In fact, what I was feeling was rising from my belly to my throat - I wondered if anyone would notice if I dashed over to the nearby pot plant.

"Dang," I thought. "It's artificial. I'm sure the East Warrnambool footballers who are letting us use their clubroom wouldn't appreciate me making a deposit."

Kevin Mullins and I are the two Warrnambool's Biggest Loser contestants at the 9:30 session.

The others train at one of the three other 45-minute sessions on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays.

We only had to row two kilometres but after one I couldn't feel my legs any more.

The 10-metre strokes fell back to seven, then six as I relied more on my arms.

Who would have thought those warnings about drinking and smoking being bad for you were actually true?

I concentrated on Peter's Project to shore up my motivation.

People having chemo feel much more nauseous than I do and they have to drive to Geelong and back for treatment. That's what this is all about.

The more I lose, the more I can contribute to those patients recovering in their own beds, minutes from a local clinic.

I survived the push-ups, sit-ups and squats that trainer Clinton Thomas threw at us and came back for more on day two.

I've always hated burpees. For those who've never seen one, you drop and do a push-up, kick your feet forward to your hands then jump as high as you can.

Ten is about enough for me but we had to do 30, interspersed with 250-metre rows and 15 squats. Then do it all again.

That pot plant was starting to look pretty good again.

When Thomas mentioned advanced clients could do 100 burpees with a pull-up as well, a little light clicked on in the back of my mind and I started thinking of the long term.

Who would have thought I was competitive?

The third day was the toughest of the lot and there were only two alternating exercises: push-ups and "wall ball": squats with a medicine ball which you throw against the wall using leg momentum.

I wore the seven-kilogram ball in the solar plexus a couple of times and the face once but, with plenty of breathers along the way, I battled through sets of 21, 18, 15, 12, nine, six, and three.

I don't respond well to drill-sergeant types but Thomas' positive encouragement helped me achieve what I thought would be beyond my ability.

Somewhere in the middle I passed Kevin and he tried to help out by handing me a ball.

I was in the zone and didn't even see him.

Kevin beats me by two or three sets which saps my confidence but when I finish I see from how he's moving that he's doing it tough too.

After a yarn and a stretch I was in the car less than 45 minutes after arriving.

The hardest task of the morning was not ringing in sick and going back to bed.

We didn't worry too much about diet this week - one thing at a time - but I made some efforts. Working between two fast food franchises makes it a little too easy to overdo it on the fried food and carbohydrates.

I've avoided the takeaways - and the chips and chocolates from the vending machine in the office lunch room. It seems to be working because I'm down 2.4 kilograms after the first week.

Like the exercise side of the equation, I'm sure my idea of effort is well short of the mark.

I suppose I'll find out next week.

If you would like to make a donation to this worthwhile cause, please drop into The Standard office or email me.

crodda@standard.fairfax.com.au