Bit of background

I am currently heavier (read 'fatter') than I've ever been, and I know it needs fixing. Often when people settle into comfortable, secure relationships, they put on weight, and this has certainly happened in my case. I simply quite like cake, and all of its brothers and cousins on the food pyramid. Add on to that the fact that I have never really weighed the right amount, and you can see that I was adding problem onto problem.

A couple of years back, I went to the gym solidly for around a month, and I went down to 12/13 stone. I'm now well above that (15 stone, and with a body shape that scares children). This is why I responded to a request from Newcastle University for subjects to take part in a study to see whether physical activity improved a persons metabolism. I thought, that sounds a bit obvious - there must be more to this. I presumed that gym memberships were being given out as a part of this, and I went ahead with the series of little tests last weekend.

This involved:

• Sitting in a sealed egg-shaped compartment to have the volume of my body measured
• A fasting glucose blood test
• Exercising with tubes coming out of my arm and my mouth
• Sitting down for 30 minutes. I got my heart rate as low as 47bpm when I concentrated on it. They said that it was good - that it implied that I had a "big heart"
  

No gym memberships, it's all to be done on the streets of Newcastle. What's going on is that I have been entered in the group that has been given places on the Great North Run, which is taking place on the 5th of October.

I have been given a pretty complete training schedule (see my planner on the right), and I am very determined to stick to it. I have even paid to enrol myself on the Great Yorkshire Run on the 7th of September, which is not as great as the Great North Run, as it is only (only!) 10 kilometres.

So please feel free to monitor my progress, and please donate if you feel I, and the millions of people all over the world who lack access to clean water, deserve it.