It's a whole new year and the world hasn't ended yet, isn't life grand? With the new year brings all the weight loss TV shows and fitness DVD's with various celebrities donning lycra and jumping up and down while shouting us into better health.
My favourite is The Biggest Loser USA. We are a season behind the US over here and I think this is season 11 but I don't care, it's great. I've watched the British and Australian versions of the show but they can't match the US show. Bigger budget, better production values, total commitment from the contestants and the trainers make it essential viewing. And being America there is loads of crying.
Over here we have the Hairy Bikers Dieting show. These are two Geordie blokes who have had a cooking show on TV for years. They drove up and down the country on motorbikes and where ever they stopped they would cook up some local food. Unfortunately this combination of loads of food and sitting on their arses on motorbikes has made them both fat.
After their wives pointed out that they were taking blood pressure tablets which were just helping them to maintain a lifestyle that had got them into this poor shape in the first place, they decided to join a weight loss group and make healthy food as tasty as possible.
Anyway, my contribution to the new year fitness festivities is to enter the Pain Barrier race. This is a 10km run through woodland which includes such obstacles as cargo nets, trenches full of chest-deep mud, concrete tunnels half full of freezing water that have to be crawled through and people firing paint balls at the racers.
The fun all happens at the beginning of March so I have two months to get my shit together. See you in the pain zone.
