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Power Crunch gets expert feedback on a different workout routine every week. This week, Toronto Mayor David Miller, shares his exercise regimen.

During his first term as mayor of the City of Toronto, David Miller realized that attending so many galas and banquets was having an effect on his waistline. Re-elected to office in 2006, the former hockey player wants to look like an athlete again.

My goal

"To lose another 15 pounds, be able to run two miles in 17 minutes and be able to touch my palms to the floor."

My workout

"A bit intermittent, but when I'm fully going I work out four days a week. For two years, I did three weight-training days and one cardio day per week, but I switched six months ago to two and two.

"So on a cardio day, I'll do a very long power walk or run about 3.5 miles. The other two days I'll stretch, do a warm-up run, then a series of core exercises: rotating incline sit-ups, crunches with bench assistance, leg lifts, plank, sideways crunches on a machine. I do upper-body exercises, mostly shoulders and triceps, including lat pull-downs and rotations on machines. I also do lunges with 10-pound weights."

My lifestyle

"I am exceptionally busy. The only time I can work out is 5:30 a.m. I'm invited to a lot of banquets and work dinners, so food is just an absolute challenge for me. Three glasses of wine every day might be good for the psyche and blood, but it's bad for weight.

"At dinners I have to be careful. I have eating rules I try to follow and I've got to be ruthless. I have five smaller meals a day, all of which include the amount of protein of a chicken breast, and no carbs after 4 p.m. If I'm out at a dinner function, I'll just ask the server quietly not to bring me the pasta or the bread. As soon as you start to slip, you slip very badly. Good thing about having protein is I'm not hungry - I find that I'm not that hungry at night. I have a very significant breakfast.

"I need more sleep. It's very hard to get home at 11 p.m. and get up at 5:30 a.m., [which is] key for me getting cardio in."

My motivation

"I crave the exercise, I just crave it. Also, in 2004, I realized I was very heavy and very unfit. I had some minor medical problems that involved some intrusive and unpleasant tests. I want to feel like an athlete, play soccer with my daughter and my son."

My workout anthem

"I tend now to go outside, so I usually don't listen to music. If I really need it, I would put on Springsteen, My Hometown."

My challenges

"I have a knee that I hyperextended twice playing rugby, which is one of the reasons I do the lunges, to strengthen my lower body and help with my knee issues. I have a nose that was broken multiple times that affects my breathing, and a slight tear in my rotator cuff in one of my shoulders."

The critique

Change is good

Consistency is important for good nutrition, says Steve Ramsbottom, owner of the Performance Institute in Burnaby, B.C., so he lauds Mr. Miller's commitment to his eating rules. But when it comes to working out, "if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got," the trainer says. "I would recommend rather than changing a program every six months or every year, change it every month." Possible variations include mixing up the four days into one long cardio day, two circuit-training days and one strength-training day. Another variation could be 30 minutes of strength training and 30 minutes of cardio.

Ramp up the running

If the mayor really wants to reach his goal of running two miles in 17 minutes, he should include at least one day of intervals in his cardio schedule, Mr. Ramsbottom says. Interval running means shorter intense bursts of effort ranging from one to five minutes, with recovery periods of one to three minutes in between.

Strengthen the knee

Mr. Ramsbottom suggests Mr. Miller try several new exercises to build strength and stability around his injured knee, including single-leg squats and hamstring curls on a Swiss ball. He says for the best gains in flexibility, try microstretching, a method developed by Vancouver therapist Nikos Apostolopoulos. "Try three sets of one minute for each stretch," Mr. Ramsbottom says. "Only hold a 30- to 40-per-cent intensity for each stretch to avoid contraction against the stretch."