With much apprehension I am now counting down to the start of 11 weeks of serious training and dieting, following Nick Mitchell’s 12 Week Body Plan. Due to some timing issues I only have 11 weeks in which to do this, so this will only make it harder.

In general I’m in pretty good shape already, but I feel it’s now time to fully embrace the Mr Vain that resides within me, and achieve the body I’ve always wanted. So the next 11 weeks are going to involve a strict regimen of weight training, additional HIIT with a low carb & low calorie diet. Not fun. But what will be enjoyable is seeing the progress I will hopefully make.

With any diet or exercise regimen the concept of a goal is of critical importance. After all you can’t reach your destination if you don’t know where you’re going. But interestingly a body comp transformation like this doesn’t have specific goals that one can measure. We can hope for a six-pack, but what actually is a “six-pack”. Any skinny guy has a six-pack, so do I just want to be skinny? Well, no, I hope to be lean AND muscular. Again this is all very intangible, so the goals need to be focused more on the process itself. I trust the efficacy of the diet and training regimen and I know if I comply 100% then results will come. So for me the goals have to be about adherence to the process. Each and every day my goal is to comply with the plan and let the results present themselves.

Day 1 of the plan starts tomorrow morning (Sunday), for which I am about to buy the required foods so I can hit the ground running. Admittedly I am also about to have a “final meal” of some unhealthy nature, with which I shall no doubt remember fondly in the coming meat+veg fuelled days. Over the last few days I have also been emptying the house of anything vaguely unhealthy, to ensure temptation is kept to a minimum. As of now the kitchen is a very dull place.

One of the significant advantages (and disadvantages) I will have is the use of my home gym. Having my own space, equipment and music control is a real joy, but as you’ll expect it does lack much of the equipment/machines that a “proper” gym would have. To work around this I will have to adapt the prescribed exercises to the facilities I do have, which although a pain, will be a much easier and cheaper solution than spending hours at the local gym.

In terms of progress I aim to put a daily update on this website and also on Facebook. Please do let me know your thoughts and questions as I continue through the weeks, and do please excuse any low-carb induced ranting that may arise.

Now to study the training plan, do some shopping and annihilate some carbs whilst I still can….

P.s. Note the picture of the 12 Week Body Plan above signed by Ben Pakulski & Nick Mitchell :)