Read about someone who succeeded in changing his lifestyle quite radically - and is very happy about it.  Choose the best answer to the questions.

How I became a fitness fanatic

Oleg Svensson was out of shape until his lift broke down.

At first you don't notice how you cannot do things so easily as you used to, or you do not look like you used to.  When you realise, it can be quite difficult to put right.  I had taken up smoking when I was just a teenager, along with my friends.  I never smoked very much, and I knew from watching television that it was bad for you.  But at that age you do not pay much attention to warnings about the dangers to your health.  You think you will live forever, or that there is plenty of time to give up when you are twenty-five or thirty.  It is not that you enjoy smoking, but you like to look grown up.

When I was a youngster, I used to do plenty of sport.  I was in my school football team, and I was a member of a running club.  When I left school, I gave up football.  I found a job straightaway, but the hours were long, sitting in front of a computer all day adding up figures, sending and receiving e-mails and so on, and when I finished work in the evening, I was too worn out to think of more than going down to the pub and having a drink, or sitting down in front of the television and relaxing.  So I never played football again, except for kicking a ball around in the park occasionally on Saturday afternoons with my friends, and I got out of the habit of running.

My job went well.  I got promoted and given extra responsibility.  That was all fine, and I was only smoking 15 cigarettes a day.  I left home and bought a flat on the fifth floor of a modern building.  Everything was going well for me, until one day the lift broke down and I had to walk upstairs.  I had been living in the flat for six months, and this was the first time I had used the stairs.  Now you might think that a modern staircase should present no problems for a fit young man like myself, but I can tell you that when I finally made it to my front door, I was exhausted.  I was gasping for breath.  I let myself in, and lay down on my bed to recover.

Later, I went to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror.  And that was when I had my surprise, or should I say, shock?  I had been going through life as if nothing had changed, hardly looking at myself in the mirror and not noticing the changes.  But today was different:  I looked at my stomach and noticed how it hung outwards over the edge of my trousers, how my face was beginning to get wrinkled, and how pale my skin was.  I tried touching my toes without bending my legs.  I had not done that for several years, but I had never had any difficulty with it in the past.  But now I could not do it, and I was not even thirty yet.  

The future looked bleak until I mentioned my problem at work the next day.  Many of my colleagues seemed to be in much the same state as me, but there was one man there, my boss in fact, who had the answer quite clear.  He told me I should take up some sport again after work or in the lunch hour.  I knew I was never going to get into shape if I went on smoking, and I mentioned this.  Two of my colleagues were listening, and they immediately said that if I gave up, they would too, so we formed a club to get ourselves into condition.  This involved calling the office a smoke-free zone, getting up a little earlier in the morning and doing a few exercises (nothing too strenuous at first), exercising will-power and self-control for the first few months without cigarettes, and going jogging in the park during the lunch break.  

Eventually, I found that exercise was almost as addictive as smoking - you get hooked on it, and in the evenings once or twice a week I managed to persuade my girlfriend to come and play tennis with me.  Now, eighteen months later, I have a good colour to my skin, a flat stomach, firm thighs, and I run up the stairs to my flat, two steps at a time.  I never take the lift.

Now check some vocabulary.  All of these verbs were used in the article.  Make sure you know their meanings.