By Niall McCoy

“WOULD you do anything differently?” Well no, is the simple answer.

After going through the green and amber of the traffic light system in recent weeks, I finally landed on red. The Gaelic Life All-Stars combined with some engagements during the week meant the perfect cocktail of bad food, lots of alcohol, no sleep – at one stages going 36 hours without a rest – and, of course, no gym.

The first thing Pauric, my Level Up coach, asked was would I do it all again and, yes, I would. On previous occasions where a sneaky takeaway has been had, the guilt levels rise considerably. The past week was unavoidable though, so I had absolutely no guilt.

That’s one of the things I love about the programme. It’s all very positive, and the coaches are not slave drivers, but understand that things happen in life that can knock you out of your stride.

We’re a good few weeks into the programme now and I would say that I am not the easiest client to work with though. I mentioned here before how I can move onto a bad path fairly quickly, and I haven’t been completely able to shake that.

However, there are still enough small changes taking place to keep me positive. There’s still enough time to get into that really positive stride too.

The irony is that I am not a big consumer of alcohol, yet since I started with Pauric I’ve had an abundance of events that I’ve wanted to have a few drinks at.

Surely that’s over now. Nothing on today is there? Oh wait, it’s St Patrick’s Day. Maybe just the one.