So, I force myself to run by entering races and events. This is the hard way of doing a 5k or 10k run and I know it, but always resolve to change and train more when I’m at the event.

What time of day is the best to run? This question is probably as old as running itself. Exercise science tells us the best time is the afternoon because your muscles are warmed up and you’ve probably had a good amount of food and water by this stage of the day.

In the real world however, the best time usually boils down to whenever you can fit it in. And for me, right now, with a husband who works long hours late into the night and a small child, plus living at a latitude where the sun comes up around 4.30am, early morning is the best time.

The problem however is that not only are my muscles cold in the morning, my willpower is not functioning at all. Every morning that I’ve set my alarm in the past week, I’ve pressed snooze – and then OFF.

I just don’t feel like getting up. Even though everything in my life points to this being the best, most convenient time for me to go for a run.

Even though I know I will feel fine once I get outside. Even though I know I will feel much better during the day, my sense of achievement will be high and, of course, I’ll just feel so much holier-than-thou (the secret motivation of many exercisers).

But can I get out of bed? No. I tell myself I am exhausted. That I will go for a run later (it very rarely happens), that I will do some other form of cross training (yeah, that old excuse).

I just need to get up and do it.

Here’s my action plan:

1. Get a decent amount of sleep.
It helps with muscle recovery and with motivation. As I write this it is close to 5am and getting light. Perfect for going for a run in fact, but I know I will be going to bed.  And that I will get about 3 hours sleep if I am very lucky.

2. Trick yourself into thinking it is easy.
I’ve found the best way to motivate myself into doing any exercise is to promise to do only 10 minutes. Once I start the activity, I want to keep going, so I end up doing the necessary amount (30 mins minimum).

3. Remind yourself of the benefits of running and of the long term goal.
I know I will feel good after a run and that I will feel more in control of my life. I will also be contributing to the long term goal – running the marathon.

Approximately 2.5 – 5 weeks to go until the baby is born, depending on when it chooses to arrive.

It is certainly making its presence felt already, making simple things like sitting or lying down uncomfortable and putting on underwear or shoes and socks almost impossible.

I started doing some pilates and yoga (both specifically for pregnancy) exercise programmes recorded off the TV.  Both turned out to be very good and not too tiring. I resolved to do one or the other for 30 mins or longer a day – but only did 3 days in a row.

The best ones I think are Pilates for Pregnancy with Caroline Sandry, some English fitness freak who looks scarily like Tracy Barlow off Coronation St.

I have been walking on the beach nearby as well. But not as long or as far as I used to. Get too puffed. Feel very much like an old woman with an over inflated beachball stuffed inside my stomach – the point where my lower ribs are permanently numb with a bruised feeling where they meet the top of the beachball.

Oooh and don’t mention the continual heartburn or the truly awful gas attacks.

It is not one of those ‘earth mother’ feelings that all the misty eyed books and web sites go on about. It has been the most unnatural-feeling past nine months of my life in fact.  Sleep is already broken into 2-4 hour stints due to the heart burn and the beachball making finding a comfortable position almost impossible. And the raging thirst.

Still, it is interesting to wonder what the baby is up to, especially when it seems to be asleep (not moving) and when it is awake (squirming around a lot). Loud noises don’t seem to wake it or alarm it although playing music close to the stomach does elicit some movements. I try to get my husband to talk to my stomach but he doesn’t know what to say except ‘hello’.  Hopefully this, and whatever the kid can hear of us talking to each other, is enough for it to be able to recognise his voice once it is born.

Well I’m hoping it won’t be overdue as even though I’ve had a really physically easy pregnancy so far, from week 35 onwards it’s just been a bit of a grind.

Well, as you can tell from the missing months on this blog, the willpower only method was a screaming failure.

I didn’t lose weight or get fit – but on the up side I did give up alcohol, and all three things are related to the fact I am pregnant and due to give birth in 2-6 weeks time.

So, I’m going to take things in 6 week blocs.

This coming six weeks will start Sunday 26 September, and it’s called End Stage Pregnancy. Fun facts about what it feels like to have swallowed a beach ball.

The next six weeks will be a haze no doubt, everyone says so, but I will try to sit down at least once and write about what the first six weeks of having a new baby around is like. Apparently it’s hell and I won’t want to remember it.

The six weeks after that will be my big challenge – that’s hopefully when I can start some kind of fitness programme again. Yeah, yeah I know I should be doing daily exercise right now, but I just find it so damned awkward. I WANT MY OWN BODY BACK. With, like, just me in it.

This year I’ve decided to work hard on keeping my resolutions – using old fashioned willpower. A crazy concept but it might just work.

Failed to get up when the alarm went off, but had to get up to answer the door only 30 mins later, so I made the phone call I was supposed to make to the other side of the world as planned.

The rest of the day basically went that way: I didn’t make an act of will to do what I had planned, but events gave me another opportunity to do them and, I actually did them.

Example: exercise – I didn’t do any all day but when I was randomly flicking through channels I came across a ‘salsa dance’ show which had just started, and since it seemed low key and different I got off the couch and did the movements instead of just watching (as I would have in the past).  30 mins later I had done a gentle cardio workout with a lot of stretching (which is just right for someone who hasn’t been exercising at all in the past two months).

Later I decided to build on this piece of luck by doing the exercise workout which I am resolved to do six days per week for one month to see what effect it has – a four minute workout using the  Tabata protocol.

***I would NOT recommend this for unfit people****

It really is intense. It doesn’t sound like much, but it will have  you worried about your breathing. I managed to complete it, but only because I overestimated my level of fitness. I didn’t complete it with good form – I barely got my knees high and I had to stop and slow down drastically for the second round of mountain climbers.

I am fascinated to see if this has the effects claimed, but certainly almost one and a half hours later I still feel like I have an elevated level of alertness.

Another example of getting a second chance: I didn’t do my Spanish study as planned, but when I was looking through Facebook I saw a friend had posted a link to some Learn How to Speak Spanish videos on YouTube, so I went through and practiced with those.

Eating today DID present me with actual willpower challenges which I was able to meet. There were leftover takeaways and I was hungry. Usually I would have re-heated them in the microwave, today I resisted and instead threw them out. I was given a packet of winegums and didn’t eat them – would usually have scoffed them down. Didn’t drink any soft drinks, just water and tea (no, I’m not giving up coffee and tea – are you NUTS?).

I have thought about tracking calories ( a great site for this is Calorie Count) but I know that I can become obsessive about that so I would rather stick to concentrating on eating when I am hungry and eating healthy food, not junk.

Failure: didn’t write anything except for this post. Which is something I suppose, but not what I should be writing about at all.

Stats for measuring success (as seen on Canadian show X-Weighted):

Weight 70 kg / 11 stone /154 pounds

Chest 39 in / 99 cm

Abdomen 37  in / 94cm

Hips 39.5 in / 100cm

My height is 169cm / 5ft 7in

The great thing about X-Weighted is they set goals over six months. I used to think that was way too long for results, but after seeing five shows, it really does seem to work – and what have you got to lose anyway because if you do nothing you will be the same size or even bigger at the end of the next six months. I realise my goals all last year were for weight loss or fitness within 1-3 months and that put so much pressure on me I ended up not bothering.

So: another stats update on 1 April (3 months) where I hope to weigh in at 65kg / 10.2 Stone /143 pounds

and again on 1 July (6 months) where I hope to weigh in at 60kg/ 9.4 stone/132 pounds and hopefully some inches/cm off those measurements.

All in all not a bad start, I expected to do much worse, which apparently – according to this article I saw on the biosingularity blog – is the right attitude to have.

It struck me as odd that this needs to be mentioned as a cautionary note.  Why would any smoker or anyone with a habit that they’ve tried to give up assume that no willpower would needed? I further thought, well what’s the point of this product if I still require willpower?  Isn’t it obvious that the fact I’m interested in your product is because I DON’T have the willpower to give up?

Then I got to thinking about willpower and New Year’s resolutions. Basically it’s competition about who has the willpower to give something up or start something (going to a gym) for the longest.

There are a lot of things I want to do in 2010 and, looking at them, I realise that basically all they require is willpower to get them done.

Why is willpower so hard? Why is there so little information about how to get it and keep it?

My goal for the next year is to get me some willpower and to use it to get things done. In preparation for this I got up around noon, got dressed around 3.30pm, watched a lot of TV, did random searches on the internet, downloaded ‘productivity’ aps to my iTouch which don’t seem very productive now that I’ve got them, ate almost half a box of Lir luxury chocolates (they are VERY good – made in Ireland) and only left the house twice all day. I also avoided returning my library books because it was windy and wet outside, and didn’t do any writing on my essay due in next week.

In 2010 that is all going to change. I will be consciously overriding all my mental objections and physical laziness through the use of willpower. How that is going to work, I don’t know.

But we’ll find out soon enough.