The Chippendales were out to get me

“So you are going to be talking about body issues in your show, not very manly.” You can always rely on a friend to boost your confidence. The answer is yes, I am talking about body issues, not sure if it is manly. I thought the age of being a bloke and just getting on with it was only still lingering around in my Dad’s generation. He once refused a plaster cast on a broken hand because “the blokes on the site might think I am soft.”

I have yet to ask my Dad for his opinion on the show.

This time last year I was under a very dark cloud because I believed that the Chippendales were out to get me- a stupid but very believable notion at the time.

They did however make me very conscious of the way I looked. I knew I was overweight and out of shape but hey surely that will take care of itself?

Unfortunately it doesn’t. After seeing the perfect specimens that were the Chippendales I knew that a lot of hard work and dedication went into making muscles just sit up on their own.

So I tried to join a gym. I say tried because I was told that I wasn’t fit enough to join an establishment that makes you fit. A new low for me.

Since last year I have lost 19lbs. It’s been slow going and painful. Now here I am again in the City that seems to be designed to keep its residents fit and healthy. If Beijing has six million bicycles then surely it’s only a matter of time before there is a hit record about there being six million steps in Edinburgh. The down side to all this exercise is the City’s six million fried food outlets.

So one week in, my daily treks are helping me and I have only eaten two things fried in batter. I don’t know what those two things were, nobody really knows what is underneath the batter but at 3am it tastes of heaven.