If I showed the same amount of discipline in my sports betting as I do with my diet I would no doubt be living on the street by now.

Some readers of this column may recall how 2 years ago I lost over 23kg in 5 months to book my sponsored seat at the All Africa Poker Tournament in Swaziland. I felt great after dipping below the 100kg mark for the first time in 15 years but sadly since then my willpower has gone walkabout and I have put 20 of those hard shed kilo’s back on.

What you may ask has this got to do with sports betting?

Well the Super 15 is coming and that means no fewer than 125 live matches many of which would usually be watched from the couch with a packet of chips, a ginger beer and my trusty laptop all within arms reach. Hardly the ideal recipe for a man looking to get his personal health back on track.

2011 will be different though and my Super 15 resolution is to watch at least 1 match per weekend from the gym. Yes after 8 years without seeing the inside of said institution, I have finally signed up and the great news is that the bikes and treadmills now have their own TV so there is no more straining to see the screen only to have the channel changed to a rerun of Isidingo to accommodate one of the sales staff.

Better still the gym is now equipped with computers for internet surfing so at half time I can hop off the bike and sit my sweaty body down to compare in running prices with my favourite bookmakers. With my bet placed I can return to the machine to shed a few calories while hopefully relieving the bookmakers of some Rands at the same time.

There is one problem though and that is a tendency for me to get very involved in the games and when things get heated on the betting front my wife can vouch that our whole complex knows about it.

So if you train at the Virgin Active gym in Randburg consider yourself warned. That loud cry from the treadmill is not as a result of a pulled hammie but more likely a dropped pass as I try to win money and lose weight this Super 15.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was first published on the 3rd of February 2011.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Thursday night from 22h00 – 22h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet and to get on his free weekly e-mail list just send a message to brent@goodforthegame.co.za titled “Best Bets”.

You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/brentgraham or get on his mailing list by dropping him a line at brent@goodforthegame.co.za