Become the Biggest Loser

City Parks is again challenging its employees and zoo staff to get fit and healthy and lose unwanted kilos in its second Biggest Loser competition.
FOR those City Parks and Johannesburg Zoo employees whose extra festive season kilograms are still haunting them, there is hope in the form of City Parks’ second phase Biggest Loser weight-loss competition.

Sylvia won las year's competitionSylvia Mashegane won in last year's competitionThose interested in pushing themselves to the limit of physical activity to lose weight have until 4pm on 10 February to submit their entry form. Zoo employees are also invited to compete.

It follows the successful first phase of the competition, based on the television show of the same name, which concluded on 11 November with Sylvia Mashegane taking the prize for losing 16,1 kilograms and 13,8 percent of her total body weight.

“This programme will be hosted in an effort to encourage employees to get fit, eat healthily and lose weight, to live a healthy lifestyle and to increase their general wellness,” states the City Parks newsletter, The Grapevine.

“The benefits of exercising and eating healthily are more than just losing weight; it increases heart/lung function and controls high blood pressure and cholesterol.”

Employees who are selected to join the 12-week competition will be put on an exercise programme, as well as an eating plan. The undertaking focuses on three aspects: changing diets and exercising, and educating competitors on how to get the best results by combining the two.

Competitors have to go through gruelling exercisesCompetitors have to go through gruelling exercisesOperations executive Patrick Meyer said at the prize giving at the end of the first phase: “This competition helps in ensuring that all of us look good and can hold up the brand of Johannesburg City Parks with pride.”

It will follow the format of the first competition; selected competitors will be measured, weighed and undergo fitness tests at the start of the contest. Training will take place twice weekly at the City Parks and Springfield gyms. The person who loses the highest percentage of body weight takes the crown. Those who come in second and third will also receive prizes.

Rules of entering the competition are: all participants must be permanently employed by City Parks or the Joburg Zoo; all participants need to submit a doctor’s certificate confirming that they are fit to take part; and all participants will need to sign an indemnity form. Numbers of competitors will be limited.

No entry fee needs to be paid, but use of the services of the dieticians brought in will be at the participant’s own cost.

Applicants need to submit a completed entry form to Heyley Kinnear or Alet van Rensburg by close of business on Friday. The competition will officially begin on 29 February.