Body Power Expo.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of representing both my sponsors Meridian Foods and Coconoil at the Body Power Expo in Birmingham. I got there bright and early to pick up my "athlete pass", help set up and generally have a nosy around before it was open to the VIP's and general public. As I was there for the whole day my plan was to help the Meridian team (Darren, Sue and Sophie) in the morning and then after lunch help out Garry from Coconoil. 

I thought I knew what I was letting myself in for at this show with everyone being seriously obsessed with packing on as much muscle as possible, but on arrival, it was a little scary to actually some of the man and women mountains!! I must admit this was definitely a different crowd to what I was used to as an endurance athlete, where the Holy Grail is to be super lean and lightweight.    

As soon as the doors opened at ~10am it was nonstop until leaving at 5pm. I was on the stall with Meridian in the morning and it quickly became apparent that I wasn't the only one who was a "Meridian Nutter" I think everyone was. Although we were dishing out samples of their nut butters it was heart breaking to see everyone's faces when we told them that the nut butters weren't for sale! Meridian were there to promote their brand new peanut and almond nut bars. These new bars are made up of 100% natural ingredients, containing ~55% nuts, bound with rice protein and agave nectar. These little bars (40g) pack ~8g of protein in a bar, a perfect choice. The bite size samples were flying off the counter so quickly that sometimes we were struggling to keep up with the demand, but that might have had something to do with the "one for you" and "one for me" system that I found myself doing!! Ha 

I heard that a few reality TV "stars" were knocking about so once it started to quieten down I was able to stretch my legs and see who I could find. I was like a kid in a sweet shop when I spotted Joel from Geordie Shore and the twins from The Valleys but bottled it, asking for a selfie with them!! 

← Sophie & Me on the Meridian Stand. 

After a protein packed lunch (shock that protein was on the menu here) I then headed over to Garry at Coconoil. Unlike Meridian, Coconoil wasn't as well known in the Body Power scene, so I helped the Godfather of Coconoil (Garry) tell the world about how great a product it is and all the health and performance benefits (see performance nutrition blog for more info) it offers! In a nut shell (see what I did there?) is an edible Medium Chain Triglyceride (MCT) oil, which is ideal for for cooking due to its high heat resistance. Another unique property is that it’s free from saturated fat found in meat and vegetable oils, thus making it the perfect health cooking oil. I use Coconoil exclusively for cooking and in my pre-training coffee. To start with I took a back seat and watched how Garry worked the interested customers and then before I knew it I was in following in his footsteps and before I knew it the sales were flying in. 


Garry - Mr Coconoil himself ↓