Here's January in review

96 miles run
9 weight sessions
5 lbs of fat shed
1 pint of blood donated
1 exam passed
0 units of alcohol

What a great start to the year. I've been training like a beast (the jungle kind, not the 70s BBC kind), and I've been doing very well at work.

You have to think this is down to the no-drink policy. I knew I'd be able to train harder (last year I took nearly a month off it) but I didn't expect my memory to be better, my thinking clearer and my confidence greater.

I think back to the fucking worst hangovers I had last year and the further away I get from them the less I want to go back. It was like hitting a reset button every weekend, any fitness or self-esteem I'd built up during the week was often drowned in a big sesh and then wiped out from a dose of the FEAR.

So I'm staying off it for February. I've no reason to have a drink and many not to. It's that simple.

I did a bit of socialising without the urge to have a drink. Went out to a couple of movies, dinner, snooker etc. The only friction I got was from my best mate who's reaction to my ongoing abstinence went from shock to confusion to disgust, but that's just how it goes with mates. I enjoy that side of it.

I passed up the chance to hit a couple of bars on three occasions, not because I thought I might fold but because I just felt I wouldn't be totally comfortable. This is the only thing I need to get over and it's not a big thing. Like anything in life; it only seems a problem when you're avoiding it. If you look at something, work out what you need to do, do it, these so-called problems disappear.

About six weeks ago I picked up a guitar (with intention) for the first time in my life and struggled to pick out a D-chord. It hurt my fucking fingers, fingers which couldn't even reach the bits I needed to reach.

But I stuck at it. 15 minutes here and there, taking guidance from the awesome Justin Guitar and I can tell you that as of tonight I could pick up any six-string in the fucking world and give you not only a D-chord but a motherfucking A-chord too.

It still hurts my god-damn fingers but that'll get better without me even working on it. I just need to practice the chords and my soft, IT, keyboard-tapping fingers will man up eventually.

Philip Seymour Hoffman died today: one of the few actors who didn't seem to act. Apparent heroin overdose. Fuck.