A shadow of my former self......

I'm one week into 2011 and my health regime is firmly underway. I have managed to lose 8lbs in a week, give up smoking and refrain from drinking alcohol. I've somehow achieved all of that without having any kind of breakdown and whilst Mel insists I have been withdrawn and grumpy I'm surprised she can notice the difference to my natural state. I've even watched Manchester City twice on TV without creating new swear words so I really am making good progress.

I'm determined to get back into shape and that shape is not the wheezing sack of potatoes that I have been doing an impression of for the last several years. One of my four chins has already disappeared and two of the other three are looking distinctly concerned for their future.

I've given up smoking with the help of Champix which is a drug you start taking whilst still smoking. Gradually, over the course of a week, the urge to smoke becomes less and less and each cigarette becomes slightly more repulsive. By last Tuesday the thought of a cigarette was making me want to heave and stopping altogether was a relief.

Champix is not without side effects. It makes you feel nauseous particularly straight after taking it, which has also helped ensure that I don't revert to eating the entire contents of the fridge. The other major side effect is more enjoyable and comes in the form of psychadelic, twisted dreams that are difficult to emerge from. I quite like it.

I have used an application on my iPad called Livestrong which helps me track everything I eat and any exercise I do (which so far I hasten to add has amounted to one brisk walk due to injuries sustained whilst hurtling headlong down by sister-in-laws stairs on Christmas day). I am limiting myself to 1500 calories a day which providing I eat the right kind of foods is not proving too much of a struggle. My fruit and vegetable intake has increased tenfold (admittedly from a low starting point) and my fat intake vastly reduced.

I don't particularly feel like I've suffered. Going back to work has kept me busy and has also allowed me to vent my spleen once or twice before resuming a zen like calm befitting my new monastic lifestyle.

Not drinking has meant that I am not hungover which means I don't feel the need to eat junk.The lack of alcohol is also ensuring any remaining nicotine cravings are minimal and manageable.

I realise that my current regime is not sustainable long-term but I'm committed to maintaining it for a month at least at which point I hope to have kicked the fags for good and can then move to a more sensible calorie intake and a few drinks every now and again.

Next week is Mel's birthday and we have a night away at Northcote Manor near Preston which is as fine a restaurant as any in the UK and we are also staying over for the night. We have gone for a 'gourmet tasting menu' and the excitement levels in our house are reaching a crescendo at the prospect of putting abstinence on the back burner for one night at least. Mels parents and her sister Penny are coming with us and it should be a lovely night.

Two days later, Fred and I are flying out to France for three days to assess progress, pay workers and plan the next stages of the project. I am really looking forward to seeing the work completed and am really keen to push on to concluding the renovation. I always enjoy time spent with Fred, he knows everything about everything and we amaze each other. I am amazed at the extent of his knowledge and the skills he possesses and he is amazed at the lack of mine. I think it's called a symbiotic relationship.

Blue Tuesday

Tomorrow is Blue Tuesday when the nation returns to work with fragile resolutions just about intact, extended waistlines bearing chronic indigestion and a sense of relief that normality can re-commence. After the consumer led financial orgy that is Christmas, the money squandered over the festive period needs to be replenished and the population also needs to re-acclimatise to a diet that does not provide 5,000 calories a day.

The holiday adverts have started to appear already reminding us all that sunnier times lie in the near distance and the Cadburys creme eggs will be stocked in the shops over the next few days reminding us all that Jesus was in fact born inside a sugar filled egg or something. I forget now, it's so long since my catholic upbringing that I forget most of the religous festivals unless there is food involved. Good Friday when the death of Jesus is remembered with reverence and abstinence by Christians is a highlight for me as I am a big fan of the hot cross bun, especially toasted and buttered. Whereas Easter is just dead to me. I'm not a big chocolate fan so I just let that one go and enjoy the bank holiday.

Speaking of Bank holidays, we have one extra this year because of some bloke marrying some woman so we're already planning how best to incorporate that extra day within our comprehensive list of holidays in France. I am positively aching to spend some time in France and with little prospect of a week there until April due to work, I am planning a brief trip with my Father-in-law Fred to see the results of some recent work done on the holiday cottage. We have had floor tiles fitted throughout and I'll also see the fruits of Freds labor from the three months he and Pat spent there at the back end of last year. With my fitness regime beginning, my diet well underway and giving up smoking I need something to look forward to. That will do nicely.

Work Party (Two words that do not belong in the same sentence)

The first real signs of spring occurred this week and I could feel my spirits lift. The sun has appeared every day this week and you can smell spring in the air and I'm not just talking about the shit that the farmers have already started spreading on their fields.

My mind inevitably turned to fishing as it always does at this time of year. I'm looking forward to getting some lake and river time in France fishing for carp in between jobs that need doing. I'm also a member of the biggest fishing club in Europe -  Prince Albert and I was excited to learn that they have acquired three more lakes in the Midlands including one which has not been fished for 30 years. The only problem is that all three lakes are out of bounds for the next two years unless you undertake a 'work party' which will give you a special permit.

In my old fishing club a work party was a doddle, half a day of cutting branches, clearing paths and drinking coffee whilst talking about cutting branches and clearing paths. They were almost enjoyable.

Armed with that experience I booked myself in last week for a work party near Chorley in Lancashire. I was the first to arrive at 8am and my spider sense began to tingle when I spotted three huge mounds in the car park. One was sand, another gravel and the third ballast which is basically rubble.

One by one, other members arrived. Each face wore the same troubled expression as their visions of a pleasant day in the country evaporated into thin air and were replaced by the reality of a day of hard labour.

Eventually the work party organiser arrived. Wheel barrows and shovels were issued and instructions given including the inevitable health and safety demonstration.

The next six hours were tortuous beyond words as I carried barrow after barrow of each pile around to the other side of the lake to assist in the reconstruction of new fishing pegs. Everyone was feeling the same way and a mutinous atmosphere began to develop. Tempers were frayed, people accused of slacking and just as chaos was about to break out the organiser eventually allowed everyone to leave with their precious stamp in the book.

The drive home was horrific as my arms struggled to grip the wheel and my feet strained to push the pedals. I knew I would be in trouble the day after. As a man who is used to pushing a mouse around a desk, I began to appreciate just how out of shape I was and wondered how people do manual jobs day after day.

Sure enough, I spent the next two days walking like John Wayne though it has spurred me into getting into better shape. (which will be my third 'new start' this year)

My in-laws Fred and Pat have made huge progress in France. The central heating boiler has been replaced, electricians organised and the plumber starts on Monday as we turn the shell of a building next to our house into a  luxury holiday home that will boost our income in the short-term and in the long term provide a basis for semi-retirement in order that I can pursue my writing ambitions. Fred is working really hard each day, though he has kindly saved a number of jobs for me. I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting back involved in the ever increasing list of jobs that need to be completed.

In France, the weather is even better than here and with less than two weeks to go until we set off for our ten day trip the countdown has begun. Mel and I are both well overdue a break even if it will be a working one.

You have to start somewhere.........

.........and actually I started somewhere else. I am a regular blogger (Sundays only) at www.Limousinliving.com/blogs where I try to describe our gradual transition to a life in France.

We acquired a property there in 2007 that we are in the process of rennovating. If you remember the 1970's detective series Petrocelli, you will remember how the common thread across the series was him building his own house. Each week, after solving the latest case, he would add one more brick. Our project is like that only without the murder cases.....

What was to have been a 3 year project now looks increasingly like a 5 year one, though - as I keep telling myself - its a marathon not a sprint. Our eventual plan is to live there managing a couple of holiday lets and doing whatever else it takes to earn enough money to sustain a simple lifestyle. Think of the Good life but with really bad French language skills.

For now (and the foreseeable future) I work in IT, selling outsourcing and professional services.

There are numerous things in life that hold my attention and get me up in the morning.

• My wife Melanie, my best friend and soul mate.
• My passion for fishing, particularly Carp and Barbel which was what first led me to the Limousin region.
• I am consumed by music of all kinds, I used to play in a band but these days just listen to others.
• I am an avid reader with strong pretensions of being a writer.
• My love for Manchester City. Having stuck with them through thin and thin, I await our imminent dominance of world football.
• After leading a hedonistic life in my twenties, I now look after myself and keep fit by playing squash and swimming though I occasionally lapse into mild binge drinking.
• My love of comedy and my desperate and often childish attempts to find humor in any situation.

This blog will be sporadically updated with whatever occurs to me at a given point in time. It is intended to supplement the other blog though for simplicity I will post my Sunday blogs here too.

Thank you for visiting, I look forward (with some nervousness) to your feedback.

Alan