In our latest column The Game Changer by Durban’s own Oscar Anderson he delivers his weekly editions of love, life and everything in between. Check out this week’s feature entitled Challenge Accepted where he reveals his latest 6 pack challenge with fellow presenter Chia Kougianos…

Motivation. No, this is not a Kelly Rowland music review, although there is a certain lady motivating me at the moment, to get off my lazy bum and train. The Socialite’s very own Chia Kougianos and I have given our selves a challenge, more of a challenge for one of us but I won’t mention any names here. So my lovely friend here started a few training sessions and because the festive season was good to me I thought I better get in on the action too. 

The challenge is to achieve the pinnacle of fitness; the ever elusive six pack. With goal, time line and prize set, we have both engaged our body in a battle against weekend binge drinking and a certain bacon “Maffiosa” pizza which happens to be part of our prize. This seems rather counter effective, a month of training insane only to reward ourselves with a carbohydrate saturated, greasy and yet heaven in my mouth food experience. None the less, the game is on.

Now I am not one to talk my opponents down, but I am going to wipe the plate with this one and then make her do the dishes. Besides beating her, where do I now find the motivation on a weekend set to be filled with what has perhaps been Durban’s finest cuddle weather in a while? I am an active guy but give me a bed, the chance to sleep in and rain , let alone a tropical storm, and my bed seems to hold me fast. As Kelly states in her song, her first line is “…don’t you dare slow down, go longer, you can last more rounds…”, albeit she is most definitely referring to bedroom fitness but what pushes us, what drives us to succeed, what gets us up in the morning? For me it is that I do not get beaten by a girl more than half my size.

Fear usually plays a large motivational role but I could not be fearful of this challenge, fearful of the mountain of ridicule coming my way should I not succeed yes, but there’s nothing stopping me from enjoying a pizza alongside the champion should I lose. Besides, I am more than double her size which in my books gives me more than double the chance of winning and more than double the amount of glorious garlic soaked goodness I shall eat in front of her. So what is the action plan you may be asking? Well firstly I have, out of the goodness of my own heart, started a week late. When I was at school I always found that procrastination proved to be the biggest motivation, coupled with the fear of getting a zero on my homework and a phone call from the teacher to my mom. Now it’s just a zero out of six and a phone call to say “Pay up loser”.

No doubt there will be a sequel to this with all the results, the revealing of the main prize and me writing on how well I enjoyed it. Feel free to place your bets or pink slips, after all this is a sprint, none of this “life is a marathon” or “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey” nonsense. The destination is a seat at the pizza table and the journey needs to be shorter than Kim Kardashian’s marriage.Welcome to the biggest loser – Socialite style.