PLANS don't always come to fruition. I think that might have to become my mantra from now on. A depressing one yes, but painfully true.

Six months into my campaign to slim down for my wedding next year and all is not well. It started with a bang and I felt like there was no stopping me. But the moment I took my eye off the ball for a second it all went wrong. I didn't just fall off the wagon, it came back and ran me over a few times for good measure.

Going to the gym three mornings a week was easy at first but missing just one visit once seemed to take all my enthusiasm and drive away.

Watching what I was eating went out of the window with the regimented visits to the gym. Pizzas and kebabs crept back into my diet, desserts reappeared at meal times. Bags of crisps and bars of chocolate appeared back on my desk at work.

I felt myself getting fatter and now I feel like I'm back to where I started. My gut is bothering me a lot again. I feel bloated to the popping stage and it's a heavy drain on my confidence and good feeling.

However, like the majority of people with a weight problem, I cannot stand the sight of myself but doing something about it isn't something that I can push myself into. It's hypocrisy of the highest order really. How can you spout so much self derision and not do anything to change it? It's so funny how these thoughts suddenly disappear when you have the choice of dragging yourself out of bed to go the gym.

Fortunately for me, the weight loss gods must be smiling on me because I haven't actually put any weight back on. You wouldn't believe how surprised I was when I stepped on my old friend Wii Fit after a month of estrangement and that beautiful little white board told me that I was exactly the same weight. I even made sure by getting weighed on two other sets of scales.

The scare though was still enough to point me back towards the gym. The thought of my hard work, the blood, sweat and tears (ok, no blood but a lot of chaffing) amounting to nothing just a few months down the line.

The real tipping point for me has been realising that the first half of what was supposed to be a year long plan has been and gone and I'm merely a quarter of the way to reaching my goal. So now is the time to pick myself up, dust myself down and get back into the early mindset that brought me success early on. Easier said than done of course.

I have found my way back to Dearne Valley Leisure Centre. It turns out that it's in the same place it always was. I've pushed myself hard when I've been there, probably a bit too much. I think you're supposed to feel the aches when you've finished, not when you're still on the cross trainer.

The fact that it's getting warmer does not help me with the sweat problem I have when training in that room. Just after the photos were taken at the gym I got on the exercise bike for 20 minutes and was a dripping mess by the time I got off. Not a pretty picture.

So, six months down, six months and a little more than three stones to go. I'm under no illusions that the target is perhaps slightly out of reach, especially after the falling off the wagon incident a couple of months ago. But a stone every two months does sound achievable so I'm giving it a good go.

Me and Sharon are going to team up and tackle some of the classes at Dearne Valley Leisure Centre. There's a bit of a buzz about the spin classes that I've heard are big in America. You're on an exercise bike and change your speed and levels at different points. It sounds like hell but it should do the trick.

If a year from now as my wedding approaches I am not between the 12 and a half to 13 stone mark I will feel that I have let myself and my future wife down. I know that my weight doesn't really bother her but I told her that I would get down to that weight for the wedding. I was emphatic about it. What amounts to pure idleness is not a good enough excuse at all for not fulfilling that goal.

So if in a month's time I am not reporting weight loss in this column, you have my permission to roll up your copy of the Times and hit me over the head with it on Mexborough High Street.

I will most definitely deserve it.