Better day today. Did workout last night - although I suspect that the melted butter that I had on my globe artichoke afterwards probably was not very good for me. However, I just want to get into better shape, not kill off all of the pleasure in my life, so I'll let that one slide.

Have you ever tried globe artichokes? They are good.

Managed to get up ok this morning and did 30 minutes on the cross-trainer and 50 of each (4) type of crunches. Go me. Ok, I know it may not seem a lot to the fit folks out there, but it's a start. The plan is to do this twice a day, but it's taking some getting into. I know now that it's just not going to work every day, because of my lifestyle, but if I aim for two a day, then hopefully I should get at least one.

This evening, for example, I had some visits to make connected with a funeral that I'm going to tomorrow. Bummer. I seem to be going to a lot of funerals just lately. Goes to show the point - you just don't know how long you have got, so make the most of your time. As a great friend often says "this is real life, it's not a rehearsal".

This is part of the reason why I am not going crazy on this fitness kick -he other part of the reason is, admittedly, sheer bloody idleness. However, it is a valid point that I just want to improve my lifestyle so that there is still plenty of enjoyment out there, not regiment it into a torture camp.

I once read that there is no point in walking sedately into your grave in a perfectly preserved body with lots of money in the bank. Rather you should skid sideways into the grave, completely skint, in a worn out body, shouting "Woo hoo! What a ride!!!"

There is a happy medium there, but it's a valid point none the less.

I woke up this morning with a stiff neck. This could have something to do with the exercise - particularly the crunches - however, I have done these before without similar problems, so I suspect that it is just a co-incidence.

Diet hasn’t been too bad today. Now, when I say that, however, I’m not actually “on a diet”. I have however, thoroughly moderated my eating patterns. I’ll write it up at some point in due course, but essentially, I am eating a lot of fruit and vegetables and not a lot of anything else.

I am not a vegetarian, by any stretch of the imagination. I love meat (and I had a couple of slices of lean ham this evening, for example.) I just find that cooking meat and two veg is too much hassle. If I am going out, I eat normally, but if I’m at home, I eat salads and fruit.

The salads are probably not exactly the most healthy possible, because I whack things like olives and sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts into them, but I figure they must still be “healthier” a lot of other junk that one might eat. One day, if I happen to trap a passing nutritionist, I will attempt to find out …