy and more muscular, my legs and calves in particular are definitley larger and more toned, stomach a little less flabby... blah blah blah etc etc etc.

What are the real results? Well as far as I am concerned my motivation and goals for this 'fitness regime' I am putting myself through have changed entirely. Yes - I have lost weight, yes - my body looks less revolting, yes - I generally feel better about myself. However, the two most important things to come out of this so far are competitiveness and confidence. This does not relate to how good / bad I look compared to other people, but to consistently seeing out each work out, not having given up or slacked off, not even taking one a little bit easy. I cannot stress how happy I am with the development of my fitness, I can feel my stamina building and my strength growing, and this is reflected in the marked improvement of my results (my 2000m time on the rowing machine is now down to 7 mins 40 from 8 mins 2 four weeks ago).

I have always been a person who looks for the quick fix, someone who gives up way too soon. I have never believed myself capable of achieving anything off of my own back, I have always had to have someone to urge me on. Now it is different; once this campaign is over I will not stop, I will start a new one, and push myself more and more. Being competitive with oneself is to be truly alive and clearly is the path to fulfilling one's potential (if potential is really finite)

Just a little note to any of you thinking 'now hang on a minute, a weeks ski holiday and two and a half weeks on a rowing machine... this is all a bit over the top isn't it?'. Well I skiied from 9.15-5am every day of my holiday to the point where I had to go straight to bed as soon as I got off the slopes because I was so knackered. So far I have covered 108,728m on the rowing machine (spending 7 hours 27 minutes and 46 seconds on it to do so), that equates to roughly 11,000 metres or 45 minutes of hard rowing per session. I do four sessions in a week and then a fifth visit to the gym where I have a sub 500 calorie session where I go easy on a bike / do some low weight high repetition weight training in order to keep everything ticking over and help my recovery. According to the rowing machine thus far I have burned 7186 calories, not including those my body uses in the hours after the workout, nor taking account of the effect on my metabolism.

I will swear by the rowing machine, it has unlocked my competitiveness and is getting me serious results. My advice to people however would be to find something you get competitive with yourself doing, it isn't so much the means of getting fit, its developing the attitude to do so.