When I started paying more attention to my fitness a couple of years back, it almost directly as a result of taking a new job with a fitness-obsessed company (I manage several websites selling sports supplements, clothing and equipment) - not an ounce of fat on most of the people I worked with. I was also the only smoker in the place.

That induced in me an almost overwhelming sense of guilt. When I was younger (18 and below) I was rather sporty - I played a lot of squash and fives and was in decent shape. In the years following school, though, I got myself a collection of desk jobs, ate worse and drank more. I developed (it’s still there) a decent beer belly and a smoker’s cough. So the guilt was, I think, understandable - it wouldn’t have taken much to carry on with some basic exercise routine and even though I knew I should, I didn’t.

It was that change in circumstances that prompted me to actually act on the advice in the book I’d read a few months previously, Allen Carr’s The Easy Way to Stop Smoking (and the title is by no means sales patter - following hundreds of painful failed attempts to quit, stopping smoking using this book was easy). I also made a conscious choice to improve my lifestyle and my health.

Things started pretty slowly from there though. I’d stopped smoking but didn’t really seem to be making any progress with the lifestyle and health changes I’d decided to do. I found myself simply putting off doing much, and making excuses to myself for doing so.

First among them, I think, was just that it seemed like a mountain to climb. I had a fair bit of weight to lose and wasn’t really capable of doing much exercise. Not a good combination. I’d started out expecting to be able to do the sorts of levels of exercise I’d done as a teenager, but of course that was completely unrealistic. I needed to start slowly, and it took me a while to realise that.

I also made a simple mistake of starting with bad gear. When I started running (before the couch to 5k plan, I tried a few runs), I was running using very old trainers, and that meant that within a very short space of time I was extremely uncomfortable, unable to run far and unwilling to go again. Getting hold of better trainers and gear was another opportunity to put off starting properly again which I stupidly embraced.

I started to look at what I was doing in longer terms than was sensible. Rather than think about running this week, I was thinking about running every week, forever - and I can’t think of many things more offputting than that idea. It all became much easier to motivate myself when I looked at it one week at a time.

Finally, possibly the best solution to procrastination, I started a predetermined plan with a friend. She had fared no better than I at the fitness thing, though we’d both been talking about it for months. Agreeing to run together, early in the morning, towards a goal, with a clear path to get there, meant that there were no excuses, no opportunities to cry off. We ran in torrential rain, high wind and even hail, because it was a running day and dammit we were going to finish the plan.

And finish we both did. What neither of us had considered, of course, is that after that, we’d not be exercising together, towards a goal, or with a plan. And at the moment, we’ve both slipped back into a far less organised routine of fitness. I’m still playing squash and racketball, but no longer feel like I’m working towards something specific.

Perhaps I need a new plan. Couch to 5k Running Plan again? Couch to 10k this time? Couch to 10k Cycling? I’d love to hear your ideas, if you have any.

I do know, for sure, that having a good, achievable plan outlined before you start is a huge bonus and will leave the excuses far fewer places to fester.