“THIS is just the beginning,” said determined Geoff Holland, who was handed £1,000 by Kiss Gyms after losing nearly ten per cent of his body fat in just three months.

The 39-year-old of Wroughton was the overall winner of this year’s running of The Challenge at the Princes Way gym after achieving the transformation of a lifetime and overcoming his personal demons to health and fitness.

The Challenge 2015 saw gym members sign up to take part in a health-related task from weightloss to body transformation or completing a fitness event, which was measurable and verifiable.

The most worthy winner was then put to a vote by gym staff.

On February 1, Geoff weighed 196lbs, 21 per cent of which was fat. But 12 weeks later on April 19 he weighted 170lbs and had reduced his body fat t 11.6 per cent.

But For Geoff, his physical transformation did not compare to the bounds his self-confidence made, giving him the guts to go all out and dare to bare in the inaugural Iron Physique competition at Kiss earlier this year.

“I had been training in the gym for about 18 months but I had been short changing myself because I wasn’t eating properly,” he said.

“I wanted to lose some fat and put on some muscle and I was talking to Adam York, the general manager at Kiss about it and he said I should take part in the competition.

“But he also said that to make it a bit different I should think about entering the body building competition Piotr ‘Pete’ Budzinski was running.

“At that point the idea of going on stage in public in my pants was quite scary and way outside of my comfort zone.

“But I knew that I had to fight through and overcome my insecurities.

“I was never going to win the competition but the main point was to do something that terrified me really. By the time the competition came round, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be at all.”

But this week, Geoff found out his hard work had won him the £1,000 prize in recognition of all his achievements.

“I was really happy,” he said. “But my physical transformation wasn’t as important as my personal growth and the confidence I have gained from it.

“To be honest, at the beginning I wasn’t sure that I was going to make it or take part in the Iron Physique. I was only about three weeks before that I finally decided to sign up.

“It was a lot of hard work too and I had to keep really focussed.

“During the 12 weeks I was invited to a cheesecake party, and I just decided not to go because I knew I couldn’t sit and watch other people sit and eat cheesecake and not have one, and the problem with making exceptions is if you make one, it’s easier to make others, and then I’d never have done it.”

Geoff plans to re-invest his winnings into his training, spending the money on expensive food supplements.

Adam York, general manager at Kiss, said: “I think the most important aspect of Geoff’s achievement is the confidence he gained from it. He went from being too shy to join the posing practice class, to taking part in our bodybuilding competition and having a great time doing so.”