This really does cover the Food & Drink categories but worth raising in its own right for completeness. While I'm dieting as such, my attempt to regulate the intake of delicious-yet-bad-for-me products is something that requires constant monitoring. I feel this is closer to a more disciplined regimen rather than having to offer up the age old "no thanks, I'm on a diet" line which is the curse of anyone keeping an eye on what they consume.

Being able to decline tasty treats isn't so much of a problem, as I've managed to avoid the cakes for peoples' birthdays in the office for the last six years (since giving up smoking) but it's a case of keeping an eye on myself to ensure my focus doesn't waver. Simply saying "No thanks" appears to be the best solution in the world.

Before disappearing on a well-earned holiday (I think so anyway), the third exciting installment in my milestones series ... my goals. Bit of a cold shower for the mental faculties when you start thinking long-term about your plans.

Now we've started down the road of planning for kids, it's my aim to be an active, healthy father in the coming years. With the assumption that I don't turn out to be a complete jaffa. Being there to support little people when they need it, and hell ... even the basic stuff like lifting them up for spins, playing football (if it's a girl, she will learn to love football). As a man in his thirties now and looking to do this for the next decade, I shouldn't be in a position where these activities are limited to two minute bursts before my energy is drained and "Daddy just needs a little sit down". That is my primary driving factor for fitness

Beer is without a shadow of a doubt the chink in my liquid armour. Tasty, tasty beer. It really is far too easy to just nip down to the pub for the proverbial "quick pint" and find myself staggering back after they close. While I'm no alcoholic (not officially anyway), and can not go down the pub with impressive regularity, it's the lapses which prove costly and suddenly morph from a Friday night celebrator "Hooray it's Friday" beer into six or seven pints. It's not binge drinking on the monstrous scale you see on the TV, but it's really more than I should be putting down the neck in a day.

I had a look at the Drink Aware site to see if there were any interesting statistics on here, and it's awesome. It would be easy enough to slip down to a pub and put away five pints of Becks Vier (tasty!), and their drinks calculator tots that up as over a third of my daily calories, and three-to-four times my recommended daily alcohol intake. Having developed a penchant for cider this year (yum), the numbers are even more frightening. That doesn't take into account the sugar content of any of these.

Tricks I'm using to slow my intake include;

• Getting an orange juice instead of the first pint of the day. First pint is usually a quick pint, so you tend to not notice the volume of the drink.
• Go to the pub an hour later than normal. If your group is planning on being there until the end of the evening, it means you're there for an hour less. Simple numbers but pretty effective.
• Sip, don't gulp. That first one always slides down a treat, that's practically a documented fact. Self-restraint is necessary here, and this alone means I'm now drinking just under than two pints to other peoples three pints on a per-round basis.
• Every third round, order something which isn't a beer. I've taken to ordering a diet lemonade or orange juice to break up the drinking and it doesn't feel like I'm missing out. Okay, it's still got a bundle of sugar in there and some caffiene but it's a cheap pint and certainly no worse than an ale. Do this when it's your round and you even save a little money.
• Offering to drive. Once you're out in the car, the temptation to have a pint dissipates pretty quickly. Thankfully my social group doesn't ostriscise drivers and that means there's no cajoling for being the sensible, sober driver. Especially in the winter when everyone's grateful of a lift home when the weather turns filthy.

2kg. Not a particularly inspiring number is it? While it wasn't quite the weight loss of the six week mark, I was hoping it would be a little more than that. The upside of this review was the results of all the other figures. Body fat dropped, lean mass on the increase, metabolism improving and there's a slight but noticable change in my physical shape too. Almost a danger of a jawline breaking out at some point, number of chins is definitely down to just one! While it's not quite time for that lycra vest we've all (secretly) hankered after, the chest and gut are closer to what I'd like them to be instead of being a shining example of what happens when you order in pizza with alarming regularity. My stats for this review give me ... weight: 82kg.

Mere exercise and the force of personality that is Cheerful Evil Lady will not turn a fat man into a slab of lean muscle. No indeed, there are other elements to be brought into the equation to make this a successful, and more importantly, long-term transformation. I've identified the four main categories to look over, so they'll be covered separately but we can reveal they're the blindingly obvious; food, drink, willpower and goals.

Half a stone! By jove, this gym malarkey actually appears to be paying dividends. In the seven weeks since this regime started I've lost seven pounds. More impressive were the four inches lost off the waist, chest and legs. That's reasonably dramatic and all contribute to trousers now fitting correctly instead of snugly. Now that's not a large amount compared to the dedicated few who are capable of knocking that total off in a couple of weeks, but it does mean I'm now down to the weight I was when we married at the end of last year. By "we" I mean the wife and myself, not myself and you gentle reader.

In contrast, a concerted effort of swimming several times per week last year allowed me to knock this off over about six months last year. This year that figure has been achieved with seven weeks of curtailing drinking, not changing my diet (so dinner out on occasion still viable) and regular, frequent exercise. It's not just the weight but the change in body shape. Still fat obviously and under no illusions, but as it stands there's a real danger a weight not seen since my early teenage years is within my chubby grasp by the middle of October. Feeling good, everything is simply that little bit easier to achieve too. Without further ado, my stats for this review give me ... weight: 84kg. I'm interested to see what the next six weeks brings as a return