I had my first review with the gym trainer last night - after one month's puffing away on get-fit machines.

He looked at my physique and produced weighing scales to see if I had fought off any fat.

I shuffled onto the machine expecting the very worst.
- It read 16st 4lb.

I checked with another machine at the leisure club and also at a friend's house.

They are all saying the same thing.

It seems I have somehow lost 5lb since joining the gym!

I can't help wondering where the fat disappeared from?
My ear lobes certainly feel smaller.

After the weigh-in we discussed stepping up the cardiovascular (aka sweat a lot) exercise programme.

Treadmill and exercise biking will increase from 10 to 15 minutes each.
And the rowing machine is now 12 not 10 minutes.

If I have time I can still flex muscles with the weights.

After the review I tried the new regime and it seemed to go well.
- A different challenge was set last weekend when I went on a camping trip.

A fantastic and rather tasty diet of meat, meat and meat was challenging tummy-wise.

But I kept a bigger build at bay through walking, picking blackberries, singing and games of charades.

Diet is an area to really work on and I need to set up a proper programme of some sort.

The Express office was shocked when a bag of mints were handed around the other day.

I pointed out that one mint was 40 calories.

This equates to around four minutes on an exercise bike.

Last night I thought a lot about takeaway food or 'mmm' as the chief reporter calls it.

I tried to work out if a burger bar would serve me just 1/4 of a burger...