As we all do I joined the gym with the best intentions – I was going to get fit and lose weight! – and as often happens that motivation disappeared fairly quickly, I then spent a couple of months thinking about how I really should get back to the gym all the while coming up with excuse after excuse not to.

When I eventually walked back through the doors I wasn’t motivated or really all that interested in being there. During my session I saw lots of signs up for this “12 week challenge” asking at the desk I found that it was a weight loss competition and whoever lost the most weight at the end of the 12 weeks won one a year’s free membership. Being a competitive person by nature this appealed to me and I thought here we go something to aim for. While participating in the challenge I found it was so much more than just a competition about losing weight. Most people can lose a few kilos if they really try but the challenge is actually keeping it off.

The challenge helped me set goals, gave me tools to lose weight and ways to motivate me to keep it off. It is really more of a lifestyle challenge as it is not just about eating right and exercising lots but about changing the way you live so it is not just a case of 12 weeks in isolation of “being good” where afterwards you slowly fall back into your old patterns. The aim of the challenge is to give you a start on a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable over time.

During the 12 weeks of the challenge I lost 19 kgs and three months on I have lost a further 10 kgs. Although I won the challenge and was “the biggest loser” I got so much more out of it than the immediate win by the end it wasn’t about competing against others to lose weight it was and about me, about testing my limits and boundaries, about what I had achieved and what I still wanted to achieve.

It hasn’t been easy and I still have further to go to reach my goals but the journey I have taken so far with the club and the friends that I made throughout the challenge have given me the confidence, support and motivation to believe that I can actually do it, all things that I had previously been lacking.