I feel great. I think.

On the 31st December, I asked myself these questions:

Q. How many do you smoke a day?
A. Up to 30. Quite literally chain smoking.
Q. How many cups of coffee do you drink each day?
A. Up to 15. Always strong.
Q. Do you drink too much?
A. Yes, always make time to have a few when the 'day' is done to try and relax.
Q. Are you overweight?
A. Yes. Weigh over 15 1/2 stone. Haven't seen toned muscle in a long time.
Q. What's your diet like?
A. Terrible. Coffee and a smoke for breakfast. Junk food/fast food much much later on in the day.

Here's the thing, a few years ago I gave up smoking and was running and cycling marathon distances. I was in the gym all the time as well.

I got lazy and complacent though and developed bad habits over the last 4 years. In my defence I have been under tremendous financial pressure for the past couple of years as well but that wasn't an excuse for me.

Over xmas I was getting a bit down with myself so I asked myself, if I was serious about making some changes again. Changes that would impact not only on my health, but my mentality. I really did decide that enough was enough and slowly but surely, without being too strict, began to make them. I set myself short term goals to be achieved by the end of January and took each day as it came. As the month went on I began to feel the effects and impact of the changes I was making and found I was making great strides so I pushed myself harder as I became more confident.

So much so, I asked myself the same questions on the 31st January:

Q. How many do you smoke a day?
A. I have stopped smoking completely.
Q. How many cups of coffee do you drink each day?
A. I don't drink coffee any more.
Q. Do you drink too much?
A. I gave up alcohol at the start of the month and haven't drank since.
Q. Are you overweight?
A. Heading in the right direction. Weigh about 14 3/4 stone now. The gym is paying off in a big way and did my first 5k run in god knows how long earlier today.
Q. What's your diet like?
A. Eat every 4 hours. Porridge/oats, almonds and honey for breakfast, fruit and yoghurts during the day. Much healthier meals in general.

Just to point out one thing, this isn't a 'look at me I'm great post'. I know it might seem a bit strange, but I hadn't shared any of this with anyone so it kind of felt a bit anticlimatic when I was thinking about it over the weekend as I was working out what I should be doing in the gym next. So, I genuinely hope you all don't mind that I post this up for your comments!