After the Christmas binge and a bit of a layoff over the last couple of months I thought I would weigh myself in preparation for a New Year fitness plan.

Yikes! I weighed in three pounds heavier than I am normally and found myself to be 11st 6 (I know, it doesn’t sound much but in percentage terms…). With Mark seemingly suffering from an eating disorder and losing weight rapidly it has become apparant that if I don’t do something we will end up weighing the same at some point. So, I have decided to do something about it and as with all these things, it’s best to set a target.

Now, I seem to remember reading somewhere that in the western world we tend to gain weight at the rate of about a pound a year (that’s 0.5kg for the metric amongst us) due partly to lifefstyle and to the fact that our bodies are pretty smart and tend to work out how to do the same amount of work using less effort, even given a consistent calorie intake. Extrapolating that back 18 years to when I left school, that means I would have gained 18 pounds over time or about 1st 4lbs.

Remarkably, that’s pretty accurate. I was 9st 10 when I left school (yes really!) which means that after 18 years of moderate weight gain I should be 11st – in fact for the past eight years or so I’ve been about 11st 2 or 3. As I said, I’m now 11st 6 after a lazy period so my aim is to get back to 11st in the first instance and then ideally get down to a fighting weight of 10st 10 to 10st 12.

How am I going to achieve that this coming year?

Well, first of all I hope to exercise consistently – if I ride into work once a week and once at the weekends, I should cover on average about 2100 miles. In reality, that’s quite a tough task so expect a maximum of 1500 miles to allow for illness and laziness.

Secondly, I’m taking up running with the aim of running at least twice per week during my lunch hour for at least four miles each time. Hopefully, I’d like to feel comfortable running up to eight or ten miles.

Thirdly, it’s possible I may start going to a gym but I don’t know when I’d fit it in and if I did it would only be one session a week – we’ll see.

If that lot doesn’t do the trick, I may even have to cut back on my eating. But that’s a last resort!

I wonder if my fellow moles have any similar plans?