Post the second:

Once I started my keep fit life and my physical tone began to improve I dreamed that one day I would be able to put up two pictures of torso(e)s [what is that damn plural of torso?]- mine and Justin Timberlake's. The idea being that they would be equivalently attractive and mine would win because it had a PhD.

I have kept this dream alive for 6 years. However, I have finally accepted that the reason that people mock me for having moobs is because I do, in fact, have moobs. The moobs definitely have pectoral muscles underneath, but they are, in actuality, fleshly protuberances. Ditto my belly which contains powerful abdominal muscles but also has a soft layer of flesh over it.

The reason for this of course is because of the amount of food that I eat. I love to eat huge pizzas and massive bags of crisps and drink litres of Coke and all the good stuff. I mean, mostly I eat very sensibly and moreover vegetarianly but I do like the occasional pig out. I do think that considering how active I am (nearly all weeks containing at least four training sessions, sometimes as many as six) I have a fair balance between my love of food and my activity levels.

So in this post I would just like to say that I think the standards of appearance we have in this country are way too high and that it's no wonder people go round hating themselves all the time. I'm pretty rock solid in pretty much all areas and I still regularly get mocked for my appearance. My legs are composed of four cylinders of bone and muscle and nothing else.

It seems likely that people choose to mock me because they sense that I consider my appearance to be satisfactory. But still. Their mocking makes sense in the cultural context where it takes place, and I think that this is a sad thing.

I shall continue in my quest to become so super fit that I can eat loads of crisps and pizza and not have moobs. But I'm not sure I fancy my chances.