A week off from work has done David Paynter, The Royal Gazette's 100 Day Challenge columnist, good as his activity level has spiked.

It has been his daughter Alyssa's term break all week so David has been running around with her on the playgrounds, playing basketball and visiting Dockyard.

Even though all these activities have meant eating out, David is learning to choose the healthier options and pick the broiled rather than the fried options.

He said: "My daughter's glad because we are doing fun stuff. The one day we went to Dockyard we went to playground out there and it was fun. There were three girls — my daughter and two nieces, Allison and Samantha.

"I try not to have too much bread and then I just pick the healthier choices. I can get stuff that's boiled and baked."

So, even though he's eating more, he's also exercising more than he would if he were at work and it has paid off. David lost another two pounds this week, bringing him to a grand total of 39 pounds.

His weight loss has slowed from the four to five pounds a week he was losing earlier in the programme, but he isn't discouraged.

That's because even as the pounds peter off, the weight loss and exercise are revealing a far slimmer man.

He said: "I am reaching my goal (to lose 40 pounds) with two weeks left. I have lost more than 20 inches pretty much. The biggest loss is from my waist – about ten inches.

"I am finding the rate is slowing down, but it's not discouraging.

"You look at where you were and then you look at where you are. It's going to slow down but any progress still adds to the grand total."