My first steps....

So today could be the first day of the rest of my life. The first day where fitness becomes routine and a permanent feature in my existence.

I have to admit I approached the first exercise session of my new health regime with some trepidation. Eating healthily is just a case of substituting bad food for good food whereas exercise requires effort and drive.

The programme is easy ........... on paper. I read it, probably under some illusion that I was Mr. Motivator, thinking that someone with athletic prowess like myself (again I was delusional) would breeze through it and within a couple of days I would be running marathons and crushing metal with my bare heads. I was wrong!

My exercise consists of four minutes of running, then one of walking, repeated five times. This might not seem much but 20 minutes of running is a lot from a man who's most rigorous exercise for the last two years has been chasing the ice cream van down the road.

The aim is to find a decent pace, running around 700m every four minutes. This is by no means a blistering pace but the idea is to build my fitness during the first week of exercise.

Following a three minute rest after the running/walking I then launch myself in to a body weight circuit. This consists of: 20 squats, 20 press-ups, a 30 second plank, 30 sit-ups, 10 split squats (either leg) and 10 tuck jumps. Repeated three times.

Again, this circuit isn't mind blowing but try telling my big, red, sweaty face that when I'm struggling to complete even the first set.

This morning was hard and after this week the work will increase, and it will get harder, but I've taken my first steps in to fitness and it feels good.

I was worried that once I had finished I'd feel like rewarding myself with a fry up but, if anything, feeling sweaty, knackered and achy only made me want to eat healthier. And I think therein lies the key to sustaining the programme. Changing the way I live and the lifestyle choices I make improve me, and as long as I continue I will feel like I'm constantly moving forward.

So I had some lovely (bland) natural yoghurt with banana, and nuts, for breakfast. Chunky vegetable soup and some houmous with carrot sticks, oh and nuts, for lunch. And for dinner I had steak with sweet potato and, you guessed it, nuts.

I know harder times lie ahead, when my zest and excitement about the programme fade, but I must always remember the end goal.

John F. Kennedy once said: 'Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.'