Sportsvibe Takes on the Maximuscle Challenge

Last week Sportsvibe received a call from our friends at Maximuscle offering us the chance to take part in a new 30-day weight loss challenge. Not only would one of us be provided with a whole host of Maxumuscle products but we would also receive a gym membership and a personal training session with Rajko Radovic - star of the Last Man Standing TV show.

To make the challenge even more intriguing we would be competing against other journalists from a host of magazines including FHM and Zoo. That made things interesting. Much like any failed sportsman we are truly competitive and if one member of the office was going to take on this task then we were determined to do it properly and win.

As the heaviest member of the Sportsvibe office - in boxing terms we are talking a true heavyweight at 97kgs - I thought this was the perfect chance to get fit in time for my summer holiday. The beer belly would be gone and in its place a toned stomach ready to get badly burnt in the Mediterranean sun. Well, that's what I am hoping for.  

To give myself a chance of winning this competition I was going to give up drinking - not an easy task when you regularly go for a quiet pint after work - and eat healthily - again not simple when there is an all you can eat Indian just round the corner from the office.

Still I was determined to give it a go and was even given the chance to speak to Simon Jurkiw, Maximuscle's research and education manager who looks after all of the training plans and diet plans for the likes of Stuart Broad and Courtney Lawes. I hoped Simon would provide me with the knowledge to win this challenge.

Here are some of the top tricks and tips that Simon gave me to help lose weight and stay healthy. I have even put these in handy bullet point form to make it even easier to follow.

- Make sure you eat a healthy breakfast, people that skip that first meal of the day are 450% more likely to be obese. (We're talking a bowl of porridge, not a bacon sarnie from the local greasy spoon)

- Try to eat four to six small meals throughout the day, incorporating a mid morning and mid afternoon snack.

- Eat complex carbohydrates such as porridge oats, wholemeal rice and pasta  plus plenty of vegetables. This gives you a steady release of energy throughout the day and will fuel your intense gym sessions.

- Mix these carbs with at least 1.5grams of protein for every kilo that you weight as they will help repair your muscles after a tough workout.

- Make sure to incorporate weights into your gym session as this will increase your metabolism for around 48 hours after your weight session and will help increase your lean body mass which helps burn calories while your body is at rest.

So there we have it. Armed with this information and a gym pass I was raring to go. The confidence was high and the rest of the Sportsvibe office decided to treat me to a trip to the all-you-can-eay Indian for a goodbye curry. It will be a while before I can join them again and I hope they don't decide to taunt me with regular trips to pubs and take-aways. Though that's exactly what I would do.

Make sure you check in next week when I will be talking about my first week on the Maximuscle diet......

If you want to get in shape and win a share of £25,000 enter the Maximuscle Fitness Heroes Challenge at www.maximuscle.com/fitnessheroeschallenge