FOR years, the likes of Brad Pitt, David Beckham and Peter Andre have been adorning the bedroom walls of thousands of girls with their perfect washboard stomachs.
And, after nine months of being single and with a stomach that can more accurately be described as a "one pack", I decided that perhaps a set of abs would have the women breaking my front door down.
OK, well you can always dream. In the spirit of journalistic endeavour, and, I'm not ashamed to say a little vanity, I decided to make it my mission to stroll around the beach in the summer looking like a lifeguard from Baywatch.
Yes, I wanted to do slow motion walks along the seafront, humming the Baywatch theme tune, for no particular reason other than to show off some abs of steel rippling in the sunlight making girls swoon at my feet.
OK, dreaming again but I'm sure all the men reading this know what I'm talking about.
And, with summer approaching as fast as an Andy Murray serve, I decided to create my own Six Pack in Six Weeks challenge.
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To give myself a fighting chance I enlisted the help of Southampton- based Pro WNBF World Body Building champion Marina Cornwall.
She promised that if I stuck to everything she said I could turn a carefully-cultivated beer belly into a toned Adonis-like stomach. Abtastic!
But the battle of the bulge was not going to be easy.
It meant changing my diet in order to lose enough weight to make my stomach muscles visible.
Contrary to popular belief, the trick to getting a six-pack is not endless crunches but eating the right diet.
Marina gave me a new shopping list that unfortunately did not contain anything that I regularly enjoyed eating.
Out were pizza, pasta, dairy products, bread, potatoes, alcohol, microwave meals and even fruit juice (too much sugar). Even the mighty banana was blacklisted as it was full of natural sugar.
In their place were grilled chicken, turkey, fish, brown rice, eggs, salad, omelette (no cheese or milk), rice cakes, fruit (particularly pineapple, apples, watermelon), brazil nuts and vegetables.
After sobbing for a few minutes, I was told that eating this would help shift the weight that accumulates around men's lower stomach.
But one thing I could not stomach was porridge and water.
Essentially, I was cutting carbohydrates and replacing them with muscle-building protein. I also started eating protein chocolate bars and drinking protein shakes.
Drinking two litres of water a day was also advised, as it helps your body to burn fat quicker.
This new diet was to be comple-mented with cardiovascular work such as running, rowing, skipping, press-ups, sit-ups and weight training.
I had one gym session a week with Marina, who put me through an hour of intensive gym work and kept a track of my weight and fat levels.
I found that after just one week I lost one and a half inches from around my stomach.
By the third week, I could see my abs coming through and was beginning to pose in the gym mirror like a typical bodybuilder.
By the final week, I was looking a lot trimmer and my muscles were much more defined.
I had a slight relapse with the diet as I had two stag dos to go to where we collectively drank Alicante and Bournemouth dry. But I took my running shoes with me to Spain and got up the next morning for an hour run along the beach.
After six weeks, I am now the proud owner of a six-pack.
Trainer Marina Cornwall said: "Ash did well. I did not think he would stick to the rigid bodybuilding diet which I gave him but he did.
"There were a few moments of can I have this Marina?' and he got a very polite no! But apart from that, I was proud of him doing the tough training and diet to obtain the six-pack that he has now.
"I remember the last day of training with Ash. I had never ever seen him looking so drained and lethargic I thought he was going to collapse on me and I said now you know how it feels to be a bodybuilder.' But let's see if he maintains it."
l To book a training session with Marina Cornwall phone 0797 041 7851.
Alternatively, you can e-mail
marina muscles@hotmail.co.uk or visit marinacornwallpro.com.
To contact Marina you can also phone Southampton's Fitness First gym on 0870 898 8149
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