A gym is offering its clients an extra incentive to shift the post-Christmas baggage by vowing to give a pound of food to the city's needy for each pound its clients lose in weight.
And TMFIT hopes its January challenge will see their 140 clients burn off 10 stone between them, which would see them donate the equivalent weight of food to Chelmsford Food Bank.
Laura Manley, 31, a personal trainer at the Howe Street gym run by her husband Tom, 37, said: "We decided to donate to the Chelmsford Food Bank because we wanted to help out people less fortunate than ourselves and we've heard really good things about them.
"Our aim is for our clients to collectively lose ten stone and then we can donate ten stone of food to the food bank. People gorge over Christmas so we think it will be quite achievable."
The gym, at Warners Farm on Main Road, opened in April 2010 and it is the first time the owners have introduced such a challenge to its clients.
Members will be weighed once a week before mother-of-one Laura calculates how much food she will need to buy each Saturday this month.
Laura, of Woodhouse Lane in Broomfield, continued: "Roughly 30 people have signed up already but we hope it will gather pace as the challenge progresses through the month.
"We will donate a mixture of food but we still want to provide healthy and nutritious stuff.
"The food bank probably gets everyone's leftovers from Christmas, so we want to give them something a little bit different – I'm sure they're sick of shortbreads by now."
The challenge began on Monday and will conclude on January 31, with the couple hopeful of stuffing countless storage containers full of highly nutritious goodies.
Speaking of how best to tackle New Year resolutions, Laura, a former University of Essex student, believes the key is to set realistic goals from the outset.
She said: "My advice to people would be to be sensible and don't be too drastic, too soon.
"Identify bad habits and try to rectify them; anyone can lose weight.
"Even if you're a mum doing the school run, just little things like parking the car further away or not driving at all, can really help."
